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Unions, human rights and God

By Chris Perkins - posted Monday, 3 December 2007


Unionism is voluntary. Unionists along with Catholics, Rotarians, other Christians, RACQ members, credit union members and a myriad of other groups all share one core philosophy. We believe we are better off when we act together, rather than alone.

Indeed it is a core human trait:

  • it’s why we have relationships;
  • it’s why we form families;
  • it’s why we join clubs;
  • it’s why many go to church and don’t sit at home and pray alone in our room;
  • it’s why team sport is so popular;
  • it’s why the vast majority send their children to school and not keep them at home for private education; and
  • it’s why we have adages that we pass on to our children like “many hands make light work”; “one in all in” and “united we stand, divided we fall”.
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Put simply, as humans we are better off together than alone. We are better off sharing than hoarding and we are better off connected to community than cut off from it.

And in the workplace - we are better off as a collective, as a union, than we are one off - alone.

We were told the government listened to our concerns and introduced a Fairness Test to ensure no one is worse off. That means the politicians read the polls. However, the facts are:

  • the “fairness test” does not guarantee workers will get full financial compensation for losing penalty rates, overtime, public holiday pay, leave loading or other conditions;
  • there are loopholes that allow non-monetary compensation. So, that means the vulnerable will end up taking home less pay for the same job;
  • the “fairness test” does not take into account all conditions to determine if an individual contract is fair. So, redundancy pay, paid maternity leave and a really important one - giving workers a say on rostering - are not counted and all can be lost;
  • the fairness test does not restore the independent role of the Industrial Relations Commission and the fairness test does not restore protection from unfair dismissal;
  • worse still - the so-called fairness test does not ensure workers have a right to collectively bargain - even where that is what a majority in the workplace want; and
  • a majority of workers can say they want a union collective agreement, but that counts for nothing.

Of course the government will say - anyone is free to join a union. Of course that is technically right, but at the same time they are attempting to destroy the ability of unions to act on their members’ behalf. They hope that if they kneecap unions, people won’t join and unions will collapse. In response, union members voluntarily raised extra funds to fight the Your Rights At Work campaign.

You will have seen the Real People Real Stories ads in which people who have been directly affected tell their stories. In response, the government put out ads with actors and a bureaucrat - who is supposed to be independent - to sell its story.

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In the ACTU’s Real People Real Stories series you can see and hear the emotion on the faces and in the voices as the meatworkers tell of being sacked; the family man who always voted for Howard until he was sacked, and his job readvertised for $20,000 less, leaving his family devastated. You will have seen the young woman who had her pay and penalty rates cut and got sacked because she questioned it and rang a union for advice.

The emotion is there because the stories are real. And these working people are just a tiny percentage of those who have felt the sharp edge of the former government’s so-called fairness.

They’ve been cut off from their work community. They’ve had their trust breached. Their connection to something that was important to them - work - has been severed.

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About the Author

Chris Perkins is a former Secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and a public affairs consultant with a number of unions among his client list.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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