The following EDITORIAL was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, July, 19th 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. ****************************** Diabolical employer arguments There is no end to the dirty tricks used by employers against trade unions as they attempt to defend jobs and fight for the survival of the union movement. Patrick Stevedores attempted to wipe out the MUA by restructuring the company and then sacking its entire workforce, replacing them with non-union scabs. A number of other employers have attempted to implement the same tactic or variations of it. Some have siphoned off their assets to send the companies into bankruptcy and so dishonour their obligations to pay workers their accumulated leave and other entitlements. The latest diabolical tactic being widely practiced is to assert during the course of negotiations that unless workers accept lower pay, longer hours of work, reduced working conditions and the like, the company will go broke and will close and sack the entire workforce. Some unions have signed what are called "survival agreements" which have provided for the maintenance of union coverage but with substantially worsened conditions. The simple argument put to workers is -- accept these worsened conditions or you will be out of a job! The "Financial Review" (17/7/00) recorded that in negotiations last year, Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd struck a deal for the Crown Casino complex which cut the salaries of new employees by as much as $5,000. Crown argued that the reduced pay for some workers was necessary because of high salaries offered to "high quality staff" and that this had eaten into their profit margins. The <MI>FR" claims that the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union accepted the deal as being in the members' interests to ensure that the Casino remained "financially viable". This is a game that employers can easily play -- claim that things are going bad, pay huge salaries to the high-flyers and CEOs, claim that competition with another company, either in Australia or overseas, is taking their market, and then demand that "its" workers make a sacrifice to keep their jobs. The end result of this game is to have workers working for next to nothing while allowing unlimited work hours and whatever conditions an employer might wish to impose -- all in the interests of keeping a job. But what sort of a job is this and what sort of a living? Unless this game is countered by the trade union movement, Australian workers will be faced with a virtual "race to the bottom" of the wages and working conditions ladder. How can the trade union movement counter this? On an enterprise level it is essential that union negotiators be fully briefed on the structure and profitability of a company. Why should a CEO be paid hundreds of thousands or even millions by way of salary package and be given stacks of free shares while workers are done in? Secondly, it is essential to break away from enterprise bargaining and return as quickly as possible to industry-wide (pattern bargaining) and/or to the centralised industry award system. With one industry-wide agreement or award it becomes more difficult for employers to pit workers against each other, claiming that unless wages and conditions are reduced a rival company, whose workers have accepted reduced conditions, will send the company to the wall. Thirdly, because many companies have overseas operations and play the same game at an international level, it is essential to rapidly consolidate consultation and cooperation between international trade union bodies. These include the Trade Union Internationals and the international trade union federations. This sort of solidarity and cooperation has already been seen in the MUA dispute and in the current campaign being run by trade unions against Rio Tinto. The Rio Tinto campaign has broken very important new ground in international trade union planning, cooperation and joint action. Incidentally, what came to light as a result of comparing notes in the Rio Tinto campaign was the difference in conditions being applied to the workforce in different countries by the Rio Tinto monster. Workers are increasingly sceptical and unhappy with some of the "deals" which have been made and which they feel they have been forced to accept. There is another way. -- 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: EDITORIAL -- DIABOLICAL EMPLOYER ARGUMENTS
Communist Party of Australia Wed, 26 Jul 2000 01:43:26 -0700
