
Issue No 86		02 March 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

The Soapbox

Rowan Cahill: A Fistful of Rupees

The plight of the Indian temple workers campaign is a poignant symbol of what's at risk as the campaign against BHP's outsourcing plans for Port Kembla maintenance and protective services operations gathers momentum.

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On Monday combined steel union delegates endorsed a campaign of coordinated rolling stoppages. Protective services and tin mill workers walked off the job on Tuesday for 24 hours.

During the past fortnight BHP's American talking heads have had interesting things to say about BHP steelworkers and their future.

The evangelical looking BHP Steel President, Kirby Adams, explained to the Illawarra Mercury (February 22) that his job is to raise BHP shareholder returns to the double digits, instead of the present "savings account" level. This will necessitate "a new approach" to how things are done at BHP.

So far as the workers are concerned, they have increased productivity, and been trying new approaches, for the best part of a decade at least. Many now believe the new approach being talked about is the old reduction of wages and conditions, and deunionisation, strategy. History demonstrates outsourcing is the tool used to achieve this.

Perhaps BHP's American bosses have in mind for their workers something along the line of the third world conditions of Indian nationals discovered on a nearby Helensburgh construction site on Monday.

Acting on a tip-off a union team, including CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson, NSW Labor Council deputy assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou, and South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris, raided a Hindu temple construction site.

They found eight Indian workers, appallingly ensconced in small, possibly unhealthy, site-sheds, earning a pittance.

It is understood the men had been living and working on the site for three years, toiling for $45 per month, and $100 per week in Indian rupees, under the working visa programme.

Third world conditions indeed, but not the Australian way since the advent of trade unionism; unless of course persistent and vague demands for Australian workers to become globally competitive means this is the sort of future neoliberal enthusiasts really have in mind.

As Kirby Adams explains, BHP workers have to ensure that Australian steel remains globally competitive no matter what happens to the Australian dollar.

The logic and implication of this sort of turbo-capitalist bullshit is that Australian workers have to compare and match themselves with steel being produced by exploited labour in countries where worker welfare hardly gets a look in.

Maybe the Americans at BHP would be happy if the Port Kembla workers took to the site-shed lifestyle, and a handful of rupees? But as the Wobblies used to argue about the trenches during World War 1, "bosses first".

Following discussions the Indian workers left the Helensburgh construction site, and enjoyed two nights free in the upmarket Novotel Northbeach, courtesy of the Hotel management, and the involvement of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, and the NSW Labor Council. The future of the Indian workers is now the subject of discussions between politicians and unions.

Describing the industrial situation of the Indian workers as a "slave labour scam", South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris explained to the thick and ugly, that just because the wages and conditions of the workers were on a par with the situation back home, "doesn't make it okay here".

The American talking heads at BHP should take note.

Rowan Cahill is Workers Online's Picket Correspondent. He is currently editting an account of the Joy Dispute which will be published later this year.

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Issue 86 contents

Interview: Master of Opposition
Over the past five years, John Faulkner has turned the Senates Estimates structure into his own House of Pain. He explains the art of Opposition.

Politics: Beazley the Bridge Builder?
As the Howard Government flounders, Brett Evans looks at the challenges Kim Beazley faces as his hour of destiny approaches.

Unions: Lashing & Loathing at Patricks
Three years since one of the Howard Governmentï¿½s most infamous episodes, the Waterfront War, Zoe Reynolds discovers how casuals are now doing the doing the dirty work on the docks.

Legal: Workers Without Rights
Mark Morey outlines the legal status and (lack of) rights for foreigners in Australia on working visas.

International: Dispatch from the Dispossessed
Mahendra Chaudhry, Leader of the People's Coalition and the Fiji Labour Party comments on this weekï¿½s court decision.

Economics: Business Power and Mobility
The US election season makes it patently clear how Big Business is able to transform its financial resources into political power via campaigncontributions.

History: The Spoilers and the Split
The Movement, Groupers, the DLP and The Doc. All have been blamed in various ways for the ALP split in the 1950s, ensuring the ALP was kept out of federal government until 1972. Can One Nation return the favour?

Review: The New Hard Politics
Dennis Glover argues that policy has taken over from spin as the political battleground of the new century.

Satire: Bradman Latest: Family In Dramatic Court Action
The family of the late Sir Donald Bradman yesterday sought a restraining order against Prime Minister John Howard after it became apparent that he wants to be involved in every single detail of the The Don's funeral.

» StoneTemple Pirate Outrage Hits Canberra

» Five Star Exploitation at Regent

» Workers Say: We Deserve Better

» Carr Called on Ten Year Temps

» National Textiles Workers Struggling 12 Months On

» MUA Prosecutes Patrick for Crippling Workers

» Test Case: Is Redundancy a Universal Right?

» Who Pays for the Public Works?

» Seven-day Strike at Five BHP Mines

» Chubb Cuts Place Security Guards at Risk

» Vic Employers Support New IR Laws

» Lock-Out Tactics Poison Neighbourhood

» Shangri-La: Lawyers Take Over from Thugs

» Daewoo Workers See The Ugly Face Of Globalisation

» Labour Wings to Meet in Macquarie Street

» Costa Kisses the Rings

» Meat Workers Dropped from the Queue for Q Fever Vaccine

» Activists Notebook