Rebuilding an independent union movement
In recent months, construction workers around Australia have waged a militant campaign against the federal government's proposal to tax travel allowances. The campaign in Victoria has been especially militant, including two rallies of 7000-8000 construction workers, a 24-hour strike, an occupation of the tax office and on-the-job action. When the Trades Hall Council organises stop-works and rallies, it is usually the construction workers who are the backbone of the action. MARTIN KINGHAM, Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (construction branch), spoke to Â鶹ӳ» Weekly's SUE BOLTON.
Kingham commented on the ACTU strategy for stopping the industrial relations legislation: "You can't fault them for putting a lot of emphasis on the Senate, because that's the way to blunt the worst aspects of Howard's legislation. But if that's the only strategy, then it's not going to pull us out of the dip. The likely outcome is that the Democrats and Greens will only be able to make the legislation slightly more palatable.
"If an amended version is accepted, Howard and Reith will be back in two years to implement the rest of the package. The unions and the ACTU need to concentrate our efforts on building the traditional organisation amongst the rank and file.
"The only way you can build your defences against a Labor or Liberal government is with an emphasis on rebuilding the union movement at the base. There aren't any gimmicks. It's just back to the basic issues that concern our members."
Kingham said that to continue to build the campaign against Howard following the national day of action on August 19, the CFMEU would try to "broaden the debate amongst members about the specific attacks on the CFMEU and link them to the general attack on the union movement".
"We've always found that we've got the most activism from our membership if we build people up step by step and link the issues", he said.
On the need to move beyond job specific issues, Kingham said: "Unions have got to be prepared to take that little bit of risk. That's better than the Accord-style union politics of deals that lock out the strong and militant Â鶹ӳ» of the work force and do nothing for the ones that aren't able to defend themselves."
Kingham commented that in an attempt to avoid the dangers of the ALP returning to government only to destroy unions again after a period of rebuilding the movement, the national leadership of the CFMEU had adopted a position of no more accords. "There should be a policy now of no accords with future governments, be they Labor or Liberal. We made that decision deliberately to get the ACTU debate going.
"You've got to maintain the independence of the union movement. We were the first union to come out with that, at our national conference, and since then many others have been saying similar things. I hope they're saying the same thing the next time there's a change of government.
"Between now and then, unions have to prove the benefits of independent unionism so the membership, which is getting results from a union, will question the need to change to an accord. The Accord didn't deliver, so we've got to make sure that the lessons aren't forgotten."
Kingham said that there are "a wide range of views in the CFMEU about the relationship with the ALP. The only common position is that the ALP is the major alternative party and is supposed to represent the working class.
"Our role is to try to make them represent those interests. It feels like an impossible task most of the time, but at the end of the day that's where the union positions itself.
"It was extremely difficult to whip up a vote for the ALP from a lot of our members. Three months before the election, we had to threaten a national strike because the Labor government introduced the tax on travel allowance identical to the one that we're fighting now. We went on a huge petition-collecting campaign and put everyone on notice of a national strike. Finally, after a fair bit of lobbying, the ALP backed down."
On the need for a parliamentary alternative to the two major parties, Kingham said: "The question of a third party has not really had a lot of debate in our union. My personal view — I'm in the ALP — is that we plug on, continue to hold the ALP accountable and improve it. I know that's been tried for generations and it hasn't really changed a great deal, but our members didn't vote for the Democrats or for the Greens. They voted for the Liberals. That's my concern.
"One of the other things which has been discussed is refocussing our union back to community activism, which we did well in the '60s. We need to rebuild and strengthen those connections with other forms of community resistance, particularly with the Aboriginal community.
"It's part of that broadening of your base and broadening of your activists, taking as many people with you as you can. I think there's a lot of long slow building that we've got to do."