By Reihana Mohideen
"If we treated our members the same way that the ACTU treats us, we wouldn't have any members left", commented John Price, federal secretary of the Transport Workers Union, speaking to Green Left Weekly about the union's federal council decision to disaffiliate from the ACTU.
The disaffiliation move comes just as the federal government is finalising the details of the new accord agreement with the ACTU. "We completely disagree with the whole direction that the ACTU is going in. With the next accord, there will be another round of wage adjustments with enterprise bargaining on top of that", Price said.
According to Price, "This type of wage system is not appropriate for the transport and services industries. We have a large number of employers out there that we need to get enterprise agreements with. We have tackled the larger ones, but there are still thousands out there that we need to get to.
"On top of that there are other things that we need to do as a union to survive. We need to go on recruiting drives for new members, we need to make sure the award is enforced. All these things get left to one side as we keep chasing these agreements. There has to be a better system than the $8 per year safety net or an enterprise agreement.
"But if you try to raise these things with the ACTU, if you try to put an alternative, they refuse to listen."
The TWU is still pursuing its 15% wages campaign in the industry through a number of enterprise agreements. "We're doing it differently to, say, the unions in the manufacturing sector. We want all our members to have the same outcome. So it's a 15% rise across the whole industry that we're negotiating."
Price pointed out that the decision to disaffiliate wasn't made hastily. "It has been an ongoing discussion with the ACTU, and there have been ongoing disagreements about the nature of the relationship with them. We have several younger people in leadership positions who are not prepared to be dictated to, to be told what to do.
"So rather than have this constant bickering, we put an ultimatum. We want better consultation, and we want to be involved in the decision making process. They basically told us to fuck off."
The TWU has been especially critical of the role of ACTU secretary Bill Kelty. The union has pointed out that Kelty's membership of the Reserve Bank board is a "total conflict of interest".
The union has called for the government to negotiate a new agreement governing productivity and wages in the transport industry.