BY STUART MARTIN
WOLLONGONG — In stark contrast to the vague talk from officials in meetings elsewhere, the South Coast Labor Council's June 27 stopwork meeting on the campaign to save WorkCover debated a definite course of action — and was anything but demoralised.
The 1100 unionists who attended the SCLC's meeting in Wollongoing wanted further action, and were vocal in their anger at the ALP government.
Arthur Rorris, the SCLC's secretary, summed up the popular mood when he declared that the changes to WorkCover and MPs' crossing of the picket line at parliament house were a "betrayal of the workers by the Parliamentary Labor Party".
He launched a stinging attack on the ALP caucus for the orchestrated violence at the picket, and the use of police horses after all the MPs had crossed the picket. Illawarra Labor MPs were singled out in the official motion from the SCLC, which included a call for a political campaign against them.
The passing of the legislation was a "setback" for unionists, Rorris admitted, but pledged that the campaign would continue.
Delegates committed the SCLC to a political campaign against the seven Labor MPs in the region and a demonstration against Premier Bob Carr when he next visits. Unionists also unanimously backed a resolution calling on local unions to review their affiliation to the ALP.
Whilst there wasn't widespread resentment of the failed strategy of the NSW Labor Council, there was general disapproval of the clandestine tactics that had kept unionists in the dark and dissatisfaction at the cancellation of state-wide industrial action against the legislation.
Decision-making in the union movement had to be more transparent, and more information had to be made available sooner to delegates and members, one unionist said from the floor, to resounding applause.
Rorris also made clear his displeasure at the unions' failed campaign, commenting after the meeting that the union movement had "wasted eleven weeks" and that an industrial campaign should have started as soon as the legislation was announced.
The newly formed Illawarra Socialist Alliance attended the mass meeting, giving out 1000 statements in favour of an ongoing campaign and getting a warm reception from unionists.
The alliance's Chris Pickering, a member of the Public Service Association, commented, "With the level of resentment against Labor's betrayal of all it supposedly stands for, it's great that the Socialist Alliance is standing up for worker's rights".
Cory Parker reports from Bomaderry that, like in Wollongong, anger with Labor was high amongst workers at the stopwork meeting there.
In Lismore, Nick Fredman reports, teachers' federation organiser Dorothy Redfern denounced the "treachery and betrayal of the Carr Labor government" at a stopwork meeting attended by 150 workers.
The meeting urged North Coast-based upper house MPs Janelle Saffran (ALP), Ian Cohen (Greens) and Richard Jones (independent) to oppose the legislation, and also backed the reactivation of the regional Trades and Labour Council to coordinate the campaign in the area.