Workers' Liberty

Rising inflation and the government policy of wage cutting by keeping wage increases below inflation, is reviving active, militant trade unionism.

Workers are being faced with the choice to either fight or docilely let their living standards be forced down by a government whose pandering to the rich was a already, even before it adopted a policy of “fighting inflation” by cutting the real wages of low paid workers, a scandal and an obscenity.

In response to the impact of August 2007’s 12-hour strike, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced plans for a strike-ban for prison officers on January 8. Tabled as an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, the measure will be discussed in Parliament as Solidarity goes to press.

The strike to get sacked UNISON steward Karen Reissmann reinstated is continuing. Karen was sacked for speaking out against cuts.

A member of RMT’s LU Engineering branch explains why it has relaunched the CFDU (Campaign for a Fighting Democratic Union)

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has hit the ground running, hoping to capitalise on the apparent mood for change that saw him elected in May. He will need momentum to push through the changes that will make France more like Thatcherite Britain; that is, to bulldoze the working-class opposition that thwarted his predecessors.

Yes, of course, we want Howard out at the federal election. Yes, of course we'll vote Labor where there is no working-class socialist candidate, and give Labor our transfers even when there is.

The text below is a translation of an appeal against French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to attack French workers’ right to strike.

Metronet

By an RMT member

A new film exposes the special police force for the construction industry set up in October 2005 by the conservative Australian government as part of its recent slew of anti-union laws.

Workers' Liberty Australia no.39. Contents include:
It's time for unions to stand firm: Dean Mighell, Joe McDonald, and the ALP
Labor, the unions, and AWAs
Workers' Rights Coalition formed in Melbourne

Without reference to the upcoming Labor Party Conference Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, publicly announced the industrial relations policy he will bring to the federal elections at the National Press Club on 17 April. This new policy if implemented will continue the direction of John Howards’ year old WorkChoices legislation.

By a BT engineer

Apart from general statements assuring the bosses that there will be “no return to the ’70s”, the Labour Frontbench has not been keen to spell out what, if anything, they will do to remove the legal shackles imposed on the unions by the Tories.

Read this letter sent by the ABCC - the special construction-industry "police force" set up under the Howard government's Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act - to construction workers i

"Rudd softens IR message to woo business", headlined the Australian Financial Review on 2 February.

A meeting to learn about some past experiences which can help us better understand how to fight Work Choices and the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act today

Saturday 17 February, 3pm

Since Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard took the leadership of the Australian Labor Party on 4 December 2006, the ALP's website has been changed to remove any upfront commitment to repeal John Howard's anti-worker laws.

Radio 4 are looking for nominations for laws which should be repealed for a discussion programme they want to do in the new year. It would be a good opportuity to nominate laws passed since 1984 which restrict the movement of trade unions.

John McDonnell MP spoke to Solidarity about the campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Bill

Some of us have been working for trade union reform for five years. We have lobbied for change from Labour, but it has been like crying in the wilderness. The official TUC response has been to point to the legislation the Labour government has introduced, to the rights that have been won.

From Amicus:

Hundreds of UK trade unionists are to protest outside the Australian Embassy this week (Thursday 30th November) at anti-worker and anti-trade union labour laws introduced by the Australian government.

Mass industrial unions were created in the USA during the mid-1930s as a result of a series of bitter and extremely violent battles between workers on one side and capitalists and their police. National guards and hired thugs were used and spies employed by detective agencies were sent to infiltrate the labour movement. Labour legislation, most of it during FD Roosevelt’s “New Deal” Federal government encouraged the organising drive of the unions.

Report by Bob Carnegie. On September 14, at the Irish Club in Brisbane, a hugely sucessful meeting was held by the recently formed Workers’ and Civil Rights Coalition (WCRC).

By guest blogger Maria Exall

The Monday evening fringe meeting organised by the United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Union Laws and the Institute of Employment Rights on the Trade Union Freedom Bill was packed. Over 200 delegates and visitors met to hear the latest reportback on the Trade Union Freedom Bill campaign.

Graph: figures for striker-days in Australia, to June 2006.
On Tuesday 29 August, thousands of Australian trade unionists held rallies in major cities in solidarity with 107 construction workers on the Perth-to-Mandurah rail project, in Western Australia.

Whenever we start to stand up for ourselves, we come up against the anti-union laws. It’s not just the outrageous court rulings - such the injunctions awarded to EWS or Midland Mainline in the last couple of years - it is also the everyday shackles that these laws keep around us.

Motion passed at AWL conference 29-30 April 2006.

The Trades Union Congress is campaigning for trade union freedom from the shackles of anti union laws. It is backing a Early Day Motion in Parliament, the Trade Union Freedom Bill. (EDMs do not get time to be debated in Parliament, but serve to "flag up" issues). The TUC has made the campaign the theme of the London May Day demonstration.

The Trade Union Freedom Bill is being proposed to coincide with the repeal of the “Taff Vale Judgement”. What was “Taff Vale”?

The Trades Union Congress is campaigning for trade union freedom from the shackles of anti union laws. It is backing a Early Day Motion in Parliament, the Trade Union Freedom Bill. (EDMs do not get time to be debated in Parliament, but serve to “flag up” issues). The TUC has made the campaign the theme of the London May Day demonstration.