Unions Across Australia Mobilise to Defend Workplace Rights

More than 250,000 workers and their families rallied in capital cities and regional towns across Australia on November 30 to protest against the "Workchoices" laws which have torn up decades of established rights for workers and trade unions.

The legislation introduced by the right-wing government of Prime Minister John Howard drastically curtails the collective rights of workers in Australia and severely penalises trade unions for undertaking industrial action. In particular the new legislation has destroyed independent industrial dispute resolution, ripped up unfair dismissal protections and totally undermined union rights to collective bargaining.

The impact of the laws have been profound, with widespread opposition reflected in the large rallies across Australia. IUF affiliates the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), the National Union of Workers (NUW) and the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU) were all present at the rallies across Australia. These unions along with all unions in Australia, through their national centre the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will continue to mobilise members and the wider community in the coming year to campaign for a new government which respects and represents workers' rights.

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Category:

News & Politics

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• Trade
• Unions
• Australia
• Workchoices
• Labor
• Howard
• Protest
• Demonstration
• Rally
• IUF

[Kastralis]

Why do people think work choices is so bad? It actually IS good.

Unfair dismissal is bad? If you're a good worker, you don't get sacked. An employer doesn't want to sack their good workers.

IF YOURE A SHIT WORKER YOU GET SACKED! and then i guess you complain and go vote labor.

[iufasia]

@Kastralis thanks for the comment. Unfortunately workplace relations are not so simple. Workchoices made it harder for workers to join unions. Workchoices gave bosses excessive power to make decisions on things like pay, leave and entitlements with no input from workers. Workers have rights and Workchoices was about destroying those rights.

[79HZGTS]

@Kastralis,

Yes. Unions = collective agreements. Collective agreements mean that everyone gets the same payrise. Why should the losers be allowed to benefit off the high performers? Doesn't seem fair to me.

[iufasia]

@79HZGTS thanks for the comments, but what you are saying is false. Collective agreements do not mean everyone gets the same. A collective agreement can include items such as incentive bonuses and differential pay scales according to skills and qualifications. 

[DaveC86]

how stupid the union movement has become.... you guys want to have your cake and eat it too, with absolutely NO understanding of economics... go read some Henry Hazlitt, Walter Block, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard etc. and learn how union coercion has only served to lower real wages and slow the improvement of working conditions in australia and all around the world. im all for higher living standards and safe work, but the union policies (morally and economically) have it backwards.

[iufasia]

@DaveC86

Thanks for the comment. The evidence on real wages is exactly the opposite--countries with strong unions enjoyed the most significant real wage growth in the 20th Century. The inverse (low/declining union density = low/no real wage growth) also holds true. Right-wing libertarian economics (von Mises et al.), aka free market fundamentalism, is the root of the worst economic disaster since the 1930s.

[MrSystematica]

how about we wind the clock back- would management back in the day grant the workers 'time off'? or something called 'paid annual leave'??? i highly doubt it

it took union rallies like THIS one to fight for the rights we have now. And the moment we stop- management will strip them back as soon as they could.... all in the name of 'profit'

[MrSystematica]

@iufasia also you get examples of young workers starting off- and the boss states "oh your first week is training, so you dont get paid" how would the liberals out here such as kastralis justify this?

[79HZGTS]

@wnxsystem,

So the worker who "didn't want to sign" should go and find a job somewhere else. If he can get more money elsewhere then that's his good luck.

If he can't get better money then maybe that is because he is not worth more money.

Any business will give their valuable workers good money and conditions, otherwise the good workers will find employment elsewhere.

The poor workers should get what they deserve.

[PanzerBlitz43]

btw aussies should do something original and quit copying every move of republican dictators in the USA.. bet you never even noticed that europe is unionized and living standards are high.. example germany is 90% unionized, salaries and living standards are excellent and their companies are the powerhouse of europe.. bunch of downunder dumbasses.

[PanzerBlitz43]

This proves australians are as hypocritical and dumb as americans.. for example they complain about global warming and they get stronger hurricanes and massive floods, yet they won't give up being biggest exporters of dirty coal-the biggest factor in climate change-and 90% of their country is powered by that crap.

[davedidashit]

Major mistake by the speaker in the blue hat. We (Australians) do not own the natural resources. The coal mines, gold mines, and iron ore mines in Australia are owned by overseas companies. They only employ Australians for a wage but the profits go overseas. Please learn your facts before making an idiot of yourself in front of an educated audience.