Vanguard April 2010 p. 3
The stepped up “assault by stealth” on hard won workers‘rights and long held democratic and civil liberties is unprecedented in its scope. The latest group of workers to be hit by the full blast of the Labor government’s industrial laws are teachers and their union, the Australian Education Union.
Recently, the Federal teachers’ union was warned by the Fair Work Ombudsman’s office that the union and individual members face heavy financial penalties if they proceeded with their community supported protest activities against the discriminatory Schools ‘League Table’. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s Office warned the union that work bans on conducting NAPLAN (National Assessment Programme – Literacy and Numeracy) tests constituted illegal industrial action in a non-protected period.
It doesn’t stop there either. The anti-democratic ABCC powers against building workers are now being copied and used against other groups of workers and the wider community.
The Victorian Labor government seized on the Federal government’s doggedness to retain the anti-union ABCC, and under the pretext of weeding out local government corruption, set up the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate, giving it wide sweeping powers mirroring both the ABCC and ASIO’s anti-terror laws. Local council workers and the wider community are targets of these laws.
Even the mild International Labour Organisation officially declared that Rudd/Gillard’s ABCC breaches international labour standards and the rights of workers to belong to unions. Similarly, the ILO found the government’s Fair Work Act also breached international labour conventions.
The systematic all out war by the ruling class of monopoly capital on the organised working class is wiping out strike action as an indispensable tool and a right of Australia’s workers. Workers’ rights to take industrial action around important political and social justice issues are now illegal in law.
The extremely restrictive Right of Entry laws, designed to weaken the organised working class, continue to be chipped away, with full blessings of the Labor government’s Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations. Gillard has intervened on behalf of big business peak body, the Australian Industry Group, in an agreement between NSW’s Dunlop Foams and the NUW. Gillard and the AIG want to block any potential for even some small flexibility in the right of entry restrictions. Obstructions to prevent unions’ access to workers are thrown up every step of the way, with unions treated as terrorist organisations.
The rights to workers’ health and safety in the workplace are diminishing with union Occupational Health and Safety representatives’ rights and powers watered down under the so-called national ‘harmonisation’ laws.
Hand in hand with attacks on workers’ rights, people’s wider civil rights and liberties are eroded, with the Rudd/Gillard government recently extending ASIO’s anti-terror laws, whilst the State governments are expanding their policing powers of ‘stop and search’ to intimidate and suppress the people.
Australia’s people have a long history and proud tradition of standing up and repelling attacks on democratic rights and civil liberties. In the Eureka Stockade of 1854, the workers’ and unions’ struggles of the 1880s and early 1890s, the anti-conscription battles of 1914-1916, the successful struggle against the Communist Party Dissolution Act in 1951, the defeat of the ID card in 1987, the magnificent MUA struggle in 1998 and the most recent 2005-2007 struggle against WorkChoices, ordinary people overcame difficulties and fought to uphold and defend hard won democratic rights.
The organised working class has always been the core of these struggles. The desire for truly democratic rights for ordinary people flows deeply and strongly throughout Australia’s history. A far sighted, dedicated and selfless leadership, grounded in Australia’s reality and the working class, will give a powerful expression and vision to these historic strivings of ordinary people once again.
Recently, the Federal teachers’ union was warned by the Fair Work Ombudsman’s office that the union and individual members face heavy financial penalties if they proceeded with their community supported protest activities against the discriminatory Schools ‘League Table’. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s Office warned the union that work bans on conducting NAPLAN (National Assessment Programme – Literacy and Numeracy) tests constituted illegal industrial action in a non-protected period.
It doesn’t stop there either. The anti-democratic ABCC powers against building workers are now being copied and used against other groups of workers and the wider community.
The Victorian Labor government seized on the Federal government’s doggedness to retain the anti-union ABCC, and under the pretext of weeding out local government corruption, set up the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate, giving it wide sweeping powers mirroring both the ABCC and ASIO’s anti-terror laws. Local council workers and the wider community are targets of these laws.
Even the mild International Labour Organisation officially declared that Rudd/Gillard’s ABCC breaches international labour standards and the rights of workers to belong to unions. Similarly, the ILO found the government’s Fair Work Act also breached international labour conventions.
The systematic all out war by the ruling class of monopoly capital on the organised working class is wiping out strike action as an indispensable tool and a right of Australia’s workers. Workers’ rights to take industrial action around important political and social justice issues are now illegal in law.
The extremely restrictive Right of Entry laws, designed to weaken the organised working class, continue to be chipped away, with full blessings of the Labor government’s Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations. Gillard has intervened on behalf of big business peak body, the Australian Industry Group, in an agreement between NSW’s Dunlop Foams and the NUW. Gillard and the AIG want to block any potential for even some small flexibility in the right of entry restrictions. Obstructions to prevent unions’ access to workers are thrown up every step of the way, with unions treated as terrorist organisations.
The rights to workers’ health and safety in the workplace are diminishing with union Occupational Health and Safety representatives’ rights and powers watered down under the so-called national ‘harmonisation’ laws.
Hand in hand with attacks on workers’ rights, people’s wider civil rights and liberties are eroded, with the Rudd/Gillard government recently extending ASIO’s anti-terror laws, whilst the State governments are expanding their policing powers of ‘stop and search’ to intimidate and suppress the people.
Australia’s people have a long history and proud tradition of standing up and repelling attacks on democratic rights and civil liberties. In the Eureka Stockade of 1854, the workers’ and unions’ struggles of the 1880s and early 1890s, the anti-conscription battles of 1914-1916, the successful struggle against the Communist Party Dissolution Act in 1951, the defeat of the ID card in 1987, the magnificent MUA struggle in 1998 and the most recent 2005-2007 struggle against WorkChoices, ordinary people overcame difficulties and fought to uphold and defend hard won democratic rights.
The organised working class has always been the core of these struggles. The desire for truly democratic rights for ordinary people flows deeply and strongly throughout Australia’s history. A far sighted, dedicated and selfless leadership, grounded in Australia’s reality and the working class, will give a powerful expression and vision to these historic strivings of ordinary people once again.
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