By Steve Rogers
CANBERRA — Public Sector Union members in the ACT have delivered a stunning rebuff to the incumbent leadership in the current branch executive elections. The PSU Challenge team campaigned on a wide range of issues including greater union democracy and opposition to agency bargaining. While overall results will not be known until early this week, the current PSU Alliance leadership group appears in a hopeless position.
Senior deputy president-elect Greg Adamson told Green Left Weekly: "Given the way in which the current PSU leadership has treated the membership and ignored its needs, this vote is no surprise. Members are worried about jobs, suspicious about agency-based enterprise bargaining, and feel they have no control over their union. When industrial organisers think the membership is there to be told what to do, then things are badly wrong.
"This is the situation in other unions in the ACT and across Australia as well. The difference here is that there is a visible alternative which has been campaigning around these issues for more than a year now. PSU Challenge is not an opposition electoral group. It is a team of people campaigning around the issues, including through these current branch elections."
The PSU Alliance retained president in the face of a split opposition. However, PSU Challenge candidates have won all other positions so far declared: senior deputy president (Greg Adamson) and both deputy presidents (Colette Ormonde and Bronwyn Asquith).
In addition, a senior Alliance figure has conceded that PSU Challenge's Cath Garvan has beaten Ross Campbell for the full-time position of branch secretary. Garvan and Campbell are currently the assistant secretaries. All positions are for a three-year term.
At 31%, voter turnout was typical of union elections, but lower than the approximately 40% who voted in the last elections. This reflected growing despondency among members and the poor state of branch membership lists.
One PSU Alliance candidate attributed the result to membership hostility to agency bargaining. With the branch leadership hoping to finalise the first agreements in coming weeks, and both the PSU and government pushing for agreements running well past the original December 1994 end date, the results are a major upset.
Some of the key PSU Challenge policies include:
- Introduction of democratic decision making, including well-resourced regional mass meetings, in place of the current system of 100 or more isolated workplace meetings.
- Return to public service-wide pay negotiations in place of agency-based enterprise bargaining, along with opposition to the Accord.
- Defence of jobs through opposition to privatisation of the public sector, and for a shorter working week without loss of pay.
- Opposition to union amalgamations which reduce the power of members.
- On the issue of ALP affiliation, which is on the national PSU agenda: "The independence of our union from our employer and from external political influence is an important principle ... The union should be an organisation free from external interference. Our membership must be able to wholly determine the rules and activities of the union, the way in which resources will be used and directed and whether the union will be a participant in wider political and social issues, and on what basis."
The policy document specifically rejects calls to keep the union apolitical, however: "Our pursuit of a socially just society does not end with our concern for the working conditions of our members. Issues affecting health, welfare, education, and the environment are some of the examples of wider issues that have long been the concern of unions in creating a better society for all people. This is clearly provided for in the objects of our union contained in our rules."
While some full-time union staff campaigned openly for the PSU Alliance candidates, in general the current leadership did little. PSU Challenge candidates visited all major offices, speaking to an estimated 7000 union members in all major agencies in the month before the ballot opened. Candidates also leafleted government departments with how to vote leaflets during the ballot period.
PSU Challenge issued a 12-page policy statement covering 23 areas at the beginning of the campaign, and sent two four-page mailings to the 21,000 members, in addition to producing posters, badges and a banner.
PSU Alliance in contrast presented little in the way of policy. The branch executive drastically reduced the amount of space available to each candidate in the official union publication of candidates' details.
While PSU Challenge sought every avenue to publicise the issues, PSU Alliance declined at least one opportunity to speak: a Green Left Weekly-sponsored meeting with candidates.
For the past two months the branch leadership (along with Peter Robson's national leadership) has put on a militant face, holding mass meetings of members and talking tough. The aims of this activity have been so badly defined and the methods so poor, however, that this seems to have rebounded.
Voting figures showed a clear desire for change. Adamson won his position by 3412 to 2853, a lead of nearly 10%. Both deputy presidents won their positions with a similar margin. The lack of proportional representation, which in the past has favoured incumbents, now appears to be working against them.
Positions yet to be counted are secretary, two assistant secretaries, four branch executive members and three national council delegates. As some of these have additional opposition candidates, it is still difficult to predict the final outcome. However, it appears impossible for PSU Alliance candidates to win a majority, while PSU Challenge prospects look good.