Workers' unity stamps out racism

Vanguard July 2012 p. 4
Nick G.

(Above:  CFMEU members in Perth united with and fought for the rights of these s457 visa workers from China)

The response by working people to Gina Reinhardt’s EMA (see accompanying article) has been characterised by some sections of the capitalist media as xenophobic and racist.

No doubt such backward views are held by some workers.

This is much less the case today than it has been in the past, thanks largely to Communists and other active members of the working class who have been in the front lines of the battle for Aboriginal rights and for international solidarity.

The current controversy centres on two visa classes introduced by the Howard government on the orders of the largest multinational and local monopoly corporations.

They are the Section 456 and 457 visas.

Section 456 visas

The former were intended for short term business visits of up to three months to enable visa holders to attend meetings, conduct site visits or participate in training.  Because they were not intended to be work visas they contained no regulation whatsoever of wages and conditions.

They did contain a loophole allowing very specialised work that could not be undertaken by Australians and it is this loophole that has been abused by corporate bosses.

Some notable abuses of 456 visa workers include the 2008 employment of 16 guest workers on an offshore gas project in WA who were performing 12 hour shifts on a 2-months-on-one-month-off roster and earning as little as $4.20 per hour.  They had been employed by a US labour hire company and “sold on” to the Angel gas project laying pipelines across the ocean floor. 

Australian unions took up the case of these workers - not the Business Council of Australia, not the Australian Industry Group, not the Australian Chamber of Business and Commerce.

At the time, the government promised to tighten Section 456 visa regulations, but the abuses continued, including the exploitation in 2011 by the Danish multinational Maersk of Filipino workers on the North West Gas Shelf off WA who were being paid less than $3 per hour alongside Australian workers on the same rigs doing the same jobs for average annual wages of $132,000. 

It was Australian workers on the rigs who passed the hat around for the Filipinos and called in their unions, the AWU and MUA, to ensure that the workers gained proper wages, including back pay. 

Again, the Federal government promised to stop these rorts, and again nothing was really achieved.

The latest scam unearthed during the middle of last month was the employment by Indian multinational Adani of half of its Carmichael coal project workers in central Queensland on 456 visas from India.

Such systematic and continuing abuses of this visa class are corrupt and criminal practices.  They are also inherently racist because they deprive guest workers on Australian projects of the same terms and conditions as those of local citizens.  They discriminate in order to facilitate exploitation, pure and simple.

Section 457 visas

The situation is no better with 457 visa workers.  This visa class is intended as a working visa, is intended to allow a relatively long term stay and grants certain rights to visa holders, such as having family members stay with them and able to access work and study.

Such a visa category is not much different to those under which many skilled Australian workers are allowed to work in overseas countries, including China and the Philippines.

However 457 visa holders are meant to be skilled in areas in which there are local skill shortages and they are meant to be employed on the same terms and conditions as Australian citizens.

Problems have arisen where middlemen have demanded exorbitant “agents fees” from people they have recruited under the 457 schemes.  Or they have forced them into crowded and substandard accommodation for which they have charged huge amounts.  Or they have simply not paid them the correct rates and intimidated and threatened them when complaints have arisen.

Although a worker on a 457 visa may have up to 28 days of unemployment between jobs, they must obtain a new visa and a new sponsor if their original sponsor is no longer willing to employ them.  Thus, the original sponsor has a substantial hold over them.

These sorts of issue are rife in the construction industry which is plagued with all sorts of sham contracting arrangements.  But it has not been the Master Builders Association or the Property Council of Australia which has embraced these workers, treated them respect and dignity and offered the hand of friendship and assistance.

That has been the role of the much-maligned construction unions, and particularly of the CFMEU.

Australia-wide there have been instances where Filipino or Chinese workers have been found on jobs unaware of their entitlements and of health and safety regulations.

There is little point pursuing these issues through the courts: that takes time and the 457 visa workers can be sent home well before any judgement in their favour.

The only effective remedy has been action on the job, bringing foreign 457 visa workers and Australian workers together in the greatest weapon that workers have – unity.

In defending the rights and conditions won by successive generations of Australian workers we do not condone racism or xenophobia.

As we have said, Australian workers have gone to other countries as guest workers, and guest workers from other countries are welcome here.

The great unity of the working class can only be destroyed from within, and the worst corrosive is racism.

Australian workers will stand by guest workers brought to this country and protect their rights and conditions from the racists and exploiters in the capitalist class.

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Further reading:

Humphrey McQueen: Foreign workers