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Miners put spotlight on unions

By Steven Miles - posted Thursday, 11 May 2006


You could almost hear John Howard repeat those immortal words, “Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up to work today is a bloody mug”. Almost.

Keen to bask in the reflective glory of an Australian miracle, John Howard even acknowledged the Australian Workers' Union. That must have hurt.

While all Australians have been captivated by the fascinating tale of Todd Russell and Brant Webb, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews has been quick to scorn unions and the Opposition for drawing links between his WorkChoices legislation and the plight of the miners.

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Which is what makes the role Bill Shorten played in the Beaconsfield story so interesting. The Australian Workers' Union secretary, often touted as a future Labor leader, has been the generally acknowledged spokesperson for the workers, rescuers and the Beaconsfield community throughout the whole ordeal.

How can the government continue to tell the Australian public that unions are an evil third party holding back productivity and the economy while every night on TV there is such a visible example of the important role unions play in the lives of about two million Australian workers?

Andrews and Howard must have cringed every time a news crew crossed “live to Bill Shorten with the latest news on efforts to save the trapped miners”.

First of all let’s be clear, WorkChoices does exactly what Kim Beazley said it does: it makes it illegal for workers to ask for an agreement that includes access to union-provided training - any union-provided training. Whether that’s occupational health and safety, dealing with workplace harassment or resolving workplace disputes.

The kind of courses tens of thousands of workers participate in every year.

Andrews’ attack on Beazley, with claims that workplace health and safety was a state domain, is undermined when you look at the response of employer groups to recent state Labor government legislative changes that enshrine a union role in policing workplace safety. “They’re undermining WorkChoices” was the Chamber of Commerce and Industry response.

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And that’s without even considering the Federal Government’s threat to take workplace health and safety over wholesale, using the same corporations power employed by WorkChoices to exclude the states from private sector industrial relations.

But access to training is not the only common enterprise bargain provision made illegal by WorkChoices. For instance, it would be illegal for the workers to ask their employer to agree to allow Bill Shorten, or any other union rep, access to their workplace.

Under WorkChoices, if the Beaconsfield mine management had wanted to, they could have kept Shorten off the mine site. At the very least they could have required he provide 24 hours' notice, only occupy a designated office, to and from which he must travel along a course designated by management.

If the workers wanted to have a dispute resolution procedure where they could be represented by their union, that would be illegal too - whether it’s to deal with mine safety or any other matter.

If the workers wanted to have some protection from unfair dismissal - say for raising concerns about seismic activity around the mine - that’s illegal.

If the workers wanted their union delegates to have access to a photocopier to distribute reports about safety issues - illegal.

An office for a union official to meet with workers and hear their safety concerns - you guessed it, that’s illegal too.

Not only is an agreement illegal if it contains any of these seemingly sensible provisions, the workers and their union can be fined just for asking. Not small fines either, $6,000 for workers, $33,000 for unions for each and every breach.

Which is why the government should be concerned about the high-profile, positive role played by Shorten and the AWU. While unions have won the public debate about most of the WorkChoices legislation, the elements directed at destroying collective worker associations have passed largely unnoticed.

Perhaps that’s why so many in the media struggled to believe the Opposition when they pointed these things out.

Gradually the public will come to understand that WorkChoices is about attacking many of the elements of the Beaconsfield story that have made it so engrossing. The sense of community. The determination to do whatever it took to get them out. The understanding of the risks many workers take every day they go to work.

Particularly in mining towns, when you say “union”, people don’t think of officials like Shorten. They think of fellow workers down the mine, on the shop floor, in the office every day. Unions are embedded in the workplace and the community.

While the focus of the Beaconsfield story should remain on the three miners and their families, workers across Australia will be reminded of Howard’s attack on them, their wages, their safety and their rights at work. And they’ll be slow to forget it.

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About the Author

Steven Miles is an Organiser with the Queensland Public Sector Union and a postgraduate research student in Political Science at the University of Queensland.

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

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