The Coalition's industrial relations "reform" package is aimed at gutting the Australian union movement. In a round-table discussion in the June issue of Seeing Red, three militant unionists — Joan Doyle (Victorian secretary of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union's postal and telecommunications branch), Tim Gooden (secretary of the Geelong and Region Trades and Labour Council) and Sam Wainwright (editor of Maritime Worker, the journal of the Western Australian branch of the Maritime Union of Australia) discussed the way forward for resisting these attacks.
Here, with kind permission of Seeing Red, Green Left Weekly reprints some extracts from the round table.
What do you think is the core of the federal government strategy against the unions?
Wainwright: To put in place tools with which to attack the better organised unions and to strip away the rights and conditions of the unorganised and poorly organised. [PM John] Howard also hopes to atomise the working class even further, leaving us more vulnerable to the capitalist media for our ideas about life and work. That in turn would allow the Coalition to push further — with the ALP trailing in its wake.
Doyle: The essence of the strategy is to break down union capacity to organise workers. That's why restriction on the right of entry of union organisers is the pivotal part of the package: while the power of unions to organise remains intact, all the other bits of Howard's "reform" also remain provisional.
Gooden: The demands of "global competitiveness", partly a real pressure, partly a useful fiction, have the big bosses demanding the return of gains won by more than a century of working-class struggle. Their campaign is centred on a reduction in their "on costs" — such as corporate taxes and superannuation and those "allowable matters" in industrial agreements, like sick and redundancy pay, long-service leave, protected action for industrial health and safety and protection from unfair dismissals.
It's a critical fight. If the Coalition can successfully weaken the workers' movement then Howard won't have just won a policy battle about "labour market reform" — he will be freer to advance neoliberalism on all fronts.
What will be the role of the coming amendments to the Workplace Relations Act (WRA)? Will they open the door to direct repression, as was implemented against the Maritime Union of Australia in 1998?
Doyle: The point of Howard's amendments is to entrench the deadly combination — fear of losing your job and lack of confidence in the union to defend you against employer retaliation or the government big stick.
Wainwright: The government has learned from the MUA fight. Full-frontal attacks on a whole union or work force can become a rallying point for everybody who hates the government. So Howard would be just as happy to inflict death by a thousand cuts. However, it would be naive to rule out another big assault. In particular, the construction union's ongoing defiance is intolerable for Canberra. The constant media attack on this union combined with the increased powers for the Building Industry Taskforce convince me that they have a Patrick-style Plan B ready to run.
Gooden: The new amendments are trying to create weapons strong enough to enforce the WRA, weapons it lacked while Howard still had to negotiate with the Democrats in the Senate. The penalties will force unions to either stay away from workplaces or risk destruction through heavy fines.
Won't the combination of the eight ALP-run states and territories plus the NSW legal challenge to Canberra's impending use of the corporations power of the constitution hobble Howard?
Gooden: I doubt that a legal challenge will delay Howard's plan — he has stacked the High Court with his own kind. It's fine to try out delaying legal tactics, but without a full political and industrial campaign we would only be strengthening the already deep illusion in the neutrality of the laws and courts.
Doyle: Legal tactics can work if you're only trying to hold a fort that's still strong. The problem we face is that the union movement as a whole is weak and disorganised, and relying on legal tactics alone is simply an invitation to the courts to "stick with the strength".
Wainwright: The extent to which Labor state governments and High Court judges act to defend workers' rights will depend on the pressure they feel to do so. Howard will get his legislative agenda up: the real question will be can he enforce it? The decision of [Victoria's Jeff] Kennett government not to try to enforce any of its anti-union laws against the picketers supporting the MUA in 1998 is a lesson to us all.
Unionisation has fallen beneath 20% of the work force, and by a larger proportion among young workers. How can it be explained to the non-unionised majority that the unions must be defended?
Wainwright: The road to squeezing unorganised workers more lies through crushing organised workers — this has to be explained to everyone. Also, while unionised workers are the minority and those in militant unions a smaller minority still, it is only the already organised sectors that can lead this campaign.
Gooden: Education and the politicising of workers through activity is the only way to combat the propaganda coming from the government and media. Unions are the best instrument for this, but there must be a deliberate, persistent approach — otherwise workers only develop an understanding equal to the local tabloid press. Yet where the membership really does own their union, and all are trained and politicised through campaigns, they are an enormous force — as militant unions have shown time and again.
Doyle: To my mind this is not a critical issue — the mass of workers just don't buy the message that Howard's "workplace revolution" is in their interests. Since it has loomed on the political horizon there's been increased interest in joining the union: the sceptical are getting convinced and the strong unionist core want to see a serious fight.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has a slogan, "If you don't fight, you lose". How does it apply, if it does, in the present fight?
Wainwright: The ACTU and some union officials keep saying that we can't rely on industrial action and other traditional forms because this would alienate the community. But it's a fatal mistake to think that we should only stick to activities that the media might present favourably.
When we say "win over the community", who are we talking about? It's the millions of workers not in unions or the one-third of union members who voted for the Coalition last year. The best way to convince people of the justice of your cause is to get out there and fight for it — whingeing from the sidelines won't convince anyone.
In the 1998 MUA fight, the media followed the script and whipped up an anti-MUA sentiment. But the longer the dispute dragged on, the more people started to see through the media message and realise what was at stake.
Gooden: I challenge anyone to show me a single time when governments and bosses came up with a benefit for workers because they thought it would be nice. There are plenty of examples where we relied on lobbying, petitions or seas of plastic hands and lost. What governments and capitalists most fear is losing their power and production stopping. But as soon as they call our bluff and we can't or don't deliver, then we lose it. It's that simple. We have to start preparing for a fight, and a showdown, now.
So can the union movement in its present shape defeat Howard?
Wainwright: Some unions started off by explaining what Canberra has in store without saying a word about what can be done to stop it. That was worse than useless — it did Howard's job for him, sowing demoralisation before a shot has been fired. However, the reaction to the detail of the package and the enthusiasm that's been building for mass protests in late June show that many want action. Now the ACTU leaders are at least mumbling about acting, while back in October 2004 they were saying nothing could be done.
Gooden: With all its faults, the union movement is still the only organisation that can mobilise large numbers of workers. The vital thing is for those who want to fight to get organised, to build a momentum in favour of resistance and to lead in practice when opportunities come.
From Green Left Weekly, June 8, 2005.
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