Red Report Back - Week Ending 20/11/2022
Svitzer Fails to Lockout Tug Boat Workers
Last week, unionists and workers across Australia were slapped in the face when multinational giant Svitzer announced plans to lock out 582 striking workers across the country. The tug boat company made the last-minute announcement in an attempt to force workers into accepting subpar conditions and pay, so that the company could reap the profits of the Christmas period. They were relying on the government to perform its usual role of siding with business over workers and their rights.
Were the lockout implemented, it would have meant that 17 ports serviced by Svitzer would not have towage, effectively bringing Australian shipping to a standstill due to the monopoly Svitzer has been encouraged to form. Naturally, NSW Transport Minister David Elliot chimed in saying “the NSW government is committed to providing whatever support necessary to those affected by this union thuggery”. Once again, the capitalist state did its best to screw over workers and make their more militant representatives the villains.
Tugboat crews were accused of “thuggery” for the industrial action they took since October, which itself is a response to Svitzer attempts to casualise the workforce and abolish hard earned conditions. Svitzer is now turning up the heat on workers after the prolonged bargaining for a new agreement, which has dragged on since September 2019, with some 75 meetings, failed to produce results.
Svitzer’s shameful behaviour was further shown when Assistant Secretary of the MUA Jamie Newlyn revealed how “Svitzer representatives have repeatedly turned up to negotiations with sudden and unreasonable demands which they know will derail the negotiation process and undermine the prospect of a mutually agreeable outcome”. Being a monolithic corporation, it is not content with the record profits, to the tune of $21 million, that it received in 2021. It refuses to finalise bargaining with these workers because it smells further profits.
Naturally, the ever-opportunistic Labor Party quickly jumped at the chance to use the incident as showing the need for its new industrial relations legislation. This law is centred on enabling an industrial umpire to step in and make a decision when a dispute is “intractable”. Minister for Workplace Relations, Tony Burke, said “if Svitzer had been allowed to proceed with its threat it would have done significant damage to the Australian economy," adding that the company "should be ashamed of itself for its willingness to hold the economy to ransom". Labor is not upset that Svitzer is screwing workers; Labor is upset that the company did not work with the government to prioritise the common interests of government and capital.
In response to Svitzer’s actions, the Maritime Union of Australia called rallies with solidarity supporters and those in both the Australian Institute of Marine Power Engineers (AIMPE) and the Australian Maritime Officers Union (AMOU). Simultaneously, the Fair Work Commission came down on Svitzer for daring to jeopardise the economic profits to be made in the Christmas period, rather than for undermining the rights of workers. Under Section 424 of the Fair Work Act, the FWC ruled that the action had to be suspended until May, as it may cause significant damage to the Australian economy.
It is farcical for Labor or unions to frame this as a victory by or for the working class. The market wins, not workers. While Svitzer the company hasn’t appeared to win here, the capitalist system as a whole has won. Workers are left in limbo without a new agreement, facing the reality of being casualised in the near future. The Labor government has utilised the institutions of the capitalist state to preserve the status quo and their economic wealth. And workers are left at a net loss as inflation runs away, wages stagnate and conditions are attacked. Dare to dream of a real victory, comrades. Even better, dare to make a real victory a reality.
Tit-For-Tat in RTBU Rail Dispute Continues in NSW
This week, the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) and New South Wales Government have picked up their dance around bargaining and industrial action. In the latest development, the RTBU have agreed to stop their planned industrial action next week in return for free public transport throughout the working week until Friday the 25th of November.
The move came in response to negotiations between the Liberals and the RTBU, after the union had threatened to turn off Opal card readers across the network due to government inaction in bargaining. While trying to once again frame himself as a peacemaker, Premier Perrottet said it’s “now time to remove barriers and take it all before an independent umpire for a resolution”. The NSW government’s willingness to enter negotiation was prompted by the RTBU vowing to implement weekend timetables by refusing to operate foreign-built trains from Monday to Friday if the government didn’t come to the table.
Once again, the politicians were moved by their electoral interests to come to the table. As NSW edges closer to its state election this March, neither Labor nor Liberal want to draw any further bad press. As a result, after Secretary of the RTBU Alex Claasens met with Perrottet, they agreed that from Tuesday, the two groups will begin negotiations around terms to be arbitrated in the Fair Work Commission.
In reviewing these events, we are once again confronted with the toxic, smoke-and-mirrors discourse and framing that surrounds workers issues, with unions portrayed as thugs that are hell-bent on inconveniencing the public. The anti-worker rhetoric and language is almost farcical. How dare workers fight for adequate financial compensation for the labour they provide! How dare workers refuse to be exploited to the hilt! How dare workers fight for safer working conditions for both their industry and the public it services!
Then the neoliberals and moderates in Labor frame forcing workers to negotiate with a hostile government, in an overwhelmingly anti-worker institution such as the Fair Work Commission, as a victory! The RTBU has shown us that a union doesn’t need to compromise. Let us hope they can defy the electoral fetishism that has brought down so many others in a similar situation. If not, let us organise in every corner of industry to fight back against this shameful trend.
Polishing a Turd - Labor Attempts to Force through Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill
There are further developments this week as Labor attempts to force its new industrial relations bill through Parliament before it closes for the year. In an attempt to do so, Labor has watered down the bill with 34 pages of amendments to further appease employer groups and conservative politicians. Once again, as with the rest of the bill, these amendments seek to ensure that companies and businesses who play nice with the pro-market, anti-worker status quo are able to maximise their profits through greater exploitation of workers.
While touting the reintroduction of multi-employer bargaining, it lays out stringent restrictions on who can access it while prioritising single enterprise agreements. For example, this an amendment would prevent employees in certain types of construction work being covered, locking out from multi-employer agreements militant unions such as the CFMMEU.
In reaction to these amendments, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke himself said that the amendments would make the bill “ineffective and unusable”. However, from a communist perspective, we are aware this was already very much the case in regards to the bill being effective at protecting workers’ rights. Indeed, he is worried that these amendments won’t allow the FWC to work in a way that “furthers the objects of the Fair Work Act”.
But these very objectives of the Fair Work Act are to protect employers and their profits and to placate workers with piecemeal trade-offs and the foolish hope of justice. Burke recognised how the Fair Work Commission was “unbalanced” with few of its members having a background "predominantly representing workers". He claims to hope to "restore" balance, "but it's hard to do quickly".
In reviewing the bill, the Centre for Future Work released the Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia report which analyses the implications of the bill. They called the multi-employer bargaining aspects a “cautious and incremental step” that doesn’t remotely justify the “extreme and fear mongering claims of critics of the legislation”.
Even the tame members of this team criticised the restrictions on multi-employer bargaining contained in the bill. In linking the earlier implementation of these new constraints and half measures to the neoliberal policies adopted by Labor under Hawke, we see how modern Labor doesn’t really wish to address the underlying issues confronting trade unions.
They don’t care that the amount of unionised workers has declined from 23% to 12% in the last decade. They don’t care that their weak, watered-down bill will only provide an ‘increase’ of 1.6% to wages a year, while inflation climbs to 7% - a 5.4% real decline in wages. They don’t care that workers have less and less rights, nor that those who decide their fate in the FWC are overwhelmingly from the ruling class. They care about maintaining the illusion of being pro-worker, while simultaneously maintaining the support of big business and the capitalist class. They care about protecting the status quo and their own incomes, whatever the cost. Workers deserve better. Our unions deserve better. We have the numbers to force their hand, and also to break it if it will not move. The future is ours - if we are willing to fight for it.