What the Labor Council of NSW has done well

Where it struggles is in complimenting grass-roots industrial campaigns being run by affiliates, helping to lift a local dispute onto the national stage by the stature of its office.

Granted, the ACTU’s Organising Centre is a laudable attempt to train individual unions to run campaigns; but as the Labor Council of NSW is demonstrating, this is really the role of state bodies far closer in culture to the state branches that eventually have to do the hard yards.

It is in this light, that we call on the ACTU to mark its 75th Anniversary by relocating to Canberra, recognising that it is the lobbying of our national politicians that should be the its key function.

Along with the business, industry and employer lobbies, the union movement needs a permanent force in Canberra, not just to run the movement-wide agenda but provide a base for individual affiliates.

Meanwhile, state branches should receive a larger slice of the pie to continue the organising agenda at a grass roots level, recognising that it is here that the real battles for the future of the movement will be fought.

Done the right way, the move to Canberra could create a new type of hierarchy – less a pyramid and more a coat-hanger, less on the top and much more closer to the base.

Food for thought, anyway. So Happy Birthday, ACTU; but maybe it’s time to get a new pad.

From New Labor to True Labor

Holroyd Council’s commitment to labour rights, embodied in the Memorandum of understanding it signed with the NSW Labor Council this week, is a ground-breaking commitment by a leader in this important tier of government.

While many local councils call themselves ‘Labor’ and utilise the ALP machine to run campaigns, how many actually embrace Labor values in the discharge of their duties?

As many local government workers would know, modern local government is a world of contracting out, competitive tendering and job cuts. Core Labor values indeed.

It is these trends that the Memorandum and broader efforts to establish Labor values in local government seek to address. But beyond the specifics it is a call for a public commitment to the labour movement by those who purport to represent its values.

With a number of high profile local government leaders seeking election as Labor candidates at the upcoming state election, it will be interesting to note which other councils come on board.