Sibylle Kaczorek, Sydney
On June 18, 200 people attended a public meeting organised by the Greens to discuss PM John Howard's planned new anti-union laws. The meeting was addressed by a number of union leaders.
Unions NSW assistant secretary Mark Lennon outlined the impact that the planned new laws will have on working people. Andrew Ferguson, NSW secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, highlighted the Howard government's draconian attacks on construction workers' rights. Other union officials — from the NSW Teachers Federation, the Australian Services Union and the National Tertiary Education Union — talked about basic campaigning strategies to gain support from union members and the wider community.
Question time between panel presentations indicated the need and willingness for debate on strategies with queues of people lining up at the microphones to speak.
When questioned about taking industrial action to fight the new laws, Lennon said that the Unions NSW position is that this was "up to individual unions as they see fit". Many in the audience, however, were not impressed with this attitude and numerous contributions from the floor argued for strikes and work stoppages as a critical part of the fight-back campaign.
Tapping into this mood was Marisa Bernardi, an organiser with the National Union of Workers, who directly contradicted the policy put forward by Unions NSW, stating that "no union should be left alone". To widespread cheering, Bernadi argued in favour of a sustained campaign of industrial action, in conjunction with the ACTU's education campaign. "Jumping castles, sausage sizzles and the Hoolie Doolies will not frighten Howard. But if we don't turn up for work, this country stands still", Bernardi said.
Robert Coombs, NSW secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, stated that industrial action was not written off, and Doug Cameron, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, told the meeting that they were arguing with Unions NSW for mass protest rallies against the government's planned new laws.
The recently formed Defend Workers' Rights and Unions Coalition leafleted the meeting, promoting the statement adopted by the National Union Fightback Conference held in Melbourne on June 11.
The meeting, chaired by NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, ended with the endorsement of a number of resolutions opposing the government's planned industrial relations "reforms" and support for the campaign against them.
[To get in contact with the Sydney based Defend Workers' Rights and Unions Coalition, phone Sibylle on 0418 643 723.]
From Green Left Weekly, June 29, 2005.
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