The Official Organ of LaborNET
click here to view the latest edition of Workers Online
The Official Organ of LaborNET
Free home delivery
Issue No. 149 23 August 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Our Historical Mission
It has often been argued that unions would cease to exist when employers civilised workplaces. Our historical mission would have been fulfilled and we could pack up and spend out time enjoying the equitable society that would be the fruit of our victory.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Something Smells
The Postal Union's Jim Metcher lifts the lid on the very strange goings-on in Australia Post

Cole-Watch: Credibility Crisis
Counsels Assisting the Cole Royal Commission face a humiliating public back down in an effort to bring some balance to proceedings, reports Jim Marr.

Unions: Union Cities
Labor Council's Adam Kerslake has returned from the USA with some new ideas on community unionism

Industrial: Lib Men Gang Up Against Working Mums
Working women are in danger of missing out on an adequately funded paid maternity leave scheme, if recent bleatings are acted upon says ACTU President Sharan Burrow.

History: Eureka!
Neale Towart finds an alternative to Baden-Powell�s imperialist scouting movement, where the youth of Australia was fed such radical ideas as solidarity, collective action, equal rights and internationalism.

East Timor: Don�t Rob Their Future
After 24 years of often brutal Indonesian occupation East Timor on 20 May 2002 finally achieved their independence, writes HT Lee.

Review: Black Chicks Say It All
Dorothy can be whatever colour she wants to be and black chicks can talk about anything, writes Tara de Boehmler

Poetry: Self Regulation
While President George W Bush,leader of the heart of unregulated capitalism, has responded to the recent spate of corporate cowboydom by whipping out a swathe of new corporate controls, Australia's Prime Minister has responded with a feathered touch.

N E W S

 Cole to Hear of Criminal Takeover Conspiracy

 Mad Monk Stamp on Aussie Post

 Calls To End Woodlawn Logjam

 ANZ Fined Over Freedom Of Speech Breach

 Hotels Eat Up Living Wage

 Qantas Union's Gorilla Tactics

 Shearers Black Ban Their Hall Of Fame

 Democrats Fire Shot for Workers

 Teachers Walk Out At Aust College of Technology

 Rail Operators Off Track

 Airport Security Worker Spat At And Assaulted

 CBA Workers Say Enough Is Enough

 Union Made Songs For Masses

 Doco Dishes Dirt On Howard�s Gas Wrangle

 Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Cole Comfort
The election of a federal coalition government in 1996 marked the advent of an aggressively anti union agenda that continues to be played out to this day, writes Paul Davies

The Locker Room
Salary Crap
Phil Doyle goes wading through the hypocrisy and hubris, and discovers where the smell is coming from.

Postcard
All At Sea
It�s on again - the coastal battle between the maritime unions, the government and the shipowners, reports Zoe Reynolds.

Week in Review
The Dogs of War
The battle drums were a-rattling across this wide, brown land and Jim Marr was getting a bit tetchy

Bosswatch
Speak No Evil
The majority of Australian firms stay silent on options they offer their executives as John Howard continues to stonewall corporate law reform.

L E T T E R S
 Shit Sheets
 Susan's Soccer Outrage
WHAT YOU CAN DO
About Workers Online
Latest Issue
Print Latest Issue
Previous Issues
Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation


Labor for Refugees

BossWatch



The Soapbox

Cole Comfort


The election of a federal coalition government in 1996 marked the advent of an aggressively anti union agenda that continues to be played out to this day, writes Paul Davies

**************

The attack on the maritime union in 1998 was just one plank of this agenda, which is supported by a radical overhaul of industrial relations law that successive workplace relations ministers continue to pursue, despite set backs in the Senate. The Howard government has made no bones about its intentions to "deregulate the labour market", being shorthand for union busting, and nor has it sought to hide the fact that key targets in the plan include not just the maritime union, but construction and transport unions as well. In this context, the Cole Royal commission into the construction industry can be seen as not simply a anti union stalking horse aimed at discrediting the CFMEU, but as a vehicle for progressing an agenda which would see the ability of all unions to organise further compromised.

What are the possible policy and legislative implications of the Royal Commission ?

It is a well worn tactic of the Howard government to progress attacks upon vulnerable and progressive parts of the community through the mechanism of an inquiry and report. The Audit Commission report on the public sector in 1996 laid the foundation for an aggressive privatisation campaign; The McLure report on "Welfare Reform" indicated how assistance for the most disadvantaged in the community might be wound back; and the Besley inquiry into Telstra set the parameters for the government sell off. It is not surprising therefore that the Cole Royal Commission appears to be seeding the debate about how to "wind back union power" with selective and often salacious anecdotes presumably aimed at softening up public opinion ahead of further attacks on unions and working people.

The anti union legislative agenda already includes bills before the Commonwealth parliament aimed at:

� prohibiting pattern bargaining;

� restricting the right of workers to pursue unfair dismissal claims;

� and introducing bureaucratic restrictions on the right of unionists to strike.

As well as these particular claims, Tony Abbott and employer groups have also variously called for;

� the Commonwealth to take over all industrial relations jurisdictions;

� the establishment of an industrial "police force";

� a mechanism for the Commonwealth to directly intervene in industrial matters and take on unions where employers refuse, and;

� separate industrial tribunals for particular industries (in this case, the construction industry.)

One more key area of industrial regulation where the Cole Commission appears to be laying the groundwork for legislative change is Occupational Health &Safety.

Although the Commonwealth does not have direct jurisdiction over OH&S in the construction industry, the Cole Commission is nevertheless spending a lot of time bringing out matters dealing with OH&S practices in construction, with the unmistakable angle of trying to discredit the role played by the union. Apart from serving to create a prejudicial view of the union, the Government might well be looking at other targets.

In particular, it is somewhat surprising given the overall context of its approach to unions that the Commonwealths own OH&S laws continue to provide a substantial core of union rights.

In union organised sites which come under the Commonwealth OH&S laws, unions still have the right to conduct elections for OH&S representatives, and these representatives have very significant policing and enforcement powers under the Act. A campaign which seeks to discredit the unions role in health and safety would greatly assist any attempt by the Howard government to wind back these rights. And the result would be to hand the vitally important policing role over health and safety back to employers.

With its one sided focus on employer interests, the Cole Commission is providing a valuable public relations tool for a government intent on shifting the balance of power in the workplace further towards employers.

By focusing on the untested evidence of employers it is laying the groundwork for a highly dangerous shift in OH&S laws which would see employers become the gatekeepers.

By attacking the role played by union delegates and organisers, it helps sets an agenda which is skewed towards winding back the most basic rights of working people - the right to organise and to take action in support of industrial claims.

By attacking the right of unions to pattern bargain and organise across industries, it promotes an industrial relations policy framework which can only result in increasing wage disparities and a race to bottom for wages and condition. And of course this situation further promotes the use of more contingent labour and in general terms helps fuel a process whereby economic growth becomes more and more based upon an ever widening gulf of inequality.

In this sense the message sent by a Government sponsored inquiry such as the Cole Royal Commission is that citizens should not expect fair dealing in the workplace, in economic management and in society generally. Working people everywhere should see this latest manifestation of the Howard Governments industrial relations agenda for what it is - as the forerunner for further and concerted attacks upon them, upon progressive social institutions and ultimately upon the most vulnerable in our society.


------

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 149 contents



email workers to a friend printer-friendly version latest breaking news from labornet


Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/149/a_guestreporter_davies.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005

Powered by APT Solutions
Labor Council of NSW Workers Online
LaborNET