Fluoro fighters demand jobs we can count on

Vanguard November 2012 p. 12
by Marcus H.

Melbourne’s Southern Cross Railway Station was the scene of the Fluoro Fightback, on Friday October 19^th, 2012.

At 8 am that morning, hundreds of fluoro clad fighters converged, and occupied the steps of Victoria’s busiest transport terminal. The rally was the first public action of the National Union of Workers recently released Jobs You Can Count on Campaign, and held in conjunction with World Anti-Poverty Week.

 

The Jobs You Can Count on Campaign was launched by the rank and file of the NUW in May of this year, in response to the rapid increase in casualisation in the workforce.

The past eight years has seen casualisation reach frightening heights in Australia. In 2004, around 28% of the total workforce was employed as casuals. At this point in time, in 2012, casualisation is at the 40% mark.

Rising high above Spencer Street, permanent workers stood in solidarity with casual comrades, who find themselves in insecure work arrangements. The Fightback was also joined by commuters arriving into the city for the 8 am commencement.

“Every Worker Counts!” was the key message resonating from the steps of Southern Cross, before Brian Howe, former Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Inquiry into Insecure Work, took the stage and demanded that government respond to the casualisation crisis.

The headline act of the Fluoro Fightback belonged to internationally acclaimed artist Billy Bragg, who attended the protest in honour of Woody Guthrie, while on a busy tour schedule in Australia.

Bragg set a reflective tone for the audience, playing Guthrie’s ‘I ain’t got no home’, a song which many casual workers on third party agency arrangements could identify with, being flung from worksite to worksite on a daily basis.

Bragg highlighted the correlation between poverty and insecure work. “The economy is driven by consumers, consumers cannot consume unless they have decent wages which they have earned for a proper days work”. Bragg went on “That’s where organised labour comes in, because if you want to change anything in the world – you have got to organise, because, “there is power in the union!” before breaking into a rousing rendition of that very song by the same name.

President of the ACTU, Ged Kearney, also spoke on the negative effects of the casualisation crisis.

Charles Firth, of televisions The Chaser fame, presided over a game of Insecure Musical Chairs, a contest where every worker was a loser. Making light of a serious situation, the street theatre was a powerful illustration of the way the bosses use casualisation as a tool to intimidate, exploit and divide the workplace.

The Fluoro Fightback was a key event in the significant Jobs You Can Count on Campaign in a milestone year for the NUW. One hundred years ago, the forebear to the current union, the Federated Storeman and Packers Union was formed, with many members at that time working out of sheds in that same western CBD patch.

The resurrected militancy of the NUW saw the union and its members and the wider community take on the multinational Swift meat processing conglomerate in 2010, and Baiada Poultry last year. The Baiada dispute related to this very campaign, a fight against insecure, contract and cash in hand work.

The union is currently pitched in a battle with hardware giant Mitre 10, a company which attempts to divide permanent employees from casual workers, by providing each of the classifications with different uniforms.