Nico Leka, Newcastle
Jamie Storer, Rod Baker and Adam Burgoyne are Boeing F/A-18 Hornet maintenance specialists. Together with 24 colleagues, they have been on strike for more than 150 days at the Williamtown airbase for simply demanding to be allowed to negotiate a collective agreement.
The Boeing workers are Australia's front-line defence against the enemy — the real sting in the Hornets' nest. As they told me on October 31, if John Howard gets his way with his new workplace laws, their plight will become all of ours. I asked them what we need to learn from their struggle, and they replied: be prepared to be lied to.
"You assume when you sign a contract you're signing to accept the job. It took me two years to realise I was getting screwed. It's written in the contract — throughout the contract — that Boeing reserves the right to change the conditions at their discretion and Boeing doesn't deny this", said Baker. He gave the following example of how the company changes conditions. "[Boeing] used to offer five days bereavement leave to relocated employees in place of the normal three days offered to locals. We recently found out they had reduced it to three without telling us.
"I'm an expert in fixing undercarriages; I can fit a radar and modify equipment on a Hornet. But I am not an expert on contracts. Are you? When you sign a contract, what do you look for?", asked Baker.
I thought about it for a moment, and replied, "Where to sign?"
"That's right. I thought it would have been a standard contract under industrial law. They didn't tell me it was a contract under common law. So there was no testing of it for 'disadvantage'. And they've been doing that for the past three-and-a-half years. If they can do this now, what will they be able to get away with when the new industrial relations laws come in?"
Lesson two is about choice. But who has the right to choose?
"We're settled here", said Storer. "We've built houses. Our wives and kids have jobs, friends and schools here. We have specialised skills, we're dedicated. Why should we be forced to give up living in a place where we have decided to settle, give away our skills and our dedication, go somewhere else, find another job just because the employer refuses to negotiate?
"We want a collective agreement. That's something that even Howard has promised employees will have a right to ask for under the new legislation. Yet Boeing refusse even to conduct a secret ballot about it. That's because they're afraid 95% of the workers will want a collective agreement."
Lesson three is also about choice — choosing to be courageous and principled citizens.
"Tell me, if it was to happen to you, would you decide to go out on strike and lose your pay? We decided that it was not about us, it was about the sort of future our kids would face. If this new legislation gets in, then one day in the future, our kids will ask us what did we do to try and stop it. At least we'll be able to say we tried hard", said Burgoyne.
"But there are going to be many other people who have done nothing. They'll regret it then; they'll wish they had got off their arse and had done something. Maybe they're thinking it's not going to happen to them", he added.
"Howard and his cronies are clever — they won't do it all at once. They go round, pick a site here, pick a site there, and do it bit by bit. And even if you've got a good employer, one who is happy with the award system, what happens if the next employer takes full advantage of this new IR system to undercut prices? Then it's either go under, or screw the worker", said Storer.
"For us, it's not about the money. It's about our kids, and your kids, and their future."
The cost of these lessons is dear.
"We've had to sell off assets. When there's no pay coming in, direct debit doesn't work. So we've had to restructure our finances. Even with a health care card, no doctor in this area bulk bills anymore. So a visit to the doctor is $45 up-front", said Baker.
"Without wages, the fuel to drive in here to do a shift on the picket becomes expensive. The support from the local community and the unions is just fantastic, but the days can be very long. We get bored, we're thinking of all the other things we could be doing. We really appreciate people dropping in — you have a good conversation, and that's an hour gone by."
So what should we be doing?
"Get out there and take your own actions to stop this legislation. Every day you see in the paper four pages of glossy advertising from the government on industrial relations, you see it on TV. The unions can't match their budget, and they're too busy running court cases and sifting through the legal detail", said Baker.
"You've got to get out there and do stuff; you can't expect them to do it all for you. Fight the advertising by putting up big signs on the freeways. Grab a sheet and paint on it in big letters that there are no choices with this new industrial relations laws.
"I drove down to Sydney and I only saw one sign about it. People see a sign like that, they notice it. It's not hard to do. Talk about it in public, at your work and get others involved. Write letters to politicians. Go to our website and use the links on it to send your protest to Boeing and the government. Just do what you can, it doesn't have to be a lot, but we've all got to do something", concluded Baker.
[Support the Boeing workers by using the pro-forma letter supplied on their website at < http://www.awu.net.au/national/campaigns/boeing/protest_form.hA HREF="mailto:tml"><tml>.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 9, 2005.
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