BY SUE BULL
MELBOURNE — Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) metal division stewards arrived from all over Victoria to discuss their next enterprise bargaining campaign on November 14. Over 250 stewards gave unanimous support to a three-year claim with a common expiry date in March 2006.
The meeting was opened by acting assistant secretary Steve Dargavel, who explained that the enterprise bargaining campaign in 2000 had been a fantastic success, and projected that the 2003 campaign would consolidate its gains. He said that one of the major problems has been the lack of unity around the expiry date of new agreements. It appears that the AMWU national office is considering a two-year campaign and the Australian Workers Union, the other major manufacturing union, also wants two years.
A common expiry date allows for simultaneous industry-wide campaigns to be run when the agreements expire, maximising unions' strength.
Dargavel said that surveys of Victorian stewards had shown that the majority supported a three-year agreement. Also it was his belief that more conditions could be packaged into a longer agreement and that it made it harder for bosses to break the common expiry date. He noted that other unions and branches within the AMWU need to be encouraged to go for the same expiry date as Victoria.
Dargavel also pointed out that the vast majority of the campaign would be fought out in Victoria, where the 2000 industry-wide campaign had ensured that around 1000 agreements would be expiring together in 2003. In other states, industry-wide campaigns, run in 2001, had not been so successful. So in Queensland about 82 agreements were expiring together, in NSW, 248, in South Australia, 50, but the numbers in other states were negligible.
Dargavel noted that the reason why Victoria had been so successful was due to its sensible objectives. He then said, "I also want to recognise brother Craig Johnston, who was in no small part responsible for the success of Campaign 2000". There was huge applause at this stage as Johnston was sitting in the meeting. Johnston resigned from the state secretary position in August, under attack from the AMWU national office. He now refers to himself as "an unemployed member",
The draft claim sets out to consolidate some of the key gains of Campaign 2000, such as income protection for sick or injured workers, long-service leave, trade-union training and tightened regulation of casuals and contractors.
It also includes the following demands: no trade offs, pay increases of 6% for each of three years, a 36-hour week and controls on non-voluntary overtime, industry-wide portability of long-service leave, a ratio of one apprentice per five tradespersons, introduction of bargaining agents' fees, 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, two weeks of paid paternity leave and no forced redundancies.
The protection of entitlements, particularly redundancy payments, is especially important in this time of frequent bankruptcies. The AMWU will demand that existing entitlements are secured by a union-approved mechanism such as a bank guarantee or bond; that accruing annual leave and long service leave is held separately from the employer in a union-endorsed fund such as the revamped Manusafe, the National Entitlement Security Trust (NEST); and that employers pay superannuation on a monthly basis.
After Dargarvel had outlined the proposal, acting state secretary Dave Oliver addressed the meeting. He pointed out that the recent National Forge dispute, in which AMWU members nearly lost most of their entitlements, emphasised the importance of securing these.
Oliver encouraged the stewards to consider the demands around NEST very carefully. He said that it was common throughout the industry for employees to be moved into companies that have no assets, so that when the companies go "belly up" the employees get nothing. "The employers are using your money as an interest free loan", he said.
In the discussion that followed many stewards stressed the need for state-wide mass meetings and actions if necessary to back up their claims. One wanted to know what would happen if the national AMWU refused to come behind a three-year agreement, especially if the Victorians stuck to their claim. Dargavel responded by explaining that the national conference had decided on a three-year agreement, and that a common expiry date nationally was really the most important issue. He added they would "fight the good fight", if the national office refused to change its mind.
Following this meeting, stewards and organisers will seek endorsement of the proposed claims at mass meetings in their workplaces.
From Green Left Weekly, November 20, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.