457s and imperialism

Vanguard June 2013 p. 11
(Contributed by a construction worker)

(Above: Perth, February 2011, CFMEU members stand in solidarity with Chinese s457 visa workers)

Most Section 457 visa workers are decent working people determined to make the most for themselves and their families in the short period of time they are allowed to remain in Australia. These workers are being used through a system determined to force wages and conditions down for all other workers and in particular to restrict wage growth in boom areas like mining. 457 visa holders are also known as guest workers.

Guest workers have been used throughout the world in many countries to restrict the growth of unionism and organised labour and force wages and conditions down in those countries.

Ten years or so ago, an international conference of construction unions representing about 12 countries throughout the Pacific area discussed the problem of guest workers.

Regardless of which country was represented the same story emerged about guest workers undermining wages and conditions in each country and it may surprise readers that even the Chinese representatives had call to complain .

For years the union movement across the world has been confronting this matter and the associated social problems it is designed to create.

Workers from poorer countries move to wealthier neighbouring countries to take up work "no one else wants", while that country's workers would move to an even more wealthier country and so on and so on until eventually guest workers in the form of 457 visa holders eventually arrived in Australia. This issue didn't happen by chance: it is engineered by the ruling class as a tool to restrict wages and conditions of the working class and maintain higher profit levels.

Creating dissent and competition within the working class so workers are at each other’s throats is recorded throughout history. Henry Ford, the Fascist loving capitalist of the USA vehicle industry, made a point of employing Afro-American workers in his car factories in a time when this was unheard of. Not because he believed in equality and non- discrimination, but because he used the fears of white workers being replaced with cheaper paid black workers and encouraged dissent and competition between the two groups of workers to destroy any chance of unity and organised labour to improve wages and conditions.

Today in countries like Australia it is harder to be as obvious as it was in Henry Ford's time, but the same pattern of behaviour remains. Divide and conquer, the great imperialist tool devised thousands of years ago by the ruling elite and still practiced today. Just as the Afro-Americans in the Ford factories were prejudiced against and used to maintain disunity, today 457 workers are just another group being used in the same way.

Unlike our forefathers who arrived here with the promise of a future for themselves and their families, 457 visa holders are exploited for short term expediency, which is the problem.

Many of these workers are under the threat of being sent home if they make waves, including joining unions or speaking out of turn about OHS, or any other issue which might piss their employer off.

Even if a 457 worker is being ripped off and is prepared to stand up, if his/her employer is found guilty, the end result may well be the 457 visa holder is sent out the country because the employer is deemed to then be unsuitable as a 457 sponsor.

 

It is all stacked up against these temporary workers, unlike migrants, who have a long term commitment to their new country. As history shows, Australian migrants integrate into the community, buy or rent houses and all the products which goes with it, take an interest in the politics of the community, are prepared to voice their opinions, join unions and stand up for better wages and conditions and other issues which make for better societies.       

So we should not be condemning these 457 visa workers but supporting them, demanding that the Australian government immediately abolish the 457 rort.

Increase the opportunities for permanent migration of skilled workers and offer each existing visa holder the opportunity to stay in this country permanently with the right to bring their families here to join them.

Making contact with 457 workers is a good start to understanding how to combat the divide and rule issue concerning 457 workers, but we should not be blind to the many, many other ruling class tactics effectively used to divide and rule.

There is none more striking than the parliamentary farce which diverts people’s attention away from the cause to the effect.

The contradictions inherent within Imperialism are the cause.    

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Further reading:  http://www.cfmeu.asn.au/news/make-the-457-visa-system-fair-for-all-workers-cfmeu

http://workinglife.org.au/2013/03/21/our-union-is-standing-with-457-workers-against-exploitation/

http://theredflag.ca/node/453  (for a statement on the same problem from a Canadian perspective)