ACTU 20 October 2005
More than 7000 people so far have flooded the Australian Governmentwith e-mails protesting their extreme new workplace laws, including almost 3000 emails from people overseas. The ACTU is now ramping up its current web-campaign with a new email protest campaign being released on the ACTU website today that calls for a broader and longer Senate Inquiry.<>Sharan Burrow, ACTU President, said:

"The first stage of the email campaign helped put pressure on the Government just to hold a Senate Inquiry into the changes. But now we find that the Inquiry the Government has agreed to will be done and dusted in less than two weeks. This will make it one of the shortest Senate Inquiries on record considering these are the biggest changes to Australia's workplace laws in 100 years.

It is an insult to those people and the millions of Australian workers and families whose basic rights will be affected by the laws that thebest the Government can do is a slap-dash Inquiry.

This is a clear sign that the Government is simply not listening to the Australian community.

The next stage of the ACTU email campaign, being launched today invites concerned workers and citizens to email a Coalition Senator and request they support a broader inquiry into the proposed new laws.

The ACTU's online campaign has ensured that information about the Australian Government's radical new laws has seeped around the world and shocked protests have come in from Norway to New Zealand, from theUSA to Taiwan and South Africa.

Wherever union supporters are we want them to know what is happening in Australia and we want them to help us to build global pressure againstthe Howard Government's industrial relations agenda.

"Australian companies selling Australian products overseas should be ready to explain under exactly what conditions their products wereproduced.

"They should be prepared to say proudly to consumers across the globe that their produce was the result of decent working conditions from acountry that gives its workers a fair go.

"In the USA union activists are particularly surprised by the ugly face of the Howard legislation," Sharan Burrow said.

"They tell me they are amazed that these new laws will make Australian conditions for organising working people even worse than thestate-of-play in their country - and that is saying a lot."

The e-mail protest campaign run in alliance with the global trade union website LabourStart has seen thousands of individuals and organisations sending protests to John Howard and copies to ALP Leader Kim Beazley.

You can help send an email by visiting the ACTU's Your Rights at Work website at: http://www.rightsatwork.com.au

<>This article can be found on the Web at:
http://www.actu.asn.au/work_rights/news/1129783046_31925.html