Secretary’s Report May 2009

On 3 March, the Industrial Registrar ratified ETU rules that establish the Victorian branch and the Tasmanian branch of the ETU once again. The Southern States branch has been dissolved and this is a positive move. Victorian members helped the much troubled Tasmanian branch over the past years and invested considerable time, effort and resources to keep the Tasmanian section of the ETU alive. The Tasmanian section now has sufficient members to make it a viable branch and resume its place with the other state branches. We wish ETU Tasmanian branch secretary Kevin Harkins and all ETU Tassie members the very best. 

I couldn’t let this editorial pass without expressing my sympathies to those members who lost property during Black Saturday. Jason Lynn’s story of survival, along with the courage his wife showed in taking their children to safety, is just inspiring. The work done by ETU members and contractors in reconnecting the electricity and assisting people with generators is testimony to the virtues of solidarity and cooperation, principles upon which unionism is founded. In all, the Victorian branch saw $100,000 from the ETU trust funds allocated to members so devastatingly affected by the fires. A further $25,000 was earmarked for the Red Cross fund and I am delighted to say that we received $25,000 from both the ETU Queensland and NSW branches and a much appreciated $20,000 from the ETU WA branch. In addition, we raised money on job sites, meaning that ETU members contributed over $200,000 towards bushfire relief. Unreal effort! Click here to read the full story

Thanks also to our gun shop steward Brett Buckingham who volunteered to drive the ETU relief efforts for two weeks. Great job, mate. I want to praise a boss too. I don’t normally do this, but Ziad from Roadrunner Electrics was a champion during the relief efforts, donating time, money, vehicles, labour and materials. 

It’s a damn shame that these principles have been so crudely compromised by Kevin Rudd’s so-called Fair Work Act. Throughout the campaign against the Howard government, Rudd and Julia Gillard are on record promising that they would tear up WorkChoices. As the articles on pages 14-17 (Click here) clearly show, they have not done that. As for their passionate and documented pledge to the International Labour Organization, which monitors human and industrial rights for workers, it could only be described as a joke. 

That’s why the ILO has queried Rudd’s Fair Work Bill’s commitment to enshrining basic human rights principles within the industrial legislation. Our legal team has listed a string of abuses within the legislation. An article in the Financial Review on 23 March it was noted that the ILO had cited secondary boycott provisions and ‘industrial action in pursuit of pattern bargaining’ as issues to be addressed by the laws. The article also cited the ILO’s call for the Labor government to address the hideous activities of the ABCC. In typical political double-speak Julia Gillard said the Fair Work Act ‘will align Australia with key ILO conventions’. Seriously, what does ‘align with’ mean? Close enough is good enough? And where the Act doesn’t meet certain ILO conventions is that because those international obligations aren’t important to her or the Labor Party? If this were John Howard speaking, the union movement would be all over him. Instead, we find ACTU president Sharan Burrow saying the legislation is a ‘reasonable outcome’ and that it would be ‘in the ballpark’ even if it ‘might not meet the purity of certain tests’. Sorry, Sharan, but you either believe in the ILO or you don’t. It’s so disappointing that Sharan sits on the governing body of the ILO as the elected workers’ representative, yet she and the ACTU dance around clear breaches of ILO conventions and the retention of WorkChoices sections in the Fair Work Act. 

I’m pleased that the Victorian Trades Hall Council and otherunions are joining the ETU in the fairwork – still fighting for our rights campaign condemning these breaches. We fought longand hard under the Your Rights at Work banner to destroy the anti-worker WorkChoices legislation. The fairwork campaign will continue amongst the membership, within union circles and in the media right up until the next election. If you care to see the way politicians break promises, check out the http://www.fairwork.org.au/ website and you will understand our disappointment with Labor’s Fair Work Act. 

Broken promises to ETU members - an insight 

 On 14 April, the front page of the Age reported on separate meetings the ETU and CFMEU held with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard prior to the 2007 election. It detailed promises to abolish the ABCC made by Kevin Rudd to myself and other CEPU officials. The Age also reported that ‘under political pressure in May 2007 the ALP changed its position from wanting to abolish the ABCC to keeping it until early 2010’, after which it would continue to exist, albeit under the Fair Work Commission banner. Labor has grovelled to big business and has frequently changed its policies to appease them. The Labor government knows the ABCC laws contravene our international obligations under the ILO but conveniently dismisses these concerns while continuing to publicly proclaim the importance of our international reputation. 

 Let me explain the circumstances of Rudd’s promises. Firstly, the ETU national executive met and decided that the union nationally, including the Plumbing division, should give $500,000 to the ALP election campaign. Getting rid of the Howard government was essential to restore workers’ basic rights. However, the Victorian branch opposed the donation on the basis that we did not know at that time the detail of the ALP’s industrial relations policy. And we had been burnt before by Labor governments too keen to bow to big business and the populist vote. Our opposition to the donation was rolled by the CEPU NSW and Queensland branches and the only concession I could achieve was to insist that, when we met with Rudd, no cheques would be handed over until he personally committed to rid us of the ABCC. He did so and I’ll never forget one official saying ‘The taken some pride in fighting for ETU members’ interests irrespective of who governs, and it is a hard road to take. My members have always been my mission and not a political career, as so many union officials seem to yearn for. I’ve had many chances to be a senator or MP but my love has always been the ETU and my family. I will never, ever compromise my beliefs or my members’ interests for the ALP or any other political party – it’s that simple. I feel proud that our ETU members are way smarter than politicians or the media think. 

On a brighter note, I want to formally congratulate our branch president and great friend John Doran on receiving his life membership after 47 years with the union. John’s passion and commitment to the ETU have earned him the highest honour it can bestow – and rightly so. The fact that so few life memberships have ever been awarded in over 100 years is testament to his love for the ETU and our members. John will be featured in the spring edition of the magazine. 

Finally, I want to wish our mate Les Twentyman a speedy recovery from his recent illness. It was a near death experience in hospital for Les but, like a good western suburbs boy, he weathered the storm. Like the ETU, there’s plenty of bark left in the old dog! 

 Never, ever give in! 

Dean Mighell State Secretary