Peter Short, Perth
On March 21, the monthly Unions WA council meeting looked set to decide against organising an ACTU-proposed June 28 protest rally against the new federal industrial relations laws. However, several unions intervened to get unanimous delegate support for deferring the decision until the April council meeting, keeping alive the possibility of a coordinated protest in WA on June 28.
The motion in question recommends that Unions WA not call a rally, but instead support individual unions who wish to take action on the day. This flowed from a previous meeting of Unions WA's industrial relations campaign committee, at which a majority of unions attending decided they couldn't stage a rally. However, some unions that support the June 28 proposal, including the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union/Electrical Trades Union, were not present at that meeting.
CEPU/ETU secretary Les McLaughlan moved the motion at the council meeting to defer the decision, saying, "In the week Howard proclaims his new laws, voting against having a rally sends the wrong signals". McLaughlan emphasised that more time was needed for unions to discuss the proposal. He also highlighted the May 7 May Day protest as a vital focus for the campaign, urging unions to work hard to mobilise all their members.
Leaders of the AMWU and Maritime Union of Australia delegations, including MUA state secretary Chris Cain, spoke strongly in favour of a June 28 rally. Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union secretary Dave Kelly spoke against the rally proposal, saying it would detract from his union's other work, particularly organising lower-paid, non-union workers. Unions WA secretary Dave Robinson also spoke against, saying that when unions were canvassed, the rally proposal was not widely supported.
Uncertainty among the WA unions about organising a June 28 rally is in part fuelled by recent attacks against the WA branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. The CFMEU and its members on the city tunnel section of the Perth to Mandurah railway are being heavily targeted by Howard's task force (the Australian Building and Construction Commission) following a bitter 10-day stoppage.
The ETU and AMWU statewide delegates' conferences in late March-early April are likely to generate further momentum for a cross-union rally on June 28. A few days after the Unions WA meeting, McLaughlan told Green Left Weekly: "There should be a rally sometime in June. If we wait 'til November it is too late."
He emphasised that a rally would have to be carefully prepared as the threat of legal action by hostile employers was very real. "Our rally might have to be on a non-workday to avoid some of these threats. However, if momentum really builds up, for example if a unionist is jailed, then the position can radically change."
From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.
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