Another round of ACTU rallies went ahead this morning across Australia. The punditariat seems to assume that WorkChoices has faded as an issue because they’ve stopped writing about it. There’s a fair bit of evidence to the contrary. Labor came close to taking several regional National seats and the Independent held seat of Gladstone in Queensland by campaigning heavily on IR (Liz Cunningham, the Gladstone incumbent with a massive majority going into the election, only just got back in). Labor highlighted WorkChoices in the Victorian campaign - and despite Howard’s denialism, they wouldn’t have run ads unless their polling told them there was real community concern about wages and living standards. And today tens of thousands of Australians have turned out to protest.
There’ve been a couple of interesting stories about IR in the lead up to today’s rallies.
In an important decision, which could preserve rights of protest for the future, the Federal Court has ruled that employers don’t have the right to tell employees what to do on their leave days, after the Howard Government’s own Office of the Employment Advocate tried to prevent an employee from taking leave to attend the protests.
And the Commonwealth Bank has gone all the way with AWAs - which remove overtime, shift, higher duties and relocation allowances, and don’t contain guaranteed paid rises.
Update: Via Rooster, here’s a link to the Rights@Work pool on flickr.
The Prime Minister’s reaction?
We need flexibility. This will provide flexibility and freedom. They are good words and they are good concepts.
Please feel free to post in comments any reports, photos or personal stories about the protests today.
Elsewhere: Lots of WorkChoices fans in the comments thread at Blogocracy.
In Sydney it went off really well. My lone photograph is here.
Today in Melbourne was supposed to be 36 degrees, but they slyly revised that down over the last 24 hours, and this morning was bloody cold. MCG piccies are here.
An excerpt from my rally report post:
There is a widely-held belief in the community that today’s anti-WorkChoices rallies around the country would achieve nothing.
I held this view myself until a couple of weeks ago when I heard Greg Combet address a group of unionists. He told these blokey, Eureaka flag-toting building workers, in a stern and accusing tone, that ACTU research indicates a large proportion of union members around the country voted Liberal at the last election, in all likelihood handing the balance of power, if not the election, to the Howard Government, and subsequently making possible the WorkChoices legislation. Hearing this I realised that the primary purpose of the ACTU Your Rights At Work campaign was not to convince the general public about the need to repeal WorkChoices by voting against the Liberals, but the membership of the country’s unions.
So this morning I toddled along to the MCG rally and afterwards marched to Federation Square. Sure, the overblown rhetoric of the union and Labor is just as reductionist and misleading as the Howard Government’s; sure, the lure of Jimmy Barnes was probably responsible for quite a few people showing up; sure, there were obscene quantities of meat pies and hot chips being consumed at 8 o’clock in the morning. But the fact remains that the WorkChoices legislation is intrinsically bad and the only way we’ll get rid of it is by voting against John Howard and the Liberal Party. If it takes a “rock concert� (as Howard called it) rally to change enough votes to make this happen then I’ll support it any way I can.
Yep, Tony, the weather gods smiled on the rally in Brisbane as well. Yesterday was a vile 34 degrees, at the moment it’s 23, overcast and cool.
A couple of pictures from Canberra here.
I’ll put some more up on flickr later. A great morning.
More likely an explanation for low numbers.
Corinne Grant might have been a lure though?
Seriously, it’s a bit nuts of some of the anti-WorkChoices mob to suggest that people only went along for a bit of time off work. Particularly when strike pay is illegal.
It’s not a good look when only half the numbers you nominate turn up.
In Melb, at least, everything was right. Great weather, an opportunity to sit in the Members. Maybe even Jimmy. However…
Maybe a better spin would have been to nominate 20,000 and then praise the 40,000 who turned up for being braver than expected in the face of the punitive provisions of WorkChoices.
A couple more photos at flickr. Including one of lots of firemen, who are far more appealing than Barnsey.
As for time off work, some of us worked back last night, and will work extra time tomorrow.
And here I was all along thinking they were vapid platitudes.
I dunno, Francis. I saw a lot of really dodgy dancing and air guitar going on in sections of the crowd comprising the kinds of blokes for whom dancing is normally an instant declaration of homosexuality.
I cringed throughout the Jimmy Barnes set but felt a warm sensation of relief when he’d finished and hadn’t played Khe Sanh.
I remember going to Karaoke at a pub in Toowoomba in 95. Chisel songs were very popular. In fact the only songs anyone sang were Chisel songs. Just sayin…
Indeed. I don’t know about everywhere but at least where I was the rally wasn’t nearly as well publicised as the previous ones. I also think it may have something to do with the fact that the previous rallies, unlike this one, coincided with a lot of media attention for Workchoices.
Just before going into the stadium for the 2001 NRL GF I said to my mate that they better not have Barnesy doing the pre-show entertainment. Sure nuff, he turned up via a helicopter to sing ‘Khe bloody san.’
And the night went quickly downhill from there.
Someone forgot, didn’t she. (Oh yes she did.) Sorry to my nation, I suck.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,20846813-948,00.html
Union rally slows Perth trains Staff writers and wires
November 30, 2006 06:00am
PERTH train services face disruption today as drivers joined about 5000 unionists who marched to Members Equity Stadium to protest the federal government’s industrial relations laws.
Another fine piece of spin from Howard’s unoffical PR company, aka “News” Limited.
I would’ve loved to have been there, but unfortunately, due to being wheelchair bound (normally not an issue - but I have 2 days of personal care assistance), and unfortunately it coincided with today’s rally.
Oh and the WA libs were whinging on how the Public Transport Authority were providing free shuttle buses (which they do for ANY public event) between Members Equity Statium and the CBD.
And Beazer’s speech from what I saw proves that we don’t need a change in leadership at this time, as I don’t think Rudders would cut it at events like this.
Speaking of fudging the figures, 6PR News here reported the crowd as 2500, so the spin is on and illustrates on how the meeja, are becoming Howard’s Cheer squad - even the ABC were playing down the figures - so much for a left bias.
Oh and speaking of Blogocracy, I find that the people who post on News Ltd forums etc are Right Wing fans who are probably doing it on company time, using company facilities, and yet they have the temerity to whinge about union people protesting etc.
Easily the highlight of my 2 weeks leave!
My photos are here, and Flickrbees are more than welcome to add theirs to the your rights at work pool.
Thanks, Rooster, for the links.
I’ll post the pool link in the post itself.
I missed the whole thing. My house was struck by a plague of gastro and I figured the good comrades at the local watering hole didn’t need to acquire it (along with the raft of unpleasant working conditions Howard’s given them).
Thanks for the posts and the pictures - it was dismal being stuck at home doing the washing. You’ve all made me feel like I was there … sorta.
I spent the whole of the Sydney march discussing all of the things that were wrong with the stated aims of the union campaign, the absence in the rhetoric of non-union aligned citizens who otherwise objected to the laws, the poor reasoning of some of the arguments made in the various pamphlets and speeches, the ridiculous blokiness of so many of the marchers (Maaaaaaate!) BUT I totally object to the legislation, so I marched, and I’m glad I was a part of it all.
I was at Belmore Park for the first 1.5 hours of the rally, before I had to toddle up the road and finish off some urgent work. I was glad to be there, but it was pretty clear that the pitch was to union members. So much testosterone, despite the Corrinne Grant/Sharon Burrow factor. Pitch to the working class man and the hero firemen. Thought: it’s an expedient to harness the old school manufacturing workers, strategically get the right number of the right people to re-wire their vote and turf out the Government, but what happens then? Where is the future of the union movement, if they continue to push the white male worker-figure as their embodiment in a casualised service economy, when disadvantaged workers, prime for unionisation, are increasingly migrant and female? anyway, I cheered and clapped and felt caught up in the crowd and glad that people are listening and making themselves felt, but still a part of me was a little bit perturbed.
sorry you missed the firemen though Lynn.
The genius that came up with “filling the G” should be immediately shunted past preselection into a safe Labor seat. And probably will be.
Whoever thought that an old Oz rocker singing a derivative Springtsteenesque evocation of an idealised, American “working class man” might “work” on a half-filled G was obviously put up to it by Simon Crean.
Watching Morris Iemma dipping his deeply tentative toe into the murky waters of class warfare was pure gold but Kim and Stephen Smith caught on video “rocking” to Jimmy in Melbourne was even better.
I hope Stephen’s hairspray was equal to the occasion.
” I hope Stephen’s hairspray was equal to the occasion.”
It was. Not a hair out of place and let me tell you, Kim, for a 51 year old from Perth, Stephen shook major booty.
Kim, on the other hand, did a kind of jolly Falstaffian roll that was reminiscent of a Thuringian barmaid at Oktoberfest in Munich.
That sounds rather fetching, Geoff.
News.com.au has been running a poll all day on ‘Have the new IR laws affected you?’ paraphrased. It is currently 66% no and 33% yes.
But we all know who Rupert’s Rubbery Figures are being controlled by
Oh and isn’t the ABC report all so cynical as well. Don’t want offend Janet and the other sensitive souls on the board
In fact the entire media have played down the rallies as well.
Unfortunately the timing is bad with end of semester exams preventing many Uni students etc from attending the Rallies, plus I think the location such as the MCG and Members Equity Stadium in Perth aren’t the most public transport friendly locations either.
I had a few beers at the Fortune of War this evening (otherwise known as the Rumsfeld Arms - gedditt?) and still plenty of protesters wandering around The Rocks at 6:00pm. And if you watched the news in Sydney this evening you may have seen a cute, young girl leading the demonstrations. That was my mate’s daughter. She stole Iemma’s position as a banner bearer and then a megaphone to lead the chant. Not that such behaviour was surprising.
Now if Rudd had been leader the place woulda been jam-packed.
Andrew E, the alternative universe you live in must be a pretty freaky place….
Mr Gall,
You are a pantywaist.
So the males who marched were ‘ridiculously blokey’ eh? All workshorts, loud voices and raucous chants eh. Well dear, not every person of the male gender works in a nice office, has been to University, and strikes appropriately ironic poses, when they know they have been ‘boned’ (I think that is the word de jour from non ridiculouly blokey blokes).
I think you need to grow up, adopt a slightly less condescending tone towards others, and learn a little more about all the different varieties of blokes there are out there. Instead of dreaming it, be it. Stop reading about difference,and do it dear.
Loving your work, Ms Prism.
Dinner?
Drinks are on me.