Building workers pressure for 36-hour week The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 22, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Victorian building workers stepped up their campaign for a 36- hour week and increased pay last week, as employers struggled to stave off a complete collapse of their "lock-out" strategy. by Peter Mac Some 300 building workers and a fleet of 100 construction vehicles took to the streets of Melbourne last Friday in protest over employers' lockouts and other stalling tactics on union claims. Two days previously, in an effort to break the union campaign, the Master Builders' Association of Victoria (MBA) had attempted to persuade about 1,500 of their member companies to lock out employees involved in industrial action. The MBA claims that it shut down some 60 per cent of Melbourne's building sites in the Wednesday lockout. However, the Victorian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union (CFMEU) has pointed out that only six major building sites were affected, and that no worker lost pay over the lockout. Of those companies that claim to have carried out the lockouts, the CFMEU says that many employers would not participate. The MBA had apparently failed to learn the lessons of its first lockout attempt on February 22 and 23, which rapidly became a farce, with many firms refusing to be involved, while others only pretended to lock out their employees, and some locked out employees of other companies by mistake! Twelve major building firms are currently engaged in negotiations with the union, which are now close to finalisation. If agreement is reached with these firms, the MBA is unlikely to be able to continue its lockout campaign, and will be forced to begin negotiations with the unions. Faced with the prospect of collapse of its strategy, the MBA has recently resorted to some new tricks. Two weeks ago it announced that it had reached agreement with demolition workers over a new workplace agreement that included a 38-hour week. Further investigation revealed that workers had been called to a series of meetings by employers, who described the new agreement as union-approved, even though the CFMEU knew nothing about it. The deal appears to have been hatched by the Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI). The union subsequently advised its members to have nothing to do with this "agreement". The MBA has now offered a truce in the industrial battle. However, CFMEU representatives have rejected this move as nothing more than another stalling tactic, designed to give the MBA lawyers time to work out further moves to use the Government's Workplace Relations Act to break the industrial action. The MBA and others have condemned the construction workers' campaign The CFMEU has pointed out that their claim would add only two and a half percent to the cost of a home unit constructed by one of the major building firms, whereas a recent interest rate hike by the Federal Government resulted in a rise of 8.3 per cent. As the unions have pointed out, no one has accused the Government of economic vandalism, and after all, as in every other industry, it is the construction workers who actually create the record profits that the companies are currently reaping. ********************** -- 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: BLDG WKRS PRESSURE FOR 36 HR WEEK
Communist Party of Australia Wed, 22 Mar 2000 22:38:52 -0800
