Peter Boyle & Margarita Windisch
Union leaders around the country are demanding that federal Labor and state Labor governments actively fight PM John Howard's proposed new anti-union laws.
On June 15, National Union of Workers NSW secretary Derrick Belan called on the Labor Party to vigorously commit to reversing the government's industrial relations agenda, or face further disenfranchisement from the union movement.
Belan described federal ALP leader Kim Beazley's reluctance to commit to a "roll-back" of Howard's IR reforms as "weak and disappointing".
"I cannot accept that, in this current climate, Mr. Beazley is unwilling to show his full commitment to working Australians. [He] needs to remember why the Labor Party was formed — to protect the rights and dignity of working people and their families."
Belan said that his union's members, who consist of the majority of distribution workers in NSW, "are demanding that Mr. Beazley pledge to remove Howard's industrial relations landscape should Labor form government in 2007".
Describing Beazley's "sidestepping of any definitive pledge to remove Howard's IR reforms" as "completely unacceptable", Belan said this "indicates either a weakness in his leadership or a lack of dedication to the plight of working people".
"Mr. Beazley's language has been as weak as water and that is putting it nicely. At this point in time workers need passion, drive and leadership in the fight for workers' rights. If the union movement cannot rely upon Labor, then Labor should consider if it can rely upon the union movement."
Belan said he will speak to other unions and will call for a "reassessment of support should federal Labor not convince us that it is fair dinkum" about fighting the attacks.
Victorian Electrical Trades Union secretary Dean Mighell joined former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) Victorian secretary Craig Johnston and other trade union militants in calling on state Labor governments around the country to follow WA Premier Geoff Gallop's Labor government in giving public servants paid time off to attend the June 30/July 1 protests against the Howard government's proposed new industrial relations laws.
"Once again the Victorian trade union movement has been prepared to show leadership in tackling the massive attacks coming down on working people from the federal government", said Mighell.
"This leadership is critically important for the overall fight-back. Other states are following suit and waking up to the fact that there are no deals to be done with the Howard government. The only deal to be done is to get rid of them."
Mighell called on Bracks and his government to "show Victorian workers which side they are on. Are they going to stay lap-dogs of the Howard government or start siding with Victorian workers? This will be demonstrated on June 30."
Johnston, recently elected to the national executive of the Socialist Alliance (which initiated the recent National Trade Union Fightback Conference at the Victorian Trades Hall on June 11), told Green Left Weekly: "I'm pleased that the ALP has declared support for the June 30 protests. Now it needs to go a step further and encourage people to attend the protests and fully join the campaign to defeat the anti-union laws. I also call on the Bracks Labor government to follow the lead of the WA Labor government and encourage all state government employees to attend the rally on June 30."
Tim Gooden, secretary of the Geelong Trades and Labour Council and also a national executive member of the Socialist Alliance, agreed: "Well if it's good enough for a Labor government in WA to allow public servants paid time off to attend one of the most important rallies of their working lives, what's holding Bracks up?
"In fact, all Labor state governments should be doing everything in their power to encourage not just public servants but all workers and the broader community to come out on June 30.
"Bracks should make public transport free on the day — as he did for the Grand Prix — so that everybody can come into the city for the rally. His government should take out big ads in the media for the rally to defend workers' basic rights, as was done for the reconciliation march in 2000.
"And if Howard gets his anti-union laws through, federal Labor must commit to a total reversal of these laws and every state Labor government should refuse to allow their police to enforce them."
Jimmy Reid, the secretary of the AMWU's Victorian printing division, told Green Left Weekly that if we don't do "whatever it takes to ensure a defeat of Howard's dirty war on decent Australian families", we will "see future generations having to live on subsistence wages and leave them completely at the mercy of unscrupulous employers".
Reid said that if Bracks "fails to support the community and the struggle against Howard's war on workers, he will be seen as tacitly supporting Howard's ideology. Bracks may have a short memory when it comes to remembering who supported him, but workers have a long memory when it comes to remembering who stood with them and who didn't.
"Bracks needs to send a message to Howard and his acolytes that he rejects their vicious attacks on working families, and by doing so, he may regain some of the respect that the Victorian ALP has lost in recent time.
"We in the union movement will also be keenly watching for indications from opposition leader Kim Beazley that the ALP will do the right thing by Australian families and repeal the worst aspects of Howard's dirty legislation."
From Green Left Weekly, June 29, 2005.
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