ETU leader: 'Rank and file involvement is critical'
By Sue Bolton
MELBOURNE — The Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has been involved in some long and hard-fought struggles recently — ACI, Mobil, Citipower — that resulted in significant gains. When many union leaders are retreating before attacks from employers and governments, the ETU is setting a militant example.
Dean Mighell, ETU Victorian secretary, told Green Left Weekly that following the election of a new leadership in 1995, the union rebuilt itself.
"The new leadership saw rank and file involvement as absolutely critical. The first task was to develop shop steward structures in our key industries. Previously, shop steward meetings were held once a year; now they're bi-monthly, and attendance has increased dramatically."
The ETU embarked on a campaign to get members financial and involved, and to explain what unionism is about. Financial membership has doubled since 1995.
"We now have a dedicated network of stewards and officials that back each other up", Mighell said.
The Mobil, ACI and Citipower struggles were won because "we made sure at all times that our members were in control of their own dispute. We empowered our stewards to say 'No deals'.
"A lot of employers must now be thinking that if you're going to take the ETU on, it is prepared to fight to the death. Those disputes have won an awful lot for our members in other industries."
To reduce unemployment, the ETU "is starting to sow some seeds for shorter hours campaigns", Mighell said.
"We want to kick off the Docklands project in Melbourne as a shorter hours site, with restrictions on overtime and commitments to employ apprentices. That's a big project that is going until 2011. We want the jobs it creates to be long term. We're aiming for a 35- or 36-hour week."
Mighell added that the motion for shorter working hours passed at the last ACTU congress "has to start translating into action, particularly for young workers, apprentices and older workers who are missing out".
The ETU has been involved in big disputes to win shorter hours, including the strike at Mobil. "We saw it as a traditional 35-hour week industry, and our troops put their necks on the line. The other unions made deals to let the shorter working week go, but the ETU wasn't copping it."
At the Crown Casino construction site, "We had bans on for 10 weeks. I had my life threatened, my family threatened, our union was threatened. We won the nine-day fortnight there."
The Howard government's secondary boycott legislation "has been used by some unions as a convenient way to say it's not possible to fight. They threatened us with secondary boycott legislation at ACI, Citipower and Martin Bright Steel, but they backed off each time."
Mighell is critical of the former federal Labor government's industrial relations policies, describing its Industrial Relations Act as "probably one of the worst pieces of industrial relations legislation that we've seen. The Liberals have just enhanced it."
He believes that Labor has improved. "From talking to people like [shadow minister for Industrial Relations] Bob McMullan, Labor seems to have learnt lessons from the Accord and the economic rationalist policies that led to the creation of the Industrial Relations Act. They've accepted they need to start giving workers real protection."
At the last conference of the ETU, a motion to disaffiliate from the ALP lost by only three votes.
Mighell said the ETU supported the ACTU's wages policy at the last congress because it would allow pattern agreements, such as one recently won by ETU members in contracting construction, where an increase of 44% in an enterprise bargaining agreement flowed to all ETU members in the sector. "In our industry, enterprise agreements have been a fantastic opportunity for us to get out there, organise, fight the bosses and win wage rises."
Mighell is a strong supporter of anti-racist campaigns. "Employers and anti-union forces will use any issue to divide working people. They use racism, the exploitation of women and the exploitation of children." Unions must combat such divisions.
Asked to sum up the approach of the ETU leadership, Mighell said: "Our negotiating ability is only as good as our ability to fight. Without an ability to fight, you're nothing. We are a fighting union."