Josh S.
Ongoing revelations about corruption
among union officials undermine the strength and credibility of the union
movement, and hand employers and the government golden opportunities to attack
and proscribe legitimate union activity.
As if the despicable corruption of
former Health Services Union Federal Secretary and Labor politician, Craig
Thomson and his misuse of union funds weren't enough, we have had further
revelations about Bill Shorten, and about Thomson's accuser, Kathy Jackson.
Jackson has been accused in court by the Health Services
Union of using $250,000 of union funds for fine dining, holidays, artwork,
cameras, and on her divorce. She has claimed her spending was authorised by the
Union's Committee of Management, and was used for union interests.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten is
accused of political corruption.
Shorten has admitted that his union (the
Australian Workers Union) secretly received $40,000 from an employer, UniBilt,
with whom it was negotiating a new Enterprise Agreement.
The money was not intended directly for
Shorten and there was no direct evidence of his specifically using this money
to employ a campaign manager to run his ALP campaign. It is nevertheless indicative of tame-cat union
duchessing by bosses.
Shorten has since claimed that the
donation did not affect the union's negotiations with that employer, and that
he has done nothing wrong. As if an employer would handover tens of thousands
without some sort of payback such as reducing workers’ conditions!!
The extent to which Labor
Party-affiliated union officials and Labor politicians live within a political
and moral blind spot was illustrated by Greg Combet's response. He ignored the allegations
about Shorten's corruption. Instead, he focused on the Abbott government,
claiming that the Royal Commission was merely a political hatchet job on the
union movement.
Well, of course it is, and it should
be vigorously opposed for that reason – it is
designed to prepare the ground for further attacks on the union movement. The
arch-reactionary Rogue Commissioner Dyson Heydon and his open ties to the
Liberal Party make this quite plain. But it is also true that corruption and
bribery of some union officials, and sell out of workers to the bosses, goes on
all the time and is deeply ingrained in a few unions. The ruling class and bosses actively encourage
and nurture bribery and corruption to buy their puppet officials and sell out
the workers. The behaviour of such officials is corrupt, it undermines the
credibility and effectiveness of unions, and it hands the government credible
justification of its intent to attack the unions.
The fact that Combet either can't see
this or chooses to ignore it merely shows how myopically Labor politicians see
everything through the prism of ALP self-interest, and have lost the ability or
willingness to see or face the truth.
Types of Corruption
There are various forms of corruption
among some union officials.
Some engage in straight out
misappropriation of funds; they use union money to directly fund their lavish
lifestyle – travel, accommodation, meals etc. Some receive bribes or payments
from employers as recently admitted by a CFMEU official. Some, such as those
exposed in the HSU, employ family members at exorbitant salaries, and award
themselves and their families contracts for union services like publication of
the union journal.
Others just live very well as a union
official. They receive a very high salary – well above anything like their
members could earn. For example, Jackson was paid
$170,000 per year as Federal Secretary and at the same time, an additional
$60,000 by the Victorian State Branch. They have union cars, and also travel
whenever and wherever they wish, enjoying top accommodation and meals. They are
frequently duchessed by employers – flattered, invited to dinners, conferences,
consultations, all to bring them into the social and political orbit of the
ruling structure, and blunt their militancy and contact with their memberships.
Most union officials without political
ambitions are honest, hard-working and dedicated, but the bosses will use all
means necessary to control union officials.
Even honest and well-intentioned
officials can slide into blurring the line between the personal and the
professional. They become used to having and using a union credit card, become
careless in how and on what they spend union money. “What does it matter that I
spend a little union money on this or that”, “I'll just use the card to buy
this”.
Officials who occupy a position for a long
time can develop a sense of entitlement, thinking consciously or
sub-consciously - “I've worked for this union for a long time. It owes me”.
They often fear falling back to a lower income; they fear returning to the
workplace and the regular, possibly monotonous, grind. Some worry whether they
could even cope.
The other dimension is political
corruption, as in the Shorten case.
Some union hierarchies are completely
tied to the ALP, like the Shop Assistants Union. The top officials regard the
union as a vehicle to exert influence in the ALP and as a means to forge career
paths into parliamentary politics. This personal careerism hobbles the union
movement as effectively, or more effectively, than financial corruption. It is
less obvious, and more pervasive and crippling, as it avoids and scotches
struggle and militancy by members, undermining the union's strength.
Often, unions campaign and struggle
quite vigorously against Labor Governments as employers, or challenge a Labor
government as it manages the capitalist system which obviously is loaded toward
employers. However, come election time, many leaders fall into line and go
quiet, fearing a Liberal victory.
The operation of unions within the
legal structure of a capitalist system is a difficult and complex problem and
officials can succumb, either willingly or without intending or even noticing,
to thinking, functioning and living within the system. Although they exist to be the basic
organisations for the defence of the interests of the working class, unions are
also bound in a thousand and one ways to capitalism through the institutions
they work in, the legal structures and rules by which they are bound, the
properties they own and the investments they have. This creates a being, a set
of social circumstances that create what we have called the ideology of trade
unionism. It is not a revolutionary
ideology but one that accepts the permanence of capitalism and therefore limits
the boundaries of trade union activity to those acceptable to, and accepting
of, capitalism. A preoccupation with
“proper legal channels” and fear of fines, jail terms and deregistration is
common.
What to do
Union members of all persuasions can
strive for standards and measures that limit the scope for corruption and malpractice,
including:
·
The
union rank-and-file need to control their union. The union structure needs to enable member
control. Contrast this with the HSU where the HSUeast branch was structured to
virtually prevent members from ever controlling their own union branch. Too many delegates committees and activist
structures have been let go and must be revived to serve as the front line of
organised labour and the first point of contact between the union and its
members. E-newsletters and SMS contact
have their place but must not replace member-controlled democratic structures.
·
Union
officials need to have and maintain a strong ideology about the value and
importance of strong unions, and a clear ethical consciousness about the
sanctity of their role as representatives of their members. Each official needs
to maintain very strong personal vigilance about their own role and conduct,
and be wary of slipping and sliding into loose use of funds in any form, or
developing a sense of personal entitlement.
Our late great comrade John Cummins stared down the threat of a jail
sentence to tell a bosses’ court: “As a matter of conscience I have to reserve
my right to serve my members.” That
“right” was the only personal entitlement sought by Cummins, and it still inspires
union officials who remain loyal to their class.
·
Limited
terms for officials would interrupt and minimise such slippage. The longer
officials maintain their positions, the more likely they are to lose contact
with the realities of their members' lives and become used to a fast, high
life. No official should fear lead
responsibilities being rotated among honest, militant working class
leaders. A return to the workplace every
now and then should become an accepted part of the career of a union official.
·
Officials’
wages and conditions should reflect those of their members. There are still
some unions, mainly blue collar unions, that can’t afford high salaries and
where officials brought in from the workplace actually take large pay cuts to
become an official. In other unions, the
reverse is the case. They recruit
economists and lawyers who will not work for less than a professional salary,
and their elected officials fear going back into the workplace. The argument
that their work is more important or the skills needed are higher, and
therefore they should be paid large salaries should be rejected, as it provides
fertile ground for softness and corruption.
Unions are not businesses or corporations and don’t require wannabe
Chief Executives on high salaries desperate to accrue property and assets for
the union so that their salaries can be guaranteed.
And unions should be politically
independent; they should not be affiliated to any political party, and should
openly espouse their role as fearless agitators only for the interests of their
members and of the working class.
…………….
For
previous comments on this issue see:
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