:: rawblogXport ::

:: Monday, June 07, 2004 ::

OUR COMMON CAUSE: If you don't fight, you lose Green Left, Australia
The rot started back in the 1980s when the Hawke ALP government’s Accord gave the Australian Council of Trade Unions the job of destroying any unions that resisted the pay cuts of the day, unions like the Builders Labourers Federation and the air pilots’ association.

Now the ACTU and the majority of union leaderships have given up any idea of tackling the Howard government’s anti-union laws. And the boss’s “right” to sack and “need” to be competitive is hardly ever questioned.

At the same time those unions that are still putting up a fight—like the National Tertiary Education Union and some branches of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Maritime Union of Australia, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Australian Education Union — are being specially targeted by a government that is determined to neutralise unionism once and for all.

There is an alternative. The Socialist Alliance says working people urgently need to rebuild militant, democratic unionism in this country. We are working with unionists and workers to resist the assault on pay, to stop speed-ups, reduce work stress and prevent victimisation and exploitation.

posted 6:29 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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