Vic construction workers' wage campaign The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 27th 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Building unions have responded to the Federal Government's targeting of their industry by going on the offensive. They have just secured an agreement with employers that delivers improved wages and conditions, which will undoubtedly frustrate the Government's political agenda. The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has negotiated a national agreement with major companies that delivers a 15 per cent pay rise over three years. In a blow to the Howard/Reith agenda to de-unionise the industry by promoting individual contracts, employers agreed to promote the union agreement with any sub-contractors as well. Victorian building unions, however, are campaigning for additional benefits and have begun holding stopwork meetings over a more far-reaching claim. With Kennett leaving the stage and the possibility of a Labor Government, unions want to send a strong message to the incoming Government to stand up to the Federal Government's attacks on unions and their industry, in particular. Building workers have been very militant in Victoria, partly due to the Kennett Government's attacks on WorkCover and the high number of workers killed. In the past, Victorian unions have successfully negotiated with employers to protect themselves from the reforms being pushed by the Howard/Reith Government. The Victorian Building Industry Agreement (VBIA) was one such measure which ensured the retention of conditions and union rights that had been stripped from awards by the Federal Government. The Federal Government had put rules in place to allow employers to buy into an anti-union confrontation, but, according to unions, employers prefer the certainty that industry-wide union- negotiated agreements can provide and have been reluctant to wage the sort of MUA-style confrontation that the Government is seeking. Significantly, just when the Federal Government is trying to smash pattern bargaining and any form of industry-wide agreements, the current campaign by Victorian building unions is the first time in over 20 years that the principle construction unions - CFMEU Construction Division and CFMEU-FEDFA, the Plumbers Union (CEPU), and the Electrical Trades Union (CEPU) - have joined forces for a joint industrial campaign for a pattern enterprise agreement. They are seeking a pay rise of eight per cent a year for three years (a total of 24 per cent), a 36-hour week and wage protection to compensate for effects of the GST, a rise in superannuation payments and an increase in the amount paid for redundancy. With the shorter working week, unions want there to be no increase in the amount of overtime worked, so that employers have to employ more workers. The Victorian Trades Hall Council said, "unions are determined to achieve a collective outcome regardless of Reith's policy of trying to force workers to have individual company outcomes or even individual contracts". -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: VICTORIAN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS' WAGE CAMPAIGN
Communist Party of Australia Tue, 26 Oct 1999 21:22:09 +1000
