Katie Cherrington, Newcastle
Rank-and-file members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) are uniting across the country against the May 5 decision by the union's National Management Committee (NMC) to close the Hunter region organising office.
The decision was made during three emergency meetings of the NMC, without consulting CPSU members. More than 350 union members in the tax division immediately signed a petition against the closure, and motions have been passed by members and delegates in all divisions across Australia. However, so far the NMC has refused to even reconsider the decision.
Affected members and supporters have joined together to form the Hunter Alliance, in order to fight against this attack on regional unionism.
The Hunter region has a long and proud history of unionism and struggle, and today has the highest density of CPSU members nationally. The number of members in the region is well above that required for a full-time, locally based organiser.
Arguments about the rationalisation of resources thus have little basis in reality.
Increased pressure on workplace delegates to bear the load is expected. The undemocratic and corporate nature of this decision also indicates a very serious threat to union organisers and members in other regions.
As the federal government steps up its assault on union rights and working conditions, public servants need to be organised in a democratic union that can respond to the threats ahead. There can be no lasting improvement as long as the union is run along top-down corporate lines and members are denied any real say.
As long as the CPSU leadership refuses to provide a fighting lead against the Coalition government's attacks and fails to combat the ALP's economic rationalist policies; as long as members feel excluded from decision making; as long as we continue to play by our employers' rules, the CPSU will continue to spiral into irrelevance.
The Hunter Alliance is organising a community picket outside the CPSU national office in Sydney on June 9.
[Katie Cherrington is a CPSU member and an activist in the rank-and-file group Members First.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, June 9, 2004.
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