BY ANDREW HALL
CANBERRA — Revelations from the troubled ACT branch of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) indicate that the Australian Public Service is becoming increasingly de-unionised.
CPSU members in Canberra were astounded to see a spreadsheet detailing recruitment targets and outcomes for 49 departments and agencies that had been accidentally attached to an email sent from the ACT branch office a fortnight ago.
Of the 49 agencies listed in the spreadsheet:
- three have a union member density of more than 70%;
- eight have a density between 50% and 60%;
- seven have a density between 40% and 49%;
- eight have a density between 30% and 39%;
- 15 have a density between 20% and 29%;
- four have a density between 10% and 19%; and
- four have a density between 4% and 9%.
This averages out at a ratio of 33% across the sample. Two ex-organisers once employed by the branch have advised us that, because of weaknesses in data collection, actual membership is probably far lower than these figures indicate.
Compared with many other industries, levels of 33% are unremarkable. Yet the public sector was once a union bastion, so the situation forms a reversal of historic proportions. One of the strongest foundations of the union movement as a whole has silently crumbled away.
Declining membership is not just the fault of the Coalition government, but also of the leadership of the CPSU itself.
The ALP supports Howard's replacement of the old service-wide award with enterprise bargaining (in which employees negotiate directly with their employer), so the ALP-aligned union leadership (the self-styled "Progressive Caucus") refuses to campaign against the system that is eroding wages and conditions.
The extent of this erosion was revealed in a report released in April 20001 by the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. This disclosed average wage outcomes for all staff below senior management across all 95 Commonwealth agencies from the introduction of Howard's "reforms" until the end of 2000.
According to the report:
- 13 agencies had annual increases of 3% or more;
- 55 agencies had annual increases from 2% to less than 3%;
- 24 agencies had annual increases from 1% to less than 2%;
- 3 agencies had annual increases less than 1%.
Given the Consumer Price Index rose by 9.14% from the end of 1996 to the end of 2000, all staff below senior management in 27 agencies took a pay cut thanks to enterprise agreements, almost all of which were negotiated by the CPSU.
All the above pay increases, poor as they have been, have also been at expense of hard won conditions.
Strangely, union leaders appear proud of their record. National officials on June 17 told some Canberra activists that wages were not the most important thing for many members and that wages in the public service were good compared to the community sector.
Since the community sector is one of the worst-paid sectors of the economy, the union's leaders could hardly set their expectations much lower.
The CPSU has compounded this by advising union employees in 2000 that they should give priority to recruitment over the individual grievances of existing members. As a result, many members face bullying and other everyday injustices without effective union support.
Having abandoned their public service members, the CPSU now focuses on recruiting new ones from the private sector, such as the redundant One.Tel workers.
Sensing this betrayal, public servants have been voting with their feet; portions of the service (like the department of finance) have become "no-go" zones for unionists.
In a grassroots response to the CPSU's failures of nerve and judgement, activists have formed a group, Members First, to fight back against the bosses and their lackeys in the ALP-aligned leadership.
A statement by Members First describes its platform:
- "union-wide industrial campaigns on pay and conditions, enterprise bargaining and the anti-worker Workplace Relations Act";
- "industrial campaigns directed by meetings of the members themselves, rather than ALP stooges in union drag";
- "campaigning in the interests of members rather than for the Alternative Liberal Party of Kim Beazley"; and
- "recruitment through industrial action and concrete solidarity with individual members, rather than public relations campaigns that never rise above the level of rhetoric and theatre".
Such action would not guarantee miracles, the rank-and-file grouping realises. Yet it would be the first step towards the genuine unionism that is surely the only way to improve the working lives of ordinary people.
[Andrew Hall is an activist in Members First and a public servant in Canberra. If you want to get involved, contact (02) 6275 0664 or email <membersfirst@bigpond.com>.]