Action is needed to protect our rights at work
It seems that as the days go on we are seeing more and more cases of workers being forced on to dodgy individual contracts that slash wages and conditions. The frequency and severity of these cases is frightful. But the few stories that are being reported in the capitalist press are just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more workers will be ‘offered’ these agreements as the months go on.
By Antony Alder, UNITE Organiser
The case at Cowra abattoir in NSW where workers were sacked and then rehired under inferior conditions, leaving them around $200 per week out of pocket, has been recently ruled legal and above board according to the new laws. In WA, construction workers have for the first time under the new legislation been fined up to $28,000 for taking industrial action after the sacking of a shop steward.
Despite all this the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) are not moving to step up the campaign. At this stage they are failing to take a lead or give any viable programme as to the way forward. The only call so far has been to put the ALP in power at the next election, this falls way short of an answer to the situation workers are facing right now.
Kim Beazley, just prior to the June 28 mass demonstration against the IR laws, announced he would scrap AWAs if the ALP is elected in 2008. The protests of big business shortly after led Beazley to quickly try and assure them he was not a threat to their profits. The announcement to scrap AWAs is to be welcomed but the track record of the ALP shows time and time again that the word of the ALP is not something workers can afford to rely upon.
The actions of Labor at a state level and federally in the past show the ALP is more aligned to the interests of big business than it is to workers. There are absolutely no guarantees that Labor will even be elected let alone gain the required control of both houses of parliament to make good their promises.
The ALP is wedded to big business. Any new IR legislation they might bring in at a future date will more than likely be a similar version of the same thing. It will not mean that workers will get back the conditions that have been lost under Howard. Howard’s IR legislation needs to be defeated right now; workers can’t afford to wait for the off chance of an ALP victory at a distant election.
The campaign against these laws needs to move to the next level. The series of demonstrations have been a fantastic show of strength and more importantly show that workers are ready to fight. What is needed as a next step is industrial action in the form of a 24 hour General strike. The bosses will only listen to one thing – that is when we hit them in the hip pocket.
As well as campaigning against the rotten conditions that fast food and retail works face, UNITE will argue within the union movement for more action to be taken against Howard’s IR laws.