Collective bargaining hypocrisy (letter)

by Dr Brian E. Lloyd, AM

News Weekly, August 4, 2007
Sir,

The continuing obeisance of the Federal Government to the great god economics, to the exclusion of any consideration of social justice, pervades the politics of double standards of a government that will stoop to anything to get itself re-elected.

Every day it becomes clearer that the objective of "Work Choices" is to destroy the right of workers to collective representation — and anything goes in promoting that objective. By contrast, the collective representation of employers is supposedly a God-given right.

Hypocrisy has become the guiding principle for the Federal Government, as is starkly demonstrated when it touts the idea of collective bargaining made easy for small businesses, by encouraging them to join together to negotiate collectively with larger suppliers.

Collectivism for small business thus is encouraged, but employees suffer union-bashing and the helpless individualism of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). The anti-union drive of Work Choices is counter to the principles of freedom of association and effective collective-bargaining that are supposedly guaranteed in Australia under terms of the International Labour Organisation.

The government spokesman, Joseph Benedict Hockey, Minister for Workplace Relations, continues to champion his brand of industrial relations, but without any regard for the innate rights of workers for industrial justice.

When a union encourages migrants to become citizens so they can vote, Hockey says it is a dastardly dirty-tricks plot. This is despite his government's encouragement for people to get themselves onto the electoral roll.

It seems that electoral justice should be confined to right-minded people who will vote for his mob. Does he believe that the workers should not have a vote?

Hockey and his mates even expect the employer collectives to run advertising campaigns to support them in their drive to destroy the collective representation of workers.

Dr Brian E. Lloyd, AM,
Brighton East, Vic.