CAMPAIGN BEGINS F0R UNION RIGHTS The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, July 14th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian Subscription rates on request. ****************************** By Anna Pha On Thursday July 8, CFMEU Mining and Energy Division union delegates from the Hunter Valley, Oakdale, Gordonstone and the Illawarra travelled to Sydney to join a protest rally against the Howard Government's second installment of union busting legislation -- the "second wave". This second wave legislation consists of a group of Bills to further strip back awards, reduce wages and conditions, permit unfair dismissals, take away basic trade union rights, and make it easy for employers to force workers onto individual contracts. They were joined in the rally by building workers, retired mineworkers, students and others who had walked off the job to take part. The Mining delegates represent mineworkers who remain under attack from the Government's first wave legislation. "Today is one of the first shots in a campaign over the next six weeks that the labour movement is going to run up and down the country to try and block Reith's second wave legislation", John Sutton, National Secretary of the Construction and General Division of the CFMEU told Thursday's rally outside the union's offices in Sydney. Protesters wore yellow stickers carrying the number 23.4 -- a reminder of Article 23.4 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights which Reith's laws violate. Article 23.4 states: "Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his/her interests." Individual contracts In Melbourne at the same time as the Sydney action more than 700 workplace delegates were meeting. The Melbourne meeting, called by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), discussed Reith's second wave of legislation which the VTHC has dubbed the "Individual Contract" legislation. VTHC Secretary Leigh Hubbard told the meeting that Reith's legislation heralded cuts to wages, the end of permanent employment and the removal of the award safety net for many thousands of workers. The meeting endorsed the holding of a state-wide stop-work and rally on August 12 and issued a warning to the Australian Democrats that doing a deal with the Government to pass the regressive legislation would lead to a strong union campaign against them in the next elections. After the meeting the delegates took their protest out into the streets and marched on Liberal Party headquarters. Meanwhile in Sydney the protesters marched to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to demonstrate against the Commission's failure to deliver justice to sacked Gordonstone miners. On July 5 the ACTU convened a meeting of Federal unions which unanimously endorsed a campaign strategy involving a series of protests in every State and Territory leading up to the legislation being put to Parliament. In addition to the planned rally in Victoria, there will be major rallies in Western Australia (August 10); South Australia (August 11); Queensland (August 18); NSW (August 24); Tasmania (August 25); Canberra (August 26); Northern Territory (August 26). The legislation is expected to enter the Senate in the Spring Session which begins on August 9. The ACTU is calling on union members and concerned members of the community to attend the rallies. Leaflets and other material are being prepared for wide distribution. Legislation can be defeated The second wave legislation can be defeated with an all out campaign. The Democrats, who now hold the balance of power in their own right in the Senate, have said that they would reject the legislation unless it is substantially amended. They are calling for a "wide ranging" Senate Inquiry into the effectiveness of the 1996 Workplace Relations law. It is important to let the Democrats know how much harm this legislation would do to workers and their families if it is passed. This legislation cannot be fixed up by tinkering with the edges as the Democrats tried to do with the first wave legislation. It must be rejected in its totality. Write now to the Democrats. The Guardian 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. 2010 Australia. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Website: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
