Sue Bull, Geelong
On July 31, militant unionists from Melbourne and Ballarat converged on Geelong for a day of discussions with local unionists about how to build unions that are fighting instruments in defence of their members' economic and political interests.
The seminar was initiated by the Socialist Alliance and the Geelong Trades and Labour Council. Seminar organiser and GTLC assistant secretary Tim Gooden explained to Green Left Weekly that the seminar was called because "there aren't many forums around today for trade unionists to get together across unions to discuss the issues affecting trade unions today".
"A lot of unions don't have branch meetings any more. And not everyone's a shop steward or a delegate to trades hall, but they still want to participate and help build a stronger trade union movement."
Ninety unionists from 14 unions participated, including both rank-and-file activists and officials. Both blue and white collar unions were represented.
Victoria University teacher and former Earthworker convenor Dave Kerin began the day by outlining how the mass movement against the Vietnam War resulted in a rich anti-capitalist culture that politicised many unionists.
In the early 1970s, Kerin said that the left trade unions in Victoria had also been reinvigorated by the 26 rebel unions which split from the right-wing shackles of the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) between 1967 and 1973. Left unions in the 1970s won many victories, which then flowed on to weaker unions.
Kerin explained that the introduction of the wage-cutting Prices and Incomes Accord between the ACTU and the ALP in 1983 was a response to the militancy and successes of the left unions in the 1970s.
The mid-1980s campaign against the Hawke Labor government's deregistration of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was crucial to keeping alive the militant left unionism of the 1960s and 1970s, said Kerin.
He pointed out that for many of the key leaders of militant unions in Victoria today — former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary Craig Johnston, Electrical Trades Union state secretary Dean Mighell and Communications Workers Union postal branch state secretary Joan Doyle — the struggle against BLF deregistration was a politically formative experience.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state president John Cummins picked up on the issue of the 26 rebel unions. He said that despite the nationwide strikes that took place against the jailing of Tramways Union secretary Clarrie O'Shea on May 15, 1969, the VTHC and the ACTU did not call for strike action. The VTHC advised unionists that they were in no way obligated to participate in the "unauthorised" stoppages because such action was contrary to the rules, procedures and decisions of the ACTU.
The strikes against the jailing of O'Shea were organised by the rebel unions. They held a 5000-strong delegates meeting that called for a 24-hour strike if O'Shea was jailed for refusing to pay fines imposed on his union by the Arbitration Commission.
The strikes organised by the rebel unions in Victoria quickly spread to Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra. O'Shea was released from jail after the employers "anonymously" paid the fines.
Cummins said that this struggle reinforced his view that "if we are to build fighting unions, then don't look to Trades Hall or the ACTU for a solution. My experience over the years is that there's no problem with workers taking action. It's the leadership that's needed. And that's the issue that we've got to fix."
Doyle described how rank-and-file postal workers wrested control of their union back from the conservative, pro-management officials who had run the union for 20 years. "The union's now in the hands of people who've come straight off the workplace floor. [Since getting elected in 2003] we've taken up the challenge to build a fighting union", she said
"The most important message is that this is the do-it-yourself union. Unions didn't start off as a bureaucracy with fancy cars. Australia Post doesn't give a rat's arse about five or six people in the union office. But they are absolutely terrified when the members say this is our workplace and we're going to have equality and democracy in our workplace and you're going to have to live with it."
Socialist Alliance national trade union co-convenor Sue Bolton argued that unions "should not put all their eggs in the basket of electing a federal Labor government". She outlined the anti-union actions of a range of state Labor governments to indicate what could be expected from a government headed by federal ALP leader Mark Latham. She argued that unions need to be prepared to take industrial action regardless of which party is elected to government.
Speaking to Green Left Weekly at the end of the seminar, Gooden said that a similar seminar would be organised in Melbourne later this year.
From Green Left Weekly, August 11, 2004.
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