The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

OK, last post for this morning. (I promise! :wink:)

I'm interested in all the media speculation about whether Greg Combet will leave the ACTU to join the ALP before this election. Last I heard he wanted to hear specific details of Kevin Rudd's IR policy before deciding. Very sensible of him, I think. I mean, I certainly want to know the specifics before deciding on whether to vote for the ALP or the Greens!

After Mr Rudd's pitch to get business on side with his "no strikes and secret votes" measures, I too will be interested in what the Greens propose.
I think Mr Rudd has lost thousands of wage earners votes and gained no support from business people with his stance. You can't run with the sheep and hunt with the wolves.
I think Kevin has shot himself in the foot.
Greg Combet is the man to watch. He appears to be an honest and caring person and a friend of the little people. I wish him well.

bungie

I guess Greg Combet wants to ensure that he won't find himself "doing a Peter Garrett" (on IR) if he joins the ALP team, too. It must be quite galling for PG to now have to declare that he's happy with US bases on Oz soil, etc, etc .... next he might just have to say the nuclear energy is great for Oz, too! And that the current ALP policy on (limited) uranium mining & export is short-sighted and should be changed. I don't think this is quite what he had in mind before entering parliament!

Rudd holds back on IR details
April 22, 2007 - 4:50PM/the AGE

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd is continuing to resist union pressure to release full details of his crucial industrial relations platform at this week's ALP national conference.

ACTU secretary Greg Combet wants Mr Rudd to reveal all of Labor's policies on workplace laws ahead of the Sydney conference, but the Opposition Leader said Labor had to speak to business, unions and families to develop an alternative set of IR laws for Australia.

"I'm confident we're going to deliver a good outcome on this," he told journalists in New York.

"At the National Press Club last week, I announced four new elements of our policy on industrial relations and we've got more to go. But that'll come out in due sequence.

"Our intention is to put our policy out there before the election."

Mr Rudd last week released his plans to reintroduce limited unfair dismissal laws, secret ballots before strikes, the outlawing of strike pay and the creation of a national industrial system as the four key planks of the party's workplace approach.

The announcement prompted a public stoush with unions, notably with Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union boss Doug Cameron.

Mr Rudd subsequently gave the left-wing union leader a dressing down, telling him to join the 21st century when it came to workplace policy.

Mr Cameron today buried the hatchet. ... <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rudd-holds-back-on-ir-details/2007/04/22/1177180460597.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Now I'm genuinely perplexed. If the ALP conference doesn't know the details of Rudd's IR policy how can it endorse it? And if the conference can't discuss the (draft?) policy & have some input into it, then what's the point of the conference? Or ALP membership, for that matter?

Meanwhile, in Sydney today ...:

Thousands march, then rock, against IR laws
April 22, 2007 - 4:33PM/SMH


Thousands of people take part in the Rockin' For Rights march and, inset, Beasts of Bourbon frontman Tex Perkins rocks the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Several thousand people gathered at Sydney's Hyde Park today to protest against the federal government's industrial relations laws.

Protesters then made their way to the Sydney Cricket Ground to attend the protest concert Rockin' for Rights.

Union members made up a heavy contingent of the crowd, many of which carried protest signs, flags and balloons.

Union NSW secretary John Robertson said the protest would send a clear message to Canberra.

"That message is: on election day ... we will be voting for rights at work," he told the cheering crowd.

"We are going to make our voices heard."

Asbestos rights campaigner Bernie Banton also addressed the crowd, saying it was time for Prime Minister John Howard to go.

"It's an absolute privilege ... to look out on those sea of faces and know that you people as union members supported us in our fight against James Hardie," he said.

"We had a victory, but there's a more important victory the day we can say goodbye to John Howard."

Campaign admission

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey has conceded the union campaign against the federal government's new industrial relations (IR) laws has gained traction with voters.

Mr Hockey made the admission today while defending Work Choices, saying it provided flexibility and enabled workers to trade off entitlements for other benefits. ... <cont>

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/thousands-rock-against-ir-laws/2007/04/22/1177180459358.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Not necessarily that much different here. A friend of mine had her child at a Mater Hospital. This fellow would drop in every morning and say 'Hi, how is everything?". She'd say "fine", and he'd leave. It was perhaps a 20 second visit each morning. When she received the final bill, she found that she'd been charged $75 for each of those visits...the figures are going from memory, but I do remember that when I calculated it out - including time for this person to walk to the next patient, it turns out the Mater Hospital were charging $2000/hour for that fellows services.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rudd-holds-back-on-ir-details/2007/04/22/1177180460597.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
QUOTE

Mr Hockey rejected concerns that Work Choices was allowing rogue employers to force staff into working on Anzac Day.

He said Anzac Day was protected as a holiday under the legislation.

But Family First senator Steve Fielding said many employees working on Anzac Day would no longer receive penalty rates.

"Under Work Choices, public holidays like Anzac Day are no longer guaranteed. And those who do work on public holidays are not guaranteed one cent extra," he said.

Business Council of Australia chief Michael Chaney said today the group was considering heeding Mr Howard's call for business to fund an advertising campaign supporting Work Choices.

"We are certainly giving some consideration to doing that," he said.

Mr Chaney told Ten the business community was appalled by a union advertisement showing a company board deciding to cut working conditions to improve profits.

"We strongly object to that ad because it is absolutely dishonest," he said.

- AAP END OF QUOTE

Cutting working conditions to improve profits is EXACTLY what "work choices" is all about.

I put the above information through my BS scanner ....and this is the result.



PS I will be working Anzac day, and for ordinary rates, but I can't blame "work choices" for this one.

bungie, Mr Hockey has expressed his concern & outrage that such things could possibly happen on ANZAC day!



In the meantime ..... troubling brewing in the ACTU, just before the ALP national conference, starting on Friday.:

Prize fight looming for leadership of unions
Brad Norington
April 25, 2007/the AUSTRALIAN

AUSTRALIA'S union leadership is gripped by turmoil just days before the Labor Party starts its policy-making national conference, with the NSW movement's chief, John Robertson, staking his claim on Greg Combet's job as ACTU secretary.

Mr Robertson is campaigning hard for support among senior union colleagues to replace Mr Combet, as the ACTU leader prepares to shift to a safe Labor seat at this year's federal election.
The move by Mr Robertson, if successful, could see the ACTU's base switch from Melbourne to Sydney for the first time.

But senior union officials say the ACTU leadership issue has become a distracting "mess" as Mr Combet has dragged out speculation about his future for months and desperately tried to block Mr Robertson - with whom he has a strained relationship - in favour of his preferred candidate, Jeff Lawrence.

Mr Lawrence, national secretary of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, could normally expect majority support because his Left faction has a majority in the ACTU.

But Mr Robertson, backed by the Right, is also attracting support from a number of NSW left-wing unions who like his feisty style and consider Mr Lawrence affable but drab and uninspiring at a time when unions are battling for survival.

Hostilities at the ACTU come as unions strive to appear united so they can demand at the ALP's national conference starting on Friday that federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd release as much detail as possible of his industrial relations policy, and commit to winding back the Howard Government's controversial workplace laws.

Senior union officials including Doug Cameron and Dean Mighell are already angered by Mr Rudd's decision to revise Labor's election stance on unfair dismissals, secret ballots and illegal strikes.

If a contested ACTU ballot went ahead, it would be the first since Bob Hawke beat Harold Souter for the presidency in 1969.

Victory for Mr Robertson, a key supporter of Mr Rudd's campaign to oust Kim Beazley as federal Labor leader last year, would see the NSW Right take over not only the ALP's political wing but also its industrial wing.

Mr Robertson, the secretary of Unions NSW, last night declined to comment to The Australian, but he did not deny reports that he was lobbying hard for Mr Combet's position.

Mr Lawrence said it was clear Mr Robertson was running as a candidate. "There is a whole lot of static going on but I haven't talked to him," he said.

Mr Robertson's chief campaign backers are Bill Shorten, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union and an endorsed ALP candidate for the Victorian seat of Maribyrnong at this year's election, and Bernie Riordan, NSW chief of the Electrical Trades Union.

Mr Robertson is also backed by NSW ALP secretary Mark Arbib and ALP assistant national secretary David Feeney.

Mr Lawrence confirmed to The Australian last night that he wanted to run for Mr Combet's job - if and when the ACTU leader made a decision.

"Greg needs to change his position, or announce something, and then there needs to be a broad discussion in the movement," he said. "So far it has been a lot of ringing around and manoeuvring."

Mr Combet said last night he was still "weighing up" seeking a Labor seat - believed to be Charlton near Newcastle. He is expected to make adecision soon after the ALP's conference.

Mr Lawrence's key union backers, apart from Mr Combet and himself, are union chiefs Mr Cameron and John Sutton. Union sources say the push to put Mr Lawrence in the ACTU is part of a three-way plan. Mr Cameron, the national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, is to be elected to the Senate for Labor, while Mr Sutton, national secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, is mooted as a union representative on the ALP's national executive.

Mr Combet is known to believe that Mr Robertson has undermined his leadership by taking repeated swipes at the Melbourne-based ACTU and refusing to run Unions NSW as an ACTU state branch.

During the current ACTU campaign against Mr Howard's Work Choices laws, Mr Robertson's Unions NSW group has run its own race with separate events and a protest bus touring the state.

Mr Robertson has indicated to some officials the ACTU under his leadership would move to Sydney, for the first time since its creation in 1927.

But he has also indicated his willingness to commute regularly to Melbourne, in similar fashion to the late former ACTU president Cliff Dolan.

At the ACTU, the secretary holds the power in the organisation under rule changes introduced in 1985 by then secretary Bill Kelty.

Sources said the key to the ACTU leadership was the vote of influential right-wing leader Joe de Bruyn, head of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

While Mr de Bruyn is close to Mr Combet, he was ultimately expected to back Mr Robertson.

The ACTU battle was portrayed last night as a battle of Left versus Right.

However, the position of ACTU president Sharan Burrow is also significant. She initially supported Mr Robertson, but some reports have her now switching sides. Mr Combet is understood to want to avoid a highly divisive ballot in an election year.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21617077-601,00.html

What a thought! Total control! :

...."Victory for Mr Robertson, a key supporter of Mr Rudd's campaign to oust Kim Beazley as federal Labor leader last year, would see the NSW Right take over not only the ALP's political wing but also its industrial wing. ..."

Tightly crossing my fingers that (most unlikely!) Greg Combet chooses to stay in the ACTU job. Frankly, the thought of the right controlling everything related to the ALP & the union movement, too, is very unappealing. Should the take-over be successful, I predict the defection of many disenchanted leftists to the Greens.
This is going to be some conference this coming weekend!

I'm working in the central coalfields building some Nurse's accommodation quarters.

Ten hour days, so I don't really have the energy to jump on the web after work. Besides, even the satellite connection is a bit unreliable.

I have to drive up into the mountains to get good cellphone reception.

On the IR issue, we (our construction crew) are in the process of writing up our own AWA to present to the Fheurer (sp?). It's simply so hard to get good tradespeople to work in the bush, that we have the upper hand.

I'd suggest that all workplaces form their own mini-union, and act as a group, rather than being bullied as a single entity into signing an "agreement" that they had no input into creating.

It's unionism on a smaller scale, and much more applicable to individual workplaces than the general overview of the state and federal worker unions.

On the election issue, the IR changes (WorkChoices??, what a crock of shite) is such a ball and chain for the incumbents, that they are spending way too much money on false advertising, so they are effectively shooting themselves in the foot.

Hey, good to see you again, Builder!

I like the idea of your "mini union" writing its own AWA!
I think that's an extremely good idea in a field such as yours where there's such a demand for your particular skills.
Good luck!

Happy to see you keeping these threads alive, MsOlga.





In our position, it's a formality. Very friendly crew, and a realist on the management team. Apparently it's to do with worker classification. If we work for the one builder for longer than ten months, we are supposed to be on a wage, with worker's comp and superannuation.

It's not that we want these things. We're contractors. We lose taxation privelidges the minute we go on wages.

We need to sign an AWA so it's a formal contract. So far, the conditions are above par. If I could just teach the cook how to steam broccoli, I'd be happier.




The same could be said for the whole employment spectrum.

Good workers are hard to find.




The position of bargaining power comes from a skill that is in demand.

There's no shortage of demand out there, for productive individuals.



I'll check in when I can. You're a devoted soul to the cause.

I like that. :wink:

Kind words, Builder. Thank you.

You know, I can't really see that "the whole employment spectrum" is in quite the same bargaining position as your group, particularly unskilled workers. (I really wish everyone was, though!) Thing is, there's a shortage of your particular skills, but in an area where there isn't a shortage the boss can just tell the "trouble makers" to go jump & employ others instead. I think this is precisely what JH had in mind in the choices bit of WorkChoices! (You can choose to work -on the employer's terms - or choose unemployment!)

Yes, do drop by when you can. Don't be a stranger!

Last Update: Thursday, April 26, 2007. 5:37pm (AEST)

Combet rejects 'absurd' IR body fears


Greg Combet says he does not see any constitutional problems with the new IR policy. (File photo) (ABC TV)

Unions say the Federal Government's claim that union bosses would run Labor's proposed new industrial relations (IR) body is absurd.

Labor says if elected at this year's federal election it will create a new body called Fair Work Australia, to replace the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) and act as an independent umpire in industrial disputes.

Prime Minister John Howard has slammed the plan, saying the new body would be made up of people hand-picked by union leaders.

"You're not going to tell me, given that he cooked it up in cahoots with [Deputy Leader] Julia Gillard, that [Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary] Greg Combet won't dictate who the people are going to be," he said.

"This is not about good policy. It will hand back even greater power to union bosses."

But Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Greg Combet rejects that.

"That, of course, is a completely absurd proposition," he said.

"What I'm noticing in some of the public utterances from some of the business community and the Howard Government - which are in lock-step on the industrial relations issue ... they've really only got one argument left now, which is an argument dredged up from the 1950s.

"Their only argument is to respond to everything now with the thesis that union bosses are going to be running things."

He says Fair Work Australia would have to be independent.

"Our view about this Fair Work Australia is that it must be independent and it must be staffed with people who are independent and have the appropriate qualifications to discharge their responsibilities," he said.

"When you start stacking up institutions, as Mr Howard's done with the Industrial Relations Commission, people lose confidence in it, and it's important that you don't just have biased political appointments."

Conflict of interest

Meanwhile, business groups are warning Labor's plan may create a serious conflict of interest.

The Australian Industry Group (AiG) has reservations about rolling the workplace adviser, investigator, prosector and judge into one authority.

Peter Hendy from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) shares those concerns.

"We actually think it's on legally shaky grounds," he said.

He says the body would both make and enforce the law, which creates a conflict of interest.

But Mr Combet says he cannot see any constitutional problems.

"I think any of the issues about having a body that creates rights, mediates et cetera and which also has an enforcement role can easily be dealt with by having some sort kind of divisional structure within it," he said.

"I think that probably will be a feature of Fair Work Australia, but I don't see any constitutional impediment to putting such an institution in place."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1907467.htm

My pleasure. I like your work. :wink:



Skilled, you mean? ****-shovellers and dish-pigs aside, there's plenty of occupations that require personal experience and skill. If a company wants to succeed, the skill is with the operatives. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.




Name an industry or commerce sector where workers are not in demand right about now.



You can also tell them to go bite their dot. Or you can activate a team situation at work, where one is singled out, the others rally. Too easy, really.




I'll be back. :wink:

This is shaping up to be a debate to watch at this weekend's ALP national conference.:

Fierce ALP brawl on uranium policy
Mike Steketee:
April 26, 2007/the AUSTRALIAN

PASSION, principle and Labor tradition will be on display when the party's national conference debates uranium policy on Saturday.

That won't hurt. Politics should not always be reduced to the utterly cynical. But there will be illogicality and hypocrisy as well.

Federal frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who will lead the anti-uranium forces at the conference, is a former staffer and protege of Tom Uren, a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner in the 1970s and '80s. Albanese will argue that nuclear proliferation problems have grown worse, not better, despite decades of preaching about tighter nuclear safeguards.

Even though the Cold War has ended, he has a point. International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei spoke last year of "the new realities". Terrorists were trying to acquire nuclear weapons and in the past decade his organisation had recorded more than 650 cases of attempted smuggling of nuclear material. The IAEA's task, he added, was to oversee 900 facilities in 71 countries, but with the budget of only a local police department.

Albanese argues that the proposal by the Bush administration for countries to receive guaranteed access to nuclear fuel in return for giving up the right to enrich and reprocess uranium - and therefore the means to produce nuclear weapons - concedes that answers to proliferation and waste disposal have yet to be found. He will try to convince the conference not to drop the existing policy of opposition to new uranium mines until such solutions do exist. ... <cont>

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21621293-601,00.html

Off the top of my head: one is shop assistants. Many workers in that field, while employed, are under-employed. Read an article recently where it was claimed that many workers (in say, supermarkets) are working something like a 20 hour week, minus previously held entitlements like bonuses for working over-time, weekends & public holidays.
It's part of that myth of full employment. Just how secure are workers when so many jobs have been casualized & so many workers are under-employed? Not a strong position to bargain from.