About: Actions

Union Solidarity aims to build a mass based united front campaign on the ground to defeat the repressive IR laws. Union Solidarity is a wide network of affiliated community and welfare organisations and unions with the single aim of building a broad people’s movement to beat back attacks on workers, unions and communities.

Monday, July 25, 2005

A short History

Back in 1856 Australian workers won the first ever eight hour day.

The bosses of the day didn't like it. The media of the day called it a dangerous and foolish idea that would "destroy society as we know it". The colonial government didn't want anything to do with the idea either.

Nevertheless, we took industrial action and organised mass protests and won the campaign and kept organising and advocating for better wages and conditions for workers.


We won the right to organise in unions. We won the right to a safer work place. We won the right to four weeks annual leave, long service leave and sick leave. Some unions won the 36-hour week. More recently, a massive campaign of unions and community groups forced James Hardie to pay compensation to asbestos victims. The government didn’t force James Hardie to pay. It was unions which won this victory over a callous company.


And we didn't just concern ourselves to working issues. In the 1890s we campaigned for Women's suffrage. In 1916 we campaigned against conscription. In the 1930s for a basic wage, in the 1950s against legislation banning political organisations. In the 1960s against the Vietnam war, in the 70's against apartheid in South Africa.We supported East Timor before it became fashionable or politically expedient. History has proven us right on every occassion.


Trade unions are today central to the campaigns supporting refugees and opposing Australia's involvement in the War on Iraq. History will doubtless prove us right on these issues in ten years time.


While none of these things were just handed over, it would be a foolish government indeed that attempted to reverse any of the social issues such as suffrage, conscription, support for apartheid fought for and won by the trade union movement in partnership with the community.


The current Howard Australian Government is however attempting to reverse some of the basic industrial gains achieved by trade unions. Now that the Government has control of both Houses of Parliament, they are changing fundamental laws underpinning industrial relations in this country.


They are willing to try to destroy our unions to claw it back. They don’t mind if unions exist as service organisations, as long as we don’t organise our members industrially.


That’s why the Coalition government is planning legislation to:

* Remove conditions in awards such as redundancy pay, penalty rates, long service leave.
* Introduce secret ballots before industrial action.
* Make it easier for employers to impose Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts) on workers.
* pattern bargaining.
* Restrict the democratic right of workers to have their unions visit them in their work places.
* Remove unfair dismissal protection for workers in small businesses.
* Remove redundancy payment rights for workers in small businesses.
 
 

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