Union Movement at Crossroads Again
1 June 2009
By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary
This week sees the peak body of the Australian trade union movement, the ACTU, conduct its triennial Congress in
After 10 years of a belligerent Howard Government attacking workers rights in general and trade unions in particular, the ACTU prepared a strong, well worded IR policy.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Howard not only lost the election, he also lost his seat.
More than a year and a half on, a new IR Act is about to come into operation, with Howard’s WorkChoices continuing on all this time. Many employers used it viciously, despite the 2007 election result being based on the successful Your Rights at Work Campaign.
A debate is emerging within the union movement about where to go post-WorkChoices and with the introduction of the Fair Work Act.
Do we place a lot of effort into working through the new Act or do we push hard for more IR legislative changes via Rudd and Gillard? Of course, it’s easy to say do both. However, experience tells us that if the emphasis is on the former approach you are less likely to get any traction on the latter.
It has been claimed there are some good things in the Fair Work Act. Others say – ‘well show us these good things, they aren’t obvious!’ The proposition that there are “grey areas in the Fair Work Act which are open to interpretation,” is not getting a lot of people excited.
I suggest it is important to seek a second round of IR reforms from a re-elected Federal ALP government. The ALP leadership needs to embrace this idea so that the rank and file will get out there and see them win again in 2010. The attitudes of companies like Telstra, Cochlear, the Commonwealth Bank and the big Hotel Chains tells us that the Fair Work Act has not neutralised the excesses of WorkChoices.
A united position around an updated IR reform position is essential for the ACTU Congress. Next stop is the ALP national conference and that is a whole new ball game.
