Dear Comrades
The latest issue of Voice (no 2) is out now. Send A$20 to SP, PO Box 1015,
Collingwood, Victoria, 3066 to subscribe.
Find below two articles for issue 2. One on the settlement to the 36-hour
fight in the Victorian building industry and one on a new youth campaign
launched in early April
Could the CFMEU have got better?
Construction industry bosses needed to be kicked harder
By Stephen Jolly
CFMEU delegate
Today, April 6th, upwards of 300 Victorian CFMEU delegates packed into
their Orr St hall and passed a "Compact" settlement of the campaign for a
pay rise and shorter working week.
The deal has been already been signed by FEDFA and the CFMEU (construction
and general division) and Multiplex.
Bovis, Walter Construction and Probuild will sign soon and it is expected
that the agreement will gradually break the resistance of the remaining
MBA-organised smaller builders and sub-contractors.
The deal now goes to a mass meeting of members for a final endorsement
where opposition is to be expected.
On the one hand the deal is better than anything achieved by the union
branches interstate. We get a 15% pay rise over 3 three as in NSW, but we
also get 9 "Productivity Leisure Days (PLDs)" off next year, 9 in 2002, and
13 in 2003.
Any reduction of the working week is welcome in an industry where 70-hour
weeks occur and deaths and injuries are so high.
Yet so much was given away in return for these well-named "PLDs". 3 of next
years 9 PLDs are to be taken during the Xmas shutdown! Effectively just
replacing annual leave with PLDs.
In six of next year's 12 months workers will enjoy only one RDO or PLD.
It's a long way from a 9-day fortnight.
PLDs can be shifted around to suit the boss-except PLDs taken during the
Xmas shutdown.
Going home at 35 degrees is spelt out clearly for the first time, which is
a step forward. Yet the Compact allows for work to continue after 35
degrees to complete a "task or activity". The Saturday roster can apply
during hot days during the week. All this is to be negotiated on a
site-by-site basis.
This is OK if you are on a big job with a good steward and militant
workers, but out in the sticks the boss will call the shots.
There is talk of reintroducing trowel boxes, which will lead to the laying
off of many plasterers and increase injuries.
There is to be single-time only for "housekeeping". This will hurt the
already exploited labour hire workers. Often then are sent to a job to do
"housekeeping". Now they loose their penalties for this work.
Site allowances on the big jobs will be capped. Refurbishment jobs in the
city will have a $2.30 site allowance cap. Last week on my job (a city
refurbishment) we won a $2.80 site allowance. I'm only happy this Compact
wasn't implemented last month!
There is no specific overtime cap. Again this is to be sorted out on a
"site-by-site" basis. Sections of the leadership have criticised the ETU
and Plumbers, but at least they have a 10 hour and 8 hour overtime limit.
There is to be no more substitution of public holidays that land on a weekend.
There will be no compensation for CityLink tolls, which affect many workers.
The divisor for wages for this "36 hour week" remains 38 hours, which
equals a pay cut.
The claim for an Incolink increase has been lost; the only rise will be CPI.
Start and finish times "will be clarified to enable later starts in winter
and earlier starts during some months of summer and during expected periods
of inclement weather." When the boss expects a 35-degree day, does that
mean we have to leave for work at 3am?
The Compact states "(this) is the full and final settlement of all claims
in relation to a 36 hour week/9 day fortnight or shorter hours in any other
form than agreed in this compact". There is no time limit for this "full
settlement of all claims".
Are we not allowed to fight for a 9-day fortnight ever again?
While we have to cut our cloth, the Compact allows companies "additional
flexibilities under the terms of their Certified Agreements". It's one rule
for us, another for the bosses.
Some delegates voted for this Compact because they thought it was good and
this is how some union leaders sold it. This is nonsense.
Other delegates and officials argued to grudgingly accept the deal warts
and all as the best possible deal in the circumstances. It's one thing to
vote for a deal as the best you can get at the time after a hard battle.
But this campaign has been too soft on the bosses: One big rally (even then
only the CBD and St Kilda Rd were involved). No overtime ban or even an
overtime cap.
We don't look serious when we call for a 36-hour week, while we're working
56+ hours on some jobs during an industrial campaign. The levy collection
was patchy.
No wonder some delegates thought, "well with this leadership it's probably
suicide to vote the Compact down and force them into a new battle. Their
heart wouldn't be in it and it would be a dog's breakfast."
I didn't vote for the deal, but like a few others I didn't vote against it
either. What's more important is to open up a discussion inside our two
unions about the state of the leadership and the quality of the delegate
structure.
We will always get a second-rate deal if we run a campaign that doesn't go
in hard enough.
New youth campaign launched in Melbourne
On Friday April 7th young workers and students launched a new campaign
against low pay. They campaigned outside McDonalds in Melbourne's city
centre with an ape suit and the slogan "we're sick of working for peanuts",
stall and speakers.
Melbourne Socialist Party youth work co-ordinator Matt Wilson explains the
issues:
It is no secret that the storm of economic rationalism has destroyed job
security, wages and conditions of workers in previously considered safe,
strong union industries.
However, if you want to see the full extent of storm damage you look
towards those who live at the bottom of the hill, or on the lowest end of
the pay scale. Casualised, predominantly young workers have, over recent
decades, suffered a landslide of changes relating to their work.
The number of casualised jobs has increased dramatically over the last ten
years. They now make up a clear majority of the whole workforce. Over the
same period unemployment has risen to around 9% officially, however youth
unemployment is three times that figure. Both of these changes are symptoms
of economic rationalism, together they go hand in hand in the process of
crippling the lives of young working people.
Federal Government cuts to youth benefits have left many young people
desperate for any employment they can find. Even if young people do receive
the dole, a crushing 50% tax paid on any weekly income over $100 forces
many young people into the black economy, where they receive cash in hand
with absolutely no job protection.
As young people scrape out a living between periods of short term
employment, bosses reap the benefits. Large corporations operating within
the food, hospitality and service industries take full advantage of
casualised labour.
For instance, KFC pays $4.80 training wages for young people; this
so-called 'training' period can last for months. In many workplaces if
young workers complain about conditions or pay, bosses reply, "If you don't
like it here, there's plenty of others who'd take your job." In many cases
workers simply keep their mouths shut for fear of having their shifts
dropped.
Bosses may think that they will continue to make great profits out of their
exploited youth workforce. However young people are becoming increasingly
aware of their exploiters and the system that is failing them. The tide is
turning, as youthful demonstrations in Seattle have shown. Organised groups
of young workers in Canada and the UK are successfully unionising
McDonalds, a company which is known world wide for its exploitation of
youth along with a hatred of unionism.
In order to combat the problems young workers face in Australia, the
Socialist Party will be continuing the low pay campaign. We will be
assisting young workers in any attempts to raise the conditions and pay
rates in their workplace whist publicly shaming companies with unacceptable
work practices.
We believe that if wages and conditions can be fought for and protected
inside McDonalds, it can be done anywhere.
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