Newsletter No. 28
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2005
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Howard IR laws to put workers under the thumb! Smash unions to get longer hours, lower pay, fewer work rights, higher profits In a salutary series of lectures, historian Ronald Wright views the collapse of previous societies and the prospect of the present, intricately interconnected global economy disintegrating. He warns that “the conceit of laissez-faire economics ... has been tried many times and has failed many times, leaving ruin and social wreckage". Yet the laissez-faire New Right is resurgent, “returning the world to archaic political patterns, rewrapping old ideas as new and using them to transfer the levers of power from elected governments to non-elected corporations". Wright claims this ‘revolt against redistribution’ has ‘set off a free-for-all that is stripping the earth’. (‘A short history of progress’ 2004) The ever more autocratic Howard Australian government proposes industrial relations laws in this neo-liberal mould. Its economic fundamentalism points to the corporate elites’ need to subjugate labour — smash its organisation and ultimately replace any elements of democracy with an ‘anti-terroristic’ police state — if they are to successfully control the process of wealth extraction, yet stifle revolt against the social, environmental and economic catastrophes that will inevitably result. Lower wages, longer work hours and tighter control in the workplace are short-sighted ways to improve productivity. They only make sense if society develops its productive powers merely to aggrandise capital — to lift rates of exploitation and to maximise its profits. A society where labour is powerless cannot generate or allocate resources rationally, because only broadly shared power guarantees equitable, effective and sustainable creation and use of society’s wealth. Howard ‘believes’ if employers and employees deal directly with each other, one-on-one, without interference from unions, or (pro-union) government, Australia will be more globally competitive. He creates a myth of the ‘enterprise’ worker — ‘the owner of a business or somebody who rightly sees his or her future tied up with the future of the enterprise that employs him’ (AFR 11.10.05) Direct dealing aims to lower employers’ labour costs — through compliant staff who work harder, longer, or as needed for less pay. The underlying classical, or vulgar, economic conceit is that workers acting collectively — as a union — interfere with the ability of a free market to deliver optimal outcomes. In this fundamentalist fantasy worker and global corporation are equally ‘individuals’; if firms must compete then so must workers, restraining the price of both labour and capital. Howard claims workers need not worry, as low unemployment and skills shortages mean they are in a workers’ market. But the new laws’ very intention is to weaken labour’s bargaining power as far as possible, at all stages of the economic cycle; and already the labour market is weakening (‘Job losses fuel concerns on economic outlook’ AFR 14.10.05). Nor is “bargaining ... a practical possibility for employees (with) no bargaining power" as the AIRC stated in its 2004 safety net review (‘The Real Deal’ SMH 15.10.05). The IR laws must also be placed in context of accompanying welfare “reforms" that herd single parents and disabled workers into the work force, and stop dole payments to unemployed workers who refuse jobs, irrespective of the conditions under which they are offered ( ‘IR reforms will create working poor’ 23.10.05). These moves generate an oversupply of cheap, desperate labour to drive a downward wage spiral. The Howard IR laws drastically alter capital’s power over labour, pushing labour’s right to organise to the edge of legality, removing rights, protections and bargaining power from the workforce: * Employers can force workers to sign individual contracts (Australian Work Agreements) that trade away all but a few minimum conditions; * Workers are completely unprotected from unfair dismissal in firms of less than 100 workers and in larger firms if there are ‘operational considerations’; * Unions are subject to punitive penalties & virtually banned from the bargaining process — with few or no rights of entry; * There is no industrial umpire — the Australian Industrial Relation Commission’s new, sole purpose is to punish union ‘violations’; * A Fair Pay Commission, with judges on 5-year contracts, will set wages, by regarding how pay rises effect job creation and ‘competitiveness’. A 38 hour week formally operates (after plans for a 40-hour week were howled down) but can be averaged over the year. Overtime and non-standard hours can be paid at flat rates, so effectively there is no work time limit. Annual leave can be traded off for extra pay. A $100m of propaganda cannot hide the obvious — workers lose conditions, rights and choice with the new laws, as the case of the Boeing Newcastle workers amply shows. Boeing refuses to sign a collective agreement, a stance the IR Minister endorses on grounds that Boeing shouldn’t be forced to sign an agreement just because most of its workers may want one! (ABC 23.10.05). It is obvious workers will be offered only what the boss agrees to! Howard’s stated top priorities are industrial relations & anti-terrorism. They insidiously merge in the union-smashing Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act, an Act that could easily be extended to other industries and unions as needed. The Act: * outlaws workers from taking industrial and political action; * curtails workers’ rights to ensure a safe workplace; * subjects building workers to spying and harassment; * allows massive fines and damages against unions and ordinary workers, including by third parties; * establishes a Commission to secretly interrogate workers and jail those who will not inform on workmates. An Anti-Terrorism Bill that legalises judicial ‘disappearances’, protects police executions of those resisting arrest and makes urging ‘disaffection’ against the government a crime completes the Howard package! The Howard government acts for the strongest and firmest exploiters — finance capital and big business. Changed conditions impel a shift to a more extreme agenda. A parliamentary majority and an apparently weak union movement are an opportunity — but the shift also reflects developing political crises for these forces on which they must act; and the possibility to decisively rebuff them. Crises such the looming end of the oil age, emerging imperial rivalries and the effects of global warming and environmental degradation will, as the CIA warns, vastly eclipse beat-ups like the threat of terrorism. Yet, such beat-ups divert attention from the system, especially the ruling interests inducing these crises, while at the same time providing justification for a police state and suppression of potential opposition — organised labour in particular, which it both exploits and fears. |