melb rally stretches back to trades hall, page-245

re: wall fly - melb rally stretches back to trades Just some quick points, Ive worked in mines as a tradie and as a stockbroker and am now a union delegate.
Firstly the IR reforms are mainly about bringing in AWA's so that each employee will deal with mnagement on their own to decide their wage, many people who are good workers but are not good talkers will fall behind those who can talk garbage like stockbrokers.
Most companies employee IR people work on wage issues, most IR people have a background in law, you cant have a plumber and a lawyer working out conditions as a plumber wont know all his rights.
Its not a fair playing field and will cause a lot of problems between workers, the point of the union is to act as the middle man between management and its workers and act for the best interests of its memebers.
The unions cnat just strike will nilly anymore, laws were intoduced by the govt years ago. One must give 3 days notice before taking any action.
Any action can only be taken during a bargaining period of an EBA otherwise each employee can be fined up to $10,000 each and the union a hell of a lot more.
The union has very little power anymore and has been placed in a corner so these current IR changes can go through.
I think we might have a good fight in front of us which will cost the economy substantially if strike action does happen.

Oh and all those who went in the marches the other day had to take holiday pay for that time.

Sure unions have their faults just like the govt but both have their place.
Its usually only the welathy that dont want unions so that they can screw their own workers more and make even greater profits.

Reality is that its tradespeople who actually hold this country together, without them there is no need for stockbrokers, accountants secretaries bosses or governments and for that reason alone the governemtn should be careful about how far it takes this.

Interesting times ahead