Sydney, Australia Paper of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network 50c Vol.34 No.3 (227) Nov. -Dec. 2016 ONLY GRASS ROOTS DIRECT ACTION ON THE JOB CAN TACKLE THE EVER WIDENING BAIRD GOVT. ONSLAUGHT! SYDNEY CABBIES’ NEWS P2 NSW RAILWAYS NEWS P3 STATE TRANSITNEWS P4 VIC. RAILWAY NEWS P7 ITALIAN LABOUR NEWS P8 USA TODAY P10 INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT WORKERS’ NEWS P12 BRITAIN TODAY P13 BOOK REVIEW CORNER: REBELLION IN PATAGONIA P15 DEBATE ON INDUSTRIAL ORGANISING P17 ALFONSTHOMASZ PILARSKI P18 NEWS&NOTES P19 2 Rebel Worker Cabbie: The TWU is pursuing a legalistic trial Relations Act- that gives bailee driv- Rebel Worker is the bi-monthly approach and is presenting a submission ers access to a whole bunch of industrial Paper of the A.S.N. for the propa- to the Industrial Relations Commission law in the first place and that’s where it has gation of anarcho-syndicalism in (IRC)based on 5 major advances to work got butt ugly. Australia. conditions. It involves such demands as a RW: Oh why so? safety net of $22 - 25/hour for bailee driv- Cabbie: Many drivers are familiar with Unless otherwise stated, signed ers and the provision for a range of greater Articles do not necessarily represent TODA- the Taxi Owners And Drivers As- access to the entitlements of Holiday Pay sociation the group Michael Jools and the position of the A.S.N. as a whole. etc, Superannuation for everyone, a rever- other broke away from when it was the Any contributions, criticisms, letters sal of the onus being on the driver to pay TDA, it was a driver’s advocacy group in or for fuel (to the operator) and state ( as op- those days. These days it is little more than Comments are welcome. posed to just Sydney) Award coverage. an echo chamber for the Taxi Council. RW: What has been the reaction to the REBEL WORKER TODA submitted to the parliamentary in- actions of the TWU? P.O. BOX 92 quiry- that was dealing with Cabbie: The TAXI the Uber issue- that drivers be BROADWAY 2007 NSW COUNCIL has de- expelled from Chapter 6 of the E-mail: Via our web site ployed the full force Act. The chronology of how www.rebelworker.org of its industrial rela- all this came about in terms of SUBSCRIPTION RATES: tions arm - the Taxi the TIA pushing for the identi- AUSTRALIA: $12 a year Industry Association cal thing that TODA has also OVERSEAS (TIA) to fight the pushed for involves much TWU in the Indus- $25 (Aus.) by Air stealth- but suffice to say the trial Courts- in fact Pres. of TODA signed a docu- $20 (Aus.) by Sea mail the TIA on one occa- ment purporting to have been Free to Prisoners sion came close to presented to the parliament- it Supporters Subs. $40 pa admitting that a siz- was up on TODA’s website- Receives copies of RW & ASN able portion of the yet there is no mention of the bucks that it had lev- Pamphlets as published. same document on parliamen- ied the taxi operator tary disclosure. In fact they Send to the above.Postal Notes some time ago to used an analogy to argue their made out to Rebel Worker. fight the UBER IS- case (their document) involv- SUE HAD BEEN ing a plumber and a well DEPLOYED TO FIGHT THE TWU known equipment hire firm to make the when at a meeting of all and sundry at the case for bailees drivers getting SFA- and it Sydney Cabbies’ Cyprus Club- the CEO of the TIA pointed was repeated by the Chairman of the par- at a TWU member at the meeting and indi- liamentary inquiry as though he thought it rectly attributed the TWU as soaking up up. Anne Turner is the President of TODA News the TIA’s counter Uber war chest ... God and she signed the document. knows what! Cabbie: ... and on top of all RW: We’ll wait developments. that the TIA has manoeuvred to have the Rebel Worker: What has been the im- NSW parliament bring in legislation to pact of Uber on the Sydney taxi indus- have bailees expelled from the very chap- try? ter of the act of parliament the NSW Indus- Cabbie: I feel that Uber planned to wipe out the conventional taxi industry but have only been partly successful. I have noticed a 30% cut in my income- contributed by among other things- the advent of Uber. ASN APPEAL RW: What have been those other fac- tors? The Anarcho-Syndicalist Network Cabbie: Since the Keneally ALP govern- ment and in years subsequently there have requires suitable cost effective perma- been 100’s of lease hold taxi plates gener- ated and thus ever more taxis put on the nent premises. A$750,000 is urgently road. The industry mafia has encouraged sought to buy premises for the proposed drivers to bid up the lease values at auc- tion. With the pressure from Uber, the Rebel Worker-Anarcho-Syndicalist Lock out Laws and the dilution of ever more taxi plates over the last 5 -6 years, Network Media Centre. both those working in the industry and much of the investor sector is floundering financially. Please make out Cheques to Black Cat RW: What are the measures that the Media & send to P.O. Box 92 Broadway TWU (Transport Workers Union) has been taking to tackle this crisis for 2007 NSW. bailee drivers? 3 Rebel Worker N.S.W. RAILWAYS NEWS Why have we been on the back foot in re- or to those that elected them, but would be A New Agreement is a Chance cent years rather than taking the initiative able to represent their local committee to Right the Wrongs in bargaining? views to the Central Bargaining Commit- One of the most important failings lies in tee. This could then form a two way street the lead-up to a bargaining round. It comes with a report back to the Local Bargaining (But only if we do it together) down to the real lack of workplace democ- Committee on the outcomes from the Cen- racy. Although staff “briefings” are held tral Committee at regular intervals. By Crimson Coconut during negotiations they are always stage Something must change, as the current managed affairs with management often process of bringing in outsiders from Un- sitting in with union delegates to put down ions NSW, who have a poor understanding Another bargaining period is upon us in any dissent. The ideas and questions of the of what is happening in particular the lead up to the 2017 Enterprise general membership is not taken seriously workplaces or bringing their own political Agreement. The last Agreement saw the at these meetings. It is a process whereby agenda is not working. It is also very un- old Rail Agreements split up into their their bureaucracy’s obligations are ful- democratic. component parts. You now have sepa- rate agreements for Sydney Trains, NSW Trains, Transport NSW, etc. This in our opinion is not a good thing for workers, as the collective strength of the membership is divided. Manage- ment wanted it this way for no other rea- son except than that it favours them. All the talk about different business divi- sions requiring different agreements is nonsense. It will now be possible for people doing basically the same task to be on a different award and having dif- ferent conditions and wage rates. With that in mind we need to look ahead to the next agreement. What is it we want out of a new agreement? In the past there have been union surveys and delegate discussions on a new log of claims before bargaining has been intro- duced. However the final log of claims filled, yet it involves no real consultation Politically it is far more expedient for the has never matched the aspirations of the with the membership. Unions to just say “You elected us - we’ll general membership of the unions in- From the Union and Membership point of do the bargaining for you”. volved. The final log of claims put for- view the whole process must start much That approach is not good enough and ward has always reflected the political sooner than this. Unions and their Mem- leads to poor outcomes since it does not al- aspirations of the Union’s bureaucrats. bers must have regular meetings to thrash low the combined strength of the member- Who can remember a past ridiculous claim out the important issues well before nego- ship to be utilised in a dispute. Maybe for the sale of Martin’s Creek Quarry as a tiations begin. Heaven forbid, many of our that’s the way some people on both sides condition on a log claims for an E.B.A.? fellow workers do not know or care how or want it? Members must be the ones who We all know who was the beneficiary of why the bargaining process takes place. decide what goes into the Log of Claims. that process in N.S.W. The A.L.P.? This is not their fault. They must be The Union and Union Leadership should The Log of Claims is always rubber brought into the bargaining process and be the conduit through which the wishes of stamped by handpicked delegates at a spe- become owners of it. That’s possibly the the membership is articulated and acted cial meeting. There is little or no input best way to share knowledge and experi- upon. from the general membership. So in reality ence across the broad spectrum of the gen- For our Agreement we need to think hard any Log of Claims in the past had little or eral membership.