Brianna Pike, Melbourne
Young workers are being particularly badly affected by the massive attack on workers' rights that is under way from the Coalition federal government. Young people are already among the most exploited workers in Australia, being highly casualised, disproportionately on individual contracts, paid "youth" wage rates, and having to study and do waged work. For many the new Work Choices laws will make life almost unbearable.
In response, a young workers' rights conference is being organised in Geelong on June 17, initiated by the socialist youth organisation Resistance with the support of the Geelong Trades Hall Council. The conference theme — Up Yours Howard: Young Workers Fight Back — expresses the sentiments of many young workers who are getting more organised to defend and extend workplace rights.
Justine Kamprad, a conference co-ordinator and activist with Resistance, told Green Left Weekly: "Many young people in Geelong are tired of being pushed around. A young woman who worked in a fish and chip shop was sacked for not working weekends and then her boss paid her last pay in five cent coins. Geelong Trades Hall organised a community picket to name and shame that employer and since then the word has spread that GTH is the place to get help if you are ripped off by your boss."
The conference aims to bring together young workers from a wide range of workplaces and experiences, including from fully unionised workplaces and those that have no union representation at present. The conference agenda will include sessions to inform young workers about their rights and inspire them to become activists in their workplaces and communities.
"We want the conference to help young people work out what do to about Work Choices", Kamprad said, "and also provide an example to others of how they can get organised in other parts of the country".
In addition to a range of workshops, guest speakers at the conference will include trade unionists involved in young workers' rights campaigns in New Zealand and from the new United Casual Workers Alliance on the Gold Coast in Queensland. "We want everyone to hear about how the Unite union in New Zealand just won a youth wage rise from the fast-food companies by organising not only workers but high-school students as well", Kamprad said.
If you are sick of being exploited at work and/or you would like to get involved in the Up Yours Howard conference, phone Justine on 0422 720 216 or Geelong Trades Hall on (03) 5229 2216.
From Green Left Weekly, May 3, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.