By Tim Gooden
The National Executive of the Community and Public Sector Union met over two days last week, in the midst of the Howard government offensive against the Australian Public Service.
The attacks range from attempts to deunionise workplaces by luring public servants into supporting management-backed "bargaining units" through to the threat of forced redundancies in the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
However, there was no sign of urgency in the draft agenda presented to NE members. It promised the usual placid stroll through such vital items as a new name for the CPSU, developing a "strategic plan" for a new service-model approach to public sector unionism and the conferring of some life memberships.
If there was a spectre haunting the union, it certainly wasn't John Howard, but the Kernot-boosted ALP. Kim Beazley had been slated to open the meeting (and to receive an extra-large CPSU T-shirt with "Kim's back" on it), but his place was taken by ALP Senate leader John Faulkner.
Faulkner's speech was devoted to refuting the widespread perception that, as far as the APS is concerned, the Coalition is merely carrying on in the footsteps of the Hawke and Keating governments.
According to Faulkner: "There is a world of difference between the way in which Labor managed change in the public sector, and the way in which the Coalition are mismanaging it. It is true Labor embraced change (in a globalised society and economy we can't afford not to), but we always sought to implement it in a way which ameliorated any negative impacts."
This none-too-subliminal message was reinforced on the second day by the launch of a video portraying the loss of public services and the effect cuts have been having on ordinary people. But the video is often mysteriously vague as to which of the two sets of "bastards" who form governments in this country were responsible for the cuts.
In the whole two days, only 20 minutes were devoted to any consideration of a CPSU-wide response to Howard's attacks. This took place when I moved that the NE set a deadline for ATO management to withdraw the threat of forced redundancies and, if this was not forthcoming, call mass meetings of all CPSU members to consider an adequate response.
The prospect of actual action and effort quickly elicited a counter-motion from the Cairdite NE majority. While the NE reaffirmed its opposition to forced redundancies, it avoided doing anything by referring the matter to the National Management Committee to develop a "jobs campaign". The members earmarked for sacking will be eager to see what is proposed.
[Tim Gooden is the section secretary of the ACT Public Service section of the CPSU.]