BY LINDA HARRIS AND DOUG COOPER
SYDNEY, Australia - Tens of thousands of workers across
Australia took to the streets during August to protest the
Liberal-National coalition government's proposed "second
wave" package of draconian antiunion legislation. Marches
and rallies called by the Australian Council of Trade
Unions were held in all states and territories.
The conservative government's proposed changes to its 1996 Workplace Relations Act would deepen the bosses' attacks on the right to strike and have union representation, make challenges by bosses to "illegal" strikes easier in the courts, strengthen the use of antiunion individual contracts, and prohibit the closed shop.
In the case of strikes, secret ballots overseen by the government's industrial tribunal would be required instead of the long-standing practice of a show of hands. The 1996 law made strikes illegal except during a bargaining period. Five days' notice, instead of the current three, would be required before taking strike action. Strike votes in pursuit of coordinated demands between workers in different enterprises would not be allowed. Wildcat strikes would be criminalized, with bosses automatically obtaining back-to-work orders.
Union organizers would only have the right to enter a workplace by written invitation signed by a member who had named the specific issue or grievance and would have to give 24 hours' written notice to the boss. The invitation would have a 28-day life.
The 1996 law sharply altered the federal "award system." The nearly 100-year-old system codifies minimum wages and a wide range of working conditions on an industry-by-industry basis. The awards, or contracts, are arbitrated by a supposedly neutral government-appointed tribunal, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The process of dismantling the awards began in the 1980s with Labor governments legislating for decentralized "enterprise bargaining" agreements.
The 1999 amendments will gut the award system. Existing awards would be further stripped down to a bare minimum, with workers having to bargain to get back existing entitlements such as job classification structures, long service leave, public holidays other than those decided by state governments, notice of termination, accident make-up pay, superannuation (pensions), and union representation for workers during the resolution of grievances.
While collective agreements remain possible, there would be no requirement that they cover all workers in an enterprise or a distinct section of a particular workforce. Nor would the commission review enterprise bargaining agreements to see if workers have become worse off as a result.
Workers take to streets
More than 10,000 union members marched August 11 in
Adelaide, South Australia, the biggest demonstration there
in six years. The Mitsubishi and Holden car plants were
closed down as 5,000 auto workers joined maritime workers,
drivers, and others on the rally.
The biggest turnout was in Melbourne, Victoria, where an estimated 80,000 workers marched through the center of the city. Maritime, metal, and construction workers, storemen (warehouse workers), teachers, and nurses downed tools in protest. Six other regional rallies drew thousands more workers from across Victoria.
The Melbourne rally was led off by a truck with a banner supporting the Oakdale coal miners. Some 125 miners from the Oakdale colliery southwest of Sydney were sacked May 25 when the company announced the pit was to be closed almost immediately. They were owed $6.3 million in redundancy or severance pay, which the company claimed there was no money to pay.
Some 20,000 coal miners, members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, held a 24-hour national strike August 13 in protest against the government's inaction over the Oakdale miners. Four days later a rescue package for the miners to cover their entitlements was announced.
Up to 10,000 workers rallied in Sydney on August 24. From immigrant women electronic assemblers to construction workers, retail shop employees, textile, and clothing workers, it was a broad cross-section of the workforce. Many sites closed for a day or a half-day as workers walked off in support of the campaign.
Paperworkers from Visy Industries, who had just waged a successful two-week strike and are still in negotiations, sent a delegation of about 20 to the rally.
At Southcorp Water Heaters, workers voted to strike and meet to travel together to the rally. Joe Farrugia, a shop- floor delegate, encouraged unionists to attend. "You have to go to really see what union power is," he said. Twenty workers, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union and the Australian Workers Union, marched together with a handmade placard saying, "Hands off our awards!"
Members of the Maritime Union of Australia shut down all the docks in Sydney by walking off the job for four hours. Hundreds joined the rally. Tony Wilson, a wharfie at Patrick at Port Botany, said, "I'm proud to be here. It's a great feeling of solidarity."
Rallies were also held in Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Darwin, Newcastle, and Canberra.
In a related development, the opposition Australian Labor Party and the government reached a deal August 24 to indefinitely maintain lower wages for workers under the age of 21. Top union officials initially complained of not being consulted. Joe de Bruyn, head of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union, threatened to review its relationship with the Labor Party, including financial support. About 100,000 of the union's 230,000 members are under 21.
The youth wage was inherited by the conservative government when it took office in 1996 after 13 years of Labor governments. Until now, specific pay rates for young workers were temporary and were reviewable on a case-by- case basis.
Doug Cooper is a member of the Maritime Union of Australia.