CPSU sell bad agreement
By Ben Courtice
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) tax section voted in the week ending June 26 on the enterprise agreement being put to staff by management. Three-quarters of the union members who voted accepted the deal.
The union leadership recommended that members endorse the agreement, despite it being almost the same as that previously rejected by staff. Prior to the vote, one-third of the CPSU tax section council voted against recommending the agreement to members.
The union leaders recommended a "yes" vote to members while acknowledging it is was bad agreement. They argued that the union had obtained significant concessions from management, and that more could not be gained without an industrial campaign. The union is not capable of conducting such a campaign, they argued. The threat of immanent award simplification was used as an argument for getting an agreement in place quickly.
Those who argued against the agreement pointed out that the agreement does not guarantee job security, allows casualisation and contracting out, introduces individual performance management and monitoring, and makes pay rises conditional on staff performance. The dissenting activists called for an industrial and political campaign over job security.
Management is to put the agreement to an all-staff vote on July 13-15. Some union activists are mounting a campaign for a "no" vote.