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Summer 2005

Signing up to protect our wages and conditions

Workers and community members, people from all walks of life around Australia, are signing up to the “Your rights at Work” campaign.

The campaign which will continue right the way through to the next Federal election involves a wide range of activities from community information sausage sizzles, to mass public protests, post card and petition drives.

Unions around Australia, including HACSU, are experiencing a huge resurgence of union membership as workers move to try to protect themselves against the effects of John Howard's workplace changes.

Workers are not only joining up, they are saying "we want to be active and involved in this campaign".

State Secretary, Chris Brown, said the campaign was having a significant effect, with all State and national opinion polls showing overwhelming opposition to the Howard Government changes.

"It is clear Tasmanians and Australians generally are very strongly opposed to the abolition of the unfair dismissal laws, and the individual contracts which get rid of overtime penalty rates, leave provisions, public holidays, meal breaks and other basic entitlements."

"But I do not expect the Howard Government to back off. Giving employers the unrestricted power to hire and fire, getting rid of awards and collective bargaining has been an obsession with John Howard throughout his political career."

"It is both an ideological issue and a self interest thing for him because he believes by attacking the awards they are attacking unions and therefore the Labor Party, and this is a way of cementing themselves into power for a long time into the future."

"It doesn't matter that they abolish rights and cut conditions along the way."

"However, I think they may have miscalculated. Australians won't allow their job security to be torn up, their working hours and the conditions and benefits that have been won over a 100 years."

"This will be a long, hard campaign but I think if union members can maintain this campaign through to the next election John Howard will get a very big shock."

"We are asking for every members to get on board with this campaign. It is something that is not just in the interest of working people today. It is about our families and what sort of working environment our children will be walking into."