Graham Matthews, Sydney
On June 22, 70 people attended a "Stand Up and Speak Out" meeting at the Parramatta Town Hall. Organised by the Coalition Against the Howard Government, the meeting involved a broad coalition of unions, the University of Western Sydney Students Association (UWSSA), community organisations and environmentalists.
The keynote speaker at the meeting was Unions NSW secretary John Robertson. "[PM John] Howard is trying to frame the debate that if you're arguing against this change [in industrial relations laws], you're arguing against low unemployment and growth", Robertson told the meeting.
"Why aren't we doing more in regards to taking industrial action?", Robertson rhetorically asked. "The question we have to ask is 'Will it build community support if we carry out industrial action?' I don't rest on Labor [repealing the Howard government's legislation] unless we change public opinion."
"Our challenge is to build public support and change public opinion", Robertson concluded.
Simon Tayler, speaking on behalf of the UWSSA, argued that voluntary student unionism (VSU) legislation would cut resources to progressive campaigns. The federal government's plans for a two-tiered education system at a tertiary level have been continually challenged by student unions, Tayler argued. VSU legislation would help remove this obstacle to the government's agenda.
"The movement needs to avoid the argument that there are ways around the VSU legislation by amendment", Tayler argued. "The National Party has signalled its opposition to some aspects [of the legislation]. I don't take comfort in that. With the ability of universities to separate out services, what happens is the same thing as happened to Petro Georgiou. You get rid of some of the worst aspects of VSU, but you leave the core intact."
Maree O'Halloran, president of the NSW Teachers Federation, described the government's attack on public education, particularly the attempt to force individual contracts on teaching staff at TAFEs. Commenting on federal education minister Brendan Nelson's claim that individual contracts would give TAFE staff the potential to increase their wages by 100%, "this would mean wages falling dramatically somewhere else", O'Halloran argued.
Government legislation was aimed at "stripping away a century of union advances", she said. Commenting on the strategy necessary to defeat the Coalition government's attacks, she said: "We need to back up education with industrial action — at the appropriate times."
"Electronic surveillance of building sites, massive fines for attending meetings, jailing of organisers — this is the building industry in 2005 under John Howard", argued Andrew Ferguson, NSW state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), in his address to the meeting. "This fight is about living standards. The campaign is about social justice. This is also about a redistribution of power — away from working men and women and back to employers."
Ferguson detailed many of the draconian restrictions on the CFMEU contained in the Howard government's so-called Building Industry Improvement bill, introduced into the federal parliament in March.
On fighting the new anti-union laws, Ferguson urged caution, lest the right of entry of union officials to work sites is rescinded, or union officials are jailed, or unions are bankrupted by government fines. He cautioned against the breaking of the industrial laws, arguing that the arrest of union officials would mean that "there is no-one able to organise the union".
The meeting was also addressed by Leah Godfrey from the Western Sydney Community Forum and Kate Fairburn from the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, June 29, 2005.
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