Interview

The Future Is Now

Interview with Peter Lewis

Steve Klaasen is just 22. He works for a union. He explains why he is not an endangered species.

	LHMU organiser Steve Klaason

You're a young union official working with a predominantly young membership. Do you use a different approach in working with them?

At the LHMU we have a strategy of like on like. We look at people who, are not necessarily in the same age group, but can communicate, with young people. If you identify and relate to your members they'll be more accepting and open to you. The issues are usually the same in the workplace, but it's the different approach which is important.

What are the differences?

It's a much more informal process. Younger people are a bit more social, they want to get out and about. So rather than discussing issues at the workplace, we'll organise to go for a drink or a coffee after work; for instance we hold hospitality nights at the Marble Bar in the Hilton Hotel. They're held on Monday nights, when most hospitality workers have a day off. They come and have a drink and people from the union are there if they want to talk to them. It's a more friendly, mateship sort of approach to organising.

There are also specific issues that effect young workers, like Junior Rates of Pay. The federal government's push to promote youth rates has given us a great opportunity to go out and talk to younger wokers about how they're being done over and organise them around the issue..

It's an almost accepted wisdom pushed through the media that young people are less collectively minded and more individualistic. That doesn't seem to gel with what you're doing ...

I think there are individually minded people in all groups. The only difference between young people and older people is that they are not as aware of the history of what has been achieved in the past - the eight hour day campaign, long service leave, they don't see how their conditions today have been won through the struggles of the past. That's natural, because it happened before they were born. So that's part of what we do: we say this has what has been achieved, this is what happening now and this is what you can do about it today.

But are the issues changing? Is job security for instance, as important for young people as it is for people who've been brought up with the idea of a job for life?

Especially in hospitality and tourism, job security is no longer the top priority. Workers are more interested in work conditions, pay, health and safety and recognition - a lot of these people are treated by employers with no respect and no recognition of a job well done. It's an attitude thing, rather than an issue you can put in an industrial agreement.

How did you come to be working in the trade union movement?

Before I was doing this I was a delegate for the union. I was a lifeguard at Australia's Wonderland. People out there knew I was doing a Uni course in industrial relations, so they'd naturally come and have a chat about any issues they faced. So that was how I got involved in it. I'm not from a particularly staunch :Labor background, but I had an interest in industrial relations and wanted to get involved at the workplace. Some safety issues arose on one of the rides and we got pretty active. After the dispute (which we won!) the Misos asked me to apply for a full time job with them.

How does the union operate out at Wonderland?

You have a highly casualised, young workforce out there. The organiser has a good approach, the young workers identify with the organiser and can talk in their language and feel they are being listened to. There's a real awareness that they are the union, not some official coming in and telling them how they should think.

And even in a high casualisation area, there is a collectivity identity among the workers?

Yeah. There's a good education process. When an agreement is being negotiated, the union makes sure all the workers are at the centre of the process; whether they are casual, full-time or part-time.

Turning to the bigger picture, how do you see the union movement changing over the next ten years?

I guess the major way is to take the union movement from a servicing approach to an organising approach, fundamentally that's the key to unions changing. It's no longer a matter of sitting down and deciding if we do change, it's about accepting that we have to change. There's no choice in it, we have to. Where I see the union movement in ten years time is taking the organisers' role as it exists today and revolutionising it. the stuff we do today, should not be done in ten years time. We should not be solving problems for members, taking issues and running to the Commission, it should be more of an educative process and organising the workers on the ground, to developthe tools to stand up for themselves and learn about their rights. It's about empowerment of the workforce, not power for the organiser.

So what sort of work do you think an organiser will be doing in ten years time?

It should be more a co-ordinating role. It should not be about individual grievances, it should be about helping all workers understand their rights, educating, not just about the individual agreement at the workplace but also about the industry as a whole.

What about broader political issues? At the moment Labor is struggling to work out what sort of Party it will be in the next century, what ideas and issues resonate with people your age?

Laying my cards on the table, you need to work out what went right in the past, and that is basically the idea that workers had a political party to represent their interests. The Labor Party came from unions and that's what it should be. It's not about Left or Right, who you are voting for next week, it should be about having a political party that listens to the working people. To be honest, I think the factions role is becoming redundant. I don't know how practical that is, but young people just want to see an active Party working reflecting their interests, not worrying about who's Left or Right. I saw what Chris Christodoulou wrote in Workers Online recently and I think most young people couldn't agree with him more. I think he reflects the young people's view perfectly.

In an era when federal politics has been locked in a debate about a goods and services tax, what are the issues that would interest and energise the people you represent?

The GST has been caught up in technical arguments and young people have basically switched off from it. If you wanted to rank the GST in order of importance with the people I deal with, it would be very low. The GST is an issue and young people are interested in the fairness of it, but there are much more important issues. The industrial relations climate is a big one, and I'm not saying that because I come from a union. Younger people also have a level of awareness that other people don't see. They're actually interested in what's going on in the rest of the world. They are interested in human rights. They are interested in things like Jabiluka, National Sorry Day, reconciliation, equal rights for women.

What about the Republic?

It is an issue, but not as high rate. I think young people would look at it like the GST. You still have to pay tax whether its a GST or not. Likewise, whether you have a Republic or a monarchy, they believe the system will still operate in the same sort of way. They believe it's not really going to change anything. The question a lot of young people are asking is: how will make things better? Me, I'm a Republican, but I don't know how much passionate support there is out there.

Do you think your age group identifies as a generation that's distinct from the Baby Boomers and Generation X?

I think there is a generation identity which is driven by the technology at its disposal and the networks that provide. One of the keys is the capacity this provides to educate yourself, and people are doing that in a big way. It's about access to education and information. It's about empowering yourself to find your own answers to your own questions. Asking questions is a good thing.

That's a profound change for political parties, who are used to talking to Baby Boomers through the mass media. How do you think unions should deal with it?

You've got to run with it and embrace it. Set up a web-site so people can find the information they need. The Misos have done this and its working really well. You've got to be a player in the information age. For members, instead of an organiser visiting and handing out the award , you can give them the web-address and they can do it for themselves. Then your organiser can use their time organising rather than servicing. It's about recognising the ability of people to teach themselves - young people aren't idiots, there's no point doing something for other people that they can do for themselves.

So are you optimistic about the future of the union movement?

Absolutely. Sometimes unions have got the wrong direction in the past, I don't think that's entirely the fault of unions given the environment they've been operating in. But I'm extremely optimistic about where we're headed. If the unions are smart enough and humble enough to say "we need to change, we don't have a choice", then I think they will do very well, and not just in Australia, but around the world..

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 21 contents

»	Aussies To Go For Gold in Foreign Uniforms?
»	Howard Warned: Time Ticking On Entitlements
»	Hotels Charge Triple Time - Now for the Workers
»	Air Attack - Qantas Telesales Under Fire
»	The Hills Are Alive - With the Sound of Pay Cuts
»	National Trust Places Green(back) Bans on Unions
»	Body Hire Campaign Hots Up
»	Attack of the Killer Skips Rocks City
»	A Holiday With a Social Consience
»	East Timor: Emergency Public Meeting Called

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Conference to Heal Rifts in the Labour Movement
»	Fabians Scour Poll Ashes
»	Holiday Confusion

Notice Board
- Check out the latest events

Latest Issue

View entire latest issue
- print all of the articles!

Previous Issues

Subject index

Search all issues

© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW

LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW

[ Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Credits ]

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW