Stuart Martin, Melbourne
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) held the first of a series of national delegates' meetings at Storey Hall on March 8. The meeting updated delegates and union activists about the campaign against the federal Coalition government's new industrial relations laws.
The meeting was well attended — at least 300 delegates — although less than half the attendance at the Melbourne mass delegates' meeting before last June's protest against the federal IR attacks.
AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron told the meeting that the government attacks on union rights is a "class issue to maximise big business profit at the expense of working people", and that the current attacks on workers at Qantas, Chemelex and Dana are part of that agenda.
The other issue for the AMWU, Cameron said, is the trend of businesses exploiting section 457 of the immigration act to bring in temporary workers from overseas and undercut the conditions and pay of unionised workers. These "guest workers" are treated as little more than slave-labour — exploited then sent back to their home countries when they are not needed or start to fight for their rights.
"The problem is not the workers who are brought in but the system which allows for their exploitation", Cameron told the delegates.
A major emphasis of the meeting was on community and union campaigning. The announcement of a June 28 national day of action (see page 3) and the union's aim to set up community campaign committees where they don't exist underpinned the discussion about keeping the fight up against the IR laws. This will be combined with a union recruitment campaign and re-establishing site/shop committees to carry out the fight in workplaces.
Other issues discussed were the electoral fight against the Liberals, and the relationship between the union and the ALP.
AMWU delegates' meetings will be held in Brisbane on March 14, Hobart and Perth on March 28, and Adelaide on March 29.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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