BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Unions Tasmania organised the inaugural cross-union delegates' conference, attended by 215 people on April 19. A large majority of the participants were workplace delegates rather than union officials or organisers.
The largest delegations came from the Health and Community Services Union, the Australian Education Union, the Australian Nurses Federation, the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) and the Community and Public Sector Union. Most other unions were represented at the conference and delegates travelled from all over the state to attend.
One of the aims of the conference was to facilitate information-sharing between union delegates through workshops and plenaries which discussed case studies of successful organising campaigns.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Greg Combet outlined the benefits of trade unionism and argued for the ACTU's charter of delegates rights. Answering questions from the floor, Combet defended bargaining fees for non-union members and supported the right of union members to seek "political representation". The latter was clearly an apology for the conservative role played by former unionists who have become Labor parliamentarians.
Declaring that he was neither a member of, nor apologist for, the ALP, John Buchanan from the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations, Research and Training argued that unions need a political strategy. He said that the union movement had traditionally done best when it confidently articulated a clear vision in alliance with a social-democratic government. When challenged, he criticised the ALP's neo-liberal policies and supported unions giving support to other parties. He noted that several Victorian unions donated funds to the Greens.
[Alex Bainbridge attended the conference as an Australian Education Union delegate.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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