Electrical Trades Union Victorian secretary Dean Mighell outlined to Green Left Weekly's Sue Bolton the ETU's plans for resisting the Coalition government's attacks on unions.
"I think you'll find the Democrats will start doing deals on industrial relations next month, as soon as parliament resumes. We shouldn't be under any impression that we've got until next year.
"The ETU's immediate moves are to try to secure as many employment conditions for our members as we can for as long as we can. We've just finished off the bargaining for three years in our power industry place.
"But most of our members are employed under the electrical contracting industry award, under a pattern agreement."
Mighell pointed out that the High Court's September 2 Electrolux decision — in which the court ruled that bargaining fees could not be included in enterprise agreements — has made all of the agreements void, so there are about 9000 ETU members who are working without an enterprise agreement.
"We're aiming to put in place certified agreements very quickly", said Mighell. "We hope to finalise a deal in principle that will cover wages and conditions for four years which will be voted on at a mass meeting on November 10. We'll either be endorsing a new agreement or we'll be at war."
While the union will be seeking to certify new enterprise agreements covering a three-year period, "they'll contain four years' worth of employment conditions", Mighell said, adding that the union would also seek four-year-long common-law agreements that would "run beside" the enterprise agreements. The common-law agreements will contain those matters that are no longer allowable in enterprise agreements because of the Electrolux decision and the Workplace Relations Act.
"Our [Victorian] state council [on October 28] passed a motion calling on the state government to put in place a state industrial relations system. It's been long overdue in Victoria. Unions in other states have a state jurisdiction in which to register the unions and certify agreements that isn't subject to the acts of bastardry that Howard will do. If the Bracks government is a true Labor government and really wishes to protect workers, then it would set up a state industrial system straight away.
"If the Victorian Labor government isn't prepared to do something like that then you'd really seriously question why unions support them."
Mighell told GLW that at the moment there are no plans for a Victorian Trades Hall Council delegates meeting to plan a response to the re-elected Coalition government, and no planning has begun for union alliances to spring into action when the Coalition government begins its attacks on unions.
He said that "industrial relations was hardly an issue in the federal election campaign and yet it's Howard's number one priority. And Labor jumps again to the Liberals' tune. It's outrageous.
"We carried a resolution at our state council yesterday that we're in for unprecedented attacks on trade unions and the community. We felt that there was a clear difference between Liberal and Labor on a range of policies in the election — health, education, Medicare, industrial relations and the environment. We've called on federal Labor not to abandon its industrial relations policy.
"I believe that there are many people within the ALP who will move to create New Labor and do a Tony Blair. I think that the tensions between organised labour and the Australian Labor Party will be huge in the next couple of years. It will be a debate that will intensify, and that's not a bad thing. You'll start to see whose side people are really on.
Asked why he thought there was a swing among workers toward the Coalition parties in the federal election, Mighell said it was because of fear of rising interest rates. "Howard was successful in making people fear that Labor couldn't manage the economy as well as he had. The Liberals were successful in the fear campaign and Labor wasn't successful in countering it."
How does he think the unions will fare under another three years of federal Coalition government? "Trade unions themselves face a huge challenge as to how they'll respond", Mighell answered. "There are some unions that are finding it hard to exist now. There are a lot of old union leaderships around that still haven't grappled with enterprise bargaining. And if you're not a union that can operate in a grassroots sense now, then you're going to be in deep shit in the next three years, because if you haven't got your members with you, then you're gone. The union movement has to work out how to respond.
"A lot of unions will suffer. The good unions which are already operating in a very grassroots style, which are working hard in the field, we'll continue to be OK. We'll certainly cop some massive hits — we'll cop fines, we'll cop officials being jailed, we'll have unions being attacked — but we'll see it through. But I think there are unions that will no longer exist unless they're prepared to change the whole way they operate and work with the community more.
"The alliances are going to need to be greater than just the trade union movement. If Howard goes over the top and unions come under greater attack, maybe it will broaden people's knowledge and understanding of what unions are all about."
From Green Left Weekly, November 3, 2004.
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