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

Your Rights @ Work- Trades Hall Breakfast

30 December 2005
By YR@W Delegation

MUA Women particpated in the Victorian Trades Hall Your Rights @ Work Breakfast in December 2005. Here is the report back.

Your Rights@ Work Breakfast December 2005.

Over eighty women from a dozen trade unions participated in this breakfast hosted by Trades Hall. Jenn Symons, Christine Lillis, Maryanne Walker and Cindy O'Connor represented the MUA. Michelle O'Neil from the Textile Union was our MC.

The first speaker was Cath Bowtell from the ACTU. Cath explained that the new workplace laws proposed by the government are far worse than the proposals they took to the election. She made it clear that the government strategy is to keep pushing the myth that it's all about choice. Cath stepped in at the last minute because Sharan Burrow was at the Commission with the Firefighters Union. Cath joked that it was a good reason to give apologies because if the government has its way then we won't have a commission left to go to. Michelle the MC thanked Cath and spoke for us all when she said that we all hope that Sharan and the Firies had a win that day.

Jenny Macklin ALP Deputy Leader spoke about the YR@W campaign. Jenny met with Nurses in her electorate who work in the local public Hospital. These workers are really angry that they could lose penalty rates for shift and weekend work. One woman at the Nurses meeting reminded everyone that it's not just about being family friendly. As a single thirty five year old woman she wants a decent roster so that she can have Saturday nights off to meet a bloke. Again, even though these are serious issues we enjoyed a laugh. Jenny made the point that at every stage of our working lives we need a fair work/life balance. These penalty rates for weekend work are being targeted by every federally funded workplace. Already in TAFEs and Unis the government is instructing employers that unless they offer the "choice" of AWAs with flat pay rates that they will lose out in the next round of funding. This is affecting all staff: academic and general. At a workplace meeting at a TAFE in her electorate Jenny met an apprentice who works in maintenance. He asked her why he should sign a secret document that doesn't even make sense. This shows that the Howard government haven't factored in how angry that workers like these Nurses and Tradies will be if they are ripped off.

MUA members had given us some questions to ask at the meeting. We didn't get to ask them all but based on what the speakers said here are some initial responses:

Qn: Will there be user friendly, easy to understand info about the YR@W campaign?

Cath let us know that we can ring the ACTU for a YR@W DVD plus the website has fact sheets. So call 1300 36 22 23 or check www.rightsatwork.com.au

Plus MUA is organising special presentations at January Stopwork Meetings on 31/01/06. So check with your branch for what time the presentation is on that morning in your port.

Qn: How will these laws affect Incorporated organizations versus unincorporated organizations i.e. government owned as opposed to shareholder owned or public versus private etc?

This was a tough question but basically Cath and Jenny made it clear that the government's strategy is calculated to capture every worker no matter how many employees or the legal structure of each workplace. A government owned enterprise is threatened via funding arrangements like in the TAFEs and Unis Jenny defends as Opposition Speaker on Higher Education. Private companies through the Business Council of Australia are lobbying for these changes. Michelle O'Neil challenged us to go out and get organised now! It's only the organised workplace that will be a fair workplace under these threats.

Qn: What will be the value of our current EBA?

Michelle and Cath both made the point that until your current EBA expires your entitlements are secure. After the meeting we had a long chat with Michelle. She advised us that the battle is that same as always that we have to be smart and focused to implement EBAs. It's every activist's job to make sure that all workers know what there rights are.

Qn: What does it mean for our bargaining position? Are we going to go backwards?

All the speakers spoke about the need to act collectively. If we break away into individual deals then everyone's bargaining position is weakened. If we stick together and act collectively then we can be strong and effective.

Clearly, the breakfast meeting was incredibly informative and provoked a lot of debate. Huge thanks to Ellen Kleimaker the Trades Hall Womens/Equity Officer for organising this event. Plus we appreciated that Cath from the ACTU stepped in with no notice and shared with us the legal and technical information we need about these laws. Jenny Macklin's speech about workplace meetings brought to life that the practical reality of these bad laws is hitting hard already. We especially enjoyed picking Michele O'Neil's brains after the meeting. We did take photos but our camera malfunctioned later that day and destroyed our shots. That was probably John Howard's fault too! Thanks to Kevin and the Vic branch for sponsoring the delegation. The money will help fund the Anna Stewart Memorial Project.

What's next?

Get along to the MUA meetings on January 31st so that we can be organised, strong and effective in our workplaces.

For further information
Contact :  MUA Members
Phone :  +61 2 9267 9134
Fax :  +61 2 9261 3481
Email :  membership@mua.org.au 
WWW :  http://mua.org.au/ 


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