BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — "We did not cave in or sell out. I want to make it clear that we remain opposed to the [workers' compensation] bill", NSW Labor Council secretary-elect John Robertson told the more than 200,000 workers who stopped work at 9am on June 27 to participate in a Labor Council-organised Sky Channel hook-up — unconvincingly.
The hook-up, which linked 200 venues around the state, took place the day after Robertson told the media, following a meeting with Labor Premier Bob Carr, "We are confronted with the reality that the government is going to press ahead with the bill and we are not going to proceed with the campaign".
On the hook-up, Robertson told union members that the Labor Council had negotiated amendments to the legislation. All changes to the way injuries are assessed would now have to go through parliament (rather than being made by ministerial regulation), workers' right to legal representation in the new Workers Compensation Commission would be guaranteed, and a process for monitoring the impact of the changes would be established.
Having decided, on the basis of these undertakings from the government, to drop the campaign, Robertson attempted to convince workers of the Labor Council's "commitment to fight other aspects of the [industrial relations minister John] Della Bosca proposal".
Earlier in the week, the Labor Council had assured workers that if the ongoing negotiations with the government were not satisfactory, the unions would re-commence campaigning, including industrial action.
But the Labor Council's "negotiations" strategy ended in a miserable failure on June 29 when the ALP rammed the legislation through the upper house, late on the last sitting day of this session of parliament.
With the support of five cross-benchers, the government defeated every one of the more than 200 proposed amendments to the bill, which was eventually passed 18 to 15.
While a committee will be established to oversee the impact of the changes, all other aspects which the government undertook to negotiate further are now law.
The ALP's response to the Coalition's decision to vote against the bill — accusing it of letting down businesses and employers — says it all about the nature of the legislation.
It was clear at the Sky Channel meetings that this was precisely the outcome that many rank and file unionists feared. At those meetings, while the officials' talk of not giving up the fight was greeted by applause, there was also dissatisfaction with the union leadership's failure to organise serious industrial action to stop the legislation.
Teachers Federation delegate and Socialist Alliance member Noreen Navin told Green Left Weekly "There was a tangible sentiment of outrage and disgust at the meeting; enough, I would have thought, that decisive action should have been called in unison with all unions.
"It seemed logical to me that a state-wide, all-sector strike should have been the resolution from today's hook-up. This legislation can be brought to a grinding halt by bringing the state to the exact same grinding halt."
Reports from Socialist Alliance activists who attended around two dozen of the meetings in Sydney indicate that the officials are aware of workers' anger at the union leaderships' inaction.
Recognising this, Robertson's presentation was full of militant talk about union democracy and the need for workers to "play their part" and "stand up for their rights" — however no provision was made for rank and file discussion or decision-making at the meetings. At some, discussion was actively discouraged by officials.
At those meetings where participants did manage to initiate some discussion and raise campaign proposals, the mood was generally in favour of further, immediate industrial action and more workplace and delegates' meetings to obtain information and organise the campaign.
The decision by the construction, manufacturing, electrical and printing unions to strike for 24 hours on June 27 had overwhelming support and a statement distributed by the Socialist Alliance advocating an immediate state-wide strike was well-received.
A report in the June 28 Daily Telegraph gave an indication of the government's key motivation for legislating to cut pay-outs to injured workers. The newspaper reported that Della Bosca was considering privatising WorkCover, via seeking private underwriting of it. The private underwriting of WorkCover was being vigorously pursued by insurance giant HIH before its collapse.
That private insurance companies covet WorkCover is not surprising: the government's claim that pay-outs to injured workers must be cut to cover a $2.1 billion deficit in the scheme is fake. This is only a predicted cumulative deficit over the next 50 years.
In fact, WorkCover is making a profit, and could be more profitable if all employers were forced to pay their full premiums.
Della Bosca has denied the Daily Telegraph report, stating that the government is considering scrapping existing provisions for the privatisation of WorkCover, introduced by his predecessor in 1988.
However, few unionists believe him. As South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris told the Sydney Morning Herald on June 28, "It all makes sense now. The real agenda is to make WorkCover a profitable venture for private interests."
The government's bloody-mindedness on workers' compensation has upped the ante on the question of unions' affiliation to the ALP.
Unionists were seen tearing up their ALP membership cards as Labor MPs crossed the workers' compensation picket line outside NSW Parliament House on June 19, and two weeks ago a membership vote of the Fire Brigade Employees Union decided to disaffiliate from Labor.
On June 27, a meeting of the NSW printing division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union also voted to disaffiliate.
An emergency meeting of 25 left trade unionists on June 28 drafted a petition which demands a restart to the campaign.
The petition urges the Labor Council and affiliated unions to call mass delegates' meetings in all major urban centres, restore the revenue collection bans on public transport, call a 24-hour state-wide strike immediately, and expel those MPs who are union members and yet crossed the Parliament House picket line.
Delegates to the next Labor Council meeting, on July 6, will be asked as they enter to put the petition to council. Workers are also planning to stage an acion outside the next meeting of the ALP's administrative committee on the same day.
For a copy of the petition, phone 0438 641 587 or 9690 1977.