LABOR Accord holding back bargaining Continued from page 1 The Hawke government later sought, in presentations to the Arbitration Commis- sion, to deny FPU members the right to the 2.6 per cent national wage award, although the union was successful in keeping the increase. Others, however, haven’t been so fortu- nate. Socialist Party of Australia leader Peter Symon, in an interview from Sydney, cited the case of the Federated Furnishing Trades Society which had successfully negotiated an additional increase and had it accepted by the employers. “But the government took it away under threat of de-registration of the union,” he said. Similarly, the Builders’ Laborers Federa- tion was denied the 2.6 per cent national wage increase because it was conducting a campaign for a reduced 36-hour work week. The increase was only allowed when the union agreed to drop the campaign as other building trades had done. Unfortunately, that policing role also extends to the ACTU, noted Glen Moore- head, the federal secretary of the Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen. There have been a number of areas where wage allowances and benefits have been negotiated and agreed to by employers — but the unions are forced to drop them, because of pressure, not only from the government, but also from the ACTU. “In effect, the ACTU is riding shotgun for the employers and the government,” he said, adding that the disputes sometimes reach a stage “where it puts a union in conflict, not only with the accord, but also with the ACTU.” One recent case involved the demand raised by three public sector unions, whose members had been the worst victims of the former Fraser government’s wage freeze, for catch-up increases of 8.3 per cent. The three unions, with a combined membership of 100,000, had staged industrial action to back their demands, prompting both the government and the ACTU to step in to press the unions to reduce the wage claim. In hearings before the Arbitration Commission, the increases were reduced to between two and four per cent with the higher increases going to some lower-paid categories. Significantly, it was the ACTU, in its submission to the commission, which rejected the public sector unions claims of comparability between the public sector and similar jobs in the private sector. And the commission, in rejecting most of the demands for increases for lower-paid cate- gories, cited the ACTU submission. The ACTU also gave the commission “effective assurances” that the increases would “not be a vehicle for general improvement in pay and conditions.” It is the ACTU’s and the Hawke government’s adamance that the accord must be strictly followed — despite its demonstrated role in reducing real wages and in impeding effective bargaining — that is increasingly creating frustration among a growing number of unions in Australia. Correction In the first article in this series, the Trib- une mistakenly reported that Australian employers were a part of the Prices and Incomes Accord. In fact, only the Austral- ian Labor party and the ACTU were signa- tories to the accord. However, Australian employers’ groups, notably the powerful Council of Australian Industry, were participants in the govern- ment’s Economic Summit in 1983 — which adopted a joint communique on employer- labor-government co-operation — and are represented on the various tripartite bodies which were established as a result. Those bodies. include the Economic Planning Advisory Council, the steel and mining industry commissions and the Prices Sur- veillance authority. 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 23, 1985 Coal miners from the New South Wales Coast District march on Parliament House in Canberra in September, 1984 to demand action to block the impending layoff of 600 miners. Australia’s mining unions have been particularly affected by Effectively, the restrictions of the accord guidelines force the trade union movement to mark time in its bargaining agenda and to forego campaigns on such fundamental issues as shorter hours, equal pay and pro- ductivity bargaining. Catton noted that upgrading women’s wages, which currently average about 66 per cent of Australian men’s earnings, “just isn’t allowed under the Accord. “But the ACTU has been under pressure from the women’s movement so it has been developing a policy on ‘comparable worth.” The plan is to run a test case before the commission to see if it will pass the guide- lines,” she said. The test case, which will compare nurses’ pay with that of male workers whose jobs involve comparable knowledge, skill and effort, will be watched closely throughout Australia. But the employers are opposing the policy with considerable vehemence — the Retailers Association called it an “insid- _ ious doctrine” — and because of the Hawke government’s tendency to resist any mea- sures which would cut into profits, there is. not a lot of optimism about the outcome. ‘In fact, efforts by unionists to win a share of the profits resulting from increased pro- ductivity have also been thwarted by the “no further claims” provision, said Catton. She cited the case of the coal miners who have increased productivity by six per cent over the past two quarters. but have been unable to get any more than the arbitrated national wage award. “Anything that contributes to increasing labor costs — even if it is offset by produc- tivity increases — has come under heavy restriction,” said Moorehead. The Business Council of Australia has demanded that all increases in productivity be passed on to business, arguing that this would lead to lower inflation and prices, greater demand and employment. Signifi- cantly, there have been widespread mine closures and job losses in the mining indus- try, many of them as a direct result of the new innovations in mining technology that have contributed to increased productivity. All of the frustration in bargaining has inevitably made the accord itself a source of increasing conflict. And that conflict has been aggravated in the political arena because the Labor government “considers the accord as fundamental to staying in power,” Catton noted. “The government’s economic strategy is completely tied up with the accord and any criticism is looked upon as undermining the government.” That policy has been coupled with a rightward shift by the government on social policy. A mini-budget introduced by Labor Finance Minister Paul Keating earlier this year cut a number of social programs, reduced family allowances and reduced day care funding. Elsewhere, the de-regulation of the banking system and the floating of the Australian dollar have been echoes of Liberal Party policy. The government did abandon a tax package it had sought to have enacted which included a highly regressive 12.5 per cent consumption tax. A wave of opposi- tion from the trade union movement, wel- fare and women’s organizations as well as the left wing of the Labor Party made the measure untenable, although Keating had earlier warned the ACTU that continued opposition to the government’s tax option might bring about the defeat of the Labor government. He told The Australian June 5 that the trade unions “have got to understand and make a choice. “On the one hand, there is a government they can talk to...the alternative is a government determined to destroy them. ..,” he warned. The disillusionment that has resulted from the Hawke cabinet’s shifts in eco- nomic policy has been eagerly exploited by the reactionary National Party and particu- larly by the Liberal Party. “There’s been a resurgence of rightist for- ces in recent months — it’s really an alarm- ing situation,” said Symon, citing as an example, the National Party state govern- ment in Queensland which recently levelled a heavy broadside against the trade union movement with five pieces of anti-labor leg- islation. One of these, the Electricity (Con- tinuity of Supply) Bill, gives the state government authority to conscript civilians to work in the power industry. Queensland Premier Sir John Bjelke Peterson also hosted a top level conference of 350 business and conservative leaders in June, seeking to extend the anti-union campaign across Aus- tralia. Peterson’s legislation was enacted in response to a bitter dispute, sparked by the firing of several hundred State Electricity Board workers who had gone on strike to industry rationalization and jobs have been continually cut despite employer agreement to maintain employment in return for wage restraint under the accord. : protest assignment of their work to private contractors. But the response of the ACTU to the draconian legislation and the electrical workers’ strike “has been weak,” said Symon. Although the labor central did launch a dramatic and effective 24-hour freight blockade of the state, it later withdrew from industrial action following intervention from the Hawke government which prom- ised to put the electrical workers under fed- eral, rather than State, certification. That legislation, which would still not ensure reinstatement of the fired workers, has become snarled in the courts while the electrical workers continue to walk the picket line with little hope of winning their jobs back without a major trade union campaign. But leading ACTU representa- tives have argued that to mount a fight against the Queensland government would — lead to a confrontation that might jeopard- ize the accord — and the labor govern- ment. “The effect of the accord over the last two years has been not only to reduce living standards, but also to weaken the ability of the trade union movement to bargain and defend its interests. And that has streng- thened the right,’ Symon said. “T think the accord is going to be with us for some time to come,” he added. “But there are more unionists who are coming to see what it has done.” Catton noted that her own union, together with others, is currently initiating 4 campaign to make the accord guidelines more flexible and allow a greater scope to bargaining. But it’s only the beginning 0 what she and a small but growing number of trade unionists hope will eventually bring about an end to the accord. “As it stands now,” she said, “‘it’s really a tripartite mechanism for total wage con- trol.” As long as it remains in place — and as long as the government and the ACTU cling to it as a key plank in Labor’s eco- nomic strategy — the accord will continue — to act as a brake on living standards and blunt the labor movement’s tradition tools of militant industrial action and union solidarity. And the danger in that is the potential of a return of a right-wing government. Certainly those lessons shouldn’t be lost on B.C. trade unionists.