Productivity Commission raises its ugly head again:
Building workers its latest subject

by Rohan Gowland

The union movement has warned that the Productivity Commission's report on 
the building industry, released last week, is a political ploy designed to 
give the Federal Government ammunition to use in an anti-union assault in 
the industry. The building and construction industry will be Howard and 
Reith's first target once it gets its "second wave" of industrial 
legislation passed.

Unions have said that the Productivity Commission is just a phoney tool of 
government that spits out reports to give "credibility" to the Howard/Reith 
attacks on unions.

The MUA dispute was preceded by a Productivity Commission report on 
productivity on the waterfront; figures not based on fact, but designed to 
justify "reforms".

A Productivity Commission report was used to wage an anti-union attack on 
the vehicle industry. The list goes on.

The Federal and Victorian Governments have already used the latest report, 
on the building industry, to oppose renewing the Victorian Building 
Industry Agreement.

Reith said that the problem with the Victorian building industry was that 
wage increases were not linked to productivity. He claims that if this were 
done it would result in more jobs and less industrial disputes.

In reality, in Reith's world there would be fewer jobs because one worker 
would be doing the work of two on starvation wages.

The lower wages and higher output per worker would mean workers and their 
families could not afford to buy as many goods or services, thus reducing 
demand and leading to more job losses as companies cut production.

The attack on wages and conditions is about increasing the exploitation of 
workers and company profits. It does not create jobs.

As the Government has shown with the MUA dispute, it is prepared to go to 
great lengths and pour in unlimited resources to destroying the trade union 
movement and taking back all of the gains workers have won over the last 
century of struggle.

To cheers and applause, a special meeting of building industry union 
delegates in Sydney last Friday passed a resolution rejecting the findings 
of the Productivity Commission's report and calling for the Commission to 
be "immediately disbanded as a waste of tax-payers' money".

The meeting launched a counter-report commissioned by the unions and 
carried out by the Employment Studies Centre at the University of 
Newcastle.

This report shows up the shallow political role of the Productivity 
Commission and its phoney reports.

The Centre's director, Roy Green, told the meeting that while the 
Productivity Commission found the construction industry in Sydney, for 
example, was rife with inefficiency and delays that are costing employers 
dearly, the industry in Sydney is actually highly efficient and is why 
Sydney is the only Olympic city that has ever gotten its major construction 
works completed on schedule.

Mr Green said that the Productivity Commission report's terms of reference 
were flawed and the report itself was flawed and poorly researched.

He urged that it be rejected by all political parties and given no credence 
by the media or anyone in the industry.

Howard and Reith will use the Productivity Commission's report as an excuse 
to try to smash the unions, and attack workers' wages and conditions in an 
industry where employers already get away with murder (literally, too), 
employing 16-year-olds using heavy earth moving equipment, flaunting safety 
regulations and avoiding proper industry standards of wages and conditions.

The Government already has agents of the Employment Advocate and Australian 
Competition and Consumer Commission hounding workers on building sites.

If its second wave anti-union laws are passed then the persecution will 
intensify, with unions and employers legally obliged to deunionise building 
sites to below 60 percent unionisation — something unions will never 
accept.

It is the employers in the industry who should be hounded for their 
criminal neglect.

The Productivity Commission report must be rejected, just as the looming 
assault on building unions, which it has paved the way for, must be 
resisted.