Telstra anti-privatisation rally planned
BY TIM STEWART
BRISBANE — With the leaders of Telstra unions concentrating their campaign efforts in towns like Geelong and Townsville, the left-wing Members First activist group in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has called a rally here for April 13 against the further privatisation of the telecommunications giant.
Members First activists are distributing leaflets that point out the insanity of Telstra's half-yearly profit of $2.1 billion being followed by an announced further loss of 16,000 jobs. The federal Coalition government and Telstra management wants the final 50.1% of the company to be sold.
According to Members First, the Labor Party-dominated trade union leadership has failed to mount a serious campaign against the company's privatisation since it began in 1997.
"All the Labor Party's proclamations about saving 'services to the bush' seem hollow when it was PM Paul Keating's Labor government that introduced deregulation, installed former CEO Frank Blount and silenced the union movement", the Members First leaflet states.
Pointing out that two Senate inquiries have not stopped the sale of Telstra, Members First said that the ALP "has had three years to campaign against privatisation, and they're still relying on parliamentary process to stop the rot!"
The group is also critical of its own union's leaders for doing "far too little to stop the job-shedding". The group's leaflet states that "The absence of a serious industrial strategy has seen national officials entering successive negotiations from a position of weakness".
Members First are running candidates for all national office bearers' positions in the coming CPSU elections, against national secretary Wendy Caird's pro-ALP incumbents.
To get involved in the Members First campaign, phone Mike on 0418 185 804.