Issue No 32 | 24 September 1999 | |
Trades HallMichael Gadiel on the Deal Formerly Known as Vizard
The latest detail of the bundled computer deal not only confirm our worst fears - but raises a few more besides.
Steve Vizard himself has pulled out (at least his active involvement) but Chris Clarke and a range of Industry Superannuation funds have taken up the Virtual Communities proposal. But at Workers Online we can't help but think of it as the Vizard deal. The ACTU has released the details of the contract that unions and other community organisations would be asked to sign with Virtual Communities. The flaws with the whole Virtual Communities concept are threefold: Firstly - in five years time everyone will have regular access to the Internet, regardless of whether the union movement supports this deal or not. Why? Because e-commerce providers and ISPs want to expand their market - currently they are limited to people with computers. They'll expand their market by cross subsidising computer prices to ensure that people can access the web. This is analogous to the mobile phone carriers who subsidise to up-front cost of a mobile phone to gain the on-going contract for network access and usage. Already there are deals in Australia for free Internet access and overseas ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are giving away computers to lock in their market share. If this is the case, then why must the union movement take up the responsibility for ensuring wider computer ownership, when those that primarily benefit - the ISPs and e-commerce providers - will ensure this anyway? This deal is based on the mistaken presumption that there is some social justice objective served by selling low cost computers to our members. Secondly - there is no organising focus in this deal. In fact the contract requires unions to ensure that delegates "work actively to maximise the take-up". Time and energy of union delegates, that ought to be spent organising will be spent selling a computer deal. This package could be seen as a benefit of membership, but nobody to going to join a union for a cheap computer deal, they'll join a union to protect their industrial interests. This deal will divert union time and resources away from the main challenge, as set down in the ACTU's "Unions at Work" - organising and recruitment. Thirdly - this deal interferes with unions' online relationships with their members. The deal proposes to create a Virtual Communities portal which, is a third party, trying to make a profit by selling products. But the Internet doesn't work this way. Unions need to focus on building a direct relationship with their members online, a relationship of trust, where a member knows that any product or service offered through the union website is supported by the union. They also know that unions are non-profit; any money made through commercial activities to put back into the organisation to improve member benefits. This deal gives no reassurance because unions don't have any right of veto over the companies endorsed to members through the Virtual Communities portal. In addition the structural flaws in the proposal there are many unattractive elements in the detail of the contract:
In short all responsible unionists should be concerned about what this deal represents. It is a misguided attempt to trade union loyalty for a commodity which the market will shortly deliver anyway - that is computers and Internet access. This deal is the result of industrial age thinking projected into the information age - an obsession with the tangibles when the real value lies in the relationships, the loyalty of members and the network. Worse still it will devalue these important assets. It should not go ahead.
|
Interview: His Daily Fix Graham Richardson talks of his transition from national politics to talkback radio and his ongoing jobs as a fixer. Politics: Requiem to the Third Way The swing to Labor in Victoria shows clearly that once again Australian voters have rejected economic rationalism. The result, and the reasons for it, should worry John Howard. International: A Common Struggle for Freedom It may not get the headlines, but Western Sahara has some chilling similarities with East Timor. Unions: Woolscour Workers say No to Peter Reith Workers at Canobolas Wooltopping - a woolscour plant near Orange, in central west New South Wales, have just sent a message to Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith: thanks, but no thanks. Legal: Outlawed Acts of Consicence The recent boycotts in support of East Timorese indepndence highlights the extremism of Reith's second wave. History: Was Manning Clark A True Believer A Canberra history conference shines the spotlight on Australia's most famous historian. Review: Paranoid Echoes The calls to examine the Australian�Soviet documents in the Moscow Literary archives have grown in volume over the past year. Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre The latest issue of Labour Review - a resource for officals and students. Satire: Kennett Boosts Chances: Two More Independents Dead Caretaker Premier Jeff Kennett today admitted that voters perceived him as arrogant and out of touch, but insisted that they were wrong.
Notice Board View entire latest issue
|
© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/32/c_tradeshall_vizard.htmlLast Modified: 15 Nov 2005 [ Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Credits ] LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW |