Our Common Cause: Are Labor governments the friends of unions?
Unionists are desperate to get rid of the Coalition government. The government's anti-union laws, its 1998 attack on the wharfies and the ongoing attack on building industry unions has left unionists wanting to vote for anyone but PM John Howard.
Unionists' hopes are fuelled by the ALP national conference's improvements to the party's industrial relations policy in spite of the very conservative social agenda pushed by Labor leader Mark Latham.
The new industrial relations policy, however, doesn't specifically commit a Labor government to repealing the Workplace Relations Act (WRA). Despite this, many unionists assume that an incoming ALP government would repeal the act.
But should we be so trusting?
The new policy promises to repeal the penal provisions of the Trade Practices Act which outlaw supportive industrial action. Repeal of the penal provisions was ALP policy throughout the last 1983-1996 federal Labor government but the government repeatedly refused to implement it.
This Labor government, led first by Bob Hawke and then Paul Keating, presided over a massive redistribution of wealth from wages to profits through the Prices and Incomes Accord. Has the Labor Party become more pro-union since it lost federal government in 1996? The record of state Labor governments around the country answers this question with a resounding "No".
Over the last five years, state Labor governments have been responsible for many attacks on workers and their unions. We have witnessed the following:
* A meeting of state Labor treasurers in 2003 agreed to cap all state public sector union wage increases to 3% or less per annum;
* A refusal to bring in industrial manslaughter laws (the honourable exception is the (tiny) ACT)
In New South Wales:
* 2001 — The Carr Labor government introduced legislation to make it more difficult for injured workers to sue an employer for negligence under common law.
* 2004 — The Carr government scapegoated railway workers for safety problems in the rail system — problems caused by years of underfunding, understaffing and corporatisation.
* 2004 — In March, the Carr government used section 127 of Howard's WRA to force rail maintenance workers back to work.
In Western Australia:
* 2002 — The Labor government repealed the harsher provisions of the previous Coalition government's anti-union laws but left individual workplace agreements (although disguised with a new name) in place.
* 2004 — Labor is ramming through new workers compensation legislation that will cap compensation benefits and prevent workers from suing negligent employers under common law.
* 2004 — The government got the Industrial Relations Commission to issue a return to work order against train drivers. When most drivers didn't return to work, the government threatened them with the sack.
In Victoria:
* 2000 — The Bracks Labor government enacted the Electricity Supply Industry Act to force Yallourn Energy workers back to work. Later, the government assisted the company in seeking writs of $38 million against the union and 15 workers.
* 2001 — The government wrote to Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Doug Cameron, complaining that the AMWU's Victorian leadership was "having a negative impact on ... investment decisions of companies".
* 2002 — The Labor government responded to requests from BHP Steel to send in police to attack a picket line.
* 2004 — In February, the government threatened electricity workers with the Electricity Supply Industry Act unless they lifted bans.
In Queensland:
* 2002 — Under Labor, the Queensland government public works corporation locked out its construction and maintenance workers for taking industrial action.
The record repeatedly demonstrates why unionists should judge the ALP by what it does when it is in government and not by what it would have us believe it will do.
Socialist Alliance members are rebuilding activist networks in their unions to fight for better wages and conditions. We campaign in defence of militant unionists like Craig Johnston and for solidarity in our unions with other union struggles and community issues.
We have to get rid of Howard. But a substantial primary vote for the Socialist Alliance will serve notice on Labor that it has no mandate to continue Howard's anti-union attacks.
Sue Bolton
From Green Left Weekly, April 7, 2004.
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