Williamtown Dispute Shows Howard's Way

The following opinion piece by AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten was published in the Newcastle Herald newspaper on Saturday July 16, 2005.

HUNTER Valley families aware of the Boeing dispute must have nearly choked on their Corn Flakes last weekend when they saw the Howard Government's full-page taxpayer-funded newspaper ads selling its radical industrial relations agenda.

There it was in big print: one of the key points of the Government's plan was supposedly to "preserve the right of workers to have a union negotiate a collective agreement if they wish".

It came as a surprise to the 42 maintenance workers on the RAAF's F/A-18 Hornet jet fighter fleet at Boeing's Williamtown air base, who are being denied the right to choose a union-negotiated agreement.

Instead, Boeing is forcing skilled Newcastle technicians to stay on unfair and discriminatory individual contracts.

The contracts are in breach of the principle of equal pay for equal work, as Boeing is paying these workers up to $2 an hour less than its employees elsewhere doing the same job at the same skill level.

Our Boeing members and their families have repeatedly called on the Prime Minister John Howard to stand up for their democratic right to have their union negotiate an agreement on their behalf.

Local Liberal politician Bob Baldwin has also remained on the sidelines as the dispute drags into its fifth month, apparently unconcerned that the industrial action could affect Boeing's ability to meet maintenance schedules for fighter jets.

Having failed to support our members, the Prime Minister spends our taxes to assert that he is committed to preserving the very right they are fighting for.

It seems more and more that our leaders in Canberra are practitioners of "The Big Lie" theory whereby you tell a lie so colossal that no one would believe anyone could have the impudence to distort the truth so much.

Writing in this paper earlier this week, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Kevin Andrews pretended that ordinary working people were better off under individual contracts.

Yet, an Australian Bureau of Statistics report released this week showed non-managerial adult employees on collective agreements earned on average $30-plus more per week than those on individual contracts.

Minister Andrews also implied that the minimum wage would surge under his proposed Fair Pay Commission.

He pointed to the example of the UK Low Pay Commission, under which minimum wages had increased since 1999.

Well, let the Government's track record speak for itself.

If the independent wage-setting umpire had followed the Government's recommendations since it came to office in 1996, workers on the minimum wage would be $44 a week or $2300 a year worse off.

In the same article, the Minister seeks to assure all that no employee will be forced to cash out their annual leave, or to sign an individual contract that cuts take-home pay.

Yet, he fails to give the whole picture, conveniently omitting all mention of the Government's plan to rob protection against unfair dismissal from 3.6 million Australians.

Knowing that you may be sacked for no fair reason will leave so many employees, especially those in non-unionised workplaces, feeling that they have no choice but to accept lesser pay and conditions, especially if you have a mortgage hanging over your family, and face mounting bills for your children's education.

Hopefully the Minister's reluctance to even attempt to justify the removal of unfair dismissal laws indicates he is starting to realise he is on wobbly ground, especially as the supposed case for the unfair dismissal changes crumbles at his feet.

This week a new survey of Australian businesses put lie to the Government's claim that the changes will create significantly more jobs.

The July 2005 D&B National Business Expectations Survey reveals 81 per cent of businesses believe the Federal Government's proposed changes to unfair dismissal laws will have no impact on their intentions to employ more staff.

There is no denying the Government has failed to make out its economic case for radically breaking up our 100-year-old industrial relations system.

It has no interest in managing the economy in a way that tries to help ordinary working Australians.

The reason the Government is introducing the new laws is politics, not economics that is, to weaken its critics in organised labour.

That the Government's changes promote conflict and disruption at a time when the level of industrial disputes is at a historic low is another signal that these changes are politically driven, not based on economic reasoning.

Meanwhile, AWU members at Boeing are left wondering when their Prime Minister will follow in Kim Beazley's footsteps and visit them on the picket line to demonstrate his professed support for their cause.