Sue Bolton
In the early 1900s, the car manufacturing boss Henry Ford said, "Why is it when I hire a pair of hands, I get a human being as well?"
Ford wanted a worker machine, not a human being, and Australia's federal government and major employer organisations are taking the same approach today. They want to re-introduce a "master-slave" relationship into workplaces. The only way they can maximise profits for the bosses is at the expense of workers' job security, safety and income.
It is still possible for the union movement, with the support of the 70% of Australians who oppose Howard's new Work Choices legislation, to stop these anti-worker laws. But we have to take inspiration from the French, the Nepalese and the Indonesian workers, and step up our resistance.
As all the opinion polls reveal, opposition to attacks on our work rights is deepening. There is a preparedness to act, as was shown by last year's large mobilisations on the two ACTU-called national days of action. But if the union movement doesn't lead serious resistance against the laws soon, workers will likely suffer in silence and try to survive as best they can. If we're to prevent a breakdown in workers' solidarity, collective resistance to these anti-worker laws is necessary.
At its March 7 executive meeting, the ACTU called a national day of protest for June 28 as part of "a week of activities" from June 25-July 2. Under the banner of "National Community Action", Victorian unions have organised plans to shut down the state on June 28. Queensland unions are planning mass protests and Tasmanian unions are planning protests in Hobart and Launceston on that day.
Unions in NSW are still debating whether to organise protests or not on June 28. Some, such as the National Union of Workers, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the NSW Teachers Federation, the National, Tertiary Education Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) are pushing for mass protests in Sydney and regional cities on that day. But another section of the movement, led by Unions NSW secretary John Robertson, doesn't agree.
At the March 21 Unions WA meeting, unions also debated whether or not to mobilise. The executive recommendation, passed by 38 votes to 26, was: "That a Unions WA rally not be conducted on 28 June but that unions wishing to have a rally on that day be assisted by Unions WA if required." The Maritime Union of Australia, the AMWU, the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union and the CFMEU are all organising a mass rally in Perth on June 28, and are approaching other unions and community groups for support.
Getting unions and the broader community to support making June 28 a massive nationwide protest against Howard's anti-worker laws will be a vital part of strengthening the resistance and opening the way for democracy to prevail and the Work Choices laws to be overturned.
[To get in touch with other unionists wanting to step up resistance to Howard's Work Choices, visit From Green Left Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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