
Issue No 45		10 March 2000

Trades Hall

The Final Tributes

As Jennie George's colleagues farewelled her, the suggestions for the future ranged ranged from a career in politics to her own mini-series.

Jennie has made not only an extraordinary contribution to public life but has been an active player in Australia's political scene for more than 30 years.

NAOMI STEER - Labor Council

In the coming weeks and indeed today, many stories of Jennie will be shared and tributes paid to her. Already one book has been written about her, as well as countless media articles.

"Jennie - the Mini Series"

No doubt it's only a question of time before we have "Jennie - the Mini Series". The big question of course is whom we would cast in her role. For a woman of so many parts one actress just simply wouldn't be enough .We would need an ensemble.

Rachel Griffiths would be perfect to portray Jennie the teenager - a bit quirky; a bit naughty and cheeky; sneaking out the back at school for a puff on her cigarette - a habit we know she still hasn't discarded.

Her revolutionary days as part of the Eureka Youth League have definite shades of Judy Davis in Children of the Revolution.

And what about Natasha? I think Meryl Streep for you. After all, she like you can speak 5 languages and she's pretty gorgeous too.

Opening Episodes

The opening episodes of our series would follow Jennie's mother and grandmother's flight from Russia through war torn Europe. Jennie's birth in a small Italian town and then finally, the family's early struggles in the migrants hostels in Sydney's outer west.

Ironically, when the family arrived in Melbourne they were greeted by a strike. Yes those wharfies were at it again and refused to unload their luggage. I doubt whether Natasha, Jennie's mum, would have ever imagined that her daughter would be leading those wharfies across the docks some 50 or so years later.

Now for Rachel there is plenty of juicy material to work with. Apparently Jennie was a promising ballerina and pianist until she became possessed by Beatle mania. And then worse! The Eureka Youth League!

My cinematic vision of the league is of all these fresh faced young girls and boys with napsacks on their backs and red scarves round their necks singing and toiling in the fields. Cathy Bloch however, assures me that the League was nothing so daggy, and that the League was simply a club for nice young people to get together and have a little fun like:

� hurling yourself in front of a moving cavalcades. Which is what Jennie did when she jumped in front of Lyndon B Johnson's car in 1966, as part of the anti-Vietnam protests; or

� getting yourself arrested. Which is what happened to Jennie when she ran out onto the Sydney Showground during the 1967 Sydney Royal Easter Show, carrying anti war placards just before a United States military band was about to play! (I bet it was Jennie who made all those anonymous calls to SOCOG over the foreign bands.)

Fortunately Jennie survived these adventures and before long she was on her way through the union ranks. Think Sally Fields in Norma Rae, with a dash of Bett Midler and Noni Hazlehurst thrown in. This is the period of Jennie's firsts. First woman to head the teachers' union as Secretary then president; first female Assistant Secretary of the ACTU; then in 1995, the first woman President.

The last 5 years have been on fast forward. Rio Tinto, Weipa, the MUA dispute - Jennie has been the public face of the trade union in all these campaigns.

She has been at the forefront of reconciliation, a mover and shaker on the republic and honoured as one of Australia's 100 living Treasures.

And all the while she has planed, trained, and automobiled her way across Australia, speaking to and inspiring thousands of workers. Honest, compassionate, articulate and tough - there is also a little of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Jennie. Time and time again she has managed to ward off the worst excesses of the Howard/Reith duo.

Jennie's mini series has still some way to go as we wait to find out what role she will take on next. Although we don't yet know where her story will take her, we can be sure that at its heart will be the same energy and passion and commitment to justice she has demonstrated all her life.

*****************

SAM MOAITT - President NSW Labor Council

It is hard to express the thrill that I felt in being asked to speak here today at this very special Women's celebration of Jennie George's work.

It is almost unthinkable that Jennie is leaving the ACTU, but I think we could safely say that Jennie will never leave the trade union community.

For me, Jennie is a fellow traveller, someone I have shared the road with and shared the load with; someone I have always admired.

I remember one time I saw Jennie speak at a rally at Wentworth Park - I think we were saving the NSW public service once again - and I listened to her and felt her passion and her power. When Jennie speaks like that she can pull people together better than anyone.

Jennie is a leader, but not one who always has to be in the spotlight. She has always been prepared to share. I have been on many joint exercises with Jennie where we have been lobbying in Macquarie Street or in Canberra. She will roll up her sleeves and give it all she's got. I don't think Jennie will ever be any different.

Two years ago, in the early days of the now almost hated Aged Care Act, Jennie joined forces with the nurses unions right across Australia under the banner of the ACTU and became our main spokesperson.

Jennie said to us quietly that this was not her forte, not in her area of expertise, but that didn't stop her. She was absolutely prepared to put our issue, the issue of good care for older Australians in nursing homes, right at the top of her agenda. I'm sure that the politicians who were lobbied by Jennie in that particular round were quite convinced that she knew the issue thoroughly.

Whether in Canberra, or Weipa, or on the back of a truck, on the docks in Sydney, Jennie has unequalled pulling power.

It has been said in the past, and I think it is fairly safe to say today, that the world of trade unions is often perceived as a male bastion, the boys club. Swanston Street or Sussex Street, no amount of Armani suits or Hugo Boss splash-on can dress up the fact that the boys still have the numbers.

This is not to say that we haven't come a long, long way since the 60s and 70s round of feminism in Australia. In those days when the words affirmative action brought a strange look on the fact of male colleagues, where talk of ensuring a percentage of places for women was laughed at. We have come to the point where, in my view, women, and in particular women like Jennie George, are the trade union leaders who are showing the way.

I was on the stage with Jennie in Melbourne when she was elected to the ACTU presidency and I have to say it was one of the most uplifting and exciting experiences of my life. Just being there with Jennie - and her mum - and experiencing the overwhelming warmth which was expressed by the Congress and the workers who had come to attend on the day, is something I will always treasure.

Jennie has never been a token woman - Jennie has never been a token anything. No-one in their right mind could ever think that and I think that Jennie has forged the way, pushed the pack, to help all of us in leadership positions in our unions and organisations realise that we can do it and also make us know that what we bring to these positions, that is what women bring, is something strong, worthwhile, something which will permanently change for the better the face of the union movement right across Australia.

Jennie threatens some men - and I venture to say, some women - but not the women here today. Those of us here today are here because of our terrific respect for Jennie, not just her public media reputation, but the wonderful woman that she is.

Jennie has always been able to see through a snow job. She likes people straight, she likes people to tell it the way it is. She says what she feels, she tells the truth.

I guess if I was writing a song for Jennie George, I would probably call it "Oh Lord it's Hard to be an Icon", but Jennie George is an icon. She is an icon for women, an icon for unionists and an icon for workers. No-one else could have been the public face of the MUA dispute and unified the people of Australia in absolute opposition to the bastardry of Patricks against the abuse of workers.

Jennie uses the word "collective" a lot, but I think Jennie shows that she almost owns that word. She shows us what collective truly means.

Of course, I have got a couple of special stories that no-one else can tell you about. It is a little known fact that Jennie George and I went to Burwood Girls High together. It was in the playground, between reading excerpts from our secret copy of East of Eden at lunchtime, and being late for our Business Principles class, that Jennie and I plotted our takeover of NSW unions. She said she would become a teacher and take over that union and I would go into nursing and take over that union, and pretty soon we would have the whole game tied up.

No, to be honest, that didn't happened, but I can tell you that Jennie George did lead the now famous walk out of Burwood Girls High students over the issue of the extremely poor quality of cream buns in the tuckshop. Jennie and I have always been partial to something sweet.

I just have to say I have loved working with Jennie and I look forward to continuing my working relationship and friendship with her. I know that all of us here today are here to celebrate Jennie's wonderful contribution to Australian trade unions.

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 45 contents

Interview: Working Women
Nareen Young talks about how services are being delivered to our most vulnerable workers - and what unions need to do to make them their own.

Unions: Into the New Frontier
IT professionals are part of the new workforce that unions need to win over - and while they are often contractors, they're workers too.

History: Handling The Ladies
1943 - women were filling the gap in the workforce left by the diggers abroad and Australian managers needed some advice on how to deal with these strange creatures.

Technology: Building The Hypermacho Man
In a stinging critque of the �Wired� culture, Melanie Stewart Miller argues digital cultural is creating a new super-Man.

International: The Long March Home
Trade union women round the world used International Women�s Day to launch the World March of Women Against Poverty and Violence.

Satire: Kerosene Dilution Racket
The nursing home industry has been rocked by a new scandal with the revelation that some unscrupulous proprietors have been diluting their patients� kerosene baths with illicit liquids.

Review: Power and the Back Bar
In an upcoming book, Julia Gillard argues the ALP retains a male culture that is fast losing step with contemporary society.

» Services Threatened Over Olympic Bonus

» Games Edict: Dance for Free

» Revealed: Secret State Transit Corporatisation Plans

» Women Demand Better Pay from Faye

» Telstra, Banks Whack Rural Australia

» Casuals Inquiry Still On Union Agenda

» Shaw, Sams Pay Tribute to John Whelan

» Teachers� Website Mysteriously Blocked

» Cash Bonus for Bilingual Workers

» Women Demand Better Pay from Faye

» Shareholders Push Global Action

» Fair Wear Conquers Schools

» TWU Calls on Workers to Steer Clear of Woolworths

» Push to Strike Out Parrish Directors