http://www.afr.com.au/content/991027/update/update57.html Unionists being driven underground Inquiry told Frightened workers were keeping their union memberships secret to avoid being sacked by militant bosses, a senate inquiry was told today. Australian Workers Union Queensland secretary Bill Ludwig said some workers were having their dues secretly debited from their bank accounts. He said job security was the biggest issue facing Australian workers and the federal government's campaign against unions had driven underground many of those who wanted to join something they believed in. Outside the inquiry, Mr Ludwig said: "This is happening in Australia today and it is terrible. It smacks of Nazi tactics." Mr Ludwig's comments were supported by ACTU national secretary Jennie George, an observer at today's Brisbane sittings of a Senate Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Amendment Bill 1996 proposed by Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith. The bill seeks to curb the powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, introduce secret ballots for industrial action, limit strikes and control the rights of unions to enter workplaces. Ms George said the practice of workers keeping their union membership secret was widespread and growing. "Many unions have gone to direct debits to keep the members' identities secret. It has the overtones of American McCarthism," she said. The Queensland Council of Unions, which represents 42 trade unions with 325,000 members statewide, told the hearing Mr Reith's reforms should be scrapped and replaced with industrial laws similar to state laws put in place by Queensland. State secretary John Thompson said Queensland laws encouraged industrial relations between employers and employees, and encouraged responsible union representation. "Queensland's industrial laws should be the benchmark and be used as a model for the rest of Australia," Mr Thompson said. Mr Thompson said under Mr Reith's proposals "workers hands would be tied behind their backs' because they needed to give employers 48 hours notice of union intervention in a dispute. "But the boss can have an Employers Association representative on the site within minutes," he said. National secretary of the 200,000-strong Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Federation, Joe De Bruyn, said the federal government was trying to drive down union membership. "The Senate should vote the proposals down because they are grossly unfair," he said. Professor David Peetz, a university specialist in industrial relations, said union membership in Australia was already at its lowest since 1911. He said research showed 50 per cent of workers today wanted to belong to unions but the actual membership was only half this. The Senate Inquiry will hold its final sittings in Canberra tomorrow and expects to table its report by the middle of next month. AAP This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- 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
