Leading unionists have welcomed federal ALP leader Kim Beazley’s pledge on June 11 that the party would abolish Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) if it wins the next federal election.
While applauding the pledge, many unionists recognise that it was the result of mass pressure exerted by the union and community campaign against the Coalition government’s Work Choices legislation. “There’s no doubt it is a victory for the campaign”, Chris Spindler, a metals division organiser for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in Victoria, told Green Left Weekly. “It was one of the points that Labor was having difficulties swallowing, that individual contracts are one of the corner-pieces of Howard’s industrial relations legislation.”
Dick Williams, Queensland state secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), agreed. “They finally came out and confirmed [their opposition to AWAs], and now we’re slowly moving them towards putting in place a genuine policy for introducing a set of rights for workers that will go a hell of a long way to repairing the damage that Howard’s done with his legislation”, he told GLW.
These unionists are keen to see Labor now commit to a raft of industrial relations reforms before the next election. Andrew Ferguson, NSW state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, elaborated: “One is re-establishing the right to pursue unfair dismissals for the 4 million workers who lost that right under Work Choices. Also the removal of the restriction on unions’ right of entry ... the right to strike, in particular during collective bargaining rounds, the repeal of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill and the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the building industry task force, as key issues to help the right to organise.”
Chris Cain, Western Australian branch secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) told GLW that Labor should be going further, restoring all union rights lost in the decade of Howard government attacks. “The right to strike, unions’ right of entry, no limitation on what can be included in enterprise agreements, the right to engage in pattern or industry-wide bargaining — those are all critical issues for unions — plus a commitment to penalties, holiday loading, etc — all of those things need to be in awards and agreements”, he said. “I believe that if the ALP came out and said that they’re prepared to do that, they’d get a lot more support from people in the union movement.”
Derek Belan, NSW state secretary of the National Union of Workers, told GLW, “There needs to be changes overall in union rights and the right to collectively bargain. They need to be made rights in the act. I also think we should push industry-based bargaining. That’ll get rid of this nonsense about one boss being a good boss and another being a bad boss, because they’re all bad bosses, aren’t they?”
“They should commit to abolishing 45 D, E, F, G, H, I, J and whatever other 45s there are”, Belan continued, referring to the sections 45 D and E of the Trade Practices Act, which make solidarity action by unions (“secondary boycotts”) illegal. “They should commit to allow unions and workers to fight on an equal basis [with employers]. You can’t have one side with a shotgun and the other side with a water pistol, which has been the case since the [Prices and Incomes] Accord.”
Spindler was concerned about Labor’s silence on Work Choices’ attacks on trade unions. “While Labor is trying to gain some coin through changing the laws to allow people to maintain their conditions and strike a collective agreement, all that is totally intertwined with the ability of unions to organise”, he said. “The right to strike, trade union training, the right of entry of union officials, the collection of union dues, the penalties on unions if they step outside the system — these are part of Howard’s IR system as well. Are they still to exist, or are they to be ripped-up as well? It’s the question to ask the ALP.”
Unionists also remain concerned about Labor’s promises to allow “individual flexibility”, as ALP industrial relations spokesperson Stephen Smith put it on ABC radio’s AM on June 12. They were also generally dissatisfied with Unions NSW secretary John Robertson’s call in the June 13 Australian newspaper for Labor to enshrine a further 10 conditions on top of the five minimum conditions that Work Choices allows for in any workplace agreement.
Williams told GLW: “My union totally opposes any form of individual contracts, simple as that. When people start waffling on about whether an individual contract should have five, 10 or 20 minimum provisions, that’s not the issue. The issue is individualism versus collectivism.”
Spindler pointed out: “We want a collective approach in terms of seeking wages and conditions for our members, and workers more generally, because that is where our strength is greatest. If the ALP wants to maintain a basis of individual contracts in the face of that, it weakens its promise to get rid of AWAs.”
Williams told GLW that the Queensland ETU’s approach to the next federal election is to try to keep politicians accountable for their promises. “We want them to sign off on a pledge to the union, such as to scrap this current IR legislation, introduce a set of conditions in workplaces and [ensure] the right to take industrial action”, he explained. “We’re also very keen to have prospective parliamentary candidates sign off on the issue of workplace health and safety: delegates’ capacity to be able to stop production in a place where it is unsafe and not have to be guilty until proven innocent on that.”
Health and safety are also key concerns for the maritime industry, Cain said. “With these laws, a lot more people are going to be injured or killed on the job. Safety is going to go out the window, and wages and conditions with them. Bosses are going to get richer and richer.”
For Spindler, “If the union movement is intent on keeping the Labor Party to account, it can only do that through the continued mobilisation of its members and the campaign generally”, he explained. “Whoever is in government, Labor or Liberal, the campaign needs to continue to change any harsh IR laws that exist.”
The next major step in the union movement’s campaign against Work Choices is the June 28 national day of protest. Rallies and marches are being held around the country.