Work Choices: We can stop Howard and pressure Labor

Nick Fredman

People who know me will agree I’m an unassuming and moderate person who doesn’t like bad language. So I was shocked to hear that at a meeting of teacher unionists in Kempsey on June 21, Andrew Stoner, leader of the NSW Nationals, had called Kevin Andrews, federal industrial relations minister, a dickhead.

Stoner, perhaps living up to his name, has apparently been a bit vague about Work Choices, and didn’t realise until he attended this meeting that individual contracts could now cut out virtually all conditions in awards. He was so shocked, he declared the laws unfair and Andrews a dickhead. (By extension, he must mean that all the Liberal and National party members who agree with these laws are also dickheads.)

The point, of course, is that our campaign is having a big impact. In particular, it is hitting the National Party hard. Many ordinary working people have been duped into thinking Howard is good at running an economy because he had the good luck to be PM during a global boom. Many ordinary people in the regions have been duped for a long time into thinking the National Party gives a toss about them. Many are now seeing which side the Coalition is really on, and people like Stoner are getting a bit worried.

So we’re having an impact — but we have to keep up the pressure. It’s good that the ACTU has called further days of action in November and next April, but the rallies have been too long apart to keep up the momentum, and the union leaderships have been a bit timid about industrial action.

We’ve all seen numerous stories about how the bosses have taken the gloves off, and we need to think about upping the ante too. We need to name and shame the bosses using these laws, organise pickets and have coordinated strike action on these protest days to maximise the impact. If laws are unjust, they deserve to be broken.

We need to keep up the pressure on the Labor Party too. It’s good that Kim Beazley has made a clear statement against AWAs. In fact, it’s good he’s been clear about something at all. But he also needs to be clear about abolishing all of Howard’s attacks, including the outrageous harassment of building workers, the attacks on the right of entry and the right to organise, and the so-called Fair Pay Commission (the wage-cutting commission).

Beazley needs to be clear about reversing the moves to force workers to become supposed self-employed contractors with no conditions at all; he needs to promise to scrap the welfare-to-work laws aimed at forcing people on benefits into crap jobs, and he needs to be clear that overseas guest workers are very welcome and that they must get the same wages and conditions as everyone.

I sincerely hope that Beazley finally wins an election, and that my friend and comrade Isaac Smith [ALP candidate for the federal seat of Page] kicks out the odious Ian Causley [National Party member for Page]. But we need to make sure a Beazley government doesn’t chuck out all its good promises, like Bob Hawke did. In fact, we really need a political alternative that can consistently stand up for workers and ordinary people.

I urge everyone to continue being part of the campaign, because if we’re united and strong, we can win.

[Nick Fredman is the branch secretary of the National Tertiary and Education Union at Southern Cross University and an NTEU national councillor. This is a slightly edited version of a speech he gave, on behalf of the Socialist Alliance, to the June 28 national day of protest against Work Choices in Lismore.]

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