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Issue No. 159 | 01 November 2002 |
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Issue No. 159 | 01 November 2002 |
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In desperation, Solly has taken on Lynton Crosby's PR firm to push poll shareholders with underpaid backpackers working out of a call centre in Artarmon. They are phoning the estimated 560 000 shareholders of Coles Myer as part of a multi-million dollar campaign to keep his seat on the board of the retail giant. "The work is shite, but at least it's pretty easy,' one backpacker was reported as saying in the [I] Financial Review. [/I]
Despite the spin-doctor's efforts to stop the smell, Solly's history is coming home to roost, which makes the member of the Business Review Weekly's wealthiest 200 list's effort to paint himself as 'the friend of the little guy' all the more pathetic. His effort to save his seat on the board has all the hallmarks of a slick political campaign, complete with the usual fertiliser. Like John Brogden, he's prepared to run around and tell anyone want they want to hear in order to grab their vote. Some media reports have the one time rag merchant shelling out over $10 million in publicity.
His call to re-introduce the Shareholders Discount Card is another gimmick, as it would be unlikely to succeed at the board level. There is also some confusion over what Lew's position was when the generous scheme was terminated back in March. Similarily his charge against overpaid executives reeks of no small amount of hypocrisy, given his own remuneration during times when retail staff at Coles Myer have faced the sack. And how could we all forget when Solly threatened to save Ansett jobs, before he took his bat and ball and went home.
Now he wants shareholders to forget the controvertial Coles Myer-Yannon deals, which ended up costing shareholders $18 million, and was seen as a hangover from the excesses of the eighties and nineties. There must have been great sighs of relief around Coles Myer when an Australian Securities and Investments Commission inquiry recommended no prosecutions. The inquiry lasted four years and raised eyebrows across the big end of town when no suggestion of impropriety was found.
Those opposed to Solly keeping his seat on the board at Coles Myer point to his numerous other business interests and their transactions with the Coles Myer company. In the 2000-01 Lew companies supplied Coles Myer goods worth $63 million, down from $75 million a year earlier. Lew, as an old retailer, should know that, regardless of the propriety of such transactions, it's the perception that can bring you undone.
Coles Myer is Australia's biggest private-sector employer, with more than 160,000 employees on its books. The group includes the Coles supermarket chain, Myer, Grace Bros, Target, Kmart, Officeworks and Harris Technologies. All of this talk of millions here and millions there must be re-assuring to the tens of thousands of retail workers who face the axe as the company gears up for yet another round of 'restructuring'.
It's just a pity there isn't a corporate player out there who can't show as much commitment to the staff that make the profits, rather than the shareholders that reap the rewards.
The State Government has told the NSW Industrial Relations Commission that bargaining fees are an ‘industrial matter’ that should be decided by the parties at a workplace level.
Australian Industry Group, Employers First and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) have asked the IRC to rule that any bargaining agent fee is invalid.
A full bench of the NSW IRC has reserved its ruling on the bid, part of the ongoing review of Enterprise Bargaining Principles,
To date, workers in 28 NSW workplaces have voted to insert service fees in their enterprise agreements, which allow the union to collect a fee from non-members to contribute to the cost of negotiating an agreement.
Many more workplaces have proposed similar clauses in upcoming negotiations in the power, construction and health industries.
Labor Council secretary John Robertson says bid by employers is "an arrogant attempt to over-ride the clear wishes of a majority of workers that non-members contribute to the costs of negotiating pay rises and improved conditions."
"This is not industrial conscription as some misguided commentators claim; there is no attempt to force non-members to join the union; simply to contribute to work they benefit from." Robertson says.
"At their essence, service fees simply embrace the basic principles of the market - user pays.
"Unions spend thousands of dollars negotiating pay and conditions for all workers and it seems bizarre that only some of the beneficiaries of that work should be asked to contribute to these costs.
The bizarre tale of a black South African worker who entered the country on a business visa, but working for $100 per month on the state government-subsidised site has raised fundamental questions about Australia’s working visa system.
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The worker concerned, Oagiles Malothane, won't be the one answering them, after being rushed out of hospital by a friend of his dead boss just six days after the accident and put onto a flight to Johannesburg.
The accident, in a remote location at Lake Cargellico, occurred when a concrete pour on a water tower went wrong, leaving two dead and three injured.
The project was funded by the NSW Public Works Department and was administered by a local government authority, prompting calls from the NSW Labor Council the government to take greater responsibility for the way public funds are used.
But it was the public comments by the South African High Commissioner to Australia, Zolile Magugu, that Malothane was the victim of a "mafia-style" immigration racket that sparked national headlines.
As unions attempt to put the jigsaw of events together:
- CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson has called for an immediate freeze on issuing business working visas until the matter is fully investigated.
- the NSW Labor Council has called for a police investigation into the suppression of evidence linked to the workplace accident.
- and CFMEU national secretary John Sutton has called on the Cole Royal Commission to fully investigate the incident.
- NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, John Della Bosca, announced a WorkCover safety blitz on concrete formwork on building sites following the accident.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions is working with its South African affiliate the South African National Union of Mineworkers to publicly expose the international racket.
What is clear is that the South African worker was involved in a visa scam, the job he was working on was dangerous and that someone was prepared to go to significant lengths to ensure he did not give evidence to Australian authorities.
"The Howard Government talks tough on border protection and refugees but when it comes to serial exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers they are nowhere to be seen," says Andrew Ferguson, State Secretary of the Construction Division of the CFMEU.
Despite Federal Government claims to the contrary the CFMEU points out that this is not an isolated incident, coming as it does on the back of Korean tilers and the Helensburg temple workers being exploited in a similar manner by unscrupulous construction industry employers.
Meanwhile, media reports have revealed that a Korean national allegedly involved in illegally importing cheap labour for the construction industry has been detained and is facing deportation.
Workers say this week front-page stories of zookeepers being asked to help a sleeping gorilla masturbate are just the most extreme example of a management gone mad.
Unions say that rampant casualisation, massive unpaid overtime, poor health and safety and the highest executive-staff ratio in the State have made for a heady brew at Taronga, with tensions likely to boil over next Friday.
Public Service Association organiser Stewart Little says the mating requirement is part of an increasingly rigid Performance Management System, being used to block increases in grading and, in some cases, even demote workers.
"You can't control the breeding of an animal - and your pay certainly shouldn't be linked to your ability to do so," Little says.
"What we really want is the HR department overhauled - they have the highest paid HR manager in public sector and they are creating vast quantities of bullshit.
"While management spend their time travelling the world to inspect other zoos, our members are sleeping over, without pay, looking after their animals."
Legal Action Over Pooh Pay
Meanwhile, the Australian Workers Union, has launched legal action on behalf of Taronga maintenance workers who have been denied an allowance linked to their requirement to handle faeces.
Zoo management has stopped paying the $4.60 per week Fouled Equipment Allowance since enterprise bargaining talks broke down in July.
That matter is listed for the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on November 22. Meanwhile, all zoo workers will hold a stop-work meeting next Friday, November 8, to discuss the stalled agreement and ongoing problems with management.
Abbott had proposed to offer Commonwealth Public Sector chiefs the bonuses to sign their staff onto individual workplace agreements as part of a "Kennett-style assault" on public sector workers.
The move would see over 100 000 Federal public servants forced onto non-union agreements against their will as part of the Government's plan to promote "Freedom of Choice".
Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott is understood to have put forward a "carrot and stick" plan to Cabinet that deliver bonuses for staff who take up AWA's and withhold promotions for those who refuse.
According to whispers round Canberra, it was not well received by his colleagues with senior ministers requesting more detail, including the cost of Abbott's plan.
"Clearly the minister is disappointed with the low percentage of public servants on AWAs and he is trying to force the issue," says NSW secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union Stephen Jones. "Maybe he'd have more luck if he tried dangling his carrot at the traditional feeding end of the donkey."
Less than six per cent of Commonwealth public servants are on Australian Workplace Agreements, and Abbott is currently embroiled in an industrial dispute in his own department over plans to force workers off the union agreement.
The low take up of AWA's in the Federal public sector is seen to be an embarrassment to the Government, which has often lectured the business sector that it must do more to encourage individual contracts.
"If Tony Abbot were fair dinkum about freedom of choice he would respect the choices that tens of thousands of people have already made. That is, to be part of collective workplace agreements," says Jones.
While the CPSU is still investigating legal and technical issues raised by Abbott's proposals, it believes many of the Minister's suggestions would be impossible to implement under current legislation.
"As far as we can ascertain based on information in the media, what the Minister is putting forward runs contrary to both the Workplace Relations Act and the Public Service Act," says Jones
Abbott's reported plans resemble former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett's 1997 crackdown on the public service in which thousands of public servants were fired.
Union members at the Sydney Hilton Hotel – which is shutting down in a few weeks time for a $400 million makeover – voted this week to accept a sharply improved redundancy offer, the key point in two month long negotiations.
The hotel has agreed to give all its workers a four week head start in job offers once the Hilton re-opens, has set up a union-approved job search service and will sit down with the union to negotiate a first-ever enterprise agreement.
"The achievement of an enterprise agreement is an important step forward for Sydney hotel workers - we believe the enterprise agreement will help us build a quality relationship with the Hilton chain which operates 8 hotels throughout Australia.
"This has been an important win for low-waged workers who are slowly building a strong hotel workers' movement in this city," LHMU Hotel Union NSW Assistant Secretary, Mark Boyd, says.
" The company has now agreed to increase the retrenchment pay from eight weeks to twelve weeks or more, for the majority of their workforce who have loyally worked at the hotel for at least ten years .'
"The hotel is also paying between one to five weeks retrenchment money to all its casual workers - who were originally going to be paid zilch," Mark Boyd said.
Boyd says the union now wants to build on the Hilton win, on the ground and in the Industrial Relations Commission, the 16 week retrenchment claim that the ACTU is currently pursuing through the Commission.
Community Campaign
"The community campaign that Sydney Hilton Hotel workers ran has been magnificent," Boyd says.
"In talks with the union the Hilton management acknowledged that this campaign - especially the e-mails from around the world - had bite.
Boyd says the hotel's new profit strategy is to attract international conferences and conventions to the renovated Hilton.
"Receiving protest e-mails from academics at top US universities such as Harvard, UCLA, Cornell and Yale, as well as from clergy and senior civil servants - who are all potential conference organisers and conventioneers - created a great deal of concern among hotel management.
"Out of San Diego, USA, a local Rabbi, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, organised Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy from across California to support the Sydney Hilton workers.
Hostile Media
Ever since the hotel announced the $400 million renovation program in August they have been on the back foot - with a hostile media conference when they announced the refurbishment.
The journalists all asked why, if the hotel can afford to spend all this money on a face-lift, they were not prepared to better treat their loyal low-waged workers by offering them their jobs back and offering a better retrenchment deal.
"We were also able to get support from high-profile local and international people - such as the radio shock-jock Alan Jones and the US civil liberties campaigner the Rev Jesse Jackson," Boyd says.
"Rev Jackson's amazing, emotional, speech to the hotel workers was read out during a rally on the day of a 24 hour hotel workers' strike - this speech just stirred on our people in their resolve to win a better deal.
"The fact that a Hawaii millionaire also lent his support to the LHMU Hotel Union campaign, by offering to buy a slap-up lunch at David Jones, for all the sacked workers, got a lot of embarrassing media coverage for the management. "
The big win for Australian seafarers follows a ruling by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in August; preventing the crew being made redundant and ordering the parties back to the negotiating table.
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The MUA led a push in the Commission in bid to save the jobs of the Australian seafarers on board the OCCL Australia. It is the first time in living memory that an Australian crew has gone back up the gangway of a ship once it has been reflagged and recrewed.
"We're ecstatic," said bosun Jon Elmer. "I've been at sea 25 years and this is the first time I've ever heard of it happening."
ANL registered the liner vessel in the Bahamas in July, replacing all 34 Australian crew with Filipinos under armed guard after the ship arrived in Taiwan, but not without an outcry from the Australian union movement.
Last month ANL and the unions agreed that the ship would return to Sydney and pick up its Australian crew. They are guaranteed their jobs for at least six months while talks are ongoing and the bipartisan independent shipping review gets into full swing.
The review, headed by two former transport ministers, Peter Morris and John Sharpe, aims to find a way to salvage the once proud Australian merchant marine, which
has been wrecked by cut rate flag of convenience vessels.
"What this demonstrates is that it's not acceptable to bypass Australian laws and dump Australian crews,' said MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin who believes ANL are sympathetic to employing Australian crews.
Crumlin pointed to the security concerns surrounding Flag of Convenience ships, a sentiment that was echoed by bosun Jon Elmer:
"We're an island nation with a very proud maritime history. Hopefully the government will see reason and realise it's too vital to Australia's interest to hand this industry over to just anyone."
The ANL Australia, now the last Australian international container ship, sails for Melbourne tomorrow morning then onto Brisbane, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
"We think we can deliver whatever is needed," said Elmer. "We aim to show them that we're worlds best."
In cooperation with the Australian Hotels Association (NSW), the AWU will undertake a 'Cobar Run' to deliver Christmas relief to drought-effected families.
The AWU and the AHA will arrange donations from workers in Sydney, before making the journey through regional NSW out to Cobar, picking up more donations collected by the AHA and AWU members along the way.
AWU state secretary Russ Collison said the Cobar Run built on the drought-relief work of the Farmhand Foundation.
"There is some terrific work underway to assist farmers, but the forgotten victims of the drought are the country workers who rely on good harvests for their work as well," Collison says.
"Currently we have Cobar members in shearing, mining and GrainCorp who are suffering like the rest of their community."
AWU state president Mick Madden says the idea to assist the Cobar families came from union members in Cobar and its Mayor Lilliane Brady.
"Our city members heard reports on the struggles fellow members faced and were determined to do something about it.
"After discussion, it was felt that a tangible contribution to Christmas - in hampers and presents - was the best way our members could lend a hand."
The Cobar Run Appeal will leave Sydney for Cobar on Saturday, December 7. Donations can be made the AWU & AHA offices
AWU on the Web
Meanwhile, the AWU has launched it's new website, which has a special focus on regional NSW. Check it out at www.awu-nsw.asn.au
The strong rumour in the industry is that the company - which bought the South Australian Yaldara Wines recently - wants to contract out the bottling plant at the Yaldara Winery to a company offering significantly lower rates of pay and worse working conditions.
The LHMU believes that the first step in the contracting out plan was to get the nod from the Industrial Relations Commission for Yaldara Winery to get out of the union contract from midnight on November 22, 2002.
First strike in 53 years
" We have always had a strong union presence at Yaldara Winery, which employs 40 of our members, but for the first time in the 53 year history of the company our members went on strike," Mark Butler LHMU SA secretary says.
"The company sneaked into the Industrial Relations Commission - without any prior warning - and asked the Commission to rescind the Yaldara Winery enterprise agreement.
"A few days back the Commission granted the application effective from midnight November 22."
From November 23 - with the exception of wages - the company will be able to rid itself of a whole range of conditions including job protection provisions and significant redundancy pay entitlements.
Community Campaign
Workers are now mounting a community campaign to get this prominent winery to back down. Union members are approaching leading members of the South Australian community - clergy, academics, politicians - to get them to show their support for these workers.
You too can show your support by filling out the McGuigan Wines Feedback Form
The tax - a flat $10 on both international and domestic tickets - has raised $140 million since the Ansett collapse. The Government is expected to get back a further $200 million from Ansett's administrators.
"Mr Anderson's plan to abolish the Ansett levy as quickly as possible confirms union criticism that it was a policy disaster for sacked workers who have been short changed," says Combet.
"The Government has been caught out pocketing the Ansett tax while refusing to hand over the proceeds to redundant Ansett workers. No wonder they want to get rid of the negative publicity.
"John Howard should clean up this policy mess by legislating for a low-cost insurance-style scheme guaranteeing 100% of all employee entitlements so taxpayers do not have to bail out failed companies."
Combet's solicitors are examining a defamatory media release issued yesterday by Anderson's office headlined "More ACTU Lies on the Ansett Ticket Levy".
Anderson said that the ACTU had "lied through its teeth" in its efforts to get Ansett worker's entitlements paid.
Combet says the truth of the ACTU's public comments on the Ansett ticket levy is confirmed by Anderson's newfound eagerness to abolish the tax.
Workers at Tabcorp's Telephone Betting Centres in Melbourne have been campaigning for job security due to Tabcorp's introduction of voice recognition technologies, which have resulted in cuts of up to 25 per cent in shifts and incomes.
Under the agreement there will be caps on the use of voice recognition technology; shift levels and incomes will be restored; enhanced career opportunities and retraining will be offered; and a joint process for monitoring the effectiveness of these measures will be implemented.
ASU Victorian Assistant Secretary Ingrid Stitt, who led the bargaining team, hailed the agreement as, "a significant and far reaching set of commitments which will restore security and a decent income to our members at Tabcorp".
The Agreement between the ASU and Tabcorp includes the following initiatives:
- the capping of self-service ports associated with voice recognition and voice recognition technologies;
- increasing the amount of unpaid leave and increased flexibility in approving leave, including long service leave;
- additional support, training and career development for members considering a career change. For those who gain employment elsewhere, Tabcorp will hold open positions for six months and allow them to return should the new job not work out.
- consultation on staffing levels and rostering, with managers and coordinators restricted from answering calls;
- a 15-month recruitment freeze, to be extended by agreement
- a commitment to explore permanent part time employment in the next EBA.
The Tabcorp deal follows the worker's high profile contribution to the Tabcorp AGM, and threats to take industrial action over the Victorian Spring Carnival Racing season, including the Melbourne Cup.
The move by Australia Post prompted one Sydney journalist to describe their policy as an "attempt to breed a race of super-posties".
The backdown on the non-work-related medical restrictions policy comes after a series of Public Relations disasters for the managemnet at Australia Post in regard to the human resource management.
The CEPU took Australia Post to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission earlier this year in abid to resolve the matter, which has affected 259 postal workers in New South Wales alone.
In the settlement a separate Board of Reference, with a chair appointed by the AIRC, will be established with significant powers to make determinations on the non-work- related medical conditions of Australia Post employees.
The result is a victory for parcel Post Officer Richard O'Brien who, along with 39 other NSW Postal workers who are currently affected by Australia post's bizarre policy.
"The union is satisfied that the new terms of settlement will provide a fair and decisive opportunity for postal workers with medical conditions or non-work-rlated injuries to continue productive employment," says CEPU State Secretary Jim Metcher.
The Council's media wing Labor Media has agreed to sponsor the station, which aims to fulfil a role similar to Melbourne's 3RRR with funds form last year's sale of 2KY.
Under the sponsorship arrangement Labor Council will contribute $50,000 to FBI's establishment costs and transfer the management of the union movement's online radio station 'Wobbly Radio' to FBI.
Labor Council secretary John Robertson says the new relationship continues a long tradition of interest in broadcasting by NSW unions. FBi is due to commence broadcasts in mid-2003.
"For 75 years the Labor Council owned and operated 2KY, giving working people an important voice in the mainstream media.
"We would hope that FBI evolves into a significant voice for Sydney-siders, with a focus not just on music and culture, but on work and the issues that surround it.
"I look forward to working with FBI management and its Board to see a successful launch and ongoing relationship with working people in this city."
Union CD Launched
Meanwhile, Wobbly Radio's compendium of union tunes, 'May Day, May Day' was launched this week - with performances from Bernie Hayes, Urban Guerrillas and Swarmy G.
To order a copy of the CD go to Wobbly Radio
This comes after NSW unions called on the Carr Government to address rampant rorting of the workers compensation by employers.
The inquiry, by Penny Le Couteur and Associate Professor Neil Warren, made several recommendations that the State Government has decided to act upon.
NSW Unions had a strong input into the inquiry and this is reflected in a number of the recommendations.
The government will move in the current session of the NSW Parliament to introduce amendments to the Industrial Relations Act to make principle employers liable for contractor's evading their Workers Compensation premiums.
The NSW Labor Council's Workers Compensation Compliance Committee will be looking into the legislative changes to ensure the government remains fully committed to ensuring that NSW employers meet their Workers Compensation obligations.
The government will adopt all of the recommendations proposed for immediate implementation. This includes expanding the definition of 'wages' to include the value of employer contributions to superannuation schemes and long service leave.
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CFMEU NSW state secretary Andrew Ferguson says there is a direct link between workers compensation non compliance and the WorkCover deficit.
"Last year the Labor government chose to erode the rights of injured workers rather than tackle corporate criminals engaging in workers compensation fraud," Ferguson says.
"Now we have a DPWS project where two men died and three were injured where the government on its own building site had not ensured compliance with its own laws and its own code of practice.
"This will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is a disgrace"
The Workers Out! 2nd World Conference of Lesbian and Gay Trade Unionists aims to put homophobia, sexuality discrimination and HIV/AIDS onto the mainstream agenda of unions, business and government.
Trade unionists from around the world are coming together to discuss how these issues are dealt with in their own countries and how unions are playing a role to protect workers from discrimination.
Conference organisers say that as well as addressing homophobia, unions are now starting to deal with the enormity of the AIDS crisis and how it is affecting their members and entire industries.
A recent study reveals Australia is an appropriate home for the conference.
It shows 52% of the nation's lesbian, gay and transgender workers have suffered discrimination or harassment at work, with 21% outed against their will by their workmates. It also shows 17% feel their careers are at a dead end because of their homosexuality.
The conference runs until 2 November, the first day of the Gay Games.
For more information about the conference, visit the Workers Out! Website at www.workersout.com
TUC Could Be So Lucky
Meanwhile Australia's national treasure and gay icon Kylie Minogue is doing her bit for union solidarity on the international stage. Kylie is lending her talents to a British union recruitment drive run by the UK's Trade Union Council.
The long standing member of the entertainers union Equity is seen by the TUC as an ideal role model for young people in the workforce.
The Council believes that by using well-known figures as union role models, young people starting work will be less likely to give in to apathy in the struggle to make work a fairer place.
Source: Evening News UK.
Impressed by the effectiveness of our system, which allows union safety reps to serve notices requiring employers to fix workplace hazards, the Trade Union Council says the same system should now be implemented there.
The Council has already supplied British union safety reps with Union Inspection Notices - a voluntary system based on Australia's Provisional Improvement Notices - but wants them to have the same status and effect as PINs.
Research by the British Health and Safety Executive says workplaces could be made far safer by trusting union safety reps to take a more active enforcement role, while an ACTU survey has revealed "employers almost always accept the safety reps' recommendation without an inspector needing to call", a Hazards report says.
According to TUC General Secretary John Monks: " Union safety reps are the main resource we have which can make workplaces safer.
"Research already proves that workplaces with safety reps are twice as safe as ones without, but they need more tools at their disposal to make workplaces safe as they possibly can be.
"Australia has a similar health and safety system to Britain, so if it works there, it will work here - British safety reps look at their Australian Counterparts and say 'we want some of that'," he says.
To visit the TUC website, click here.
Accor was one of more than 300 companies targeted for continuing to trade with Burma, despite the ground-breaking ILO ruling, based on the military junta's use of bonded labour.
The 2001 ruling was the first time in the ILO's 80 year history it had invoked its penal clauses, calling non all member nations to seek trade with Burma.
With the Burmese military junta approving each foreign direct investment through its foreign investment body and a number of companies in joint ventures with junta-controlled front companies, the ICFTU maintains that the very fact of doing business with Burma provides support to the brutal dictatorship.
On 28 October, on behalf of the Global Unions Group, the ICFTU released a new version of a database with over 320 foreign companies with business links to Burma.
Latest additions to the database, which lists major investments as well as other forms of trade and business links such as tourism, include:
- British American Tobacco (BAT) subsidiary Rothmans Pall Mall Myanmar Private Ltd which, in a joint venture with Burmese company UMEH, owns a cigarette factory in a military-owned industrial estate in Mingaladon township;
- Suzuki (in which General Motors has a 20% stake) which has a sizeable investment in Burma making cars and motorcycles;
- Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, which imports clothes made in Burma;
- Shin Corporation, a telecoms group linked to the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Chinnawat;
- and Austrian Airlines which is planning to operate flights to Rangoon from November 2002.
- Other major companies with links include Hyundai; Korean Gas Company with Daewoo; and LG Electronics
Sea of Hands
ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) are having a 5th Anniversary Celebration of the Sea of Hands on Saturday 2nd November at Redfern Park, Redfern from 12 noon until 2.30pm. Speakers include Her Excellency, Professor Marie Bashir, Governor of NSW, Patrick Dodson, Gregory Phillips and Sylvie Ellsmore. There will also be a performance by the Stiff Gins.
The Sea of Hands represents over 300,000 Australians who have made a commitment to coexistence and support for Indigenous rights. 5 years and 2 and a half million hands later the Sea of Hands is still going strong!
Contact telephone 02 9555 6138
www.antar.org.au
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Mungo MacCallum in conversation with John Button
Weds 13 Nov @ 6pm $5 (light catering)
Dymocks Melbourne 234 Collins St
Bookings ph: 9660 8516 e: [email protected]
'If Mungo hadn't existed, we would have had to invent him.' Gough Whitlam
Hot on the heels of last year's successful memoir comes How to Be a Megalomaniac: Advice to a Young Politician, another volume of accessible, gossipy political satire from ALP fringe-dweller Mungo MacCallum.
Join these two ALP legends, both born of the Whitlam era, as they discuss Mungo's new book and the messy business of politics.
Mungo's decades of experience reporting on (and occasionally working within) politics have furnished him with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Australian scene, past and present. His pithy observations of the workings of politics at its worst are illustrated with a range of laugh-out-loud anecdotes. This series of letters to a fictional nephew who plans to make a career in politics is a must-read for anyone with a sense of humour.
John Button was a senator for the State of Victoria, playing a leading role in the restructure and development of Australian industry. From 1983 until his retirement from politics in 1993, he was Leader of the successive Hawke and Keating Labor governments in the Senate. Over the same period he was Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce. His latest book Beyond Belief: What Future for Labor? is No 7 in the renowned Quarterly Essay series.
Don't the miss the chance to hear this dynamic duo in person!
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Who's afraid of public debt?
In a novel collaboration, the Evatt Foundation has teamed up with the Australian Financial Markets Association to present a seminar on public debt and the Howard Government's proposal to eliminate the Australian bond market.
'The foreshadowed move to zero public debt is a significant issue for all citizens, not just the financial markets', Evatt Foundation President Bruce Childs said today.
'Embracing zero public debt also means dramatically curtailing public investment, a policy that's not in the interests of either the present or future generations of Australians', said Mr Childs.
'The Evatt Foundation has long argued for a sensible approach to public debt.'
'We have always objected to zero debt as a baseless, populist justification for privatisation, and have argued that our governments should maintain a decent level of public investment, with due regard to the costs and benefits.'
'Hopefully, the release of Treasurer Costello's discussion paper will trigger a wider re-appraisal of the flat-earth fiscal policies that have been uncritically accepted by both our state and federal governments'.
'The infrastructure of this nation is owed to the fact that earlier generations of Australians had the foresight to maintain substantial public investment', said Mr Childs.
Dr Tony Aspromourgos from Sydney University's Faculty of Economics and Business, and John Rappell from AFMA will address the issues at an Evatt Foundation breakfast seminar on Tuesday 19 November at Sydney's Southern Cross Hotel.
The seminar will be chaired by Professor Frank Stilwell, and will take place in the Hotel's Macquarie Room, corner of Elizabeth and Goulburn Streets.
Breakfast will be served from 7.30 am, the seminar will commence at 8.00 am, and the discussion will conclude on the dot of 9.00 am.
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"The Innocents are imprisoned"
A collection of true stories of the asylum seekers imprisoned in Australia
A P P E A L
Up to now we've seen many publications by various prominent writers and academics exploring the plight of asylum seekers in Australia but there are none from any practically experienced former immigration detainees themselves. We've now found someone to write down the real stories of lives behind the barbed wire where innocents are imprisoned.
An articulate asylum seeker with a background in journalism and who worked as a foreign correspondent for the past many years was in detention for a prolonged duration. In conjunction with a former Nurse of the Woomera IRPC and a prominent legal practitioner, he has voluntarily taken this courageous initiative to write down the accurate recollection of true stories of the asylum seekers' daily lives in the various immigration detention centres throughout Australia.
We need to support this initiative. To see that the book is published, we are relying on all of your generous support and kind assistance. During preparation of the manuscript the author needs to be assured of having the relevant expenses and it is for this we need your support. One person may have trouble making a difference, but together we have a good chance for change.
Please help us to make this initiative a real success:
Any questions can be directed to Edmund Rice Centre on 02 9764 1330 or 0405 112 778 (AH).
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"CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TODAY"
NSW Parliament House
Friday November 8, 2002, 3-6pm
Entry by donation, tea/coffee available
3-4pm, academic panel: civil disobedience traditions
Dr Sergio Fiedler (Social Inquiry, UTS) Traditions of civil disobedience,
Dr Kath Gelber (Government, UNSW) Free speech and civil disobedience
Penny O'Donnell (Journalism, UTS) Civil disobedience and the media
Dr Tim Anderson (Political Economy, University of Sydney) The law and civil disobedience
Chair: Dr James Goodman (Social Inquiry, UTS)
4-6pm, activist panel: civil disobedience today
Paula Abood (anti-racism)
Sean Chaffer (Maritime Union of Australia)
Danny Kennedy (Climate Action Network Australia)
Kanthi Lewis (Woomera 2002 + Queer student network, NUS)
Jesse Wyndhausen (September 11 2000 protests against the World Economic Forum, Melbourne)
Chair: Lee Rhiannon (The Greens)
Organised by the Research Initiative in International Activism, www.international.activism.uts.edu.au
Hosted by Lee Rhiannon, The Greens
Further Information: James Goodman, 9514 2714
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PLUTO INSTITUTE and AUSTRALIAN FABIAN SOCIETY(NSW Branch) present
Wednesday November 13 at 6.30PM
Address by PAUL SCHEFFER:
Waiting for the barbarians: borders of Europe.
The multicultural challenge for social democracy
Paul Scheffer is Holland's leading and controversial public affairs commentator. He is a distinguished author and journalist specialising in European affairs and multiculturalism. His articles are widely published in European journals such as Die Zeit, Le Monde des Debats, Politiken.
He is a member of the Advisory Council of Foreign Affairs and governor of the European Cultural Foundation.
Where: Upstairs Cafe, Berkelouw Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
Admission: $10/$5 - Coffee/tea included in admission price
**********************
The Australian Fabian Society (NSW Branch) invites you to ...
A forum on public education
This forum examines public education in Australia today and the work of the NSW Government's current inquiry into public education. This forum considers what is the purpose of public education and what are the resources needed to realise our goals in the provision of public education today.
With special guest speakers:
* Emeritus Professor Tony Vinson
Chair of the Inquiry into the Provision of Public Education in NSW and Emeritus Professor at The University of NSW
* Dick Shearman
NSW-ACT Secretary of the Independent Education Union
* Third Speaker (TBC)
Time: 6.30 pm start
Date: Wednesday, 20 November, 2002
Place: Upstairs Café, Berkelouw Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
Entry: $5 members/$10 non-members
Bonus: Entry price entitles you to a free coffee/tea/soft drink in the cafe
For more details:
Contact Tony Moore on 02 9692 5111 or Troy Bramston on 0412 508 580
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'Diamond' Joe Quimby and Local 2002
I really tried to bite my tongue when I read your last Simpson'esk editorial 'Homers Odyssey' I tried and I tried but I couldn't let some of the things you said go without comment.
My union was affiliated to the ALP for over eighty years until just last year. The year the NSW ALP rammed through its cuts to workers compensation entitlements.
You see I'm a firefighter and in my job workers compensation can mean the difference between feeding my family and living on sickness benefits from Centre Link. On average every firefighter suffers four serious workers comp. injuries in a career. Not the bruised egos or ingrown bum hairs politicians have to worry about but injuries that maim and cripple us, that take away our ability to lead normal healthy lives.
For us its not about lawyers, courts or insurance companies its about government actually paying up what it owes. Even the NSW Liberals tried to pass amendments to the new workers comp legislation that would have protected people like firefighters and coppers but the ALP just didn't give a damn.
I know now why the NSW Labor Council fought so hard on the changes to union representation at the last ALP national conference. The ALP didn't just go through all the political grief and public spectacle of cutting out union influence in its rules unless it intends to actually use those rules. Only a fool would believe that a politically populist organisation like the ALP isn't going to further distance itself from the union movement and support the passage of US style labour laws in parliaments throughout Australia.
After all it was Bob Hawke and his millionaire mate that last brought the troops in to bust the pilots union on the basis that their pay claim would destroy the economy. Eighteen months later the pilots union was busted and wage rates of pilots were higher than the union had ever claimed.
With the Cunningham result less than two weeks old Bob Carr and his mates have announced they wont be selling one of the last big psychiatric hospitals left in Sydney. They have backed down on the sale of at least two irreplaceable public schools and announced the protection of thousands of hectares of bushland through the expansion of the states parklands.
Surely this is more than just a warm inner glow, the sick, the young and the environment have all benefited. With the pork barreling season now upon us it would be nice to think that the Labor Council might be able to claw back some of entitlements robbed from us by a government that thought workers had no where else to go.
Australian workers aren't simpletons plenty of unionists have at some stage joined the ALP and become active in its branches only to find that once elected to Parliament ALP members will not be told what to do by the membership of the party. Why would they when most of the electorates returning the ALP members get less than 50% of ALP primary votes and the Premier gets to hand pick the cabinet. All the ALP has done by reducing the representation of unions is to further entrench the control of the ALP by the spivs and opportunists that put their personal ambitions before everything else.
The ALP gives unions a bad name and its time for union leaders to start listening to their members before the members vote with their feet and the ALP succeeds in de-unionising the Australian workforce.
Unionist voting for the ALP is like turkeys voting for Xmas.
Simon Flynn
(NSW FBEU)
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Tired Excuses
In response to your editorial The Sirens Song. It's the same list of tired old excuses which the Cunningham By-election should have taught the ALP no longer works for many ALP members or voters. I, like many others, have tried to work through the ALP but now regard it as complete and utter waste of time. Consider of my experiences.
Having been active in the Teachers Federation since 1970 I used to feel that I was philosophically closer to the ALP than any of the other parties.
I first joined the ALP in November 1975, outraged at what Malcolm Fraser had done, and handed out election material in my North Shore Branch area. Shortly thereafter, I moved to the Western Suburbs and tried to transfer to a local branch. It never happened. The Secretary of this Branch eventually said, "I don't know who you have offended but I can't get the transfer through."
As a Federation organiser in the late 1970's I advised teachers to join the ALP and argue for the adoption of good education policies. I felt it was appropriate that I should do the same so I joined my local branch and was eventually elected to the FEC and SEC where I continued to argue for the adoption of good education policies.
Much of the opposition I met within the ALP came from members who believed that anything which came from a person who worked for the Teachers Federation should be opposed.
The final straw came for me when I led a deputation of teachers to see their local member who at that time was also Minister for Education. He was not interested in pursuing what we were arguing for and somewhat in desperation I said, "but it's ALP policy". His response was, "it might be ALP policy but WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT".
A little further down the track I realised there was no point in wasting my time getting the party to adopt good policies only to have them ignored by the people I helped get elected so I resigned from the ALP.
Since then, I have dealt with numerous MP's and Ministers for Education and nothing I have seen has encouraged me to re-join the ALP.
Today I can sail past the ALP sirens with no wax in my ears, their song has no effect.
John Hughes
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Growing Dissent
In response to your editorial regarding the "Sirens' Song", I was dismayed to see your opening paragraphs denouncing the local trade unionists in the Local Cunningham by-election.
I do not see their stand on preferences representing some kind of blinkered and self satisfied thumbing of the nose at the Federal ALP. I see it as I think an ever increasing majority of ALP voters see it, as a desperate attempt to force the ALP to recognise that in terms of policy direction and simple effectiveness, that they are going in the wrong direction.
Just because the ALP claim to represent people like myself, unionists who have always supported the union movement and previously always voted ALP, does not mean that the deserve our unconditional support. It is this historical stable ALP vote that the current factional powerbrokers and "career" politicians rely upon in continuing on their course towards conservative politics. You only have to look at Steve Bracks in Victoria to see what the end result of this is. When people tell me that "At least it's the Labor Party", I tell them that my mother still does not have the right to a common law process in regards to her workcover claim and that the same people who prosepered under Jeff Kennett are still prospering now.
If the ALP want my vote, they will have to change into what they were always supposed to be. My grandfather, a fervent ALP supporter would be turning in his grave if he saw what the ALP had become, a party of self serving political opportunists who will sell all of us out for just one more term in office and to hell with the long term problems that Australia has to face.
I have the greatest respect for the Cunningham trade unionists who despite the enormous pressure on them to conform to the back room deals of the ALP, made the difficult decision to stand up for what they believe in.
Alan Gee
*************
Much to Celebrate
There is a great deal to celebrate in the Cunningham by election result.
Your editorial to edition no.158, 25th October 2002 puts forward the traditional notion that unionists owe the ALP loyalty in all circumstances and that reform will come from people of goodwill within the Party. The reality for most active supporters of the labour movement and progressive politics is that we have never felt less represented by and less involved with the ALP. While always pragmatic the ALP has become driven by no idea stronger than attempting to divine the opinions of a few hundred swinging voters in a dozen marginal electorates. The need to give genuine leadership on issues is the nightmare of the current front bench. All of this is at a time when the Howard government has taken all the ground of the populist and ratbag right. The experience of ALP membership is that the only passion and energy at party forums is blood letting over the division of the spoils.
The victory of the Greens in Cunningham lets people know the depth of dissatisfaction with the ALP machine and its lack of political and moral leadership. More importantly, it allows us to believe that the current political consensus of economic rationalism and social conservatism can be challenged by the generation of popular humane ideas. You are probably right when you say the Greens will never attain power but there is great value in shaking up our ideas and practices. The ALP has no monopoly on the support of unionists, working people and people with progressive politics. The idea that it is our natural party is dead.
The Greens bring a freshness and willingness to deal in ideas that means they will be an attractive, effective force even if they never get to sit in the shiny white chauffeur driven cars.
Brian Mason
***********
Missing the Mark
I am a CPSU delegated at the Department of Immigration in Canberra. I like Workers Online as it is fresh air in an otherwise stuffy room.
However, the editorial about the Sirens Song did not hit the mark. I am always having arguments with ALP members who, after finally admitting that the ALP has hardly any progressive policies, start talking about the importance of winning power, and being in a party that might one day win power.
Well, Cunningham has changed that because it shows that the ALP is vulnerable on its left flank. The Greens are going to pick up a swathe of seats at the next series of elections in both lower and upper houses. Once they do, there will be a credible left voice in Parliament and in the media, and leftists will no longer have to put up with the abuse of the right wing of the ALP.
The right faction of the ALP don't know what they stand for, but they always promised the left, who used to know what they stood for, power. The left went along with this because they thought they had no choice. As the right cannot deliver on power any more, the left needs to reappraise itselft of its involvement in the ALP.
In my view the ALP is unsaveable. My analysis is that given the ALP gets more money from business than ALP branches or the unions, it is not going to become progressive, they are not going to listen to the progressive people and implement progressive policies.
If they could, I would appreciate you pointing me to something progessive in the current policy list?
ALP members are irrelevant to policy formation, because this is done in reference to opinion polls and focus groups with expensive 'public relations' processes bought with business dollars.
For this reason - for the reason that s/he who pays the piper calls the policy tune - the ALP is structurally dead and buried as progressive political party.
The sooner ALP members (and fellow travellers in the union movement) rip the fond blinkers of ALP mythologising from their eyes and see the truth, and get involved in progressive politics, the better off we will all be.
The pity is that it is not the left who has abandoned the party or the cause, but the ALP that has abandoned the left and progressive causes. The ALP has betrayed the confidence of left social democrats life myself once too often, and I no longer have hope or confidence in the party.
Having said that, the ALP needs to be very careful, because after it loses the left, it will be indistinguishable from the Liberals. When that happens, the ALP will be in danger of disappearing, because if you are going to vote for a liberal, you may as well vote for a real liberal instead of some right wing ALP bloke {ie Mark Latham} who thinks he's done good because he has spent his life doing the left over, attacking (or at least not defending) trade unions, privatisings things, popularising capitalism, supporing dictators and the rest of it.
Anyway, I have an article written exploring such things, and would be interested to know whether you would publish it in Workers Online?
Regards
Nick Houston
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Whose Court?
Peter Lewis says that to fix the ALP all unionists should get more involved and to do otherwise only helps the Liberals. I'm all for people in the ALP to fight as hard as possible to - for example - overturn its rotten refugee position, but isn't the ball is in the ALP politicians' court if they want to rewin their base?
What is Peter's analysis of why the ALP has drifted so far in a pro-business direction - this is an international phenomenon - and why shouldn't unionists seek to build an alternative if they seem more effective at fighting the likes of Abbott and Costello and Della Bosca? Is this so terrible as long as people who are building an alternative work in honest solidarity with those who choose to remain and struggle in the ALP?
And shouldn't trade union leaders engage productively with other pro-worker parties and so help shape their development for the benefit of the whole labour movement?
Bruce Knobloch
Great insightful letters on Bali and Terrorism.
No doubt about it, the fanatical Islamic Terrorists, are led by those, hungry for power, with more than enough covert political and financial support.
Adept at harnessing the angers and frustrations of those with little hope and the meglomaniacs, providing them an outlet for those emotions, through a righteous belief, that they are doing God's work.
Vicious slaughter of civilians, is the work of sick minds. Some of the perpetrators will be caught & punished, but will their leaders? Nope, they'll be hiding out, or lying in hospital beds, playing sick.
In a few years, maybe even shaking hands with World Leaders.
Kate, Sydney.
Dear Editor,
Election day is but a mere week away. Viewing the various candidate debates throughout the nation on C-Span, I am so terribly disappointed. In most cases there are 2 candidates, one Republican and one Democrat- offering "right" rather than "real" answers.
With the exception of the (too) few Green Party candidates, no candidate ever mentions the fact that if Maine could implement "Clean Election Laws", why not every state, and more importantly, the Federal gov't?
Since the media fails repeatedly to explain or offer debate on this issue, a brief capsule explanation is needed. Clean Election Laws (as in Maine) offer any candidate, who voluntarily refuses to raise or use private monies, the resource of public funds. These funds obviously are limited, but equally distributed. I believe the formula costs Maine taxpayers, on average, about $2-5 dollars a year, that's it! In return, the voters can choose a candidate who will be beholden to no donor, thus truly politically independent. Please note, in the first cycle (2000) that Maine fully operated Clean Election Laws, nearly 40% of victors in that election year were "clean candidates".
The time has come for all of us to tell our local and federal representatives " if I do not see and hear you come out in support (or sponsorship) of a Clean Elections Bill, you will never ever get my vote, even for dogcatcher!"
A federal Clean Elections Law would probably costs taxpayers another $5 dollars per year. Is that too much to ask in return for getting the Enrons and the Global Crossings out of the "Republicrats" bedrooms? America, keep demanding "money completely out of politics" before we become a real Banana Republic!
Philip A Farruggio
FED UP ( For Electoral Democracy- United Public)
Port Orange Fl..
Workers Online is the best read that I have so far discovered on the World Wide Web. It is here that I read the News behind the "News." Factual articles of general interest which make a mockery of the watered-down, censored, uninformed rubbish that fills the mainstream press.
Those who think are well aware of the relativity of Truth, and the layer upon layer of political/religious/economic manipulations that really control the plays that are acted out on the world stage.
Wasn't it the Bard who said: "All the world's a stage, and the people merely players?" Well I would modify that to say: "All the world's a stage, and most of the players are puppets, with absolutely no idea of who is pulling the strings that make them act out their pathetic gestures."
I am a late entrant into the world of politics, (in the capacity of a freelance journalist) and have much, much more to learn. But at least I have reached a position where nothing surprises me, and the more insidious or bizarre the postulation of who is controlling who, the more likely it is to be true.
My intelligence is daily offended by the so-called Middle East peace talks. Did not the Jews (I am wary of using the label Zionist) just steal a portion of land from the Palestinians? And what a mockery it is that the chosen negotiator in these "peace talks" is always an American. So long as there are more Jews living in the USA than in Israel, am I really expected to believe that the negotiators have the slightest intention of giving the Palestinians a fair go? No, I am not anti-Semitic ... some of the most wonderful people I know are Jewish ... but I am just giving this as one of the more obvious illustrations of the peurile rubbish the general public is supposed to believe.
Congratulations to Workers Online not only for revealing some of the undercurrents of our society, but also for publishing such a kaleidoscope of letters. For example, I suspect "Mouth from the South" is trying to tell me something, but I have no idea what it is, whilst Steve Edwards ("Heaps of Bali Feedback") gives thought-provoking insight into the most populous Moslem nation in the world which also just happens to be our close neighbour. We need all the insight we can get as we strive to develop the inevitable economic and military relationships with Indonesia.
Julian Hancock
As sent to the Fabian Society and Evatt Foundation.
"The problem with the ALP in the 2000s is the policy vacuum they have created moving to the right to fight for the upper middle ground whilst forgetting their own humble heritage, creation and beguinings from the early Labour movement and forgetting the "Battlers" the Alp so vigorously fought for in previous decades and generations. The Alp will continue to drift in a sea of irrelevance in Federal politics in this country unless it regains its roots, its history, its heart and compassion for those struggling to get by in a society becoming more bitterly divided by the current Have or Have not scenario and the widening gap between rich and poor.
This is the moment captured forever in time by those desperate players from the "Other side" in Howard,Ruddock,Abbott and Reith who have so successfully driven a wedge between the Australian people praying on their fears and insecurities in a 2000's life offering no security to many other than the Social Security safety net.
The testing time for the Alp will be wether it can return to its traditional roots providing opportunities to all Australian battlers including Families, Aborigines, Workers Youth, Unemployed,Pensioners , Students and the environment. Once this occurs and Australians have a sense of security in life as in the past Australians will surely become a more caring, compassionate society to those migrants and refugees seeking a better life here.The opportunities available in life for the "Baby Boomer" generation should be the same now for opportunities for todays young generation.
If those in positions of influence continue to offer more of the same as the Parliamentary Liberal Party and its Coalition partner in crime the National Party the Federal ALP could be set for a decade or more on opposition benches. Millions of us out here in Joe Average land cannot bear the thought of Howard,Costello,Abbott,Anderson governments for a combined total of 10-12-15 years.
Steven Presley Morwell,Vic
The Liberal machine continues to be fuelled by the human waste still associated with the Australian Labor Party.
Those yesterdays' men from a Global era remembered only by the betrayals of those who Úriah Heep' type characters who while patronisingly grovelled to an egocentric population emptied their collective pockets, and it is this bitter bile of resentment, that abused children must feel that will ensure the continued 'Wilderness' for the Australian Labor Party.
This belief by the power brokers in their own infallibility will if not excised by Simon Crean, be not only his destruction but also the parties.
While the loss in the Cunningham by-election can be attributed entirely to the union movement, the electorate in the rest of the State is in a much more volatile and explosive circumstance.
These New Labor nonces are exactly what the word conveys, which in itself could be an attribute, but concatenated with their Nancy boy and Bovver Girl imposition on others of their perverted political correctness, can only alienated them from the wider community.
The fact that this feedback emanates from all echelons of society does not take great analytical skills to come to the conclusion that the next two generations detest these "Socialist Pharisees" and recognise them social derelicts.
I personally am reviewing my own membership of a political party that not only is in conflict with my immediate goal of providing for my family, but also condemns my family and I with its pc, bile and diatribe when we complain.
I have recently perused many of my scribbles, and am shocked at the distance in political philosophy I have moved in such a short period of time.
I have examined all the facts I could possibly obtain; I have attempted to ask questions of ALP mps and aspirants, and the resultant gibberish leaves me with no other option than to assume they are either liars or morons.
It would appear, that with a party in disarray, a federal leader under siege, and a right wing state machine operated for personal power, we as a family no longer believe that it is in our interests to continue to support those that would continue harm us.
The Howard government is certainly the preferred choice, in the circumstances; it is miles ahead of the current ALP, and the only change that would make it more attractive would be Tony Abbott as the Prime Minister.
I believe it was the labor Mayor of a local council who said to a uinion Comrade of mine , that while 'his arse pointed to the ground , I would never get a job in 'his' council , well COMRADE , march is reciprocation time!
Tom Collins
At the behest of business, we now pay to access our savings, pay to use our roads, pay to get a university degree, even, pay to watch international sport. You name it and someone's worked out how to make us pay for it.
Which makes the ongoing opposition by employer groups to bargaining agents' fees more than a little confounding.
It's a simple proposition couched in the finest arguments an economic rationalist could hope to make.
Workers join unions to pool their bargaining power. Unions negotiate improvements to wages and conditions. Thanks to that collective commitment wages keep pace with the cost of living - driven by all the other things we have to pay for (see above).
Those who choose not to join a trade union reap the benefits anyway, free of any of the necessary costs of achieving that outcome. It only seems fair to ask these freeloaders to make some contribution towards these not insignificant costs.
That's why when negotiating an agreement, the majority of the workers should have the right to ask their non-union colleagues to weigh in. After all, no one could seriously argue they could cut these sorts of deals one-off.
And it's not just the individual salary - what about the broader rights that form the safety net that have been negotiated over the past 100 years? The maternity leave, sick pay, annual leave and superannuation: without a union movement these would all be pipe dreams.
This is what some workers are now deciding to do - at a workplace level, with the support of the majority and the agreement of the employer: a genuine workplace consensus that all should pay their way.
But now the employers, those same employers who have sung long and loud about the need to devolve industrial relations in the workplace go rushing to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission and ask it to rule that this is not fair.
What is not fair is the corporate world deciding that the line in the sand on User Pays should be at the precise point where workers acting together begin to assert their collective rights.
Service fees are not about bullying or conscription; they are about turning the rhetoric of the rationalists back on themselves.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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