Sue Bolton
After several weeks of debate, the March 7 ACTU executive meeting decided to call a national day of protest on June 28 against the federal government's new workplace laws.
This decision followed a meeting on February 21 of the ACTU's industrial relations campaign committee at which only the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) supported a national day of action in the first half of the year. At that meeting, all of the state trades and labour councils except Victoria presented a joint position that no national mobilisations occur until November. The focus of the meeting had been on campaigning to get the Labor Party elected at the next federal election.
The factors that forced the ACTU executive to reconsider included: the VTHC executive resolution calling for a nationwide stoppage in the first two weeks of June; a Geelong and Region Trades Hall Council delegates' meeting resolution calling for a national stoppage in May but no later than June 7; the national conference resolution of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union for a national stoppage in June; and the 5-10,000 signatures of unionists from around Australia on a petition calling for a national stoppage.
Some trades and labour councils had felt considerable pressure for action sooner rather than later from some of their affiliates. Unions WA reported that it was under pressure from the Maritime Union of Australia, the CFMEU and the AMWU for a national stoppage.
In NSW, a meeting of union state secretaries held before the ACTU executive meeting was overwhelmingly in favour of taking action on June 28, not waiting until November. A wide range of white-collar and blue-collar unions reported that they were under a lot of pressure from their members to take action.
One NSW union argued that the nationwide stoppage and mass protests on November 15 last year had forced a few of the more cocky bosses to back off, and unless the momentum of the campaign is rebuilt with more nationwide action the bosses will go back on the offensive.
The ACTU's decision to call a national protest on June 28 coincides with public revelations that the government intends to undertake a new phase of legislative attacks on workers after Work Choices.
Federal finance minister Nick Minchin let the cat out of the bag on March 3 in an address to the far-right HR Nicholls Society's annual dinner. Minchin apologised to the audience: "There is much more to do and I pray that we remain in government and effect further change, but I do ask for your forgiveness — that change has not been as rapid as you would have liked."
He added, "There is still a long way to go ... awards, IR Commission, all the rest of it ... we do need to seek a mandate from the Australian people at the next election for another wave of industrial relations reform."
However, Minchin also admitted in his speech that the Work Choices changes were deeply unpopular: "Poll after poll demonstrated that the Australian people don't agree at all with anything we are doing on this — we have minority support for what we're doing". The great majority of the Australian people "violently disagree" with what the government is doing on industrial relations, he said.
PM John Howard quickly stepped in to muzzle speculation about another round of industrial relations "reforms", telling ABC Radio's AM program on March 9, "We don't have any intention of taking any further major changes to the next election".
This is an interesting response. Howard doesn't say his government will not undertake more attacks on workers' rights, just that he won't take the proposals to the next election. This is as good as his promise to "never, ever" introduce a goods and services tax.
Minchin's candid comments to a right-wing audience about the government's real intentions, and his comments about the hostility of Australians to the anti-worker laws, indicate three things:
1. The government's sudden ramping up of racism and religious prejudice towards Middle-Eastern migrants and Muslims is designed to distract the majority of Australians, who "violently disagree" with the anti-worker laws, from taking action against the IR laws.
2. The level of hostility towards the anti-worker laws is so high that the trade union movement could still defeat the laws if a systematic plan of mass mobilisations and industrial action was launched and employers' profit-making ability was seriously threatened. The current skills shortage should be an asset in the union movement's campaign.
3. If the union movement doesn't ramp up its campaign, the government will launch another wave of attacks against workers and their unions after the next election, if it is re-elected.
The ACTU's decision to take further protest action would have been a more powerful statement of serious resistance to the Howard government's attacks if it had occurred earlier in the year. But the important thing now is for everyone who opposes Howard's anti-worker agenda to get behind the June 28 mobilisation.
The goal should be for workers across the country to bring the nation to a standstill by stopping work and joining massive mobilisations in every major city and town.
To achieve that, not only union officials should be organising for a big turnout on the day. Rank-and-file workers also need to make sure that their unions are putting their all into the preparations, especially those unions that have to date been lukewarm in their support for the national protests.
We need all sorts of community groups — from progressive social movements to religious organisations to sporting groups and environmental groups — to resolve to support the national day of action and encourage their members to attend the protests. Everyone is affected by these laws.
Actions in the lead-up to June 28 will also be important. Victoria has a cross-union delegates' meeting scheduled for March 29 in Melbourne. The 1000-2000 delegates will march through the city after their meeting.
The mass delegates' meetings in Perth and Melbourne played an important role in strengthening the national protests on June 30-July 1 and November 15 last year. Union delegates are the heart of the campaign and mass delegates' meetings give them an opportunity to discuss the campaign with delegates from other industries and have an input into the direction of the campaign. Such meetings held in every state and territory would strengthen the campaign significantly.
Unions in most states are also planning big protests on May Day.
From Green Left Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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