All hell is breaking loose on the labor front down under. Yesterday more than 250,000 Australians took to the streets to protest the Government’s workplace laws agenda. And they did it despite that fact that many large companies manufacturers obtained orders in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission preventing their workers from marching. Workers who ignored those orders faced potential fines of $6600.
The Government of John Howard takes control of the Senate on July 1 and plans to use its new powers to push through changes to Australia's workplace laws that include according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU):
• A wage freeze for 1.6 million award workers. Employment Minister Kevin Andrews has confirmed that Government changes to the way minimum wages are set will mean low paid workers will not receive a pay rise for at least the next 18 months.
• Removing protection from unfair dismissal for 3.6 million workers. All people employed in companies with less than 100 staff will lose protection from unfair dismissal. This will particularly affect Australians working in rural and regional communities.
• Allowing employers to push workers onto individual contracts that cut take-home pay and reduce employment conditions to only 5 minimum standards.
• Effectively abolish State industrial relations systems and the award safety net(Note:The Workplace Relations Act 1996 (WR Act) prescribes the employment conditions e.g. annual leave, personal and carer's leave and other entitlements and rates of pay attached to classifications, which may be included in federal awards. The aggregate of these awards, their prescriptions on employment conditions or entitlements and wage and salary rates, constitute the federal award safety net). The award safety net will be replaced with just five conditions - a minimum hourly rate of pay (currently $12.75), sick leave, annual leave, unpaid parental leave and a 38 hour working week. Many workers will lose conditions like weekend, shift and public holiday rates; overtime; redundancy pay; and allowances and loadings.
In Melbourne, the Herlad Sun says around 100,000 rallied and promised a sustained fight against proposed new work laws. The massive demonstration there shut down ports, city building sites and dozens of manufacturing businesses. The crowd, a cross-section of blue and white-collar workers, many with children, chanted "Shame Howard, shame." Others chanted: "What do we want? Howard's head!"One marcher held up a large doll, wearing a fairy costume and a John Howard mask, prompting calls of "Burn, Johnny, burn" from the crowd.Banners and purple Heath Services Union balloons bearing the slogan "Stronger together" dotted the crowd, which stretched as far as the eye could see.
ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said the changes were an attack on workers' rights and they would fight to overturn them. "We are going to fight for as long as it takes to ensure that workers' rights are respected in this country," Combet told the crowd.
Workers and their families were joined in Melbourne by representatives from church, ethnic and community groups. Jesuit Social Services director, Father Peter Norden, said government reforms would not help those living in poverty.
Victorian Industrial Relations Minister Rob Hulls also spoke, saying the Howard Government wanted a return to the "master and servant" times of the 18th century.
Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Brian Boyd said the march was one of the biggest trade union actions Melbourne had seen. "John Howard is as welcome in Melbourne as a redback spider on a dunny seat," he told the crowd.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union secretary Dave Oliver said he had a message for employers."We'll continue to fight this. We'll down tools, we'll go out into the street," he said. "Don't use these laws, or else."
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that in Adelaide about 5000 workers marched on the Adelaide offices of federal Liberal MPs to protest. The Morning Herald says workers workers stopped traffic in Adelaide's central business district as they marched on the offices of Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, Defence Minister Robert Hill, and senators Alan Ferguson and Jeannie Ferris.
"This is the biggest fight the community has ever had," South Australia's Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright told those gathered in the streets of Adelaide. "This is about a fair go for people at work, this is about decency for working class Australians. What we need to do is make sure that we apply the public pressure to John Howard, we need to make sure that this is the biggest fight that John Howard has ever had."
In Perth more thousads marched through the streets. ACTU president Sharan Burrow told the crowd the Howard Government’s plan was a sop for employers, "They are not the friend of working Australians. They're the friend of the bosses."
"This is very serious," Burrow later told Austrailan radio. "This is about whether or not working people will be treated like commodities and that is the international principle - no worker should be treated like a commodity."
In Hobart, there were more than 3000 in the street in front of the city hall. The Morning Herald reports that, Unions Tasmania secretary Simon Cocker told the crowd in Hobart their rights as workers were on the line and at risk of disappearing forever."We must send a message to those who want to dismantle the institutions of a fair and decent society that we care," he said. "To those we elect to represent us, we must say if you vote to take away our rights, we will work to throw you out."
Unions Tasmania senior vice-president David O'Byrne said in Hobart, "This (agenda) is the biggest attack on workers' rights in 100 years.”
In Brisbane close to 50,000 turned out.
In Darwin, there were nearly 5,000 more.
And tomorrow (which has already arrived in Australia) New South Wales is scheduled to have what is expected to be overflow stop work meetings across the state.
In Sydney workers will march 'The Hungry Mile' before gathering at the Town Hall where a Sky Channel TV hook-up starting at 8.30 am will be beamed to hundreds of meeting places throughout the suburbs of Sydney and in small and large country centers across the state.
Further actions will take place for another five days.
The ACTU says, “An important focus of the national week of activities will be to inform people that are not union members about the Government's new workplace laws. The new laws will affect all Australian workers whether they are in a union or not. In fact it is those workers who do not have the protection of a strong union who will be most vulnerable to their negative impacts.”
Unions Tasmania’s Cocker declared, "We must be strong, we must be loud and we must be clear. Workers' right are worth fighting for." Sources: Liquor, Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Union, UnionsWA, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Herald Sun (Australia), Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Education Union
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