More union bashing to come!

What would you think about someone who is continually attempting to rob 
you and your family of the right to a decent living? Someone who was intent 
on taking food from the mouths of your children and was on a mission to 
make sure that the future they have is a grim one? You would inevitably 
hold them in the contempt that they deserve. Workplace Relations Minster 
Tony Abbott is one such character and this year he continues on his mission 
to make your life harder and more uncertain while making it easier for the 
bosses to make more profits.

Federal Parliament has been sitting for less than two months and already 
there are five anti-union Bills on the books. All are amendments to the 
Workplace relations Act:

* "Fair Dismissal" Bill 2002
* "Fair Termination" Bill 2002
* "Genuine Bargaining" Bill 2002
* "Prohibition of Compulsory Union Fees" Bill 2002
* "Secret Ballots for Protected Action" Bill 2002

Tony Abbott is indeed a hard worker. He's a parliamentary bull!

It's a pity that the results of his work in no way improve the lot of the 
Australian people but continue to erode the position of workers and their 
unions.

Take a look at what these Bills do:

Fair Dismissal Bill 2002

This Bill is to protect small businesses from unfair dismissal claims. We 
already know that workers in small businesses are under pressure to do as 
they are told, even if their instructions are totally unreasonable.

If this Bill is passed, small business employees will be completely at the 
boss's mercy.

The extent to which employees lose their rights is simply astounding.

An extract from the Parliamentary website reads:

"The bill proposes to: prevent small business employees (other than 
apprentices and trainees) from applying under the WR [Workplace Relations -
- Ed.] Act for a remedy in respect of harsh, unjust or unreasonable 
termination of employment (unfair dismissal); and require the Australian 
Industrial Relations Commission ... to order that an unfair dismissal 
application made by a small business employee is invalid..."

The horror of this Bill speaks for itself. A worker can be sacked at a 
boss's whim and there is absolutely no legal redress open to the worker.

Fair Termination Bill 2002

Any use of the word "fair" by Tony Abbott (or Howard, Costello et al for 
that matter) should immediately arouse suspicion.

The aim of this Bill is to exclude casual employees of less than 12 months 
standing from taking unfair dismissal action against middle or large 
business employers. Attached to this Bill comes a $50 fee for any other 
employee to lodge an unfair dismissal claim.

Past Liberal and Labor Governments have both made it easier for bosses to 
casualise their workforce. Now the Liberals are seeking to strip from 
casual workers the few rights they have.

Abbott has the hide to say this Bill will provide: "fairness in termination 
of employment, and to promote the creation and protection of jobs for 
Australian workers".

Unfair dismissal = Fairness in termination.

Unreasonable termination of employees = Protection of jobs.

Orwellian doublethink at its best!

Genuine Bargaining Bill 2002

This Bill is an outright attack on the already dismal rights of unions 
under the Workplace Relations Act. The real aim of this Bill is to stop 
pattern bargaining and to curtail the use of industrial action during a 
bargaining period — the only time unions can take action without the 
threat of being sued or fined by the courts.

In Abbott-speak the Bill proposes to:

* provide guidance to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission when 
it is considering whether a party is not genuinely trying to reach 
agreement with other negotiating parties, particularly in cases of so-
called pattern-bargaining;

* empower the Commission to make orders preventing the initiation of a new 
bargaining period, or attaching conditions to any such bargaining period, 
where a bargaining period has been withdrawn; and

* empower the Commission to order cooling off periods in respect of 
protected industrial action to facilitate resolution of the issues in 
dispute.

Bargaining genuinely, to Abbott and the other bosses' henchmen in the 
Liberal Party, means to get on your knees and plead to the apparent 
goodwill of the employers.

We should remember the struggle of the maritime workers, where P&O and 
Corrigan demonstrated their "goodwill" with dog squads, thugs in balaclavas 
in an act of ruthless anti-union terrorism.

If all workers relied on the goodwill of their bosses then there would be 
many starving workers.

Struggle is the way forward for workers and their unions, and in Abbott's 
proposed legislation it is obvious that he too realises this. Through this 
legislation he is doing his best for the bosses in attempting to curtail 
it.

Prohibition of Compulsory Union Fees

This Bill has one simple aim: to stop the practice undertaken by some 
unions whereby non-union members have been required to pay a "bargaining 
service fee" to the union on the outcome of an enterprise agreement 
negotiation.

While the pros and cons of this practice are debatable, Abbott will not 
miss any opportunity to undermine any measures that might assist trade 
unions in recruiting, receiving funds or carrying out their work.

Secret Ballots for Protected Action Bill

It is only during a bargaining period that the courts will grant a union 
the right to take industrial action. During this period court recognised 
industrial action in support of negotiations for an enterprise agreement is 
called "protected action".

This Bill, along with the Genuine Bargaining Bill, seeks to make that 
process of taking "protected action" harder for workers and their unions.

Abbott says, "the secret ballot process proposed by this Bill will create 
and protect jobs by preventing unnecessary strikes. It will enhance freedom 
of choice for workers and strengthen the accountability of unions to their 
members".

The reality is quite different. Abbott has managed against all odds to 
match the much-hated Peter Reith's level of telling lies and distorting the 
truth.

This Bill is all about allowing the boss time to prepare for action, 
allowing the boss time to unduly influence and intimidate workers and about 
trying to create fractures in the unity of unions that prepare to enter 
into struggle to improve the lot of their members.

On top of this there will greater costs to unions, not to mention an extra 
organisational burden on officials. It attempts to remove from unions their 
ability to strike when the iron is hot, when it is most tactically 
advantageous.

It won't end here!

If the above is representative of Abbott's efforts within a couple of weeks 
of parliament re-sitting then it can be said with much certainty that there 
is more to come. This third term of the Howard Government is going to be 
dangerous period for the union movement.,

It still remains to be seen whether or not any of these Bills will 
successfully proceed through the Senate; much of this of course will rest 
on the shoulder of the Labor Party and the Democrats.

Both the ALP and the Democrats are currently on record as saying that they 
will not support Abbott's Bill on the removal of unfair dismissal 
protection for small business employees. They must now be pressured to 
maintain that stand.

However, the ALP and the Democrats have both had very little to say on the 
other Bills.

Both of these parties will stand condemned by workers if they do support 
the rabidly anti-union Abbott, and on past performance one cannot be too 
sure which way they will fall.

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Acknowledgements to the Maritime Bulletin