Hi LeftLinkers
Can you please pass this on to any CPSU activists you know?
Thanks
Alison Thorne
Dear CPSU activists and members
A group of CPSU members in Melbourne were recently
discussing issues which impact on all CPSU members.
One disturbing trend we noticed was increased
restrictions on access by unionists to workplace
e-mail systems for organising.
For example, in Centrelink, there are very strict
rules about 'appropriate' e-mail usage. While e-mail
may be used by delegates for union purposes what
these delegates may circulate is extremely
restricted and is closely monitored. Some CPSU
delegates in Centrelink were not allowed to
circulate a CPSU Bulletin in solidarity with Telstra
CPSU member, Anne-Marie, who faced retrenchment on
the day she returned from maternity leave. Delegates
have been prevented from circulating other material
sent to them by the CPSU including Trades Hall
solidarity bulletins in support of workers involved
in the long-running Geelong Woolcombers dispute and
union Bulletins about the campaign to defend Medicare.
We want the CPSU to take this up as a priority
issue. Our goal is for our union to win the right of
all union members to be able to use workplace
e-mail systems to communicate and organise without
the dead hand of censorship many of us currently
experience.
This is why we have launched the Right to Organise
in Cyberspace Campaign.
We want e-mail organising rights entrenched in EVERY
workplace agreement covering CPSU members.
Our first goal is for the next National Council
meeting of the CPSU, which is scheduled for June
2004, to pass a motion making this a priority issue
for the CPSU in the upcoming period. We hope to
achieve this by having as many CPSU workplace,
delegate and council meetings as possible pass a
motion and forward it to the National Council.
This is what you can do:
(1) Raise a version of this model motion for
discussion and, if it is carried, please send sent
it to the National Council C/- Adrian O'Connell,
National Secretary, CPSU - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send a copy to:
* Terry Costello, CPSU National Councillor -
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
* Alison Thorne, Right to Organise in Cyberspace
Campaign Coordinator - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Model motion
"This meeting views with alarm the trend within some
public sector agencies towards severely limiting
e-mail usage for union organising. In some
workplaces, only delegates may use e-mail for union
purposes. Material which they may circulate is
limited. For example they may be banned from
circulating discussion of industrial action or even
the circulation of CPSU Bulletins promoting
solidarity with other workers or action around
social concerns.
This meeting calls on the CPSU's National Council to
adopt this as one of its priority issues and to
campaign to win improved access to e-mail for union
organising in its broadest sense for members in all
workplaces covered by the CPSU.
We believe that all union members have the right to
use workplace e-mail for union organising and social
concerns."
(2) Send us information about access to/restrictions
on e-mail usage for union organising in your
workplace. Share your ideas about the issues.
(3) Pass information abut this campaign on to others
within the CPSU.
(4) Contact us if you would like more background
information about the reasons for this campaign or
our objectives.
Let's get mobilising! The June 2004 National Council
meeting is not far away.
Alison Thorne
Right to Organise in Cyberspace Campaign Coordinator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
03-9386-5065
PO Box 266, West Brunswick Vic 3055
--
--
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
