By Leo Wellin
Thousands of Telstra workers covered by the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) attended stop-work meetings around the country on August 13 to hear the latest offer for a new two-year enterprise agreement. The other union covering many Telstra workers — the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) — also held lunchtime meetings to hear of the lack of progress in negotiations.
Telstra management has put on the table: a six-day working week with standard hours between 6.30am and 6.30pm; the abolition of penalty rates during the week and the phasing in of Saturday work without penalties; an end to flex-time by introducing compulsory rostering; the abolition of appeal processes and obligations to consult staff; the abolition of job classifications and a move to management-determined performance criteria; and, of course, measures aimed at ending the role of unions in the workplace.
Over the last year, Telstra has implemented many of the key platforms that give the bosses absolute discretion (even down to supervisor level).
Among the many new Telstra policies introduced has been a compulsory redundancy process titled "resource re-balancing" which allows Telstra to choose who goes when there are 25,000 staff to be sacked over three years; a new "employee conduct process", which translates to "three strikes and you're out" with no avenues for appeal; and the "management process", which tightens the screws in understaffed call centres by setting monthly performance targets that creep steadily up (in one month they jumped 400%).
While Telstra has been rolling out these policies, there has been no action from the union since a stoppage last November.
The CEPU has been waiting for its existing enterprise agreements to run out so that all conditions could be rolled into one agreement. This would allow the union to take "protected action" under the Workplace Relations Act.
The CPSU has been feverishly (and very privately) negotiating for a deal that would mean the union doesn't have to take industrial action but maintains its presence in the rapidly dwindling Telstra work force. This approach is failing, management remaining firm on all key proposals.
The call for mass meetings on August 13 was expected by many union members to be the first jointly coordinated action by CEPU and CPSU.
However, the CPSU telecommunications section secretary, Michelle Bissett, "forgot" to notify the Australian Industrial Relations Commission of the intended stop-work meetings, scrapping the CPSU's involvement in joint meetings. Bissett also divided the CPSU meetings over two days and authorised workplace reports only.
Despite a CPSU national executive resolution to develop "a joint industrial campaign with CEPU ... comprising joint action, meetings and resolutions", Bissett has yet to deliver.
Both the CEPU and CEPU meetings on August 13 were carefully stage-managed. In both cases, the official motion was available to most members only at the meeting itself, and in the case of the CEPU meeting, no motions or amendments could be moved from the floor.
Members at both meetings were asked to leave the decisions about all future tactics — such as industrial action — to their divisional and section executives. So far, however, the CPSU leaders, in particular, have shown every sign of wanting to avoid joint union mass meetings or an industrial campaign.
Despite all these difficulties, rank-and-file members of both unions continue to see the need to work together. They will continue to put pressure on the CPSU in particular to abide by its national executive undertakings.