Sally McManus, General Secretary of the ACTU
Barry Camfield writes from Adelaide
The Australian trade union Movement needs help and solidarity from across the world in its ongoing fight with the right wing Morrison Government against further anti-union and anti-workers laws.
Messages of support and solidarity to the ACTU and Australian unions are urgently needed, along with international condemnation of the Scott Morrison Govt and its attempts to attack workers and trade union rights. Never forget, ‘if they get away with attacking me today , it’s you tomorrow’. Unity is Strength is more than a slogan. Fight with our Aussie comrades for a better world, and an end to these outrageous class based attacks on hard working men and women.
Sally McManus, ACTU Secretary writes;
“The Australian Govt has just revealed the full details of their dangerous and seriously unbalanced industrial relations bill. Here’s what you need to know.
- The Bill will allow employers to cut wages and conditions, just like they did with WorkChoices. Shockingly, they will even let agreements go BELOW the minimum award safety-net!
- It takes rights off casuals, allowing employers to call workers ‘casuals’ and take away leave rights. They say casual workers will be able to become permanent afer 12 months but give workers no way of enforcing this right – a right is worth nothingif you can’t enforce it!
- It strips blue collar workers on big construction sites of any say whatsoever in their working conditions, creating a class of workers with less rights than everyone else. This is exactly what the big mining bosses want. FIFO workers will be hardest hit.
- These changes are dangerous and extreme, and if the proposed laws pass through parliament, they will seriously tip the balance in favour of big business.
We know that workers sacrificed so much during this pandemic. We cannot allow a generation of workers to be punished with lower wages and worse conditions after carrying Australia through this crisis.
We’re going to fight these proposed law changes as hard as we can, but we are going to need to build a big campaign!
We’ve said all along that the union movement will not accept any proposed changes from the Government that will leave working people worse off.
Scott Morrison said that “We’re all in this together”. But the proposed law changes show that the Morrison Government has sided with extreme business lobby groups to give them power to cut workers’ pay and remove hard fought for rights.
Working people have already sacrificed so much during this pandemic. Instead of thanking them with pay rises and better protections, this Government is proposing laws that will punish them!
We need as many working people as possible to join together to oppose the Government’s Bill”.
In Solidarity
Sally McManus, ACTU Secretary
