
Issue No 121		30 November 2001

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Organising

Benidgo Pioneer Comes Up Trumps

By Jim Marr

ACTU Delegate of the Year, Leonie Saunders, is living proof of the way unions are adapting to life under the strictures of a hostile Government.


	Leonie with Wendy, Sharon & Gough

Saunders was a central figure in a major CPSU greenfields organising push. Faced with an aggressive employer, AAPT, and Government-imposed limitations, she refused to be hamstrung, opting for a community-based approach to building membership.

Less than a year ago, Saunders became only the second of more than 300 call centre workers at the company's Bendigo site to take the union option.

Since then more than 100 workmates have joined the CPSU and when Saunders moved, last month, into a Melbourne role as a fulltime organiser she left behind an infrastructure headed by six delegates and three deputies.

Not allowed to hold union meetings on site, AAPT unionists stage monthly get-togethers at nearby Darby O'Gill's Hotel - one of several local businesses providingdiscounts to CPSU members as a result of initiatives from AAPT workers.

"The discounts are a two-way street," Saunders explained. "They benefit small local retailers as well as our members.

"Our organising has been about community. Even in major cities it is important to remember that we are all part of communities and we all do better if our communities succeed.

"Trade unionism is not blinkered."

Another AAPT campaign has been raising Christmas money for locally-based charity, St Lukes Family Care. When the company vetoed a sausage sizzle on its property workers got a council permit to hold it on public land next door and boosted fundraising by attracting people from other CPSU sites, including Centrelink and Telstra, along with workers from the Bendigo Trades Hall.

AAPT unionists are determined to build on the base Saunders left behind. The day after she accepted her Delegate of The Year gong from Labor luminary Gough Whitlam, a busload of former workmates travelled to Melbourne to participate in an AIRC case demanding "fair bargaining" in their on-going battle for a certified agreement.

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Issue 121 contents

Interview: Back to the Battle
Federal Labor's new industrial relations spokesman Robert McClelland outlines the challenges for the next three years.

Politics: The Baby and the Bath Water
ACTU secretary Greg Combet gives his take on the debate over the ALP's relations with the union movement.

Unions: We're Solid
Bradon Ellem charts the history of the Pilbara dispute, and finds a revitalised grass-roots unionism challenging BHP's individual contracts bulldozer

Organising: Benidgo Pioneer Comes Up Trumps
ACTU Delegate of the Year, Leonie Saunders, is living proof of the way unions are adapting to life under the strictures of a hostile Government.

Technology: India: Cricket, Computers and Corruption
Russell Lansbury cuts through the hype to look out the so-called hi-tech revolution on the sub-continent.

International: Soul Searching
The party of labour in Canada � the NDP - is right now undergoing a massive struggle for its heart and soul.

History: A Timeless Debate
The ALP and unions - it's a debate that's raged for years as this extract from a 1947 Lloyd Ross pamplet shows.

Review: In Fear of Security
Launching his new book, Anthony Burke argues that the cry of "security" is the last refuge of the political scoundrel

» Union Journo on Death List

» First 'Lab Rats' in Bank Hold-Up

» Monk's Mad Power Grab from States

» Big Print Merger Threatens Jobs

» Anger as Labor Staffers Shun Unions

» Unions Are Well Advanced In Change Unions Tell ALP

» Unions Step Up Organising Drive

» Education, Call Centre Unions Sweep Awards

» Bank AGMs Focus of Worker Anger

» Gender Balance in Transport Concessions

» Concern As Sydney Collapses

» Bakers Seek More Bread

» CFMEU Forces Re-Think On Asbestos

» Call Goes Out for Union Summer

» Twelve Weeks Parental Leave For Kiwis

» Organiser of the Year Nominations Open

» Activists Notebook

» The Soapbox

» Sport

» Labour Review

» Tool Shed

» What's Wrong With Labor

» Why I'm Quitting the ALP

» Compo Flak

» Union Democracy

» Multi-Skilling Corrigan Style

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