|
||
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
Issue No. 153 | 20 September 2002 |
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Less Is More
Interview: Still Flying International: President Gas Politics: Australia: A Rogue State? Unions: Welfare Max Bad Boss: Welcome to Telstra! Health: Fat Albert: The Grim Reaper Satire: Iraq Pre-empts Pre-emptive Strike Poetry: A Man From the East And A Man From The West Review: The Sum Of All Fears
Legends The Locker Room Bosswatch Awards Week in review Activists
 War TalkWhy We Are a Terrorism TargetRadio Doco on 1973 Ford StrikeAn Atmospheric Piece
|
|
|
Tool Shed Old Silver
************* Hawke, to be fair, is not constructed of the normal tool shed materials. He led the ACTU for a decade before leading Labor to a record four-straight general election victories over the likes of Malcolm Fraser, John Howard and Andrew Peacock. You might well think Hawke is being inducted for failing to see the obnoxious Howard off for good, but you would be wrong. So why? Well it's been 22 long years since Hawke led the union movement and, frankly, it shows. The man has just delivered a review of Queensland's public sector bargaining system that puts a boot up the jacksey of every public servant in the state. Basically, the Silver Bodgey has had a shocker. How else could you describe endorsement for the key third term policy plank put forward by Liberal head kicker and would-be union buster, Tony Abbott. Hawke has come out in favour of drastically reducing the opportunity of Queensland public servants to win reasonable wage increases by advocating that their right to take industrial action, already restricted to the expiry of employment instruments, be further proscribed by the imposition of a time limit. Such a reform, mirroring Abbott's federal stance, would be unprecedented in Australia. The ink was barely dry on Hawke's report before Abbott was waving it about as proof-positive that he was on the money. Abbott was particularly heartened, unsurprisingly, by Hawke's core contention that "militant" unionism needed to be curbed. Labor parties around the nation are clearly enamoured of Hawke. He got the gig reworking rules in partnership with Neville Wran before picking up Beattie's Brisbane brief. But he has been out of Parliamentary contact with working people for almost as long as he has been out of industrial contact. - during which time he has become a very wealthy man.
Hawke's Government was responsible for maintaining a lot of core service that Australians hold dear but it also started the drive to privatisation by flicking off Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank. Nobody expected socialism from Bob Hawke but, by and large, they reckoned they would get a fair go, something state servants in the north look like being denied. The problem with his prognosis is how if sits in terms of time and place. Workers can no longer rely on a comprehensive social security system if they lose their jobs, they can't even bank on getting the money they are owed. They watch businessmen award themselves million-dollar bonuses and six-figure increases on a nearly daily basis, whilst their chances of adding an extra three or four per cent to the family kitty are further constrained by Messrs Abbott, Howard and their acolytes. Finally, they get to bargain, once every two or three years, in a market economy where the deck is stacked firmly in favour of their employers. If the boss won't see sense and it is rare that he does they get one chance to legally apply some pressure. The last thing they need is some ex-polly, rolling in lolly, telling them it's not on.
Nominate a Tool!
|
| Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
|
© 1999-2002 Workers Online 
|
|
