BY MELANIE SJOBERG
"The manufacturing industry campaign, which is already underway and escalating in Victoria ... presents a serious threat to the workplace relations system", minister for workplace relations Peter Reith told parliament on May 11, during the second reading of his amendments to the Workplace Relations Act.
Having failed to get through a "second wave" of changes to the act in 1999, Reith has colluded with the corporate leaders to introduce harsh new measures which ban industry-wide bargaining and related industrial action, restrict strike action to a 48-hour maximum and to only those unionists directly affected by an agreement, and entrench employers' right to pursue common law action against those involved in "unlawful" strikes.
Reith has responded the demands of the Australian Industry Group, which represents manufacturing businesses and feels threatened by a Metal Trades Federation of Unions' (MTFU) Campaign 2000. This campaign seeks a common expiry date for all enterprise agreements in Victoria, so as to allow industry-wide negotiations.
Reith declared that AIG submissions to him "clearly identified the need for this remedial legislative action in order to maintain proper conduct".
"Pattern bargaining is designed to undermine Australia's successful enterprise bargaining system and return workplace relations to a centrally controlled one-size-fits-all approach", the minister railed.
The proposed amendments will extend the powers of the Industrial Relations Commission to make orders to stop or prevent industrial action, including a new clause under which the IRC "must" terminate a bargaining period if a union is engaging in pattern bargaining. Unions attempting to impose pattern bargaining will be deemed to be not negotiating in good faith and their actions will lose "protected" status under the act.
The new amendments do not touch employer attempts to develop industry-wide negotiation strategies, however. The AIG has sought to ensure its members take a united stand against the unions, including establishing an industry-wide fighting fund, advising companies to hastily renegotiate enterprise agreements before the old one expires and to make use of legal penalties of up to $10,000 if unions have "coerced" employers to attend negotiations.
The timing of the changes could not be more significant. Voting in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, a leading force in the MTFU, concluded on May 19 for the posts of national secretary and Victorian state secretary. The militant Workers First team, contesting both positions, has been the prime mover in Campaign 2000, much to the consternation of the AIG, Reith and the pro-business union leaders.