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Issue No. 124 | 15 February 2002 |
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Chickens Come Home
Unions: Winning the Heartland Interview: Swan's Song Corporate: Lessons from Enron Politics: What We Did Last Summer History: Solidarity in Song International: A Tale of Two Cities Poetry: Nobody Told Me Review: Labor and the Rings Satire: Rafter Named Bermudan Of The Year For Tax Purposes
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
 In Whose Interests?'International Labour's Year in Review' - A Re-ViewBelly's Broad-SideCollins Gets Cryptic
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News Unions' Commit to Battle for Hearts
The research, presented to a NSW Labor Council workplace harmony seminar this week, shows the majority of Australians, from all works of life, back current hard-line refugee policies. The survey of 708 voters, commissioned by the Labor Council, found: - 63 percent believe Howard had handled the asylum seeker issue well or very well. While non-unionists were more supportive of Howard (67 per cent) a majority (58 per cent) of union members also supported the stand. - Higher income earners (above $70,000) were less likely to support the Prime Minister (54 per cent) compared with 71 percent of voters earning under $50,000. But there was some room for optimism that people were open to a more compassionate stance. - While there was strong agreement for emotive propositions such as: "If people want to come to Australia because they are fearful of being persecuted in their own country, they should go through the proper channels of face mandatory detention" (80 percent) - and "any softening of Australia's current policy would lead to a massive influx of illegal immigrants and would be unfair to those who are waiting their rightful turn in the queue" (77 percent), - a majority of respondents accepted the proposition that "seeking asylum in Australia or a country other than one's own is not illegal, nor is it queue jumping. It is a fundamental right of any person experiencing persecution in their country of origin.(58 percent of union members agreed). Challenge Not to be Shirked Accepting the statistics showed there was a lot of work to do in winning over union members, Labor Council secretary John Robertson says it's a challenge the labour movement cannot afford to shirk. Robertson, who's taken a leading role in the Labor for Refugees group, says the only way to fight the issue is to foster understanding and compassion for the plight of refugees at a workplace level. "The reality is that support for the Prime Minister on this issue is so high because there has not been a strong counter-argument presented," Robertson says. "Unfolding events show the extent to which Howard used propaganda to shape the debate for his own political advantage. Our challenge is to present a different story to our membership." Plan for Action Participants at the seminar came up with proposals to take the issue onto work sites, including: - workplace visits by refugees - producing an information kit for delegates and activists - developing a Labor Council statement of commitment to diversity - winning senior union officials to the campaign The proposals will be formally considered by the Labor Council executive next week.
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