New youth union set up to beat IR laws
Taken from the website of The Age newspaper in Melbourne, theage.com.au
A new unregistered “union” targeting youth workers at fast food and retail companies such as McDonalds and Starbucks will circumvent the government’s industrial relations laws, organisers claim.
UNITE, which launched in Melbourne today and will begin recruiting members immediately, said it did not plan to register officially as a union and considered its status an advantage under new workplace laws.
UNITE secretary Anthony Main said the group would not be able to appear before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission but could act as a bargaining agent for its members and stage direct industrial action.
“A lot of the powers that the unions have been able to use in the industrial relations commission have been withdrawn,” Mr Main said.
“And what we think is that the best way to fight is on the ground, hitting the bosses at the point of production, letting them know that young workers are not going to put up with this super exploitation they have been faced with in fast food and retail.”
UNITE was set up as a lobby group in 2003, but has restructured in a manner “identical to a union”, Mr Main said.
But it was registered as a business so it could not be fined as a union, he said, adding the six serving individual executive members and paid organisers, all of which are 30 or under, were prepared to cop penalties on the chin.
Mr Main said UNITE would encourage staff to strike and maintain picket lines until their demands were met, even though their action would not be protected under legislation.
“We didn’t sign up for (the new IR laws), (and) we don’t necessarily feel that we need to adhere to them,” Mr Main said.
“If it’s going to be a situation where young people may have to go on strike and they may have to do it illegally, well, so be it.”
Mr Main said young retail and fast food workers did not have enough representation, in part because unions were on the back foot over the new workplace legislation and unable to engage in new recruitment drives.
He predicted UNITE would have thousands of members in 12 months time.
Some young workers received as little as $6 an hour, he said, and UNITE would campaign to abolish youth wages.
“Young people are very intimidated in the workplace - there is a lot of bullying and harassment going on in fast food and retail,” he said.
Mr Main said organisers would target potential members at schools, TAFEs, universities and outside workplaces, offering union fees among the cheapest in the country at $2 to $5 a week.
“We haven’t picked out any particular targets at this stage, but we will definitely be hitting up all companies including the likes of McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks,” he said.