Chris Spindler
On November 15 we witnessed one of the biggest mobilisations of workers and their communities, supporters and families. At least 200,000 participated in the Melbourne rally and march against PM John Howard's IR laws, certainly the biggest demonstration I've ever been to. I'm very proud to say that the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union [AMWU] mobilised at least 30,000 of our members in Melbourne alone. This demo built on the 120,000 who mobilised in Melbourne June 30.
The ACTU has said that at least 600,000 mobilised nationally.
These mobilisations took place despite the federal government spending $55 million of our money in advertising, trying to convince us that individual contracts and the loss of penalties are positive things. The unions have spent $12 million and we are winning the PR battle.
The largest cheers at the Melbourne rally were for any comment that Howard must be kicked out. The most popular chant was "The workers united shall never be defeated".
The message is clear, Howard. We, the people, reject your legislation and your attempt to undermine and attack the wages and conditions of all Australian workers.
Howard has already said that these actions will not change his mind. He has also put forward some other warped ideas.
Howard the coward said last week:"The new IR laws will bring Australia into the 21st Century." Hello Johnny! Don't know if anyone has told you, but we are already in the 21st century!
What he wants to take away
Look at what he's proposing: Individual contracts over collective bargaining. In 1904, collective bargaining was introduced for wages and conditions into the industrial relations system because it was recognised that an employee negotiating with his or her boss was in an unequal relationship. It stank. Collective agreements became the basis of the IR system 100 years ago!
He's also proposing the loss of basic award conditions, such as penalty work for weekend work (won in 1947) and four weeks' paid annual leave (won in 1974) or even one week's paid annual leave (won in 1936). He even wants to do away with protection against unfair dismissal, won in the 1960s.
So, Johnny, workers and their families have lived under a system of individual contracts, without penalties, annual leave, or protection against unfair dismissal.
But what Howard's laws threaten is not just penalty rates, overtime pay, annual leave, penalty provisions and breaks. They also threaten paid public holidays.
Isn't Howard a devout Australian patriot? Obviously not any more. ANZAC Day? Australia Day? Scrapped! He's also a royalist isn't he? No. Scrap the Queen's birthday holiday! He says he's a Christian. What about Christmas Day and Easter? All up for grabs.
He also said: "Unions will no longer have a stranglehold on the economy." If this is such a bad thing, then why is he saying that the economy is doing so well?
Maybe the unions should have more say. Put more unionists in control and we might create a system with good public education, improved health services, well funded public transport, regional infrastructure.
But enough joking. Let's make no mistake who these laws are really for.
They aren't for the unemployed: They'll be forced onto individual contracts under the threat of losing their entitlements — contracts without penalty rates, public holidays or overtime rates. And who will be used to undercut our wages and conditions built-up over time in campaigns and enterprise agreements?
The laws are not for the single mums who have to work part time to keep a pension and then lose that time with their children, and lose their pay, because they will need to pay for more child care.
They're not for the disabled either, who may also be forced to work to keep their pension.
The laws are certainly not for us — the workers who built this society, who are productive and work hard. They are not for us because they threaten to take away the many gains our predecessors, and in some cases we ourselves, fought for and won. Gains like getting a little fairness in dismissals, getting a little extra for our holidays, enjoying a long-weekend with family and friends, or getting paid a little extra for those punishing shifts, or those damn extra hours.
These reforms — reactionary rollbacks — are aimed purely and simply at making production in this country more profitable for the bosses, the big bosses. That 1% of society who have no idea what it's like to live week to week, hand to mouth. They don't know what it's like to finish the second last day before pay day with $4.50 in your pocket. They're the ones that aim to get that $4.50 — and a little bit more on top.
"The government trusts employers and employees to make the right decisions in the workplace", Howard says. So let us do it Howard! This legislation is 600 pages long. That doesn't sound like "simplifying" and making IR less complicated.
Then there are restrictions on what you can have in your agreement, and how you can win that agreement. And further restrictions on your right of representation by the union. No, there is no greater flexibility here — for us — just more red tape.
There is no trust here. It's a set of rules that simply makes it harder to reach a positive agreement as a collective of workers.
Where to now?
So where to now? We're realists — we expect this legislation will be passed.
This campaign needs to be strong. This legislation needs to be defeated. Already the campaign has organised two huge demos in Melbourne — 120,000 on June 30, and yesterday over 200,000, with many thousands more rallying in regional centres.
I know our members, among hundreds of others, have leafleted railway stations, shopping centres and the footy. We've had stalls at the Ballarat and Dandenong shows, letterboxed, organised and supported public meetings, and spoke to community groups. We're organising marginal seats campaigns against the Liberals and so much more. This is only the beginning.
Whenever the legislation is passed — however much of it is passed — the campaign goes on. This march, and others like it are not the end. They're just the beginning.
Understand this, we as a union will not be walking away while our members come under attack for defending their wages and conditions.
This is it Howard: We don't accept your legislation. It's a blatant attack on the working conditions of all Australians.
So in closing I want to give you three main targets of the campaign.
1. The vandal John Howard who wants to spray-paint his tag across the rights and conditions of workers; who wants to create an underclass, whose legislation will impact first on the most vulnerable. His policies will increase the number of working poor in this country, and push the unemployed, single mothers and the disabled to accept jobs without basic conditions.
Whether he admits it or not, Howard is under pressure. He is losing the media war and he is losing the street war. Now he must lose it in the workshop too. The pressure must continue.
He is our target — we want him out. And not just Howard, but Kevin Andrews and his parliamentary mates. We want to be on the doorstep, in their face, until we win. They are our number one target.
2. The weak Labor Party, who we can't trust. It's only because of the massive campaign, only because the Liberals are losing support and only because of the massive support for a system based on genuine bargaining and protection, that Kim Beazley has started to come out and say "maybe we'll rip it up and go back to a fairer system". A month ago the Labor Party was silent. Now it's "we'll rip it up". Well, let's see Beazley.
Let's hear the words "repeal the IR laws". But let's not just hear it — let's see it. Because if you do as you might expect, to win the next election — we want a promise — just one upheld!
We know whoever is in government, the only thing that they will listen to is the strength of the campaign.
3. The lying and often heartless companies. Quite rightly, these demos are national mobilisations aimed at Howard and I think Labor too. But make no mistake, there aren't too many bosses standing back and saying good on you, go for it. There are some, like Qantas, Visy and Australia Post that even threatened their workers for exercising their rights!
The bosses will be the main beneficiaries of this legislation, so they need to be convinced that there's no future in pursuing it. And in fact, that the pain will be greater, than if the management decided to continue as if the legislation did not exist. After all, no boss has to offer individual contracts, or make agreements that aim to give their workers less in wages or conditions.
Friends and workmates, this campaign can turn unionism around in this country. Memberships were declining. Now they are either increasing or starting to turn around. The union movement had lost contact with the community. Now the ties are growing again — with civil liberties and community organisations. Solidarity between workers, and sites, and unions has been under pressure. Enterprise agreements aim to split us, individual contracts aim to split us even further.
We are rewinning the idea that collectivity is at the heart of unionism. It's this idea — the idea of collectivity, of the workers together will never be defeated, with the strength of each other and our community — that will carry this campaign forward to the point where we can say we have defeated Howard's legislation; to the point where we can say we won.
A famous revolutionary once said, "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty". Fellow workers, this is where we are at.
[Chris Spindler is the president of the Victorian branch of AMWU. This is an edited version of his speech to the Portland rally of 1200 on November 16.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 23, 2005.
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