NSW stoppage a step forward
In a welcome return to recognition of the need for political action as a tool of labour struggle, the NSW Labour Council has provisionally called a statewide one-day stoppage for October 15 in opposition to the NSW government's anti-democratic industrial relations bill. The stoppage will be part of a wider campaign against the bill.
It is unfortunate, though, that the Labour Council's response has come so late, and that it is still so half-hearted. For four years the Greiner government has been preparing this bill, and only now that it is within weeks of becoming law has the peak trade union body in the state begun working seriously on a response. The right-wing machine that controls the Labour Council has frittered away most of the time available to it by relying on the opposition Labor Party.
Moreover, it has signalled its half-heartedness by indicating that it might change the date of the stoppage because an international deputation is due to visit Sydney around that time to assess the city's bid for the year 2000 Olympics.
It is also unfortunate that much of the union movement, even now, when its very existence is at stake, remains reluctant to take necessary political action. The discussions on the October 15 strike were characterised by pleas for exemptions from a range of mainly white-collar unions. This short-sightedness could cost all workers around the country very dearly in the medium-term future.
The Greiner bill is clearly a blueprint for the type of industrial relations laws that will be introduced by a future Liberal-National government at federal level. In the Labour Council's previous protest against the bill, on September 17, the mineworkers' union showed the way by calling a statewide stoppage of all members even though most are not directly affected by the bill because they are under federal awards. The mineworkers, who are among the highest paid in the state, acted because some of their members are directly affected — those in Broken Hill and NSW coke works — and because they recognise the national role of the bill.
But even a half-hearted response by union officialdom on October 15 will involve about a million workers in a potentially very powerful protest. Just how effective that protest will be is dependent on a number of factors. Above all, it is not enough to call out the ranks to hear a few tough speeches in front of parliament house. The minority Greiner government could be brought down by a determined campaign of industrial and political action, and that should be the aim of the protests in mid-October.