Sue Bolton, Melbourne
On March 23, a Victorian Trades Hall Council mass delegates' meeting voted to hold a stoppage and mass protests against the Coalition government's anti-union laws on June 30. The meeting also called on unions in other states to take similar action.
Given the slow response of unions outside Victoria and a debate in the union movement over whether mass protests should be part of the union movement's defence against the government's attacks, the Socialist Alliance decided to initiate a national union fight-back conference.
The conference will be held on June 11 at the Victorian Trades Hall Council in Melbourne and is intended to be a meeting of the broad left in the trade union movement. Similar conferences were organised in the mid-1980s.
By bringing together unionists from around the country and from a wide range of unions, the conference could potentially be a catalyst for more national union action against the Coalition government.
Already, the list of confirmed speakers and participants indicates that many unionists from around Australia feel the need for the left of the union movement to get together and discuss tactics.
Although key leaders of the Electrical Trades Union's (ETU) Queensland branch and the National Union of Workers' (NUW) New South Wales branch will be tied up with ALP state conferences, these two unions will be sending officials to represent their unions at the fight-back conference.
The contingent from Western Australia includes the state secretaries of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). Six union leaders from Victoria have so far committed to speak at the conference.
The conference will get to hear the inspiring experiences of the new UNITE union from New Zealand, as well as the horror resulting from the New Zealand union movement's failure to resist the anti-union laws that were introduced in that country in the early 1990s.
The list of confirmed speakers and participants includes Mike Treen (UNITE organiser, New Zealand); Chris Cain (WA MUA state secretary); Kevin Reynolds (WA CFMEU state secretary); Joe McDonald (WA CFMEU assistant state secretary); Joan Doyle (Victorian CEPU postal & telecommunications branch state secretary); Martin Kingham (Victorian CFMEU secretary); Tim Gooden (Geelong Trades and Labour Council assistant secretary); John Parker (Gippsland TLC secretary); a representative from the NSW Northern Rivers Union Network; a representative from the Queensland ETU; Steve Dargavel (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Victorian metal division secretary); Bronwyn Halfpenny (Victorian AMWU food division secretary); and Marissa Bernardi (NSW NUW organiser).
The sponsors include the Union Solidarity Group; the Northern Rivers Union Network (NSW); Jim Keogh (MUA Veterans Association Southern Branch secretary); Ken McBride (MUA Veterans Association Southern Branch assistant secretary); and the Teachers Alliance.
If you or your organisation would like to sponsor or participate in the conference, contact Sue Bolton on (03) 9663 7429 or email <sueb@greenleft.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, May 4, 2005.
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