BY TIM GOODEN
On August 4, leader of the federal "opposition" Simon Crean attended a protest line at Geelong Wool Combing, where workers had been locked out for 13 weeks. After listening to the workers' plight, Crean held a press conference.
He told waiting journalists that Labor was introducing a private member's bill called the "Good Faith Bargaining Bill". The press release states that the bill "will restore the powers of Australia's independent industrial umpire — the Australian Industrial Relations Commission — to require parties to bargain in good faith". Crean explained that lockouts were not the "Australian way" and that "Labor promises a fair go all round in resolving disputes".
I asked Crean whether, if elected as prime minister, he would repeal the lock-out laws that had caused the problem at Geelong Wool Combing. He replied: "I will not only repeal them but introduce the laws [mentioned above]". He further explained that, under Labor's proposals, either party in a dispute could seek to have the dispute arbitrated if negotiations failed.
This sounds very like the old award system under the laws of the previous Hawke and Keating Labor governments. Every union official worth their salt knows that if a case was arbitrated then, more often than not workers came out second best.
The commissioners in the Coalition's Australian Industrial Relations Commission are no friends of workers. If the case of the Geelong Wool Combing was arbitrated today, they could lose 10 years worth of won conditions and wages if the "independent umpire" agreed with the company's case.
It sounds fair to have an independent "umpire". It implies that, like a cricket game, both sides in a dispute are equal. But industrial courts throughout history have been biased towards the ruling class that set them up.
The playing field is not equal. Workers and unions don't have access to the billions of dollars that bosses have and can't call on the police to remove unwanted bosses from the workplace — unlike when bosses use police, free of charge, to break strikes.
Ask any miner about the experience under the old Coal Industry Tribunal, which arbitrated disputes in the industry between 1947 and 1995, for example. The tribunal would often cut pay rates in the award when coal prices were down — just to keep the profits rolling in.
Crean's commitment to repeal the lock-out laws may not be accompanied by re-establishing the right to strike. Strikes over wages and shorter working hours were illegal for most of the 13 years that the ALP was in power before Howard's 1996 election. If strikes cannot be a legal response to stalled negotiations, an employer could hold out on negotiations in the hope of a better deal in arbitration. And there would be nothing unions could legally do about it.
I don't think this is good enough. Unions should be able to campaign for real wage increases and safe working conditions without fear of being sued and fined. A real fair go would mean repealing all laws that prevent workers organising in unions, and fighting with industrial action to defend their interests. This would begin to balance up the playing field against the mega-rich corporations that seek to exploit workers. There would be no need for an "independent umpire" to look after the bosses.
[Tim Gooden is a shop steward in the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, assistant secretary of Geelong Trades and Labor Council and convenor of the Geelong branch of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 13, 2003.
Visit the