The United Casual Workers Alliance, which campaigns for the rights of casual and lower paid workers, was launched on February 13 on the Gold Coast. Green Left Weekly's Dave Riley spoke with Amelia Taylor about the campaign.
I guess a large proportion of the Gold Coast work force would be casual.
About 70% is casual. There is also a high proportion of seasonal employees and part-time workers. It is very common for people to have to be available for work between 7am and 11pm, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. People cannot organise their lives under these conditions.
Pay rates are low. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Gold Coast has the lowest level of household income across Australia. We believe that is related to casual work.
How unionised is this sector?
Traditionally casual workers don't join unions. There are a lot of reasons for this. It is the kind of work that can go up and down on a week-to-week basis, so paying your membership fees can be difficult. If you are a casual, you can change jobs a lot of times so you might have to also change your union. Quite often casual workers don't join traditional trade unions.
How does your campaign link up with the unions?
We encourage people to join unions. We want UCWA to be a bridge between the workplace and the unions — particularly for people who haven't joined a trade union.
And how successful have you been so far?
We had a public meeting two weeks ago with representatives from the Shop Distributers Alliance and the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, as well as from the Gold Coast City Council among others. They were all interested in being involved.
What initiatives are you fostering?
We are going to workplaces, introducing ourselves and telling people where they can go to join a union. This isn't a small thing as a lot of people have never had a trade union come to their workplace before.
What are conditions like for casual workers?
The big employers, like the theme park operators, are some of the worst offenders. You have to be available 52 weeks of the year and, in particular, during school holidays. You might get 50 hours of work a week during school holidays. But when everybody goes back to work and school your hours drop to 10, although you still have to be available for the same amount of time.
Workers at the theme parks get paid only when the park is open, even though they've been there testing the rides or setting up stalls. If you are a ride operator at Dreamworld, a casual position, you get to work, get your uniform, get the log book and everything for your ride, walk to your ride and do one ride circuit, yet you are only paid from the time the park opens and your ride is operational.
Does a similar level of exploitation exist in other casual jobs?
We believe so. Because the Gold Coast has traditionally had a low level of trade union membership and organisation, employers know they can get away with some of the worst conditions in Australia.
What are your campaign plans?
We've got more public meetings planned, but our main focus is going to workplaces and not leaving until we are allowed access to the workers.
That's a problem, isn't it, because you don't have right of access?
Legally no, but the unionised security guards are really great. Quite often when you go to a front counter — say in a hotel — the receptionist, who has never seen a unionist before, will be interested in what you're doing and quite often will [end up] doing the work for you!
It is important to realise that while the majority of young people are probably casual, the majority of casuals are not young. For instance, we are getting great responses from 40- to 50-year-old women who have never had any workers' organisation come to them.
We are campaigning to let casual workers know that without them the Gold Coast would cease to function. That's our campaign strength.
[The United Casual Workers Alliance website is at <http://ucwa.org.au>. Email the UCWA at <contacts@ucwa.org.au> or phone 0404 016 199. The original interview is available as a podcast from
Ratbag Radio <http://ratbagradio.blogspot.com>.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 8, 2006.
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