Round one victory:
Reith withdraws second wave legislation

Following a decision by the Democrats to oppose most of the second wave 
legislation the Coalition Government withdrew its Bill last week. 
Originally the Democrats had planned to seek amendments to the Government's 
Bill, as it did with the original Workplace Relations Act in 1996 — the 
first wave.

The aborted Bill's measures included:

* further award stripping;
* bans on "pattern bargaining";
* compulsory pre-strike ballots;
* solidarity and political strikes outlawed;
* restrictions on right of entry;
* secret individual contracts to override collective agreements;
* easier for employers to sue for damages from industrial action;
* illegal for more than 60% of employees in workplace to be in same union.

With both the Democrats and the Labor Party opposing the Bill in the Senate 
it was doomed.

Democrats' Leader Senator Meg Lees said the Democrats had decided that the 
schedules to the Bill would require such heavy amendment to make them fair 
that it was not worth the effort to salvage them.

The Democrats were prepared to support five, mostly technical, schedules of 
the Bill with a few minor amendments.

The Democrats' decision, which is to be welcomed, comes after a Senate 
Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Act and the new Bill to amend it.

During the Inquiry they heard considerable evidence of the losses suffered 
by workers as a result of the Act and just how unpopular the Act is.

They had also received considerable correspondence from unions, workers and 
other organisations and individuals expressing opposition to the 
legislation.

The original Act is still in place and Reith is not going to give up. The 
next task is to defeat it and replace it with legislation which recognises 
basic trade union rights and restores a centralised system of collective 
bargaining.