Profile: Martin Ferguson

COLUMNS 7 the Accord approach of using the Union, Ray Gietzelt He became as union movement's ability to in sistant general secretary of the fluence wages policy to 'trade' with 'Miscos' in 1981 and general the Labor government to win im secretary in 1984 on Ray Gietzelt's provements in areas which it cannot retirement. Many of his views on is influence directly, such as taxation sues like wages policy, industrial tac and the social wage. He will also tics and union amalgamations have push strongly the ACTU agenda of been forged out of the influence of restructuring industrial awards and Gietzelt and his experiences at the revitalising the union movement FMWU. through a round of amalgamations, While some of the FMWU's mem rationalisation of membership bers have industrial muscle, many of coverage, and a recruitment drive. them are relatively weak industrial- The essential differences between ly. So the union's industrial PROFILE the Ferguson and the Crean strategies have always involved presidencies, then, will be differen working within the arbitration sys Martin Ferguson ces of style rather than of policy. tem and using its strong areas to Where Crean presented as a smooth build pressure for award changes When it became clear lastyear that economic rationalist in the modem that protect workers in its weak Martin Ferguson had been Labor mould, and seemed more com areas. His support for union amal anointed to succeed Simon Crean fortable addressing opinion-makers gamations and industry-based as ACTU president, one national from business and financial markets unions is also a product of his ex newspaper declared breathlessly than rank-and-file unionists, Fer perience at the FMWU which Giet that Ferguson would be the peak guson will present as a more tradi zelt built from a small, insignificant union council's first ever leftwing tional, down-to-earth union official union in 1955 to one of Australia's president and is more likely to criticise publicly biggest by effecting more than 50 the ACTU's Accord partners in Can amalgamations. The error was not only one of fact berra when differences emerge. In NSW, Ferguson and the FMWU - Bob Hawke, despite ending up on have been deeply involved in the the right of die union movement's divisions which have dogged the factional spectrum, was the Left's NSW ALP Left for years and which candidate when he defeated the culminated in the split in November Right's Harold Souter for the ACTU last year over the restructuring of the presidency in 1969. It was also one of Left steering committee into the interpretation - the Left-Right fac Socialist Left. Ferguson lines up with tional and ideological contests which the more pragmatic elements of the dominated ACTU politics in the NSW Left, including figures like 'fifties and 'sixties have assumed far Rodney Cavalier, John Faulkner and less significance under the Accord. Andrew Refshauge against the more The reality has been that the key hard-line Socialist Left grouping as Left union officials on the ACTU ex sociated with figures like AMWU na ecutive have not only supported the tional secretory George Campbell Accord approach but, in many cases, and former NSW Attorney-General have provided the intellectual input Ferguson's background, too, is Frank Walker. and industrial muscle that has un down-to-earth. His father, Jack, had These tensions have meant that derpinned it to leave school at the age of 12 during Ferguson has been a highly con Martin Ferguson’s elevation to the the Depression to find work to sup troversial figure in the NSW Left But ACTU presidency, therefore, has lit port his family. After the war. Jack from a national perspective he will be tle to do with the Left-Right number Ferguson became a full-time union firmly in the mould of such figures as crunching of earlier decades. Rather, official, entered politics and even Cliff Dolan, Charlie Fitzgibbon and, it is a signal of the growing influence tually rose to become deputy most importantly, his own mentor at of the younger generation of prag premier of NSW under Wran. the Miscos, Ray Gietzelt - the Left matic Left union officials who have Martin Ferguson studied leader who stitched together the Left- grown close to ACTU secretory Bill economics at Sydney University, Centre alliance that elected Bob Kelty (nominally of the Centre), and completing honours in industrial Hawke to the ACTU presidency just of the increasingly non-factional na relations in 1975. He was immedi over twenty years ago. ture of ACTU politics. ately recruited as a research officer Like Simon Crean, Martin Fer by the then general secretory of the Mark Davis guson will be a strong supporter of Federated Miscellaneous Workers Chief industrial reporter for The Age. ALR: MAY 1990.

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