F E A T U R E S

Interview: Taking Stock
Labor Council secretary John Robertson reflects on 2002 and outlines the challenges for the year to come.

Bad Boss: Pushing the Envelope
Ongoing and resolute commitment to principles advanced by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott have seen Australia Post make history as the first recipient of the Tony Award, recognising Australia's worst employer.

Unions: The Year That Was
From Cole�s witch-hunt to funky union tunes, Peter Lewis reviews the biggest stories from the world of work in 2002.

Republic: Still Fighting
Three years since the constitutional referendum, and despite constant reports of its impending demise, the Australian Republican Movement is still around and active

International: Global Ties, Global Binds
Labourstart's Eric Lee files his annual wrap-up of the year from an international perspective.

Politics: Turning Green
Union support for the ALP is no longer a given, with trade unionists turning to the Greens, as Jim Marr reports.

Technology: Unions Online 2002
Social Change Online's Mark McGrath looks at what worked best for unions online in 2002.

Industrial: The Past Is Before Us
Neale Towart argues that 2003 will be a year where traditional industrial campaigns come back into fashion.

Economics: Market Insecurity
Sydney University�s Frank Stilwell looks back at 2002 from a political economist�s perspective.

Review: Shooting for Sanity
Michael Moore's new movie Bowling for Columbine looks at America's love affair with guns, writes Mark Hebblewhite

Poetry: The PM's Christmas Message
Workers Online has secretly obtained an advance copy of the text of the Address to the Nation that the Prime Minister plans to make. We reproduce the text below.

Culture: Zanger's Sounds of Summer
If 2001-02 was the summer of political and musical terror then this summer 2002-03 is where irreverent Aussie music runs rife.

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Tread Carefully - Very Carefully
Nick Housten argues that structural weaknesses could keep federal Labor in Opposition for many years to come.

The Locker Room
A Year Of Two Halves
It was one of those years. It started with a lot of sport and it ended with a lot of sport. Noel Hester and Peter Moss check the runes and dish out the gongs in this year�s Workers Online Sports Awards.

Bosswatch
Footloose Capital
It was a year where the corporate world finally came close to consuming itself with bloated salaries, off the wall options and a string of mega-collapses

Predictions
Into the Beyond
Every year we ask our readers to gaze into the crystal ball. While history shows the view is mirky, we�ve don it again.

E D I T O R I A L

Terror Australis
When the historians get down to chronicling 2002 their analysis will read simply: the Bali bombing brought the new era of terror home to Australians and heightened our feelings of insecurity and fear at our ill-defined place in the world.

N E W S

Abbott Gears For Grocon Stoush

Delo Brushes Taubmans Pay Off

Restaurateur Takes Knife to Wages Protection

Legal Double Whammy to End Year

We�re Dreaming of a Sweat-Free Christmas

Star Organiser Takes Off

Abbott's Xmas Message: Go To Jail

Nurses Perform Wage Surgery

Woolies Discount Spirit of Christmas

New Collapses Prove Entitlements Farce

Suncorp Ballot Draws Fire

Unions On Big Day Out

UN Migrant Worker Charter Welcomed

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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Taking Stock

Interview with Peter Lewis

Last year you said that your main ambition for 2002 was for the Labor Council become more strategic in its campaigning. How successful has the Labor Council been in that regard?

I think we have moved forward. I don't think we have come as far as I would have liked. Some of the things we have done continue to be reactionary rather than strategic in terms of how we have developed those campaigns, but at the end of the year certainly internally, I think we are now very focussed to drive reform in our affiliates by campaigning with them on issues that matter to their members.

What are the barriers to a peak council being out there on the front ?

One of them is our affiliates' expectations that if they have got a dispute we get dragged in. That inevitably makes us reactionary. Next year, though, we plan to be more strategic, identifying the industries that we want to focus on support those affiliates being more proactive in some of the campaigns that they run. That said, we will continue to deal with the disputes that arise from time to time; we will continue to run State Wage cases and other important test cases.

What particular industries are you looking for action in next year?

We have identified local government; we have identified the IT area; we are obviously looking in building and construction, continuing on the work that has been done this year. Also we are looking private sector mail houses. Obviously if we can see growth in those areas - some of those have been traditionally non-union - I think that we can see a continued growth in union numbers.

The numbers were up this year. Do you think that is something that will continue or was that an aberration that you don't want to be judged on in the future?

Well, it is the second year that real numbers have grown in NSW. I would like to think it is because what unions are doing is actually starting to resonate. The risk, as indeed you say, if you say yes, we are growing and we are going to continue, and the next set of stats coming up and you haven't, then you have set yourself up for failure. But nonetheless it is always positive to have seen growth. I am hopeful that it will continue and certainly the activities of the Council next year will be very much focussed on continuing the growth that we have seen over the last two years.

The big date on the calendar in the short term is the State Election in March. How has the relationship between the Labor Council and the Government changed since the Workers Comp dispute 18 months ago?

It has changed to the extent that we are talking. We have been getting some things achieved in the industrial relations area. Some of the reforms that we have seen have moved forward. I don't think we have got nearly as much as we would have liked through that process, and I am very much focussed in the lead up to the election, on ensuring that on the assumption that Carr is re-elected, that we are going to be able to get some more of our agenda up than has been the case in the last term.

Is there a change in the way that Labor Council does business with the Government that reflects the change, from top down unionism out in individual industries? Is it harder just to go and deliver a deal at the table without having the activity underneath to back up a campaign?

What we have to do is campaign. Because you are right, you cannot get issues up with the Government unless there is some momentum out there on the ground, and I think that is one of the key things that I have realised in the last 12 months. The Government won't move if there is no pressure out there on the ground, so one of the things has got to be that we start the campaign around the issues that we think are important, and demonstrate to them that there is real feeling out there on the ground.

The other challenge for us next year is going to be talking to the MPs s where we invite the MPs in and explain to them how the trade union movement has changed; what we are doing; how we operate; why we aren't what we once were; and why some of the issues that we push, or how we campaign for issues, has changed. I don't think they understand the changes that the trade union movement has gone through. I think that has been demonstrated through a number of things that we have seen during the year - the most recent one obviously being the 60 : 40 debate that we had in the middle of the year in Canberra at the ALP National Conference. Those things demonstrate that the pollies really don't understand how we have changed. That issues are not being dealt with from the top down perspective. We have got to get in there and actually educate them on the changes to reforms and how we have changed.

Does it concern you that with one of the bigger campaigns that Labor Council has been running over the last few months - trying to get Councils to sign up to a Memorandum of Understanding - you have actually got councils that are run by mayors who are becoming Labor Party candidates, who won't cut the deal; won't talk turkey; won't even on some occasions meet with the Labor Council?

It is worrying, but I think it just reinforces in my mind the fact that we have got to go out there are enter a dialogue. It is up to us to be out there educating the mayors and their employees on what the trade union movement is all about. Why these things are important; why things have changed. It is disturbing but only in the sense that they haven't grasped what we are about. I think the onus is on us to go out there and do that. We can't expect in this day and age just to turn up and have them just say yes for the sake of saying yes if we haven't explained to them what we are about.

But if you have got Labor mayors that can't see the merits of an argument against contracting out and undercutting wages, does it surprise you that more and more unions are looking to the Greens as a political alternative?

I don't know how many are looking to the Greens. I know that there are a couple, but I think they are in the minority. I guess to a certain extent there is a level of frustration there and that's why you see them as moving towards the Greens. But again I think it comes back to the trade union movement. I mean we've dropped the ball. We have dropped the ball within the Party over the years and we have dropped the ball in terms of one-on-one arguing with MPs. As a result of that we have lost touch. We have lost that affinity with them and they have lost it with us.

They are not clear on what our agenda is and why we are running these issues, and at the end of the day I think that is our responsibility and that is why one of the key things the Council will do next year, is actually be running these programs where we will be talking with MPs and be working with the ALP Head Office to talk to potential candidates and Party members about what we are doing, where we are at, and what some of the key issues are for us, and why we are campaigning on some of the significant issues.

What is your take on Simon Crean's comments last week at the National Press Club, that the Liberals were the party of the Right, the Greens the party of the Left and Labor stands at the centre? That is a fairly significant shift in orientation I would have thought?

Well it is and that might be Simon Crean's view, I don't know that that is necessarily a view that would be shared. It is not a view that I share as a Party member, and frankly I doubt if it would be a view that is shared by most of the rank and file within the Party. I think it is probably a view that most of the politicians hold because they see that is the basis upon which it is easiest to get elected.

I think getting elected at a federal level is not going to be that easy for Labor, and just saying it is the party of the Centre is not going to do it. You have got to have policies of substance. You have actually got to be up there and be prepared to debate and engage the community on issues that you argue are important. They are obviously not out there engaging the community. They are not engaging branch members on these issues so they are not resonating. So frankly, standing up and saying to the Party is of the Centre isn't going to get you elected. You have got to stand up for things that matter to people.

There is a vacuum out there. People don't see either of the major political parties representing their interests, and I think that ought to be disturbing for both the major political parties. At the same time I have to say it is another one of the opportunities that presents itself to the trade union movement. There is a vacuum out there that is not being filled where people want somebody out there agitating on the issues that are important to us, and I think that is a great opportunity for the trade union movement, and certainly one that we will be taking up next year. We will be going out there and agitating on some of the other key issues that are important to people in the community.

We are not going to allow ourselves to continue to be pigeon-holed and told you can only participate in work related matters. The fact is that we have a capacity and the resources to go out there and agitate on a range of issues, that still impact on our members, even though it might not be in the workplace, but impacts on their lifestyle and the quality of life that they have outside of work. They are also areas in which we have a legitimate role to play, and we are going to step up to the gate and actually start to play a role in some of those areas.

The refugee issue is the most obvious case where it was the affiliated unions and the rank and file effectively creating a block on the other side of the parliamentary wing. Almost the outsiders/insiders divide. Is this something you see may be will equate with the traditional left/right divide over the coming years?

I think that is the key to moving forward. We have got to get to a point where people deal with issues based on the merit of those issues and on the merits of the arguments that are advanced, rather than because you happen to be in one tribe and the leader of that tribe says vote this way, you vote in a particular fashion. I think that it is one of the problems still confronting the union movement, although to a lesser extent in the Party. From a union perspective I frankly don't know the difference between Left and Right these days, and it is just completely irrelevant. I think in terms of union membership, the vast majority of union members either don't care about Left or Right politics or don't even know what it means, and frankly with the collapse of the Eastern Bloc I don't know what it means anymore either. I think it is irrelevant. I think the real challenge for us is to get out there running issues based on the merits of those issues. Supporting issues based on the arguments that are advanced, not based on some outdated ideology that failed almost globally, and just start worrying about what workers want and what is important to them. And I think there are sufficient issues out there that we can be more focussed on than worrying about those Cold War ideologies.

Finally, what are your benchmarks for success in 2003?

Well, I set myself up for failures, but I would say continued growth in numbers in NSW. I think that's very important and I think that will be one of the key things that we are focussed on. Some of the other things I think will be the Council itself running a number of successful campaigns with our affiliates, in terms of getting them more focussed on getting out and campaigning on issues that resonate with their members or their potential members. I would like to think that we will have run a series of educational forums for Labor MPs next year. I think that if we can do some of those things and run some campaigns - that I suspect will make significant inroads in ensuring that we continue as a vibrant union movement in NSW.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005