Karen Fletcher & Sue Bolton, Melbourne
Up to 150,000 working people defied current industrial laws to march on Melbourne's city streets on June 30, in protest at the federal Coalition government's next wave of attacks on workers' rights.
The march, adorned with the flags, balloons and banners of postal workers, vehicle builders, nurses, firefighters, factory workers, truck drivers, clerks, scientists, teachers, public servants, engineers, construction workers, wharfies, academics, shop assistants and retirees, spanned the length of the city from Trades Hall in the north to Federation Square in the south.
Despite last-minute legal action in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission by several big employers, including Australia Post, General Motors Holden, GlaxoSmithKline, Iveco Trucks and Spicer Axles, tens of thousands marched in union contingents. Others marched in family, church and community groups, and many thousands of others as individuals.
Joan Doyle, state secretary of the postal workers' union, condemned Australia Post for gagging free speech by trying to stop workers attending a rally to defend their rights. "In Australia, people should have freedom of speech and the right to protest". Despite the efforts of Australia Post to intimidate, hundreds of postal workers attended the protest.
At one small metal manufacturing company, Sonoto, the workers had never taken strike action before. Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) state president Chris Spindler told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that the company took the union to the industrial relations commission to get the strike banned. The company then refused to let Spindler on the premises to meet with the workers. The workers responded that they would leave work to meet their organiser outside the factory, and every single worker turned up at the rally. The boss relented after the rally and indicated that he wouldn't pursue further action against the union. Similar scenarios were played out at thousands of other work sites.
The AMWU brought 160 busloads of workers to the rally and AMWU officials estimate that overall, 25,000 members from all divisions of the union attended.
A delegate from Boral, an Australian Workers Union shop, described the enthusiasm of workers for taking part in the campaign. He had worked at the factory for many years, but June 30 was the first time that both morning and afternoon shift workers went on strike together.
The mood of the rally was confident and defiant, with the biggest cheers reserved for union leaders who declared themselves ready to defy anti-worker laws until the laws and their architects, the federal Coalition government, are defeated.
"Enacting these laws is one thing", declared Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary Martin Kingham to raucous acclaim, "enforcing them is another! We built this city and we can shut it down. If they want a battlefield, we'll give them a battlefield!"
Kingham and his union are a common sight on the streets of Melbourne, where their militancy has won them some of the best wages and conditions for construction workers in the country. "But today is special", he said, "because today we are not alone".
Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten swore that the unions' fight would continue "for the next 750 days" until the next election. "I've got one piece of advice for John Howard", he bellowed, "Bring it on ... If you want to take our jobs, we'll take yours ... This is the beginning of the end for John Howard."
Australian Education Union state president Mary Bluett recalled former Victorian Coalition Premier Jeff Kennett's attempts to destroy her union. "Just as we saw Kennett off, we'll be here when Howard is kicked out too", she promised.
National Tertiary Education Union state secretary Matthew McGowan reported that universities and TAFE colleges were being blackmailed into introducing Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs — individual contracts) under threat of losing government funding. AMWU vehicle division state secretary Gail Tierney reported that the government had threatened to tie subsidies for the Australian vehicle industry to the introduction of AWAs.
At Flinders Street station, where the march ended, federal ALP leader Kim Beazley offered a "rolled gold guarantee" that Labor would oppose the new laws in the parliament, "side by side with the union movement". But he stopped short of any promise to roll the laws back if elected to government.
He made carefully and vaguely worded promises that a federal ALP government would "not allow any individual contract to undermine any employment conditions" and would "guarantee a fair umpire", but didn't promise to abolish AWAs as former leader Mark Latham had.
Beazley said that an ALP government would have an "independent determination of the minimum wage" and "ensure that all Australians feel secure and not at risk of unfair dismissal". "We will never surrender. We will fight this from Broome to Brisbane", he assured.
Beazley congratulated the marchers for attending, assuring them that they "stand for the national interest", whereas Howard "stands for bringing in foreign workers, when people should be trained here".
Victorian industrial relations minister Rob Hulls also roundly condemned the proposed laws, but stopped short of making any firm promises that the state ALP government would not cooperate with the new laws. The implementation of the new building industry laws is dependent on state governments releasing their police to implement them.
Unlike the Western Australian Labor government, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' government did not grant state public sector workers paid time off to attend the rally.
Phuong Nguyen from the Ethnic Communities Council was enthusiastically applauded when he pointed out that 40% of the Australian work force come from non-English speaking backgrounds and are particularly vulnerable to laws that strip them of the right to bargain collectively and be represented by trade unions in negotiations with employers.
Father Peter Norden from Jesuit Social Services said that the industrial relations "reforms" were linked with Howard's proposed changes to welfare laws. "Single mothers and people with disabilities are being vilified", he said. "They are being forced to work so as to create a pool of labour that can be used to reduce the rights and conditions of other workers."
It was the final speaker who provoked the warmest response from the crowd. Dana Davic, a process worker on $12.60 an hour at Kemalex Plastics, a car component manufacturer in Dandenong, spoke of the nine-week strike that she and her fellow workers have waged against the company's attempts to make them "independent contractors", rather than employees.
"Contractors don't get leave, don't get super[annuation] and have to buy their own insurance", she said. "This has been a tough dispute, but we have stood firm and we believe that, with the support of our union and the union movement, we will get a good outcome. We are an example of why unions are so important."
Large contingents of workers caught buses or drove cars to Melbourne for the protest from the Latrobe Valley, Shepparton, Ballarat and Bendigo. But there were also rallies and protests in many regional cities and towns. More than 10,000 people rallied in Geelong.
All of the food factories in the Goulburn Murray Valley shut down on June 30 and people crammed onto the five buses to Melbourne that were organised by the AMWU. Those who couldn't fit drove to Wodonga for the rally there.
North East and Border Trades and Labour Council secretary Steve Felstead told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that he was very happy with the turn-out in Wodonga. Felstead said that it was a long time since such a rally had been held in the area, so the TLC was worried that they might only have a couple of hundred attend. Instead, 1000-1500 crammed the Wodonga Civic Centre.
People drove from Mansfield, Shepparton, Benalla, Wangaratta, Yarrawonga, Bright, Myrtleford, Yackandandah, Mt Beauty, Beechworth, the Albury region and the ACT. One protester brought a sign that read, "Sophie is now terrorising workers", referring to Sophie Pandopoulos, the local Liberal Party member for Indi who accused Liberal Party politicians who wanted to soften the government's draconian refugee laws of being "political terrorists".
Portland also had its first union rally in many years. South West Trades and Labour Council secretary Warren Finck told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that 2000 people took up an entire city block.
Finck said that most manufacturing and metal sites were closed down for the day, and construction work and a mining site at Hamilton were closed down. The rally involved a wide cross-section of National Tertiary Education Union members, teachers, shop assistants and hospitality workers, as well as construction workers, miners and factory workers.
According to Finck, during the week there was a big increase in the number of people ringing up the TLC in Portland to ask about joining a union.
Two-hundred people gathered in Ballarat before travelling to Melbourne for the protest. Ballarat Trades Hall secretary Graham Shearer told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that the June 30 protest "was the first step in a long, long campaign by not just unionists but everyone who believes in the fundamental rights of people to dignity in the workplace".
Ballarat Trades and Labour Council is planning a big rally on July 30.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, July 6, 2005.
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