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

Building Workers at Pointy End of Howard’s IR Laws

By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary
12 November 2007

The trade union movement‘s campaign to highlight how ‘WorkChoices’ rips off workers across the board has been highly successful.  There have been effective TV ads, a lot of Your Rights at Work activity in the marginal seats and of course some monster rallies and marches across the country over the last couple of years.  All of this activity has made sure the IR issue is front and centre in the pre-election debates.

One group of workers who have been hit hard are those who work in the building and construction industry.

A year before WorkChoices came in, the Federal Government, on the back of a bodgy Royal Commission, introduced the Building Industry Act.  This law set up a full-time mini-police force called the Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC).  This group, with more powers than ordinary police, hassle and harass union officials and industry rank and file workers across Australia.  It’s a body that must be abolished as soon as possible.

Some of the laws that came out of this exercise against the building unions were also fine-tuned for the subsequent WorkChoices Legislation.  In the recent nurses dispute we saw the docking of pay for example, even though the nurses were working!

The theme of the trade union rally in Melbourne back in September was:

“DON’T GIVE HOWARD ANOTHER SHOT – PROTECT YOUR KIDS FUTURE”.

This says it all.

It’s important all trade unionists, in the marginal seats in particular, cast their votes carefully with this in mind. 


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