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

Over 200 local residents rally in front of local MPs office on anniversary of laws

An angry community speaks out against the IR laws one year on

Despite pouring rain on Wednesday 28 March, over 200 local residents marked the anniversary of the Howard Government’s unfair IR laws with a candle light vigil and march through Boronia to the office of La Trobe Liberal MP Jason Wood.

A broad spectrum of the local community including families, retirees and young people, were joined by ACTU President Sharan Burrow to send a strong message to Jason Wood: Your industrial relations laws are not wanted in our community.

The large crowd heard the story of Arthur Ledwidge of Kilsyth, who bravely spoke of his experience with the IR laws. Mr Ledwidge, along with 28 of his colleagues was sacked by Optus for “operational reasons” a month after the laws were introduced. He was then offered the ‘opportunity’ to buy his van and tools off Optus and become a contractor.

An emotional Mr Ledwidge told the supportive crowd this offer meant he would lose $180 a week for doing the same job. Tragically, Mr Ledwidge could not afford his mortgage repayments and has since lost his house.

Local actor Dennis Coard of Home and Away fame provided entertainment dressed as John Howard and fielded questions from the crowd on his work laws. Mr Coard said “on a serious level, I support your community campaign against these awful laws. Keep fighting.”

It was Sharan Burrow who provided our inspiration for the evening and urged the Rights at Work campaign to continue and intensify the fight:

“If Jason Wood ignores this community campaign - it will be his downfall. It may be a year since he voted for these laws, but in around six months time the local community will have the opportunity to send Jason Wood packing at the next election. 

“Jason Wood has not mentioned industrial relations once in the parliament and is hoping this issue will go away. It will not.

“Jason Wood and John Howard believe in looking after the interests of big business at the expense of ordinary working families”, said Ms Burrow.

Your rights at work Community Coordinator Katie Hall said: “Let us hope this is the only anniversary these laws see and they are removed as soon as possible.

“One year on, many working families in this community are struggling to keep their head above water and these are the facts. We now know that 63% of the Governments AWA individual contracts remove penalty rates and 40% stripped away public holidays.

“We also know that at least 1,100* local workers have been put onto AWA individual contracts, in many instances been forced onto AWA individual contracts in this community in the past year. In every case these workers have lost at least one award condition.

“We will keep redouble our efforts and intensify our campaign in Jason Wood’s electorate. He is being put on notice for his support of these draconian laws.”

For more information or comment call Katie Hall on 0409405826

* According to ACTU analysis of the Government’s own figures.


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