Socialist Party Australia - Howard introduces IR 'reforms'

John Howard introduced his changes to the industrial relations system into parliment yesterday.
With the bosses cheering from the sidelines, the union movement needs to carefully analyse the situation and develop a fighting program in response.
The following article by Robyn Hohl is the Socialist Party's contribution to the debate on which way forward.

Since the re-election of the coalition government last November, John Howard has made no secret of the fact that he intends to dramatically overhaul the nation’s industrial relations laws once his government gains control of both houses of Parliament in July.

And despite all the government spin doctoring which will accompany them, the aim of the new laws are quite clear - to further boost the profits of big business by radically attacking the wages, conditions and rights of workers.

He also intends to use powers under the corporations act to eliminate all state based awards and IR systems whilst dramatically stripping back the federal system as well.

These attacks are being driven by extreme right wing ideologues from the HR Nicholls Society and bosses’ organisations such as the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) who have stated they want all awards got rid of completely, to be replaced by just 5 or 6 minimum conditions.

On top of the new legislation, many of the previous bills that the government wasn’t able to get through in their past terms will also be reintroduced now they have the numbers. One of the bills being reintroduced is the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill which outlaws virtually all industrial action by building workers and, amongst other things, provides for massive fines for individuals as well as the union if breached. And cop this – it’s to be retrospective to March this year – in other words, it’s already in.

However if you thought this doesn’t affect you, then think again. Howard wants to exempt businesses with under 100 employees from unfair dismissal laws, this accounts for almost 3.6 million workers. And whatever they get away with against the building workers, is sure to flow on to the rest of us before too long.

LEST WE FORGET!

In 1991 the New Zealand conservative government introduced the Employment Contracts Act (ECA) which basically abolished awards and collective bargaining in favour of individual contracts – just as Howard is now intending in Australia. Many unions were smashed and wages and conditions driven back decades.

It is now five years since the ECA was scrapped but NZ workers and their families are still struggling to rebuild their unions and recover from the damage caused. According to Workers Online, senior security guards driving large quantities of cash around the North Island, are still only earning $12.50 an hour, and experienced heavy equipment operators, with all their tickets, are on just $13 an hour. To get overtime, the guards had to work more than 11 hours a day and the machinery operators had to be on the job for more than 50 hours a week.

TIME TO FIGHT - IF WE DON'T FIGHT, WE LOSE

A choice is therefore currently facing the union movement leaders in Australia:

a) Defy the laws and render them unusable by organising a new era of militant industrial and community struggle to defend our current living standards and working conditions or

b) raise the white flag, beg the politicians to see sense, and meanwhile ‘maintain the rage’ by way of television ads and letters to politicians in the hope of an electoral ‘backlash’ in 4 years. New Zealand here we come! (Unfortunately this seems to be the preferred option of the ACTU as Greg Combet and Sharron Burrows have already said that they won’t be advocating any industrial action which might incur fines.)

There can certainly never be any guarantees of a victory in any struggle such as we now face, but one thing is sure: If we don’t mount a strong and determined industrial fight back, we WILL lose.

WHAT BROUGHT US TO THIS POSITION?

Unfortunately, the idea of cosying up to the bosses has been dominant in the union movement for many years now. Tame unionism became the established and enforced norm during the Accord years under the last Labor governments. Any union that dared to step outside the Accord and stand up and lead a fight for decent wages and conditions for their members was first isolated and then smashed (remember the BLF and the Pilots???).

Consequently, the Accord years saw a huge flow of wealth from the pockets of workers to those of the bosses as over $20 billion dollars per year was redistributed from wages to profits. Meanwhile in most unions, the delegates’ structures (the lifeblood of any union), were left to wither on the vine or were consciously dismantled as deals were sealed between the ACTU, government and bosses over the heads of the membership.

Since the Accords, unions have continued to operate in much the same tame way, running scared of the bosses courts and appealing to the state ALP governments to ‘do the right thing’ rather than organise our membership to stand up and fight for our rights. This has all contributed to the low levels of unionism and the high levels of casualisation and job insecurity in Australia today where many young people have never experienced the ‘luxury’ of a permanent job. And once again, it is these casualised workers who stand to be hit the hardest by these coming attacks.

It’s therefore little wonder so few young people today are active union members. Apart from seeing a brief glimpse of what’s possible during the 1998 MUA dispute, they have grown up without ever witnessing the collective power of the organised class in action.

CONDITIONS WON, ATTACKS DEFEATED BY INDUSTRIAL MILITANCY

However the Australian working class prior to the 1980s had a proud history of industrial militancy which won those things many of us now take for granted: minimum award wages and conditions like holiday pay, sick leave, workers compensation, penalty rates for unsociable hours, leave loading, long service leave and of course, workplace safety, to name but some – all of which are once again now under threat. None of this was given to the working class on a plate – all had to be fought hard for using the only collective and effective weapon that workers have - withdrawal of our labour.

We cannot allow the ACTU to now raise the white flag, in our name, on all of this without an organised, strong and determined industrial struggle. There are not enough gaols to hold us all when we stand united against the introduction and use of these unjust laws – they can and must be met head on and defeated together rather than waiting for the bosses to pick us off one by one in the future. And it’s not like the organised working class in this country haven’t done it before!

Clarrie O'Shea, the Victorian tram workers leader in 1969 went to gaol rather than go against his members and hand over union money in fines imposed under the Penal Powers to the bosses’ courts. An ‘anonymous’ capitalist (later named) eventually stepped in and payed the fines in an effort to put an end to the massive workers’ revolt that ensued. In the six days that followed O’Shea’s gaoling, over 1 million workers throughout Australia walked off the job to demand his release and the repeal of the Penal Powers.

This occurred despite the treacherous role played by the Victorian Trades Hall Council and their counterparts in NSW and Tasmania who all ran scared at the illegality of defying the courts and refused to sanction industrial action. However the best of the unions simply organised together around them and 24hour stoppages were also called by TLCs in West Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Newcastle, NSW South Coast, and Canberra. This resolute action meant that the Penal Powers went into abeyance as bosses and governments didn’t dare use them again for nearly 20 years for fear of provoking the class into action again.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

As any active unionist knows, membership increases whenever a genuine industrial struggle takes place and workers see the relevance of being organised. Whilst Sky Channel info sessions are all well and good as a preliminary way of informing members of what is to come, we need state wide all unions' delegates meetings in one location in every state to enable delegates to debate, plan and organise appropriate co-ordinated industrial action. A mass delegates meeting in Melbourne in late March endorsed a 4 hour stoppage and mass rally for the June 30th. This is a start.

Ongoing local and regional protests, TV ads and letter writing all need to be backed up by 24 hour general strike action with mass rallies in all major cities to bring home to the bosses and government the collective power of the organised working class and the ramifications which will ensue if they attempt to use these laws and impose fines.

If the ACTU and state union councils won’t lead the industrial fight back, then we need to remember the lessons of the tram workers dispute and organise on a rank and file basis and pressure the best of our own union leaders to step into the breach and start organising in a similar fashion. Big business knows how to move funds around and come out flush while leaving workers and small creditors high and dry - we shouldn’t be shy about following our ‘masters’ lead to protect our own fighting funds by any means necessary.

Now is the time to revive the solidarity in action our movement was built upon and show that our slogans, “workers united will never be defeated!” and “An injury to one, is an injury to all” are more than just echoes from the past.

WORKERS NEED A POLITICAL VOICE

However we mustn’t forget that this government is not limiting their attacks to workers and their unions. Disabled and single parent pensioners, the unemployed, Aboriginal Australians, students, environmental activists, indeed just about every sector of society apart from the very rich and corporate Australia, are also facing attacks from this lot. If ever there was a time for united class fight back, it is now.

The big industrial struggles of the 1890s over individual contracts (ring a bell?) led to the realisation that the working class of this country needed a political voice as well as union representation. As a direct result, the ALP was formed. Now over a hundred years later, the ALP has become just a second eleven for the Libs and their big business masters. Therefore the need for a new political party of the working class, capable of leading the fight to overthrow of the rule of big business, is again paramount if we are not to be forever fighting the same battles over and over again.

The Socialist Party is calling for-

- mass delegates meetings in every major city to discuss attacks and plan for ongoing national action

- local and regional rank and file committees to be set up, which include families, to organise ongoing actions together with community groups

- a 24hr general strike on June 30 with demos in every major city

- an immediate 24hr national general strike if these new laws are attempted to be used

- a fighting leadership in the ACTU to challenge Howard and advance workers interests nationwide

- the establishment of fighting funds to support workers in dispute

- opposition to Howard's federalism, No to a federal system that winds back conditions

- touch one touch all - for unity of all groups fighting Howard's attacks

- Unions to pay no fines, don't let Howard bleed our unions dry

- the unions to set a minimum wage that workers need and fight for it, no confidence in bosses system of setting wages

- militant responses to unfair dismisals, fight all job loses with industrial action including pickets and occupations

- a new workers party based on progressive unions and community groups to lead the struggle of the working class to challenge the bosses and fight for socialism