Well, that was a couple of days of wild IR fun & games, wasn't it? :wink:
Looks like everyone had a bit of a go: Julia (or course!) trying madly to appeal to all sides at once (It can't be done.), a few very, very important Captains Of Industry claiming that they (& we) will all be "rooned" if Labor's plan goes ahead, "someone" in the ALP front bench who spoke to the media about Julia getting it all wrong, an exasperated (ex-PM) Paul Keating instructing Julia & Kevin how to get it right from the side-lines & of course, that charming Heffernan man who declared that Julia was useless in her job because of her "barrenness" (or childlessness)!
Something for everyone! 
But really, what a beat-up from the WA mining folk! As if workers in the inerals & mining industry have their fabulous pay packets because of AWAs! It's the minerals boom stupid! And as if these agreements will be under threat if WorkChoices goes kaput. As long as China wants those minerals those workers will continue to be highly paid, AWAs or no AWAs!
Honestly! 
I have a solution, I think: Lets annexe WA until after the boom and the workers (& their bosses) are just like everyone else in Oz! That way, the WA mining workers might have a bit of sympathy with the reality that many other Oz workers are dealing with in their workplace agreements .... & the bosses will not be able to claim that some extraordinary WA prosperity has been created through WorkChoices.
This was an orchestrated campaign, that's what. And they didn't even have to pay for advertising time! :
Greg Combet discusses industrial relations with Kerry O'Brien
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 02/05/2007
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien
Kerry O'Brien speaks to ACTU National Secretary and soon-to-be Labor party candidate Greg Combet about the Labor Party's policy on industrial relations.
Transcript
KERRY O'BRIEN: Our attempts to invite a senior mining executive into the studio for an interview didn't bear fruit tonight, but I'm joined now from Melbourne by ACTU National Secretary and soon-to-be Labor Party candidate for Federal Parliament, Greg Combet.
Greg Combet, the anti-business rhetoric from ACTU President Sharan Burrow particularly, and yourself as well, did seem to be particularly aggressive. I wonder how helpful that really was to Labor's election chances in the current climate, particularly as Julia Gillard was across town trying to do business with the mining companies.
GREG COMBET, ACTU SECRETARY: Well we're not anti-business and I have a lot of dealings, as does Sharan Burrow, with business leadership. However what we're concerned about is that there's a lot of politics in the comments that representatives of business have been coming out with. I think we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry who's been quite vocal, Mr Peter Hendy, is in fact Peter Reith's former chief of staff and obviously very close to the Liberal Party, and Michael Cheney, who of course, who's a well respected businessperson, the head of the Business Council of Australia. He's on record as saying that fairness doesn't have any place in the industrial relations system.
And what we're seeing, I think, is not surprising given the investment that business has made in the Howard Government and the fact that the Howard Government delivered for big business an industrial relations system that they wanted. And it's not surprising when Labor comes forward with, I think, a policy that is entirely fair, one which is balanced, which has an independent umpire, a decent safety net, the right to collectively bargain - these are important commitments and they're reasonable commitments in a democratic society.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Yeah, but those -
GREG COMBET: I just think given - No, I just think that given the stance of big business -
KERRY O'BRIEN: But those are your subjective views, of course.
GREG COMBET: No, well of course they're my views, but I think they're views held by a lot of Australians too. It's just not surprising given that business has been so close to the Howard Government over the industrial relations issue from the outset, and they've got so much authority out of those industrial relations laws, that when Labor posits an alternative some of the more politicised business leadership carries on as they have in the last couple of days. But I think people should realise there's a lot of politics in it.
KERRY O'BRIEN: But when it really comes down to it, is the unions' hatred of Australian Workplace Agreements under WorkChoices primarily about concern for the workforce or is it really primarily about the survival of trade unions?
GREG COMBET: Oh you know, I mean, give us a break, please, Kerry. We've been standing up for working people for a long time and we have in this campaign. Let's just look at this individual contract, these AWAs. Our concern, if you like, is two-fold - one is on the Government's own figures, the AWAs, John Howard's individual contracts, 45 per cent of them have abolished all of people's protected award entitlements. 76 per cent of them, I think, have abolished shift penalties. 52 per cent have abolished public holiday pay. Another 52 per cent have abolished overtime pay. A third of them have no wage increase in them at all and some of these agreements go for five years. That's our first concern - the disadvantage to working people. And most of these AWAs, by the way, are in areas where there are lower-paid employees like the hospitality, tourist and retail industries. Only 7 per cent of AWAs are in the mining industry. That's point one. Point two is this -
KERRY O'BRIEN: Are you prepared to -
GREG COMBET: No please, this is -
KERRY O'BRIEN: - are you prepared to acknowledge before you move to point two, that those in the mining industry and other, other industries related to the resources sector and even outside that sector where there are workers who are in fact better off on individual contracts?
GREG COMBET: Well, of course they are because, and of course we acknowledge that. We always have. That is because the market with the productivity - not the productivity, the profitability of the resources sector with the boom in China, the demand for commodities has driven wages up very high. It's not a feature of AWAs, but of course they are not disadvantaging people. But which brings me back to the second point I wanted to make. A feature of any decent democratic society is respect for the right of working people, if they wish to, to join together and to collectively bargain. The individual contracts or AWAs provide the mining companies and other businesses in Australia to simply declare unilaterally, you accept the terms that we dictate, and there is no negotiation about these things, individual contracts have to be signed for a job.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Let me -
GREG COMBET: No, please let me finish. It's a very important debate.
KERRY O'BRIEN: We have a short interview, and I'd ask you to keep you answers short if you could.
GREG COMBET: It's a feature, I know, but it's a feature of societies in the United States, in the United Kingdom and Canada that where you've got a majority of workers who wish to collectively bargain, that right is respected and that's all that's being asked for in this circumstance.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Let me put this proposition to you: A Labor Government would expand the present five guaranteed minimum conditions for workers to 10. Unions endorse that policy. Why couldn't you continue AWAs under a Labor Government on the basis that they reflected those 10, those expanded minimum conditions, as a basic guarantee and protect workers on AWAs by restoring the no disadvantage test that used to apply before WorkChoices? In other words, no-one on that basis could be worse off under those revised AWAs.
GREG COMBET: Well, can I make the obvious point first in answering that. That is within John Howard's power now. If he is concerned about people losing take-home pay and their penalty rates and their public holiday pay and the like, he controls both houses of Parliament. He could fix that now. And in fact if the business community was genuinely concerned about lower-paid employees in the Australian community in particular being disadvantaged, they could lobby for that change now. But they do not.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Yeah but - but my question is about Labor policy and a Labor Government.
GREG COMBET: Flexibility for them means the capacity to cut pay.
KERRY O'BRIEN: My question is why would you have a problem with that proposition I've put to you under a Labor government? Doesn't that resolve the problems?
GREG COMBET: Because, well, it resolves one of them and you remember I made two points. The other point is that it's been a feature of democratic societies, certainly throughout the post-war period, it was seen as a very important democratic principle. It's actually an internationally respected human right that where a majority of employees wish to collectively bargain, they should have that entitlement. That should be a right because individual employees do not have the same bargaining power as an international mining company.
KERRY O'BRIEN: OK. OK. But why can't they exist side by side where individuals want an individual contract?
GREG COMBET: Well -
KERRY O'BRIEN: Why can't collective agreements and individual contracts exist side by side?
GREG COMBET: They do exist side by side. 55 per cent of the employees in the iron ore industry in fact work under individual common law arrangements, something which Labor says it will preserve. 55 per cent of the industry work under those arrangements.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well then why isn't it, why isn't it possible to accept -
GREG COMBET: And we have historically supported them and they will continue -
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, why isn't it to possible to accept AWAs on that basis?
GREG COMBET: Because AWAs, because AWAs not only are used to disadvantage people, they are also used to deny people the basic right, a democratic right, to collectively bargain if that is what they wish.
KERRY O'BRIEN: But I'm talking, I'm talking -
GREG COMBET: That's the fundamental underpinning of a democratic society.
KERRY O'BRIEN: I'm talking about why you couldn't accept that proposition under a Labor Government with expanded minimum standards and a no disadvantage test?
GREG COMBET: Because it still wouldn't -
KERRY O'BRIEN: Whether somebody is a in a Subway sandwich shop, a fast-food outlet or the mining fields.
GREG COMBET: Well because it still would offend the right of people that's respected in other democratic and advanced economies like ours, which manage to continue their economies in a productive way, it still would offend the right of people to collectively bargain. And should there be a desire on the part genuinely of an employee and an employer to have an individual arrangement that supplements and is over and above collective instruments like awards or agreements, that will continue to be available.
KERRY O'BRIEN: This is a very awkward time for you, I would have thought, isn't it? Having one foot still in the labour movement the other about to be planted on the road to Parliament as a Rudd recruit?
GREG COMBET: Well, I don't feel in an awkward position at all. One thing that I believe in is that these industrial relations laws are unfair to working people. I'm glad the public policy debate is now on and I intend to contribute to it right up to the Election Day in whatever capacity I have. I've indicated today just that it is my intention to announce my decision as to whether I would stand for Labor within the next 48 hours and so that will be cleared up pretty quickly.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well I don't think anyone's in any doubt which way the decision's going. You are going into the Parliament, aren't you?
GREG COMBET: Oh well, I'll announce that in the appropriate place at the appropriate time. And I think that's out of respect for the people who are affected by it.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Very quickly, it would be one of those difficult ironies to live with I would think, if history shows that the ACTU's policy demands on the Labor Party cost Labor victory at the election and you were placed in a Labor ministry?
GREG COMBET: Look, let's get this in a bit of perspective. Labor has to make decisions for itself and determine its own policy, which is what they've done and all of this hysteria from the business community is completely out of proportion. It is not a threat to the Australian economy. The biggest threat to the Australian economy is declining productivity, in fact, which the Government has failed to act upon. We need to invest in education skills, in infrastructure development, research, technology and the like. That's the real challenge. Don't lose sight of the fact that only 3 per cent, I think it is, or a bit over 3 per cent of the Australian workforce are employed on AWAs and getting rid of AWAs is not going to harm the economy one iota.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Greg Combet, thanks for talking with us.
GREG COMBET: Thankyou.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1912836.htm
And they rather like compliant & intimidated workers.
