workers-rights-compliance-campaign : Melbourne Indymedia

The Workers Rights Compliance Campaign aims to ensure that businesses in the City of Melbourne are adhering to the basic minimum standards required by law. It is common knowledge that in the areas of fast food, retail and hospitality many employers are not doing this.

Almost 900 letters have been sent to employers asking them to verify that they comply with minimum workplace standards. Those that are, and have it verified by their workers, will receive a sticker to display on their shop front window.

Like the sticker campaign that UNITE ran on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, these stickers will become well known and customers will be able to make an informed choice about where they shop.

UNITE Secretary Anthony Main said this week that “what we are trying to do is clean up some of the dodgy practices that exist in the CBD.

“Cash in hand, unpaid trial work and terrible health and safety is common in the CBD. This campaign is aimed at both putting pressure on employers to do the right thing but also to let workers know about their rights.

“We have a situation where under the Howard government the laws have been made worse for workers but in many fast food restaurants and cafes it seems as if it is the law of the jungle. There is no reason why employers shouldn’t be sticking to the basic minimum standards.

“We are about providing people with a choice. Customers in the CBD will now be able to choose where they shop. They will know which employers are treating their workers with respect. We urge customers to ask shop owners if they have the sticker. If not - why not?

“When you run a shop you are trading on your reputation. We are saying to employers ensure that your reputation includes looking after your staff.” Anthony said.

UNITE encourages workers in the Melbourne CBD to contact us to find out how to ensure your employer is compliant with the law. Phone 93281555.

Workers Rights Compliance campaign sticker

Already some of the letters have been sent back. Some employers who are adhering to the law will be sent the sticker soon.
Others seem to be quite upset at the fact that UNITE is conducting this campaign. Here is a photo of one of the letters that was sent back today.
UNITE's response to this is that, through this campaign, Melbourne's dodgiest bosses will be exposed.
We will use the media, our own propaganda and stunts to let customers know who is not sticking to the law in the CBD.
Watch this space!!!

Moving on from 1998 and the Bastard Boys drama....

Australia/US seafarers strike deal
24 May 2007

By MUA media release -

Australian and American seafarers will today mount a push to reserve all jobs in the growing Australia-US LNG trade for Australian and US crew.

The Maritime Union of Australia will today sign an historic agreement with American seafarers to share the employment benefits of the lucrative global trade in LNG (Liquified Natural Gas).

The bilateral solidarity agreement between the MUA and the Seafarers' International Union of North America (SIU) signed off during top level talks with global ship owners being held in Sydney this week, gives preference to ships crewed by Australian and American seafarers in the multi-billion dollar LNG trade. The unions argue the trade is so environmentally sensitive and has such implications for national security that ships flagged in tax havens should not carry the high value cargo.

Current projects covered by the agreement would include the Australian Government's $60 million commitment to the carbon capture of the Gorgon LNG project.

"This is one of the first Australian projects that would see LNG exported to the US West Coast," MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said. "As the world looks to clean energy solutions, the trade will grow and we are determined that Australian seafarers benefit from the trade."

SIU national secretary treasurer David Heindel said the US Congress had recently amended the US Deepwater Port Act to give priority to the processing of licenses for LNG facilities that will be supplied by US flagged vessels. "This is key to strengthening US maritime security and provides a real opportunity for participation by US and Australian seafarers.

ITF general secretary David Cockcroft said the LNG trade will require the highest standards in seafaring.

Contact: Paddy Crumlin tel. 0418 379 660 or Tim Fitzsimmons EMC) on 0423 375522

For further information

Contact
Maritime Union of Australia
Phone +61 2 9267 9134
Fax +61 2 9261 3481
Email muano@mua.org.au
WWW http://mua.org.au/

You say, "basic minimum standards required by law"

That might stop them going under that if? But those minimum standards are just not good enough.

In business there is a thing called good will.

Any business not trying harder than the government or oppostion deserves to fail.

Industrial Relations from one Anarchist's perspective

I don't claim to have all the answers on I.R. but I have been working since I was twelve and I have worked in a variety of jobs and been in a number of unions. My experience with unions was mixed. I have been a staunch defender of the teaching unions of which I was a member until the last few years. Last week I resigned in disgust from the Australian Education Union because it wasn't a democratic and responsive organization and it had shafted contract teachers who now comprise 18% of the state teaching service. The problem, as I saw it, was that this union had got into bed with the ALP government as was acquiescing in the exploitation of its members. "Collaboration" is as obscene a term as "scabbing" - but that's what I feel towards the AEU leadership.

The big problem with collective bargaining is that you must have faith in the people who are negotiating on your behalf. When I look around the Australian industrial scene, I am astounded that many more workers haven't quit their unions in disgust. Ever since the Hawke Government implemented "The Accord", union membership has been in decline. The Accord guaranteed a huge reduction in industrial disputes in return for indexed pay rises. This was sold to the public as a Win/Win but there was a long-term cost - unions forgot how to fight, industrial activism ceased and union executives assumed ever-greater control of the affairs of the union.

The old union maxim: "If you don't fight, you lose," was never truer than in the 90's when Kennett came to power. Weakened unions offered some resistance but the Liberals had correctly smelt the fear and unwillingness of the workers to fight back. There had been too much reliance on union leaderships and the ALP to run things and severe penalties placed on striking unions (The no-strike clauses in The Accord") meant that few unions would risk a conflict with the state.

The election of the Bracks Labor Government signaled the end of Jeff Kennett's political career but it was not the end of "Kennettism". The ALP Government in Victoria retained most of the Kennett "reforms" - indeed it has extended some of them. More tollways and Public Private Partnerships reflect the "capital-serving" nature of the Labor Party (as Lenin described it). We now see a number of union bosses as candidates for Labor seats (Bill Shorten and Greg Combet among them). Some of these may be good and effective members of the ALP but I've become cynical.

For me, the conquest of power via the union movement or the ALP is not the answer. The answer is for people to make sure that governments can exercise little power over them. I believe that Labor parties and union leaderships have always been problematic - often they betrayed workers; sometimes, in the past, they were braver and did some good. Now we have to create new economic and political realities where we can become our own bosses and eliminate the tyranny of corrupt union bosses and parliamentarians. Here are some of my thoughts:

a.. Don't remain in an organization that is corrupt or undemocratic. Try to change it, sure. But if you can't, then get out and create an alternative to it. No organisation lasts forever and it could be your organisation that supersedes the present moribund one.

b.. Remember the three Cs - co-operatives, collectives and communities. These are the basic economic models for the "think globally; act locally" idea. I look forward to the day when the Multinational Corporations have been replaced by federations of co-ops and collectives. It may take centuries but they can evolve.

c.. Above all, don't get caught up in electoral politics. Power is a worse drug than heroin because it is more addictive. People that I know who have been caught up in power politics are not happy people. "Don't follow leaders; watch your parking meters" (Bob Dylan).

Regards,

R B