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

Victorian unions step up campaign against new work laws

Victorian union delegates and shop stewards rallied in Melbourne on Wednesday 29 March to plan the next steps in the fight against the Howard Government’s IR laws. Over 4,000 unionists attended a VTHC delegates and shop stewards’ rally at Dallas Brooks Hall to ratify a resolution that condemned Howard’s IR laws and called for a mass mobilisation of Victorian workers at the next national day of protest set down for June 28.

 
Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary, Brian Boyd, told delegates that there had to be a strong campaign to overturn the laws.
”John Howard has thrown down the gauntlet. He has challenged us with the most vicious, draconian legislation in over 100 years of industrial relations law.”
"On Friday, Howard went public about 'getting rid of the whinger in your workplace'," he said.
"Remember that. It is a contemptuous little game that Howard is playing, because 'whinger in the workplace' is code for shop steward or delegate. It's code for a trade union person willing to stick up for their rights."
"He's trying to turn worker against worker and giving a coded message to the employer — pick on the shop steward.”
“What we know is that we are ready for a long fight to overturn these unjust laws.”
Mr Boyd called on the union movement to work hard to increase membership across the country.
”Last year we saw union membership jump by 70,000 on the back of our campaign against these laws. But that’s not enough. We need to make it 500,000 if we’re to continue the fight.”
ACTU Secretary, Greg Combet, told the crowd to expect a strong campaign to end the laws despite the threats contained in the legislation to penalise unions for going about their daily business of representing workers.
“A lot of people will be under pressure. They'll be threatened with penalties and fines, damages and their jobs will be threatened if they attend rallies. But we are determined not to be intimidated by the new laws."
He called on unionists to stand together against intimidation.
”When an employer comes out on the job and says ‘sign this, and by the way you're terminated and you can have your job back as a casual',  everyone on the job has to know to pull together to not sign the document,” he said.
Cath Smith from the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) spoke of their campaign against the government’s welfare-to-work policies and highlighted the links between the IR legislation and the further erosion of the rights of people dependent upon social services.
The meeting also heard reports from a number of rank and file delegates that highlighted what was going on in their workplaces in the current climate.
After the meeting union leaders led a march through the city to Australia Post to show solidarity with union delegate, Peter Vining, from the CEPU-Postal Division who has been the target of workplace intimidation.
The rally then brought parts of central Melbourne to a standstill as they marched to Liberal Party headquarters in Exhibition St where union leaders burned a copy of the new Federal IR Bill. ACTU President, Sharan Burrow, promised to “light a fire in the emotions of everyone all around the country. This is no a fight about a decent Australia.”
The ACTU is planning another mass rally in November in addition to the one on 28 June to protest the changes and call for the abolition of the new laws. Since coming into effect on Monday 27 March there has been a spate of sackings around the country directly attributable to the new laws.

Resolution passed at the meeting 
Read more about the campaign for fair work laws
Download flyers for the June 28 Day of Action


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