United action can stop anti-union laws

PM John Howard’s top priority after winning control of the Senate is to attack Australian workers and their unions. He has introduced a wave of legislation that will, if passed, severely restrict workers’ rights.

This legislation will:

* Remove unfair dismissal protection protection for 60% of workers.

* Abolish state awards and strip conditions from federal awards such as redundancy pay, penalty rates and long-service leave.

* Introduce secret ballots before industrial action.

* Make it easier for employers to impose individual contracts on workers.

* End pattern bargaining.

* Restrict the democratic right of workers to have their union representatives visit them in their workplaces.

* Remove redundancy payment rights for workers in small businesses.

* Restrict the right to take protected industrial action for health, education, community service, and other essential service workers.

* Specifically attack construction industry union rights and leave construction workers with less rights than other workers.

If Howard gets away with these attacks, all workers will be worse off, not just those in unions. In New Zealand, similar laws were passed in 1991. Since then, despite a growing economy, workers’ real wages have declined by up to 30%.

Howard may appear to be in a strong position after winning control of the Senate, but many of those who voted for him did so in the mistaken belief that he could guarantee a strong economy and would not take more rights and social gains away from working people. Most Australians also want an end to the indefinite detention of refugees and are opposed to sending more troops to Iraq. So a campaign against the new attacks can draw on broad opposition to the Howard government.

Strong and united action by trade unions, with community support, can force the Howard government to back down. For example, similar anti-union laws were scrapped after mass protests and industrial action in 1999 following the union-busting attacks on waterside workers in 1998.

In Victoria, a mass delegates’ meeting voted for general strike action and a mass protest rally on June 30, the day before the Liberal-National Coalition takes control of the Senate. Victorian unions have called on unions in other states to take similar action on June 30. Such action across Australia can defeat Howard’s anti-union laws.

Socialist Alliance is campaigning for mass delegates’ meetings to endorse nationwide strike action on June 30. We want to unite with anyone who wants to fight these anti-worker laws.

With the Howard government also threatening the basic rights of people on disability and supporting parent pensions, Aborigines, refugees and others, it would make a very powerful statement if all people who are being targeted by the Howard government mobilised in support of the union movement on June 30.

Often the union movement is relied upon as the last line of defence in many non-industrial campaigns. If the Howard government is allowed to get away with weakening unions, it will have an impact on all campaigns, not just workers’ union rights.

All working people and their families and communities will be worse off if Howard gets away with these attacks. Now more than ever, we need a party that consistently supports workers against these attacks and goes beyond the Labor Party’s half-hearted opposition. The Socialist Alliance is working towards building such a party.

The Socialist Alliance will be organising contingents in the May Day marches and rallies that which call for united, nationwide strike action and rallies against Howard’s anti-union laws. We urge you to join these contingents and to attend our meetings of trade unionists building this campaign.

To get in touch with your local Socialist Alliance trade union network, contact author or phone (02) 9690 2508 or (03) 9663 7429.

Sue Bolton

[Sue Bolton is a convenor of the Socialist Alliance national trade union coordinating committee.]

From Green Left Weekly, April 13, 2005.