By Tom Flanagan
HOBART — At a time when successful campaigns by trade unions are few and far between, the Tasmanian branch of the Health Services Union has managed to defeat attacks on award provisions through an uncompromising campaign which mobilised members in defence of their interests.
Green Left spoke to two key figures in the campaign, Gail Crotty, the industrial advocate, and Dave McLane, the junior organiser.
Gail Crotty explained that the dispute arose out of attempts by the Department of Health to alter award conditions without consulting the union.
"If we didn't fight it as hard as we did and ultimately win that fight, it would have set a precedent, not only for this state but, I believe, throughout Australia."
The campaign began in earnest when circulars were distributed advising workers of changes to annual leave loadings for shift workers. These changes meant that, on average, workers at a wage below registered nurse would have lost $200 to $400 from their annual leave package. Lower paid workers would have been most affected.
Other circulars dealt with conditions like higher duty allowances and sick leave for nurses. According to Gail, the last straw was the taking of tea, coffee and biscuits right across the hospital system.
"Because we couldn't get the government or the Health Department to move on these issues, we lodged a dispute with the Tasmanian Industrial Commission", Gail explained.
Industrial Commission
" We ran the case before Commissioner Watling." Watling is an ex-member of the Labor Party who was expelled at the same time as Brian Harradine for alleged connections with the far-right National Civic Council and also an ex-president of the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council.
Gail said, "All I wanted was an order or a strong recommendation that the circulars be withdrawn and the status quo be restored until the merits of the conditions were challenged before the tribunal."
Watling's eventual response was to suggest that the issue be dealt
with through award variation or interpretation, or through a challenge to the breach of the award through the magistrate's court. In Gail's words, "he passed the buck".
"We were asking him to do his job and recommend the withdrawal of the circulars until the issue was settled on its merits. Because he wouldn't even do that, one has to ask the question not only of the role of Commissioner Watling, but also of the necessity of having an Industrial Commission."
While the hearing continued there was a crowd of about 500 HSUA members outside the court. Some had come from as far away as Wynyard on the north-west coast.
Dave McLane was coordinating outside. While the atmosphere was highly charged, things were initially quite orderly. Anger was directed toward the Field government, not the commission.
This changed when reports started filtering out that Gail was having difficulty putting her submission, that she was constantly being badgered from the bench, diverting her from her line of argument.
"When the membership heard these reports they took things into their own hands and stormed the commission. It was a spontaneous thing that came from the crowd. I didn't lead them though the door, though I'm proud to say that I was right up there with them", Dave said.
Walk-out
Watling handed down his decision at 4.30 p.m. on a Friday. It might have been expected that some of the heat would subside over the weekend, but at 11 a.m. on the following Monday, for the first time in the history of the Royal Hobart Hospital, workers walked off the job.
HSUA members stopped collecting payments, keeping records and processing information relating to the flow of money into the system.
"By default, we introduced a free health care system into Tasmania", Gail commented. "We didn't have to go out and get the members involved; they were calling for us to have strike action. In fact, a section just walked off the job and we had to call them back. We argued that we had to have an intelligent, long-lasting campaign. If you walk off the job for 36 or 48 hours, you're just going to do yourself in and not have an impact on the government."
According to Dave, the union was only just starting to get things wound up when they were summoned to Premier Field's office.
"It's no exaggeration to say that the government could have been brought down ... There's 7500 members in both the private and public sectors — traditionally low paid, with a large majority of women who've had it really rough. It's hard, heavy, dirty work. The average salary is $18-20,000, and a lot of people are part-timers — single income mothers with a part-time job. And here's a so-called Labor government putting the boot into them."
Field's role
The focus was on the Field government. "In our first negotiating session with Field, he appeared very uncomfortable and, I think, in a panic ... [with] Robin Grey and the Liberals waiting in the wings, assessing that this was the big one", Gail pointed out.
Field backtracked at the first session, agreeing to withdraw all the circulars, agreeing that retrospectivity would apply and that a task force would be set up to look at ways of saving costs, but with no reference to conditions of service or salary reduction.
"But when we got back to the office", Gail explains, "I was uneasy that we didn't have anything in writing. So we contacted Tim Bacon, the secretary of the Trades and Labour Council, who was involved in the negotiations ... He said, they're going to release a press statement on it, let's see what's in the press statement ...
The press release "stated categorically that the bans and limitations had been lifted ... and we hadn't even had time to go to our membership, so ... they were still on. [The release also said] that the deal was that the circulars relating to nurses' career structures would be withdrawn. There was no mention of the [other] circulars.
"So after a series of phone calls ... the head of the Premier's Department came with the document and said that the words 'all relevant circulars' should be incorporated into the press release.
"We had a settlement but we didn't have a written settlement ... We had trade union leaders saying that they'd put their credibility on the line before the Labor government would backtrack, but it was very clear to us within hours that they'd backtracked."
Tricks
In Dave's words: "It's a typical Labor trick. They're absolutely brilliant at making promises and defusing things. They've got some pretty capable advisers, I suppose, when it comes
to knowing how to con workers and how to sell people out."
A stop-work meeting was called at the RHH early the following morning and a resolution passed lifting the bans but also saying that, if things weren't as they appeared, the bans would go back on and the campaign would be stepped up.
"When it was clear that the Labor government had reneged on the terms, perhaps thinking that they'd disempowered the membership to a certain extent, they started to dictate the terms of settlement themselves", Gail recalled.
"They watered it right down to a pretty pathetic position where they only suspended a number of circulars. They wouldn't back pay people who'd lose money out of it.
"But what they hadn't assessed was that there were two industrial operators that wouldn't buy into that because we weren't in the business of keeping them in power above protecting the conditions of the people we represent."
The two made it clear to the government that "we'd go back to the membership ... But they tried to isolate us in a number of ways, and tried to do their negotiations through the TLC secretary. They tried to isolate me by not telling me when the meetings were taking place or insisting that the secretary of the union be there rather than the negotiators or the industrial officers", Gail explained.
Going for broke
"We saw a way around it by trying to get people in the government and in the department itself to talk to Field about the seriousness of what he'd done ... We would have gone for broke.
"I think our message finally hit home to a number of people, and they put in train a series of meetings and events that finally brought about the resolution of the dispute. We got a written agreement which we're basically very happy with.
"All in all, we went away pretty happy ... What gave us strength more than anything else was that when we went around the workplaces, particularly the RHH, there was such a recognition and response from the membership. They were really charged, they felt for the first time that they could identify with their union."
In relation to the government, Dave expressed the view that "the Field Labor government is really no different to any other Labor government. They pride themselves on being better managers of capital than the capitalists are; that's why they fundamentally go wrong.
"There are people within the union movement who believe that the workers would be no worse off under the Liberal government, and could even be better off because you don't have the ties that were there between Labor and the trade union movement.
"People in the trade union hierarchy will sit back and allow militants to oppose Liberal governments and fight them. It's those very people that will go out and sabotage and hold down legitimate militant struggles against a Labor government".