Sue Bolton
Dick Williams, the Queensland state secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), believes the Howard government "is waging a class war", and that unionists are prepared to fight as long as union leaderships are prepared to lead.
Williams also believes that the union movement here should draw inspiration and some "very big lessons" from the recent French students and unions' victory against their anti-worker laws. "It shows that given the right leadership and the right tactics, even extremely conservative governments can be turned around."
In conversation with Green Left Weekly, Williams offered some assessment about the campaign against Work Choices. "The French students were supported by the broader left who was determined to take the government on. My understanding is that those groups led the charge, and it was only after that the unions started coming out in force and you got the breakthrough. With the community support, broader left support and the trade unions, we can turn this legislation around."
The ETU participated in all the campaign activities last year, but the hiatus after November 15 prompted concerned calls from ETU members asking what was happening next. Williams said the ETU took some suggestions to the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU), but failed to win support. It then had discussions with the metalworkers union, the Miners Federation, the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union), the BLF (Builders Labourers Federation) and the plumbers union, and came up with the idea for the "Light the Fuse" workers' rights tour.
This campaign, which culminated in a 2000-strong rally in Brisbane on April 7, involved two touring union teams of a full-time official and several rank-and-file members who "travelled the length and breadth of Queensland", visiting 25 towns and cities and speaking to about 10,000 people.
Following a massive 35,000-strong May Day protest in Brisbane, unions are now gearing up for the June 28 Australian Council of Trade Unions-called (ACTU) national day of action. There are likely to be rallies in all major centres throughout Queensland and in the Northern Territory, but Williams said the scale of the mobilisation would be influenced by the state government's level of cooperation because some unions' members work predominantly in the public sector. The first couple of anti-Work Choices rallies were supported by the Beattie Labor government, which meant that state public sector workers could apply for unpaid time to attend without any repercussions.
"We will be asking all our members to stop work and attend the rallies. That will probably equate to over 70% of our membership. At the November 15 protest, we had something like 74% of our members around the state attend rallies that day — a sensational outcome", said Williams.
Asked about what strategies could win against Howard, Williams replied that the union movement has to have a real debate about national protests, national stoppages and general strikes. "At this point, the Queensland ETU and our comrades in other states support having more national protests. Whether that will ultimately culminate in a national strike, and whether that national strike is of a short or a prolonged duration, is yet to be determined. But people have to get their minds around it; it is something that has to be debated.
"If the consensus is that it [a national strike] should go ahead, then the Queensland ETU will be in there boots and all. If we lose that debate it will not stop us as a union, either in Queensland or nationally, participating in protests against the legislation. That's the only way we're going to keep the issue in the mainstream press, before our members and the general public.
"You'll always get individuals and some unions opposed to such things [as national strikes] because they cannot mobilise their membership as well as some other unions can. We understand that our membership is made up of people from all walks of life and all political leanings from conservative to radical. We also understand that members would not support a prolonged dispute that wasn't showing some chance of turning this legislation around."
Williams believes that aspects of the anti-Work Choices campaign have been done well, but that more direct action is needed. "The ACTU and the QCU have run a spectacular campaign to wrong-foot the federal government, in particular to prove it was lying. But the ACTU could be more strident in its support of more action, particularly direct action" to force a change in the anti-worker laws.
He said that the four strategic elements needed for the campaign — political, industrial, media and legal — were happening, but that "they need to be more coordinated".
After the June 28 protests, the ETU wants to organise with other building industry unions a Walk Against Work Choices. Williams said it would be a weekend protest walk through Brisbane city to the old Botanical Gardens, and his idea is to involve those who joined the Walk for Reconciliation and the protest against the war in Iraq.
Asked about Labor's yet-to-be-released IR policy, Williams said that he had seen some drafts of it and had been "disappointed". He said his union is not giving the ALP, the QCU, or the ACTU "a blank cheque" on whatever industrial relations policy they come up with, arguing that the debate over Work Choices and finding alternatives is the most important challenge the trade union movement has faced and one it has to get right for the sake of future generations. He'd like to see the draft policy debated out on the floor of the ACTU congress.
"We're not looking for a pussycat [industrial relations] system that enables a commission, be it state or federal, to give unions and companies a period of time to agree, and if they can't then it automatically goes to arbitration. That sort of provision suits tame-cat unions, but it would kill off militant unions whose members are prepared to have a go."
From Green Left Weekly, June 7, 2006.
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