Congress 2003:

Pay justice, a fair go for casuals & a better deal for working families

It was a dramatic Congress, marked by industrial action and personal tragedy, debate and division. It has also been the platform to launch new campaigns targeting family, education and health issues on and off the job.

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet made an impassioned call for the labour movement to rebuild its power in this country, not for its own self-interest, but in the interest of a decent and fair society.

"I am very angry about what's happening in this country," he said. "Australia is becoming less fair and less equal. We now have an army of 2 million low paid, casual, part time workers. One million people work for less than $15 per hour.

"At the same time salaries at the top end of town have spiralled beyond the obscene," he said. "The earnings of the top 5 per cent of income earners now outstrip the combined earnings of the bottom 40 per cent."

Congress reaffirmed its commitment to increasing living standards through restored public services in health, education and childcare.

Industrially Congress is committed to:

• increasing the federal minimum wage as soon as possible to at least $13 per hour, with a further target of $14.50 after that

• granting casuals the right to convert to permanent status after six months employment

• increasing employer superannuation contributions from 9% to 10% of each person's salary

Combet called for unions to broaden their base beyond the workplace, enlist community support and campaign for better health and education.

In the workplace union membership continues to decline. It is down to 18 per cent in the private sector. But the ACTU has managed to win 20,000 contract call centre workers a raft of better pay and conditions under a new award. Combet highlighted how some unions were winning against the odds. He cited the CPSU victory against (then) Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott at Centrelink where workers rejected individual agreements and despite harassment, including no right of entry, won a collective agreement, 3000 new members and 400 new activists.

Further proof that unions do work are the latest statistics showing unionists are 16 per cent higher paid than non-union employees.

On day two Congress became the stage for solidarity with striking Qantas workers fighting a Patrick/Reith style union busting exercise. The dispute made headlines. The unions exposed that management was training a workforce on labour hire contracts in Los Angeles. Some 14-airport workers employed on non-union contracts by Blue Collar were already in Australia.

The dispute erupted on August 19 after three of them started work in baggage handling at Melbourne airport alongside TWU members.

"We're not copping this sort of bullshit. We're not copping it on the chin," said TWU Victoria Secretary Bill Noonan.

Flights were delayed when TWU members stopped work for 90 minutes. Qantas sought an injunction in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission against further stoppages and the contract workers were withdrawn. But management has since announced it intends to reduce its permanent workforce, employing as much as 45 per cent casual and contract employees.

Casual workers were an ongoing theme of Congress and the ACTU has confirmed that it plans to run a casual conversion test case within the next two years.

Delegates heard reports condemning Australia as having the second highest casual workforce in the western world. Eighty seven per cent of the new jobs created in the 1990s paid less than $26,000 and out of these 48 per cent paid less than $15,600.

AWU delegates spelt out the plight of rural workers who for 200 years have trod the bush track in search of casual jobs. Most earn a mere $12-$14 hour.

AMWU delegates spoke of the $1 million they had secured in workers entitlements. For too long companies have used workers' entitlements as an interest free loan to prop up poor management and failing companies. That had to stop.

It was also a day to hear the personal loss of the workers locked out of the gates for 111 days in Geelong. They are up against a company attempting to quarter their pay.

The 93 TCFUA wool combers are still standing their ground despite hardship and 0heartbreak of losing their homes. Most tragic was the worker whose wife has had to seek work to support the family, resulting in their autistic kid into care.

"We have never taken industrial action until now," said Dave. "We went on strike in desperation. But that has now turned to steadfast resolution. We are supported by the people of Geelong and by the union. With so many people by our side we are not alone."

"It was just another example of the brutalised offensive against the rights of working men and women in this country," said MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin seconding a motion in support of the locked out workers.

The MUA donated $10,000 in support of the workers. Victorian Branch Secretary Kevin Bracken presented the cheque while pledging full MUA support for their struggle.

Stories like these did not make the media. But they aroused solidarity among congress delegates.

Women, too, came under the spotlight. The single mother of five, a Filipina Australian and member of the LHMU told of the poor conditions and little pay she and her workmates laboured long hours for.

The gender pay gap is alive and well with women still earning around 15.6 per cent less than the average male wage.

Much of the second day of Congress was devoted to the ACTU's work and family policy with academic and author of The Work Life Collision, Barbara Pocock first up on stage

Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, spelt out how proposed family provisions would benefit workers, their families and employers.

The unemployed, the dispossessed and the disabled also had their voice heard.

Pat Dodson spoke of the plight of the indigenous worker, Professor Sol Encel, author of Age Can Work of the high levels of unemployment amongst older workers and Australia's failure to instigate a national ageing program like Finland, Belgium or the UK. Congress delegates cheered when he stressed the need to retain and fund TAFE so it could also be a retraining institution for older workers.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals that workers aged over 45 face an average period of unemployment of 96 weeks compared with 38 weeks for those under 45. And a separate survey found 42.5 per cent of those over 55 believe that mature age workers are the subject of discrimination in the workplace.

International guests at congress included Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Trade Unions who warned delegates that the fight for a fairer Australia was unlikely to be won without a fight for fairness in the global economy; John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation; Linda Chavez-Thompson Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, a second-generation American of Mexican descent and the highest ranking woman in the American labour movement; Willie Madisha, President of COSATU and former first chair of the African National Congress; Tom Woodruff Former President of the AFL-CIO and SEIU organiser helping recruiting more than 400,000 new members; Ken Georgetti President of the Canadian Labour Congress and the first union leader to receive the distinguished Order of British Columbia and Order of Canada.

Politicians addressing were Congress were Simon Crean, Leader of the Opposition; Jenny Macklin, Deputy Leader of the Opposition; Craig Emerson, Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations; Carmen Lawrence, Australia's first woman Premier, now Federal Member for Fremantle; Annette Ellis, Federal Member for Canberra and deputy chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs; Senator Kerry Nettle, Greens spokesperson on workplace relations; state premiers Bob Carr and Steve Bracks who have helped fund a delegates training school with the ACTU and Bob Hawke former president of the ACTU and Australia's longest serving Labor Prime Minister.

Other speakers included Rod Wilson,spokesperson for the Victorian Medicare Action Group; Wendy Caird, Quality Public Services Coordinator with Public Services International, and former National Secretary of the CPSU; Alison McClelland, Associate Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University and, controversially, Margaret Jackson, Chairperson of Qantas Airways (at the same time Qantas workers were being casualised and replaced with non-union labour.).

Speeches, ACTU news releases and Background Papers can be downloaded from the web. MUA delegates are urged to read and distribute these papers around the workplace.