The union claims the company's Nepean manager, John Bold, harassed Post employees at the Blacktown rally, taking photos and recording names of protesters.
The CEPU has sent a "please explain" to Post, demanding a clarification of its position on the snooping.
"He's got the wrong name. This man is not bold at all - he is a coward," NSW CEPU secretary Jim Metcher said.
Dozens of defiant posties, who were not rostered to work, turned up to the Blacktown rally, after colleagues were ordered to stay away by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
"Postal workers are not only contesting the WorkChoices law but the giving of orders to deny them the democratic right to protest," Metcher said.
Australia Post has come under fire for taking an aggressively stance against workers who wanted to attend June 28 rallies.
It won IRC orders preventing employees from attending rallies anywhere in Australia.
Metcher said posties had intended being a visible part of the protests, using bikes and vans to illustrate their anger.
Australia Post has unilaterally changed shift rosters to deny new starters and posties who transfer between sites allowances that boosted their wages by around $100 a week.
Metcher said that, over time, those allowances had been factored into ordinary earnings. The Post decision cuts core wages from $37,000 to $32,000 a year.
"For a lot of people that can be the difference between meeting the mortgage payments and losing the family home," Metcher said.
"This isn't about being competitive, it's just petty penny pinching and meaness. It's no wonder they were worried about people protesting the free hand John Howard has given to employers."
Metcher said Post was aware the impact its moves to deny workers early morning penalty rates were having on morale.
The CEPU wants to know if Bold's absence from the Nepean Centre was authorised by Australia Post and, if not, whether he will be docked the four hours wages compulsory under WorkChoices.
Australia Post was the first winner of Workers Online's Bad Boss competition.
The Canberra Raiders have been warned �political addresses, special awards or presentations� must have written approval from the National Rugby League.
|
The law was laid down by Liberal Party candidate and NRL chief operating officer, Graham Annesley.
"I've had an assurance from the [Raiders] CEO this morning that it won't be re-occurring," said the Liberal candidate for Miranda in next year's state election.
Hundreds of people spread across the field during half-time at the Raiders clash with the Roosters to draw attention to the work laws, which do away with penalty rates and make it easier for to be sacked.
Raiders players Simon Woolford and Clinton Schifcofske backed unions in pre-recorded videos on the ground's big screen.
"Get behind your union because you can bet your life your union will get behind you," Woolford said.
Woolford, president of the Rugby League Professionals' Association, said footy players needed the support of their union to get a better deal.
The public response to the groundbreaking action was mixed, with some saying they felt "disgusted" by mixing politics and sport, others saying the union had as much right to advertise as any other sponsor.
One caller to ABC radio suggested John Howard's appearance at major sporting events was political.
Rugby league started off as a working class breakaway from the rugby union in 1895.
Rugby league was born when the rugby union refused to pay compensation to injured players from working class clubs in Northern England.
According to the NRL website, rugby union's attitude was "if men couldn't afford to play, then they shouldn't play at all".
Australia's working class rugby players followed the English lead, with the formation of a rugby league competition in 1908.
For the past two seasons, the NRL, half-owned by News Ltd, has made a point of honouring its roots.
The half-time demonstration was organised by Unions ACT.
The Raiders defeated the Roosters 42-10 with Schifcofske playing his way into the Queensland team for this week's state of origin decider.
So much so, that the University has agreed to protect AWA staff through �policy� to ensure they aren't disadvantaged.
The in-principle agreement came, last Friday, ending an aggressive two and a half year campaign to force staff onto AWAs.
Key improvements over the individual contracts, forced on all new starters, include:
- guaranteed wage movements to March, 2008, of 18 percent, against 13.5 to March, 2009, in the individual contracts. The uni had made the other 4.5 contingent on revenue outcomes
- sign-on bonuses averaging $3,027 against back pay averaging $1509
- retention of independent dispute resolution procedures, against the removal of appeal rights
- 26 weeks paid maternity leave, against 14 weeks
- a clause that ensures staff have choice between collective and individual contracts, against the standard denial inherent in AWAs
NTEU Victorian secretary, Matthew McGowan, hailed the breakthrough in the highly-publicised case as "extremely encouraging".
"It's a 180 degree turn around from where we were three months ago," McGowan said.
"It's important to recognise that university management, after pursuing an aggressive course, realised the importance of dealing fairly with their staff.
"They deserve some recognition for finally sitting down and working through the issues.'
Ballarat hit the headlines when vice-chancellor, Kerry Cox, took it on himself to run federal government's ideological line.
Cox forced no-choice AWAs onto new starters and threatened existing staff if they didn't sign individual contracts, by his deadlines, all offers would be withdrawn.
McGowan said those factors would see university unions argue that all staff should now be allowed to choose whether or not they wished to move to the union-negotiated deal.
"Absolutely," he confirmed. "If this is really about genuine choice people should have the option about coming back to the collective."
Approximately 450 Ballarat employees held out for the collective agreement, while around 280 have signed AWAs.
During the heated dispute, Cox played the role of a WorkChoices jibberer, mouthing lines that were either meaningless or misleading.
Examples included his January 23 statement, celebrating the first batch of AWAs being sent to the Office of the Employment Advocate for registration.
"It is very pleasing that the benefits flowing from significant sustainable salary rises and improved conditions are now available to staff entirely under a freedom-of-choice proposal," he said in a vice-chancellor's office press release.
"Our self-reliance is being modelled through the entire organisation."
On Janurary 19, he was assuring the press staff would be "better off" under AWAs.
"The university's only recourse to exercise its duty of care to staff has been through AWAs, which provide very significantly improved conditions of service and salary levels for staff," Cox claimed.
Workers Online does not suggest that Cox was at the time, or ever had been, in any way involved with the University of Ballarat's English faculty.
Cox shot through in April, leaving the University facing a multi-million dollar class action.
McGowan confirmed the case, alleging the university misled people over its AWA offers, was still being pursued in the federal court.
The full bench of the NSW Industrial Court decided, last week, that new entity, Digital Graphics, could be listed as a respondent to an unfair contracts case against David Graphics.
It found there was an arguable case that when Digital Graphics took over the premises, business and goodwill of David Graphics the arrangement was a scam.
Ten AMWU members can now seek redress from a company that was never, technically, their employer.
Turner Freeman lawyer, Stephen Penning, hailed the decision as "excellent".
"It's an opportunity for the court to go behind the corporate veil, to lift the corporate veil, to look carefully at what occurred in the relationship between the liquidation of David Graphics and the establishment of another company, a different legal entity, Digital Graphics," Penning said.
"It's very important in terms of the significant loss of employee entitlements.
"It allows the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, on behalf of those workers, to seek to proceed in court."
The David Graphics saga began when the company, operated by Sydney businessman Alan Thomas David, went into voluntary administration in November, 2003.
As his business was consigned to its commercial grave another print company took over its premises and work.
According to the AMWU, it was operated by David's daughter and a "close personal friend". David, himself, was taken on as a consultant.
The AMWU accused the original company of sitting on super contributions, salary sacrificing and health fund premiums for more than a year.
The David Graphics administrator confirmed that a number of AMWU members had lost super entitlements and health fund contributions.
Turner Freeman is pursuing the unfair contracts claim on behalf of 10 AMWU members who claim to have been dudded of $90,000.
A survey by the Australian Institute of Management found 33.9 per cent of business owners disagree on some level to WorkChoices effect on employment conditions.
Executives and CEOs are the strongest supporters with only one fifth disagreeing.
Although under a half of low-level staff surveyed disagreed, the majority disagreed with changes to individual contracts (61.6 per cent), union restrictions (54.7 per cent), unfair dismissal (59.4 per cent) and job security (74.2 per cent).
Meanwhile, BIS Shrapnel's Economic Outlook bulletin warns instead of helping the economy, WorkChoices will just give more money to the boss.
The Howard Government's failure to invest in skills training and public infrastructure is threatening to constrain the future growth of the Australian economy and could lead to future interest rate raises.
According to senior economist, Matthew Hassan, the laws are "deflecting the debate away from how to grow the [economic] pie bigger, to how best to cut it up".
"The policy problem for the Australian Government is that, to improve growth, the economy needs measures that improve labour productivity and increase the pool of skilled labour."
ACTU President Sharan Burrow the report vindicated the unions arguments against the laws.
"The laws have nothing to do with helping the economy and everything to do with increasing big business profits at the expense of the job security, working conditions, wages and living standards of working families," she said.
An ecumenical service at St Peters Cathedral in Adelaide, last Tuesday, received wisdom from a higher authority than the ACTU.
Deuteronomy and the Gospel according to Matthew delivered the final word on workplace rights.
"Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbour. Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought", MP Paul Caica read from Deuteronomy 15:7.
The South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, read from the "Sermon on the Mount" in the book of Matthew, which includes the line "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled".
Prayers for fairness and justice at work rang out alongside traditional hymns, including Amazing Grace, and biblical readings.
The service was followed by a candle lighting ceremony in remembrance of the 18 people killed in industrial accidents in the past year in South Australia.
"SA Unions is committed to standing with churches and other leading community organisations to strive for justice for working Australians," said secretary of Unions SA, Janet Giles, after the service.
In the same week that the NSW Industrial Relations Commission ruled 500,000 minimum wage people were entitled to four percent increases, federal politicians took seven percent, and confirmed they would also snare a special 2.5 percent adjustment.
The federal government, which has the power to halt the cash grab, endorsed controversial Remuneration Tribunal restructuring of senior salary structures.
Without negotiation, the series of adjustments, will see backbenchers pay rise from &111,150 to more than $130,000 by July, 2008.
The Prime Minister's salary will jump to more than $309,000.
The government tries to pass off the increases as a decision of an independent authority but, under the Remuneration and Allowances Act, the decision to apply tribunal decisions to MPs is taken by Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews.
It was Andrews, on behalf of the federal government, who vigorously opposed the NSW minimum wage case before apologising for his behaviour towards the IRC and withdrawing from the case.
The NSW Commission rejected calls from Andrews and big business to adjourn its hearings.
Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, hailed the full bench decision to reject those entreaties but warned the adjustment could be the last of its kind.
State Opposition leader, Peter Debnam, is pledged to handing the NSW IR system over to Canberra and WorkChoices.
"This decision shows the advantage of maintaining a strong independent umpire with the legal authority to consider fairness for working families as well as the interests of business," Robertson said.
The federal government has specifically excluded "fairness" from the considerations of its new wage fixing body.
Late night talks on Monday finally produced a new agreement between Tooheys, Linfox and TWU.
Drivers endorsed the contract the following day.
The dispute began when Tooheys announced Linfox would take over transport from Toll Holdings on July 31.
Under the new contract, drivers stood to wear pay cuts of up to 42 per cent, according to TWU. The original Linfox proposal also ignored the goodwill drivers had invested in their trucks, collectively worth many millions of dollars.
With family honmes under threat, 57 owner drivers embarked on a campaign to obtain a fair contract. At the height of the dispute Tooheys' Lidcombe brewery was blockaded by drivers; while up at Macquarie Street, thirsty political types could not get a drop of Tooheys for love or money.
TWU's Wayne Forno described the new contract as a positive outcome. "It means the drivers can afford to continue running their trucks and supporting their families," he said.
The TWU would not comment on media reports that the deal included a $16 million collective payout for the goodwill, only saying drivers felt they could work in a financially viable way.
TWU member Bob Hayden, a Tooheys delivery driver for 18 years, thanked the Sydney community for its support. "We love our jobs and we are very happy to be able to keep driving our trucks and delivering beer to Sydney's pubs," he said.
Drivers and their families were delighted by hundreds messages of support from the public and over 3000 signatures on an online petition. Hundreds more were collected from race goers at Randwick recently.
The TWU wrote to Unions NSW to formally express thanks for the solidarity of other workers.
"This shows that by sticking together, union members can still enjoy great results in spite of John Howard's industrial relations changes," Forno said.
"TWU members and their families were able to secure fair rates of pay and conditions thanks to the support of the community, Unions NSW and other unions such as the PSA."
The 40,000 who braved a cold winter morning were among over 200,000 people across the country that took to the streets on a national day of action against John Howard's workplace laws.
All roads to Blacktown were clogged with heavy traffic, while passengers who packed trains from the city and further west were greeted by station staff, transit officers and busy shopkeepers doing a roaring trade decked out in orange and yellow Your Rights At Work T Shirts and badges.
Another 30,000 workers turned out at over a dozen venues across regional NSW.
The rally at Blacktown heard real life stories from people affected by the Work Choices laws.
Paul Weston, a garbage truck driver from Wyong on the Central Coast, told the rally that WorkChoices threatened to slash his take home pay.
"I'd like John Howard to look my wife and family in the eye and tell them why we have to put our house on the market."
Lifetime Liberal voter Jane Lee, sacked from her job as a childcare worker nine days after the new laws came into effect, told the rally she wouldn't be voting for Howard at the next election.
"The message is clear, John Howard has to go," John Robertson, secretary of Unions NSW told the rally.
The 40,000 workers then marched through the shopping district of suburban Blacktown, receiving a warm welcome from shoppers, with many business operators coming out on the footpath to applaud the rally.
Upwards of 150,000 rallied in Melbourne, with the march starting from four points around the city.
Kim Beazley told the Melbourne crowd that, if elected, the Labor Party would "tear up" the Workchoices laws.
Tens of thousands rallied in Brisbane, Adelaide Perth and Tasmania, where a 3,000 strong march in Launceston was lead by Beaconsfield mine survivor Brant Webb.
The worker was clearing a blockage in a pump when hot sludge cement burst from a hose, spraying the worker's face, eyes, nose, mouth ears, arms and hands.
The worker sustained very severe burns and was transferred to Westmead Hospital and then the Concord Burns Unit. He was unable to return to work for several months and eventually left the company.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union successfully prosecuted James Hardie in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission where the company was found responsible for the horrific burns.
Justice Staunton of found James Hardie guilty of breaching the Occupational Health & in April 2003Safety Act, imposed a fine of $98,000 and awarded costs against James Hardie.
"Despite the seriousness of injuries to this worker, WorkCover did not prosecute the employer, James Hardie. The Union did," said state secretary of the AMWU, Paul Bastian. "Unfortunately this is not an isolated case.
"At a time when some employers and governments are questioning the role of unions, this case demonstrates the crucial role that unions have in ensuring workplace safety."
"It also shows that it is essential for unions to have the ability to prosecute employers who put the safety of their workers at risk".
Under controversial NSW moiety provisions, half the Hardie fine will go to the AMWU for OH&S education.
Workers Walk Over Bolts From Above
Meanwhile, in the Queensland town of Chinchilla, AMWU members are quitting their jobs at Queensland's biggest electricity construction project over safety concerns.
AMWU organiser David Fyffe said workers are faced with falling metal objects every few days at the Kogan Creek power plant at Chinchilla on southern Queensland's Western Downs.
Fyffe said there have been three accidents already and he is worried more workers could be hurt.
"Unless those issues are addressed adequately, somebody is going to be seriously hurt or even killed."
Childcare worker, Emily O'Connor, is flying to Queensland for what promises to be the highlight of a Brisbane bayside fun day.
Local Liberal MP, Andrew Laming, is expected to attend.
The last time the childcare worker heard from Laming was when he laughed at her in Federal Parliament and told her to get a job.
The jibes came as the Prime Minister was being questioned about O'Connor's dismissal from the Blinky Bill Childcare Centre.
Laming is under fire from working families, in Canberra and his own electorate, for his treatment of O'Connor.
Electrical Trades Union (ETU) organiser, Allen Hicks, is calling on Laming to justify his "ruthless and heartless conduct".
Hicks said Laming should justify why he so enthusiastically supports taking away people's rights at work.
Beazley will be the keynote speaker at the Family Fun Day at Raby Bay Harbourside Park this Saturday, July 1, with anti-Workchoices campaigner, Roudonikis, also pencilled in for an appearance.
The Office of the Employment Advocate confessed that up to a quarter of the individual contracts he had solicited, in the first three months of WorkChoices, fell below legal minimums.
About 14 per cent of all AWAs analysed by the Office of the Employment Advocate since Work Choices laws came into effect in March have been found to underpay workers, while 11 per cent have breached minimum leave standards, according to Employment Advocate Peter McIlwain.
McIlwain told the Senate estimates committee AWAs found to be in breach of fair pay and conditions standards would be referred to the Office of Workplace Services.
McIlwain said his office had "analysed" 6263 in the first four weeks of Work Choices.
An OWS spokesman told the Financial Review the number of agreements referred to the agency for violation of standards had "undoubtedly" increased since then.
He said breaches would be pursued and prosecutions were warranted.
Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, said every breach should be prosecuted.
"The requirements are minimalist. If employers can't even meet Howard's reduced standards they should pay the price," Robertson said.
The latest admission from the Advocate, comes on top of his revelation that every single agreement analysed in the first four weeks removed at least one condition the federal government had said would be "protected by law".
The wholesale cull of manufacturing workers continued, last week, with Bluescope Steel dumping 250 Port Kembla staff, and the employer of 700 Victorians going into administration.
The Huon Group announcement casts shadows over the futures of rubber and auto parts factories at Bendigo, Frankston and Dandenong.
The former Nylex factories, including Empire Rubber, were sold to the Huon Group, last year.
AMWU Victorian secretary, Dave Oliver, lashed governments' failure to invest in Australian skills or research and development.
He said Howard government policies were stripping 60 fulltime jobs out of auto components, alone, every week.
"Yet again, we have an auto component company facing the axe," Oliver said. "We don't want workers and their families left behind if these factories go under."
NUW spokesman, Antony Thow, said unions would try to ensure there were no redundancies until workers were guaranteed they would receive 100 cents in the dollar on everything they were owed.
Meanwhile, AMWU NSW secretary, Paul Bastian, has called the Bluescope job losses a "disaster for the Illawarra".
He said they were a result of federal government incompetence.
"John Howard has no plan for the Australian manufacturing industry or for creating skilled jobs for our young people," Bastian said.
"The federal government's answer to everything is to negotiate a new Free Trade Agreement - well, this is the result."
Bluescope is closing its Port Kembla tin mill as the first step in shedding at least 600 positions.
An Urgent Appeal From Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA
We need to raise money immediately so that the people of East Timor can rebuild their lives after the recent unrest.
Please send a generous gift to assist local organisations in rebuilding a peaceful, free and productive society in East Timor.
Click here to donate using our secure online donation form https://secure.fantasticone.com/apheda/order_form.php Select East Timor from the drop down menu under 'section C. Once Off donations'.
OR phone our toll free number 1800 888 674
OR send a cheque made out to APHEDA Inc. with a note alerting us that it is for the East Timor Appeal
The recent conflict in East Timor has severely disrupted the day-to-day lives of the population and has been a blow to the confidence of this young independent nation. Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA would like to provide additional support to its partner organisations in East Timor to help rebuild infrastructure and restore confidence. Support from donors like yourself can help make this happen.
Union Aid Abroad -APHEDA will need to quickly respond to the needs of local partner organisations in East Timor when they are able to resume their work. These key civil society organisations focus on strengthening vocational skills, developing the union movement, resolving conflict peacefully and informing the population through independent media.
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's partner organisations are likely to need assistance in the following:
Repairing any damaged infrastructure or equipment
Replacing stolen or damaged goods
Restarting their programs
Developing programs that encompass reconciliation and peace building activities using community radio and theatre groups
Providing vocational and income generating skills to unemployed young men so they feel they have a share in the future of their community.
You can help by donating:
$1000 - To fund a vocational training workshop targeting young unemployed males
$500 - To fund a theatre tour to rural villages to promote reconciliation
$100 - To partially fund training for community radio stations on developing programs that support peace building and reconciliation
$50 - To help make a gate to secure an office building
$30 - To help replace stolen/destroyed office equipment
By donating to East Timor you will be helping the traumatised people of this nation redevelop confidence and hope that their nation can continue to grow and prosper.
You will be supporting programs that equip individuals and communities in East Timor with skills and experiences to create a peaceful, free and productive society.
Your support for the people of East Timor is so important for them at this difficult and unsettling time.
What is Going On in East Timor?
Where: Trades Hall Auditorium
When: 06 July 2006
Start time: 12.00pm
Finish time: 2.00pm
What Happened, Why, Where to Next?
Is it a COUP in which Australia is playing a key role?
Come and hear informed friends of East Timor, plus East Timorese people explain these difficult times, and what we as friends of East Timor can do.
Pope Talks IR
Monday 25 September 2006.
Brisbane Work and Industry Futures QUT, and the Department of Industrial Relations Griffith University are convening a one-day conference that explores Work, Industrial Relations and Popular Culture.
David Pope, the cartoonist behind the Heinrich Hinze cartoons will be Keynote Speaker with his presentation - "Is the pen mightier than s356? Cartoons and Work" (www.scratch.com.au)
We welcome any paper that explores the manner in which popular culture is used by unions, management or policy makers or alternatively, how work and industrial relations is represented within popular culture.
Sub-themes for the conference include: - Policy, Influence and Modern Mediums - Which is Reality, Work or TV? - Popular Music: Is it the End of the Working Class Man? - Working in the Movies: What do we see? - Popular Culture as a Teaching Tool. Call for Papers. Abstracts are due 14 July 2006 Full papers are due 11 September 2006 Location; Southbank, Brisbane.
The convenors would welcome participants to submit proposed titles earlier to assist in preparations. For further information please contact Keith Townsend ([email protected]) or David Peetz ([email protected])
Rekindling the Flames of Discontent: How the Labour and Folk Movements Work Together
A Conference - Dinner - Concert
The Brisbane Labour History Association is holding a Conference/Dinner/Concert on Saturday 23 September. This event will explore the historical relationship between the labour movement and the folk movement in Australia with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
Why? To celebrate the history of the interaction between the Folk and Labour movements, and promote its longevity.
When? Saturday 23 September. Conference from 1pm. Concert from 7pm.
Where? East Brisbane Bowls Club, Lytton Rd, East Brisbane, Next to Mowbray Park
It is still in the formative stages, but to date the following are confirmed:
1-5pm CONFERENCE (will include music with the presentations):
Doug Eaton on John Manifold & the Communist Arts Group in Brisbane, Brisbane Realists
Bob & Margaret Fagan on Sydney Realist Writers
Mark Gregory on trade union & labour songs/music, nationally/internationally
Lachlan & Sue on international perspectives
5 - 7pm Drinks followed by DINNER
7 - 11pm CONCERT
Combined Unions Choir
Bob and Margaret Fagan
Mark Gregory
Jumping Fences
For more information contact the BLHA President Greg Mallory on [email protected], or Secretary Ted Reithmuller on [email protected], or Dale Jacobsen on [email protected]
Good to see Piers getting a spellin this week's TOTW for his outrageous comments on the Insiders.
In fact he deserves a double nomination this week for the other outrageous comments he made on the same show concerning allegations of rape and drug running in some detention centres.
ccording to Piers, those in detention are there because they have committed criminal acts (assuming that seeking to have your refugee status tested is in fact a crime) and so nobody should be surprised if they exhibit other criminal tendencies such as sexual assault and drug running.
This is akin to accusing a person doing time for a white collar crime of becoming a sexual predator and a drug lord simply because they have committed a criminal at and they are in detention.
Even those who are in detention because their visas have expired could hardly be accused of committing a crime as serious as those alleged to have occurred in some detention centres.
Piers' assertions are utterly repugnant and he is a truly appalling person.
Editor Peter Lewis.
We have allowed workplace relations legislation to drag us kicking and screaming back to feudal times, Rail Corporation has by citing the rules of secondary employment exposed a legislated a discriminatory capacity to remove employed persons freedom of expression. Witnessed as an act by the majority Liberal Coalition Government. They were all of them formally asked by ballot to 'parliament' in our best interest.
Howard has successfully guided weaker intellects in a doomed attempt to tamper with our Federal constitution. By legislating away the peoples freedom to give wings to their dreams.
Edward James.
POB 3024 Umina 2257
hey where is barrister christopher ward? Who is looking out for the people of Timor-leste. All of what has recently happened was a set up to provoke a justification for australians taking over and getting rid of alkatiri. This is all so bad.
Regarding the lady Emily O'Connor who received disgusting mistreatment by Liberal members when taking her case to Parliament. I will never forget this incident, and I will be waiting patiently to see when the Australian people tell these smug individuals to get a job.
The Australian people will have the last laugh just wait and see.
T Rice
This week the tone of the Prime Minister is particularly desperate - first trying to turn a Greg Combet joke into a threat to national security; then flailing around about how China would somehow stop buying resources from us.
The significance of this line of defence is that Howard has basically given up trying to convince anyone that the laws won't make workers worse off.
Instead, he is constructing his own scare campaign around the ALP's commitment to tear up the laws.
This scare campaign is built on a series of lies, lies that the PM is somehow being allowed to propagate without being forced to justify them.
First, the mantra that his IR laws are good for the economy. He says they create jobs - but no one asks him how. BIS Shrapnel was the latest independent analysts this week to brand this economic theory as the pure bunkum it is.
Secondly, the mantra of the 14 per cent real increase in wages under Howard. More than a year ago, Unions NSW released an academic analysis of that claim showing that when the top 10 per cent of income earners were removed from the equation, the picture was not so rosy. When you look at median wages, the results under Howard have been downright mediocre.
Third, the line that 'the sky didn't fall in when we made changes in 1996 even though the union movement said it would." The point, that not even the journos who were in Canberra at the time seem capable of challenging, is that the Senate blocked those changes because the government didn't have control.
What is it about Howard? Is it just that he is so boring that he induces catatonia in reporters? Surely any political reporter worth their salt would not be letting him rewrite history so brazenly.
Meanwhile, you have the head of the business lobby, ex-Reith staffer Peter Hendy, basically slipping on the jackboots and indulging in a sort of sneering commentary that belies his visceral hatred of the union movement.
If big business had any desire to win this debate the first thing they should be doing is sacking this creature - one dismissal we would all welcome.
There's a common element in all these responses - a reversion to ideology and dogma when faced with unpleasant truths.
It's almost a reversal of the position in which the ALP found itself in the death throes off the Keating Government. Back then it was a combination of economic fundamentalism and identity politics that rendered the government disconnected from the electorate.
Back then the bubble was burst by an Ipswich shopkeeper who struck a chord; this time around the union movement is putting a human face to an economic agenda that ignores people, minus the xenophobia.
But there are echoes of 1996 - the government has stopped talking about the people it represents - its reference point is now an abstract theory - and it is that, which gives me hope that this campaign will succeed.
Of course there's another player in the debate - a media that seems unwilling to report the debate with any level of objectivity.
In the case of the Murdoch press it is worse, particularly in the neo-con Australian, now a caricature of a newspaper - the reporting is brazenly designed to shape and win the debate, not chronicle it.
But the ABC, through timidity caused by an ongoing process of political bastardisation, and the Fairfax press through its complacency, are also playing into the federal government's hands by failing to nail it for the paucity of its arguments.
You end up shouting at the TV set - how can you let the assertions go unchallenged? How can the bogus stats, the economic voodoo and political revisionism be allowed to pass as a legitimate response?
Only the tabloid TV shows and talkback radio seem to be tapping the sentiment, perhaps a sign of the closer connection these models of newsgathering have to the grass roots.
This media bias is the wildcard and the great unknown of this debate - can a community move on a government despite the propaganda services being provided by large chunks of the media?
One things for sure, if WorkChoices rolls the Howard Government, it will also be a profound moment in the history of Australian media, a pricking of the bubble of influence with a dose of impotence.
In the meantime, we know we have the momentum spinning our way. We just have to keep it going.
Peter Lewis
Editor
Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
© 1999-2002 Workers Online |
|