Nick Everett, Canberra
On September 7, long-time Community and Public Sector Union activist and delegate to Unions ACT council Paul Oboohov was removed from the CPSU's delegation to the council. Oboohov was also disendorsed as a CPSU representative on Unions ACT's campaign committee, established to coordinate the ACT campaign against the Howard government's planned new industrial relations laws.
On June 3, CPSU ACT regional secretary Graham Rodda alleged that Oboohov "failed to vote in solidarity with the CPSU delegation as required by union policy".
On August 10, the day after a Unions ACT rally against Howard's planned anti-worker laws, Rodda informed Oboohov that the "Unions ACT executive today determined that your recent article [in Green Left Weekly] regarding the operations of the Unions ACT IR committee is a serious breach of solidarity with the committee and have asked that the CPSU deal with these concerns".
Rodda informed Oboohov that his CPSU endorsement as a member of the committee was immediately revoked, preventing him from participating in the committee's August 11 meeting.
The matter was referred to the CPSU delegation, which met immediately prior to the quarterly Unions ACT Council meeting on September 7. Six members of the caucus voted in favour of Oboohov's permanent removal from both the Unions ACT campaign committee and the CPSU delegation to Unions ACT council. Three abstained in response to both motions. Oboohov was the only member of the caucus to vote against his removal from the caucus and committee.
"I voted for an amendment to a motion, put to the June 1 meeting of Unions ACT Council, calling for industrial action against Howard's anti-worker laws. Such an action was too much for Rodda, who argued that public servants would not strike", Oboohov told GLW. "However, within the month, workers in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations defied Rodda's predictions, striking against Howard's agenda as part of their campaign to win a union agreement.
"My supposed serious breach of solidarity with the Unions ACT campaign committee involved informing the readers of Green Left Weekly that Unions ACT had abandoned plans for a union rally outside Parliament House to coincide with the first meeting of the new Senate.
"I have been made a scapegoat for exposing this city's union officials' timidity and failure to wage a militant, mass campaign that can defeat and derail Howard's agenda."
From Green Left Weekly, September 21, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.