Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

• Inside Trades Hall
•  > Secretary's Report
•  > 2006 Archives

Secretary's Soapbox - 19 December 2006

2007 – WE DON’T BLINK

19 December 2006

The trade union movement has no choice but to campaign hard to see the defeat of the Howard government in the 2007 federal election.

The issues are clear.  Hard work is the name of the game.  Sitting back and reading poll results in newspapers is not an option.  It has never been that simple.

Already with a change of leadership within the Federal ALP there is a lot of gratuitous advice from conservative commentators.  They are obsessed with one thing, getting Kevin Rudd to blink on the IR policy.  Tearing up ‘Work Choices’ is described as being “beholden to the union movement”, as if that is some sort of crime anyway.

Lies are told as well.  The ALP’s current IR policy is described as “Labor has missed the boat on community attitudes to the economy”, but Rudd “may yet soften his stance on Howard’s IR reforms”.

Such commentators try to whip up scenarios about the alleged spreading influence of the non-union sector, particularly independent contractors, as having more of a say than ever before.  A so called 'softening' of the ALP position on IR is even portrayed as weakening Howard’s capacity to attack Rudd on job creation.  On it goes.

It is also suggested that if Rudd puts “more distance between Labor’s IR policy and that of the trade union movement” then he “would establish his authority as leader”.

These same commentators don’t care about fair wages and conditions.  They talk about a ‘free market economy’ but in the same breath support the labour component of that 'free' economy being restricted by harsh IR laws, that severely limit workers’ capacity to bargain.

Campaigning to protect workers’ rights in 2007 will be more crucial than ever.

The political and industrial climate in Australia is balanced on a knife edge.  Nothing can be taken for granted.  Over the last two years we have done ourselves proud in conjunction with our allies in the wider community.