The Howard government聮s anti-worker Work Choices laws have placed a powerful weapon in the hands of bosses, which they are using to drive down wages and eliminate hard-won conditions. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released on November 16 showed that average weekly earnings for full-time workers had fallen by 1.2% in real terms since Work Choices became law 聴 an average loss of $13 a week.
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Among the proposals included in the Australian Council of Trade Unions聮 industrial relations legislation policy, adopted at its October conference, were provisions for unions to be able to hold elections to win recognition in workplaces where the boss refuses to bargain with them. These ballots are aimed at addressing the lack of a mechanism whereby unions can make an employer negotiate a collective agreement for workers. Such ballots have been a feature of the US industrial relations system for over 70 years.
Victoria鈥檚 Labor premier, Steve Bracks, claimed victory in the state election on the evening of polling day, November 25. Bracks said that the result was a message to the federal government 鈥淭o stop dictating about nuclear reactors, and industrial relations, and start listening to families right around this country鈥. With 75% of the vote counted, the ALP had won almost 44% of the vote, a swing against it of around 4.3%.
From November 21-22, Nelson Davila, Venezuela聮s chief diplomatic representative in Australia, visited Perth. He held meetings with the officials and organisers of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union; addressed the Unions WA council; and was the guest at receptions organised by the Australian Islamic College and the Curtin Centre for Human Rights Education. Davila concluded his visit by speaking to a public meeting of 70 people at the MUA hall in North Fremantle, where he explained the development of the people聮s power movement in his country and welcomed the launch of a Perth group of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. Pictured: Davila and MUA WA secretary Chris Cain.
The following are comments by Socialist Alliance trade union activists on some of the key questions facing the union movement.
Workplace Relations Act (1996)
This law stripped allowable matters in industrial awards back to 20, restricted the right of union officials to enter workplaces and introduced individual contracts (AWAs).
Trade Practices Act (1974)
Sections
Debate continues over how guest workers and those on 457 visas should be treated. The WA branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) passed a resolution at its July state conference that recommends avoiding falling into the federal government and bosses鈥 divide-and-rule trap.
Packer protesters trial
The abbreviated report on the trial of Packer protesters in GLW #689 may have given some readers the impression that everything is rosy. In fact, only one charge was dropped 鈥 the charge of failure to obey a police
聯A visit by US officials has raised fears on Christmas Island that an immigration detention centre could be turned into a Guantanamo-style prison聰, the November 17 Melbourne Age reported.
Australian unionists have a wealth of experiences to draw on in the fight against the Howard government聮s Work Choices legislation. Lessons can be drawn not just from the historic victories and defeats of the union movement in this country, but also from the experiences of working-class struggles in other countries.
More than three thousand people had a somewhat surreal experience on November 18. They attended a rally, called by the Melbourne Stop the War Coalition and Stop G20, to oppose the genocide by poverty being promoted by the finance ministers聮 meeting, and the warfare that makes the corporate plunder of the Third World possible.
The Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office claims that nuclear safeguards 鈥減rovide assurances that exported uranium and its derivatives cannot benefit the development of nuclear weapons鈥. In fact, the safeguards system is flawed in many respects, and it cannot provide such assurances.
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