Blue Mountains Union News BMUC News and Views selected by the Blue Mountains Unions Council May 2008 Rights at Work Senators' threat to Unions, Government Welfare to Work: need Abolish the ABCC Power Sell-off opinion 2008 will be a big year resurrect WorkChoices and climate change for overhaul Construction workers It makes no commercial for the Rights at Work The threat by two As the largest A new report funded fought hard to remove sense to sell off campaign: achieving a Senators to join with membership based, by the New South the Howard profitable businesses to decent legal framework the Coalition and block public interest Wales Department is Government and its fund other projects restoring our rights, the next stage of Rudd organisations, unions calling on the Federal WorkChoices laws at such as schools, making sure Labor's Government’s are examining the Government to make last year’s election. hospitals and public IR laws get through industrial relations impact of warming on urgent changes to the More needs to be done transport. the Senate. laws are an affront to work in terms of the policy.. for a fair workplace Page 2 the majority of jobs of their members Page 3 relations system for Costa Loses plot Australians and the public interest. our own industry. ALP Conference Page 2 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

"Today is an historic day in the campaign to looking at their future careers to de-rail a Premier restore workers' rights. that won the unwinnable election," he said.

New AWAs "For more than ten years the Liberals and Mr Iemma earlier told the conference that private Nationals promoted AWAs as a means to attack sector involvement was necessary because the workers’ rights and drive down their pay and Government on its own could either fund banned conditions — from today this is no longer possible. electricity or services - not both.

Unions welcome the ban on new Australian "A recent Senate Report confirmed that thousands AMWU NSW Secretary Paul Bastian said: Workplace Agreements (AWAs) that took effect on of Australian workers lost pay and conditions "The sale means that there is no public control or Friday 28 March but plan to continue the under Work Choices AWAs through the loss of scrutiny over crucial issues whether they be social, campaign to scrap Work Choices in its entirety. public holiday pay, annual leave loading, shift allowances, overtime pay, penalty rates, industrial and environmental. redundancy pay & other conditions. ACTU President Sharan Burrow said: "It means that everything is left up to the market. There is no commitment to deliver new base load "The law to ban new AWAs is an important first "Unions now call on employers to respect the will power, there is no commitment to environmental step in restoring the rights of Australian workers of the Australian people and allow workers to get considerations and nothing about keeping a cap that were taken away by the former Liberal off a lower paid or substandard Work Choices on costs to the consumer." Government’s Work Choices IR laws. AWA and go onto a union collective agreement that properly protects their wages, conditions and Mr Bastian said that the AMWU along side other "But the job is not over yet. This is not the end of rights," said Ms Burrow. unions in NSW are committed to keep fighting. WorkChoices. Unions will continue to campaign for the complete dismantling of WorkChoices and NO! Power privatisation rejected 7 to 1 "All the unions are united in their opposition to for the establishment of a fair and balanced IR this and we know we have the support of the system that fully protects workers’ rights. Delegates at the New South Wales Labor Party Conference in Sydney overwhelmingly rejected a public. Eighty five per cent of the people of NSW are opposed to this sale." "Unions are determined to achieve laws that give State Government proposal to privatise the workers: electricity sector. In an address to the conference on the weekend, Mr Bastian called on all ALP Members of • Protection from being dismissed unfairly. Premier Morris Iemma wants to sell electricity retailers and lease power generators, but an Parliament to respect the vote of the conference. • The right to bargain collectively to improve our amendment to Labor Party policy moved at the "This is only the second time in history that an workplaces and an obligation for employers to conference which rejected privatisation was ALP Premier has openly defied the wish of the negotiate in good faith. supported. conference. The first time was over the issue of • The right to join and be collectively represented by a The final vote was 702 against electricity conscription in World War 1. union, to access advice and information from unions privatisation and 107 for it. The vote came after a "People know that this sale is not a good idea. The in their workplace and to have a say about decisions lengthy debate where speakers, including union evidence from places where it’s already happened that affect their work. officials and Government ministers, outlined their like Victoria is that it has destroyed communities, positions on the proposed power sector reforms. • A strong safety net of awards and minimum cost jobs, raised prices and compromised service standards that maintain safe workplaces and a Treasurer Michael Costa, argued the Government's to the community. decent standard of living for all workers. case: "There’s nothing in it for the workers, for the • A genuinely independent umpire that has the power "This policy is sensible, we shouldn't allow a community and in the long run, for the to resolve disputes and grievances. bunch of egos and a bunch of people that are government."

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Future of Your Rights at Work Campaign stripped away by the previous government and "This is a major threat to the Rudd Government’s create a stronger, more humane safety net in all election commitment to introduce a fair and Your Rights at Work is a community campaign workplaces," says Ms Burrow. balanced industrial relations system. spearheaded by unions and the ACTU. The ACTU president says extended parental leave "It would resurrect a key aspect of Work Choices The campaign began in earnest in 2005 when the and the right for parents to request more flexible and hand power back to employers despite the Howard Government revealed, for the first time, work arrangements recognise the needs of Australian public overwhelmingly voting for fairer the full extent of its proposed workplace changes. working families in the 21st century. IR laws at the last election," said ACTU President The decent system of workplace laws fought for by Ms Sharan Burrow. unions for over a hundred years - fair take home "These new standards reflect the modern pressures pay, job security, and conditions like leave and of life and the real need of people to be able to Unions, Government and climate change penalty rates - are all under unprecedented attack. balance work, life and family commitments." Dr Carla Lipsig-Mummi On Saturday November 24 2007, Australians The 10 standards also call for consistent long The Age 25 February 2008 rejected a political coalition that viciously attacked service leave entitlements across all states and our rights at work - and we elected a party that territories as well as basic termination and Governments and unions must work promises to protect them. redundancy payments for employees. together to meet the global warming challenge. The union and community campaign against "This means the most vulnerable in our workforce WorkChoices made all the difference. can expect a basic level of security and certainty, In the European Union, 11 countries are particularly in an uncertain economic climate." studying the impact of climate change on ALP campaign director Tim Gartrell said: "There future employment and training needs. Their are a number of reasons for this result. The first big The ACTU welcomes the consultative approach. strategies for new climate policy focus on reason was the Government's betrayal of voters This should ensure the new regulations can be "employment transitions", government over WorkChoices. They didn't say they were readily implemented by employers and provide an investment and social partnership — with going to bring WorkChoices in. They got control of effective and enforceable set of standards for all the unions as essential partners. the senate and they got arrogant." workers. They believe that jobs growth will take place Liberal campaign director Brian Loughnane said: The 10 standards include: principally in the clean energy industries, but "There is no doubt at all that there was significant will only occur if there is significant concern in parts of the Australian community... 1. Hours of work government investment in training and with WorkChoices, and that is something that we employment transition programs for 2. Parental leave do have to accept and we do have to face up to." displaced workers. 3. Flexible work for parents Election 2007 showed that politicians mess with Unions in Argentina, Belgium, Britain and our rights at work at their peril. 4. Annual leave Spain are incorporating environmental responsibility into collective bargaining and There were thousands of supporters handing out 5. Personal, carers and compassionate leave legislation to train workers as environment Rights at Work How to Votes in marginal seats representatives, revising employment around the country. Email campaigns, petitions, 6. Community service leave protection laws to recognise these fundraising to get our message out there and keep responsibilities. the pressure up on all politicians. Forwarding 7. Long service leave Rights at Work emails to friends and family to give 8. Public holidays As Tony Maher of the Construction, Forestry, people the facts about the IR laws, and supporting Mining and Energy Union said in his address people affected by them. The 180,000 people on the 9. Termination of employment and redundancy to the United Nations Climate Change Rights at Work email list did this, for over two Convention in Bali last year: "We are here to years. 10. Fair Work information statement help. You need our help."

The campaign we built together was new, it was Senators' threat to block Labor's IR laws In Canada, the railway workers of the United groundbreaking, and it worked. will resurrect Work Choices says ACTU Transportation Union obtained government funding to train environmental stewards to 2008 will be a big year for the Rights at Work The threat by two Senators to join with the spread environmental know-how throughout campaign: achieving a decent legal framework Coalition and block the next stage of Rudd their membership, but the funding was put restoring our rights, making sure Labor's IR laws Government’s industrial relations laws are an on hold when the Conservatives came to get through the Senate without the Liberals affront to the majority of Australians who voted to power. And the Canadian Union of Public changing them, and keeping an eye on companies scrap Work Choices at the last election says the Employees endorsed a national policy of who seek to attack workers' rights. ACTU. workplace energy auditing by its members: a bottom-up engagement. Rights at Work worth fighting for! A report in The Australian newspaper on 10 May reveals that the Coalition is ‘working with the And it makes sense to turn to the trade visit: http://www.rightsatwork.com.au/ independent Senators’ to change the Rudd unions. As the largest membership-based, Government’s second piece of industrial relations New Employment Standards public interest organisations, they are legislation which is due in Parliament later this already examining the impact of warming on All Australians will be able to look forward to a year. work, both in terms of the jobs of their more secure working future under the 10 new members and in the public interest. Two Senators who will hold the balance of power employment standards proposed by the Rudd after July -- anti-pokies campaigner Nick Government, says ACTU President Sharan If we begin now to ask these questions as a Xenophon and Family First’s Steve Fielding – are Burrow. society, and involve the public actively in reported to support a new form of AWA-style finding answers, we have a fighting chance "These 10 minimum standards combined with a individual statutory contracts. of constructing a fairer work world in the modernised award system will restore rights near future.

2 Blue Mountains Union News • May 2008 • http://bmuc.blogspot.com/ • http://bmucinc.com/ Blue Mountains Union News Save Our Nurses "I think what we should be looking at is not a 'one Over 50 ordinary men and women have been size fits all', not a rigidity - about 15 hours - but forced to attend secret interrogations by Howard’s Our nurses are at breaking point. Exhausting looking at people who can earn a reasonable ABCC enforcers. If they refuse to answer questions workloads, long hours, and unfair pay. Soon, our amount of money in the time they're working, – about issues like what happened at a union State Government will have a chance to save these regardless of whether that's 10 hours or 15, or even meeting – they can be jailed for six months. nurses, and that means saving our hospitals. If our eight in some cases," she said. nurses get the fair pay and fair conditions they Many more are being threatened with $22,000 fines deserve, they will stay. If they are ignored, International solidarity stops Mugabe arms and loss of pay if they stop work for any reason – thousands could leave. shipment even over safety, in what is one of Australia’s most dangerous industries. These powers are bad for more at http://saveournurses.com.au/ International Transport Federation affiliates MUA construction workers and bad for the industry. and RTBU in solidarity with South African dockers GMCU members hold firm and reap 16% and truck workers ban on arms to Zimbabwe as Howard-employer scare tactic reward reports of voilence and repression under the Labor Party leaders were panicked by Howard’s FSU Thursday, 1 May 2008 Mugabe regime increase and employer scare campaigns during the election It’s taken a year but members at Goulburn Murray Bans by South African dock workers in Durban and pledged to keep the Australian Building and Credit Union have held firm in their resolve for have forced the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang to sail Construction Commission (ABCC) until January better pay and conditions and are now reaping the from the South African port of Durban without 31, 2010. rewards. unloading. So, 150 enforcers are employed, and 33 million With conditions frozen under the Credit Union The bans which have the support of the taxpayers’ dollars are spent annually, to continue Award, FSU members at GMCU were keen to International Transport Workers' Federation have this intimidation of ordinary construction workers. update their conditions in a collective agreement. now spread to other African nations. The ship is ABCC inspectors have no qualms about the tactics reported to have bypassed Maputu were local Although initially resisted by credit union they use. Their aim is Howard's agenda — to unions were also mobilising against the weapons management, FSU industrial staff and reps reduce support for unions and union membership transfer. persisted and have secured a better deal for on construction sites. They harrass construction GMCU staff. Global union federation the ITF reports that the workers at their job sites and with phone-calls and ship has switched off its transponder (which notices at their homes. The proposed agreement was overwhelmingly broadcasts its exact location), but is believed to be endorsed by a staff ballot in April. Howard’s construction laws have been heading for Luanda, Angola next, and may be condemned by the International Labour running low on fuel. The main features of the agreement are: Organisation five times, for breaking conventions Australia has ratified. They offend every principle immediate increase of at least 4%; As well as mobilising workers in the region the ITF is calling on Cosco, the Chinese Government, the of fairness for working people. new classification scales with higher rates of base officially approved All China Federation of Trade The Rudd Government should not wait until 2010. pay guaranteed for all staff on transfer to the new Unions, and the Chinese Seamen's and They should give construction workers and their structure. For the great majority of staff in Grades Construction Workers' union to think of the safety families back the same rights as other Australians 1 and 2 the minimum on transfer to the new scale of the ship's crew and return to its home port. by abolishing the ABCC and the laws that support is 4% - some get more; SATAWU,last week declared its port members it now. three year agreement with three more pay would not unload the weapons from the ship. It increases of 4% in July 2008, 2009 and 2010; also declared that none of its members in the Howard 'waterfront strategy' exposed removal of junior rates of pay; trucking sector would move the cargo to Harare by A cabinet document reveals that the Howard road. introduction of 4 weeks’ paid maternity leave and government plotted the 1998 confrontation on 5 days’ paid paternity leave; SATAWU, a member of the COSATU trade union Australia's waterfront. national centre says a peaceful solution must be The document urges an "interventionist approach", other current award provisions transferred into sought to the political instability in Zimbabwe. agreement. in which the government would provoke a strike Both ITF Australia affiliates Paddy Crumlin, MUA on the nation's docks, allowing stevedores to Welfare to Work: need for overhaul and Greg Harvey, RTBU have written letters of replace unionised workers with non-union labour. solidarity to SATAWU in support of the SA A new report into welfare to work is calling on the University of NSW historian Christopher Shiel has workers' stand. Federal Government to make urgent changes to identified it as the first of two papers written by the policy in the May Budget. Abolish the ABCC the consulting firm ACIL in 1997 and supposedly kept confidential. The report was funded by the New South Wales Why do workers who build this nation have less The document was initially mistaken as advice Department for Women and looks at 70 single rights than other Australians? parent mothers and how they coped with the from bureaucrats in the Department of Workplace introduction of the policy in 2006 and 2007. Construction workers fought hard to remove the Relations. But Dr Shiel, who has analysed the Howard Government and its extreme report for a book to be released this year, said its It found women were being forced to leave their WorkChoices laws at last year’s election. However, content had not been generated by public servants. careers and move into low-paid, unskilled work to more needs to be done for a fair workplace Dr Shiel said the document: "defines the terms of meet the policy's requirement of working 15 hours relations system for our own industry. a week, or having welfare payments cut off. the activist strategy that the cabinet signed off on. Right across Australia, construction workers are It canvassed the prospect of industrial action that One of the report's author's, Eva Cox, says the still under attack from Howard’s IR laws, as the would give the stevedores the option of dismissing Federal Government needs to make core changes Australian Building and Construction their employees. That means cabinet approved to the system. Commissioner (ABCC) continues to use its provoking a national strike and that is draconian powers. sensational."

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Betty Con Walker and Bob Walker construction project like the metro, offering The Songs of Henry Lawson: Second Ed. Sydney Morning Herald 26 March 2008 uncertain returns. All the more reason for the Government to retain its profitable money- In 1989 Chris Kempster published "The Songs of If the Government does sell the state's spinning businesses so that its investments Henry Lawson", which was at the time a electricity assets, lucrative returns will be stay diversified and include some that comprehensive anthology of tune settings for lost. As might be expected from a natural produce stable, positive cash flows - Lawson poetry. monopoly, the three generators and three particularly when public utilities like water After two years of gathering new material the distributors slated for privatisation are and electricity provide basic services to the Second Edition has been published. It was extremely profitable. Net profits for the year community. ended June 30 last were $1.542 billion. That is launched at the 2008 Port Fairy Folk Festival with a very successful concert (audience 1500) and at an average rate of return on equity of 25.2 Costa loses plot! per cent per annum. Even that figure is the National Folk Festival in Canberra over the Easter weekend. The New edition adds forty pages conservative. If private sector accounting Enraged by the dramatic loss of support of the to the original collection with the new tunes that methods were used, returns could nudge 30 ALP conference NSW Treasurer Micheal Costa have been written for Lawson verse over the past per cent. These profits will hardly be stormed across the room - his face flushed, his 29 years. compensated by the fees the Government can hands clenched - towards John Robertson, the charge for the use of poles and wires that are secretary of Unions NSW. "You blokes can get supposedly to be left in government hands. f---ed," he screamed. "You're going to look like Blue Mountains Union Council dickheads on Monday morning." There are other elements of the electricity Objects and Aims privatisation inquiries that need questioning. If any other delegate had behaved in such a manner no doubt they would have been ejected Neither the Owen nor the Unsworth report Act to advance unionism, living standards, social from the conference ... special license for upset presented a hard-nosed analysis of how justice and employment. much more electricity capacity the state ministers? would need, and when. What Costa's behavior clearly shows is how much Organise regular "Politics in the Pub" sessions his ego is tied up with the proposed sell-off of that invite speakers to address the Blue Instead they outlined a crude wish-list based NSW electricity. Having lost support of the unions, Mountains community on appropriate issues. on even cruder estimates of investment costs. the NSW electorate (80% oppose the plan) the For example, the Owen report cited the scary majority of ALP branches and now the ALP Assist in the protection of rights for all wage and figure of $15 billion as the amount of extra conference (85% oppose the plan), it appears that salary workers. investment needed, but if you look closely, Costa now imagines that the belated support of this figure covered the cost of building no newspaper editorials writers and various business In solidarity with other community groups less than eight new power stations, leaders (who would be the main beneficiaries of formulate policy that protects the environment retrofitting coal-fired generators and the privatisation) will somehow help the plan get and community assets. investing $2 billion in gas, yet the same through. report emphasised the need for only one Support the election of people at the local, state more power station by 2013-14. It is clearly Is Costa's behaviour a signal that he knows the and national level who will serve the best within the capacity of the state-owned plan is done for? Or did he swallow one too many interests of wage and salary earners and the Blue energy agencies to fund the construction of hamburgers? Mountains Unions Council. one new power station. Indeed, they invested $1.8 billion in new plant and NSW Teachers vote to strike May 22 Publicise Blue Mountains Unions Council equipment in 2006-07. activities and views in the media. NSW Teachers Federation members at Sky Channel meetings voted overwhelmingly in By endorsing the sale of money-spinning Publish a newsletter for regular dissemination favour of a 24-hour strike on May 22. investments, Owen and Unsworth have within the Blue Mountains community of Blue helped the Government avoid the hard work More than 20,000 members attended the meetings Mountains Unions Council views. of ranking competing demands for across the state on April 8, with 99 per cent voting investment and exploring how they might be in favour of the recommendation. Act in concert with Unions for the purpose of funded. This is a cop-out. recruitment. Members voted to condemn the Department of It makes no commercial sense to sell off Education and Training "for casting aside an JOIN BMUC profitable businesses to fund other projects industrial agreement and imposing changes to the such as schools, hospitals and public statewide schools staffing system, and engaging in Blue Mountains residents can become BMUC transport. It may make political sense: cost-cutting attacks on TAFE, AMES and in the members if they support our Aims and Objects. governments have justified past directorates of the Department". Membership is open to union members, to privatisations on the basis that the proceeds retired unionists and to those who are will fund new initiatives that they hope will Members vowed to continue to campaign for a unemployed or unwaged. help them get re-elected. new staffing agreement and declared their readiness "to engage in sustained and significant Membership Fees So what are we to make of the sudden action" as authorised by Federation. Waged $15.00 pa announcement that the Iemma Government Unwaged $5.00 pa plans a new metro rail system? Reports on "In the event that there is no negotiated industrial how this initiative will be funded are agreement about staffing", the Sky Cannel Address conflicting. It has been variously stated that meetings called for "the next action in the BMUC Secretary it will be funded by the capital works statewide campaign" to be a 24 hour strike on May PO Box 65 program, if electricity is privatised, or 22 "with rallies to be held at appropriate locations Hazelbrook through public-private partnerships. across the state". NSW 2778 It seems unlikely that private investors Phone 0413866520 would be anxious to invest in a long-term

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