BY JOHN NEBAUER
ADELAIDE — The federal Coalition's industrial policies were the main target of workers' anger at the annual Labour Day march and rally, organised by the United Trades and Labor Council here on September 29.
UTLC assistant secretary Michelle Hogan told the gathering that Labour Day should perhaps now "celebrate" the 12-hour day, as this is increasingly what most workers are expected to work. She noted that increasing casualisation was seriously affecting workers' conditions.
But the official platform's uncritical support for the Australian Labor Party jarred with many who had attended the S11 protests in Melbourne. They resented being asked to vote for a party whose Victorian and NSW leaders had labelled them "fascists".
ACTU president Sharan Burrow urged participants to vote for the ALP as the "only way to fight the Coalition's industrial agenda". Burrow criticised large corporations, especially the Commonwealth Bank, for laying off workers while reaping record profits and continuing to increase executives' bloated salaries.
Burrow also urged shareholders in the Commonwealth Bank to hand their proxy votes to the Finance Sector Union, which would use them to oppose management's plans.
ALP state opposition leader Mike Rann promised that no public hospitals in SA would be privatised and criticised the Coalition state government's record on education, but failed to mention his party's attacks on public education in the other states where Labor governs.
The rally also featured a moving tribute to Neil Mitchell by manufacturing workers union organiser Jim Watson. Mitchell, an AMWU national organiser, was killed in a plane crash near Whyalla.