550,000 protest new work rules

On Nov. 15, some 550,000 workers and their allies in Australia took part in the biggest workers’ protest in the country’s history, according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Melvourne, Nov. 15.

In Melbourne some 210,000 workers flooded the streets in a huge protest. In Sydney truckers blocked a major motorway.

Nationwide more than 200 gatherings took place in the streets of dozens of cities, at hundreds of work places and elsewhere.

The workers and their allies came out to protest new industrial relations legislation being pushed through parliament with a minimum of debate by Prime Minister John Howard. The legislation would end protection from unfair dismissal, undermine minimum-wage setting, and make a wide range of legitimate trade-union activities illegal. Union workers would face severe fines for asking bosses to agree to protect workers from unfair dismissal, or to include provisions such as trade-union training leave in contract agreements.

Other provisions in the legislation would end the right to public holidays for many workers and weaken provisions for annual leave; reduce protections for workers who refuse unsafe or unhealthy work; end protection from unfair dismissal for all work places employing fewer than 100 workers; force workers onto individual employment contracts; reduce union members’ right to talk with workers in the work place; and give the government the right to stop strikes if it decides the actions are “detrimental to the economy.”

In a live broadcast to rallies across Australia, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the Nov. 15 actions are just the beginning of a campaign to defeat this legislation. “Every union leader in Australia is ready to fight like we have never fought before.”

The AFL-CIO held a solidarity protest at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO President John Sweeny said the Australian legislation would “dramatically reduce the rights of workers, and provide employers with virtually total power to decide terms and conditions of employment.” A letter of support for Australian workers from the AFL-CIO was delivered to Australian Ambassador Dennis Richardson. Similar actions by national and international union federations took place in many countries.