Susan Price, Sydney
Union delegates will mobilise for mass delegates' meetings via Sky Channel across NSW on May 27, in the lead-up to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) week of action from June 27 to July 1 against the federal Coalition government's proposed anti-union legislation.
The major Sydney venue will be the Masonic Centre, which seats 700 people, with other smaller venues in Parramatta, Newcastle, Wollongong, Lismore and some 20 other regional sites.
The 9.30-10am meetings will allow just 30 minutes for delegates to hear a pre-recorded presentation from union officials and to conduct whatever discussion is possible within these strict time constraints.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson, announcing the meetings at the Unions NSW council meeting on May 19, mentioned that meeting convenors would be briefed on how to run the meetings and deal with any matters that arise. The sniggers from some union delegates in response indicated that Robertson meant containing any attempts to move motions from the floor of these meetings that put alternative proposals to Unions NSW.
While there is general awareness among active unionists that a follow-up mass meeting of NSW union members is planned for July 1, to date there has been no public information available on the Unions NSW website about this or plans for a family day at Homebush Olympic Stadium on August 7.
Unlike UnionsWA and the Queensland Council of Unions, the Unions NSW executive made a decision not to join the Victorian Trades Hall Council in cross-union stop-work and protest action on June 30. It is widely understood that the ACTU's position was not to have all states out on the same day around the country during the week of action. However, united action nationally on June 30 would have been an opportunity to send a strong message to the federal government that working people will not accept its industrial relations attacks.
Aside from the question of dates, focus should now be on the content of action in NSW on July 1. Unions NSW has not yet committed to stop-work action to support the mass meetings on July 1. Some union leaders are simply recommending that members access flexible work arrangements to attend the mass meetings on May 27. If this is the case for July 1, clearly this will disadvantage and limit the ability of many workers to participate in these events across the state.
Rank-and-file unionists and progressive union leaderships need to campaign to turn July 1 in NSW into a day of cross-union stop-work and protest action, rather than allow it to be limited to a one-hour morning meeting.
To that end, 30 unionists and community activists in Sydney met on May 21 to support a campaign for united stop-work and protest action in NSW on July 1. Supporters of the newly formed coalition to defend workers' rights and unions will be leafleting delegates' meetings on May 27.
Education sector plans protests
The National Tertiary Education Union and the Australian Education Union (in the TAFE sector) are set to mobilise their members for a national day of action on June 1 against the workplace relations requirements being demanded by the federal government in exchange for continued funding. In NSW, the NTEU has gained support from Unions NSW for the day of action and a call was made on May 19 for all NSW affiliates to support the protest action in the city at lunchtime.
According to a May 15 statement by Grahame McCulloch, NTEU general secretary, "In addition to protest activities and community meetings at campuses across the country, there may be strikes at a significant number of the nation's public universities where enterprise bargaining has not yet been completed, depending on the outcome of talks in the coming days".
Last week, NTEU members' meetings held on several sites around NSW voted to support the June 1 day of action, with some deciding on stop-works, morning pickets and other protest action.
In Sydney, unionists will converge on Sydney University at noon, then march past the University of Technology, Sydney into the city for combined protest action.
From Green Left Weekly, May 25, 2005.
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