The Nov 30 rallies and marches across Australia in support of fairer workplace laws were an overwhelming success. It's estimated that more than 300,000 workers and their families - including many thousands of CPSU members - exercised their right to protest against the Federal Government's unfair workplace laws. Tell us your stories from the day or post your message of support below.
To read more click here. Check out photos here. Check out videos here. Send your photos / video links to pix@cpsu.org.au
Thursday, 30 November 2006
Hundreds and thousands rally on the National Day of Action
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
28 comments:
I went to the Sydney rally and was inspired by the number of people who turned up. I have not yet been directly affected by WorkChoices in my workplace but when I saw the stories of my fellow Australians on the MCG broadcast it brought a tear to my eye.
The CPSU's Tanya was at the MCG and talked to workers and CPSU members.
The words they use might be different, but CPSU members went to today's rally at the MCG for the same reason - to fight for our rights at work.
Tax Section Governing Councillor Mark Burrell summed his reason up in one word, "Mikayla", his six year old daughter. "She should have the same rights I had."
Raymond Rich who works at the Refugee Review Tribunal said he was there because we need to stand up and be counted.
Section Secretary Kerry Edsall said: "I'm here to fill the 'G' as part of the fight to change the government and change the laws."
Retired CPSU staff member Alick Thomson joined his old comrades "to see that workers get a fair go."
Stacey Harris from the Department of Immigration - where members are currently campaigning for a new agreement - showed the power of the union movement's simple message when she said was there to "fight for rights at work".
National Secretary Stephen Jones said he was proud to see both groups of the CPSU joining forces and bringing their families along.
National President Mark Gepp congratulated CPSU members for strongly showing commitment to getting rid of Howard's unfair industrial laws.
I think if churches are really fair dinkum about equality in workplaces and fairness for all as Christianity- then the christian churches of all denominations should stand up and ask their congregations to vote at the next election to create all fairness for all employees and employers.
One point everyone is missing in these workplace reforms is the dictatorship of these high flying employers and ceos of banks and main institutions and their greed for more power and money whilst the employee gets kicked and tossed around and thus creating stress suicides and many many family problems- the social ramifications is now showing with the increase in crime on our streets.
What about the salary of Sol Trujillo and the ceo of all the major banks - are they subject to these laws or exempt to keep little johnnie howard and co happy for political purposes.
Whatever happened to bonuses for hardworking employees - gone, but for the ceos they increase each year.!!!!!
Edwin
Comrades,
Congratulations on a good turn out at the Your Rights at Work Rally today. In solidarity for a change in the IR Laws
Trevor Scroop
I was at the broadcast at Penrith RSL. We heard more stories from people who have been adversely affected by Howard's draconian anti worker Workchoices legislation both speaking at the RSL and through the telecast. It's disgusting how ordinary Australian workers and their families are being victimised by Howard's thoughtless Workchoices legislation. I can't wait till next years Federal election when we can vote the Liberals out and make them truly accountable for this stain on Australia's Industrial Relations.
SIGN the SIGN!
At Centrelink in Forrest Place in WA, there was no way all the people who supported YRAW could get time off to attend the rally, simply because flex or other leave always was, and could only be granted subject to enough people being there to staff the office.
So we made up a sign, saying "CPSU Supports Your Rights At Work" and more than 100 workmates signed it.
We and a number of our colleagues will be taking the sign with us to the rally tomorrow, and the rest of our workmates will be with us in spirit.
A photo of all of us, and the sign will follow tomorrow!
In Unity,
Glenys
I was there in spirit but like most of us I was at work on a week day.Why on earth was the rally on a working day - why not on a weekend?At least triple the numbers would have been able to come.Cheers.
Good one!!!!
My colleagues and I would love to have been there or anywhere showing solidarity but not so easy to get planned leave in my work evironment!!!!
Costello said that the rally turnout didn't beat a footy match and that only 1 in 10 union members turned up but no-one seems to take it into consideration that not everyone is near a big city where rallies were held. We were there in spirit and hope that Howard is voted out next election - He has done nothing good for this country - bloody GST, increasing interest rates, putting the fear of terrorism in this country, sending our troops to Iraq and spending too much of our money on a useless War, being Bushs' best mate, bringing in overseas workers to steal our jobs and that of our kids, and to top it off, the bastard sticks a knife in the average working Aussie's back then kicks us while we are down!
I was at the rally in Sydney, and had a great time (although my footsies got a bit sore). I consider it my democratic duty to go to demonstrations for issues I feel strongly about, that's why they call it a demonstration after all! My agency has experienced of the downward pressure of the new IR legislation this year, although with CPSU's help we overcame it. This makes me even more sure of the necessity of winning this campaign. + it's definitely worth voting for, although I don't know if you could call Beazley "passionate". I would have also appreciated it if he focused less on unions and more on community dissent. Of course unions are important, but there are also plenty of people who aren't represented by unions who are outraged by these laws and taking an active part in the campaign. Beazley doesn't seem to have a grass roots bone in his body, but maybe that's just me.
And Russel, don't worry, there's a community day of action on a Sunday on April 22nd next year.
Hi All.
A group of us from the ACC attended the MCG and thought the rally was a great success. CPSU were well organised as usual.
A few of our people couldn't make it due to operational matters and several people didn't make it to the 'G" because of the train problems - they did make it to Fed Square later.
All in all a great event and thanks to all those who organised and participated. It was great to see "Bracksey" and "Kim" there supporting the workers and their families in these difficult times. Once again Greg and Sharon spoke well and summed up all our thoughts.
I love the new slogan - "Your Rights at Work, Worth Voting for" - so true, and so important.
The wokers united will never be defeated!!!
I noticed in the write-up that attendance at the Townsville rally was not mentioned. Although that is probably understandable as the CPSU was conspicuous in its absence. I attended the rally and was made an honorary ETU member as the CPSU was nowhere to be found. Back at work (ATO) I discovered that about six other people attended. Not one of the CPSU's best turnouts. In fact, I'm very disgusted with the CPSU over this. Townsville has a large public sector and should have been there to show their support.
Was Townsville forgotten when the CPSU was organising/inviting members to attend or are the senior Townsville delegates just apathetic/in favour of the IR laws as they stand?
I think that Howard and his mob should be more worried about the numbers who couldn't attend. I put in for leave to attend and it was neither approved or refused. It meant that if I attended I'd be subject to disciplinary action and by not attending it made the numbers smaller. Instead I made sure there were posters up at work and I wear the Your Rights at Work badge in the office. What is forgotten is that I won't get made. I'll just get even when it's time to vote.
Workers rights. Worth voting for !!!!!!
You should all be congratulated on a job well done.
Congratulations on a great rally! I wish I could have been there, but unfortunately some things at work had to take precedence. Keep up the good work. Apart from looking after my interests, you are also looking after my children's - very few school leavers have the strength and knowledge to bargain with an employer for their own workplace agreement, or even realise when their rights are being "neglected".
Again, well done :)
I had to work yesterday (in johnn'ys new Reich)for a wage he could not possibly live on. No chauffer,no limo, a mortgage and dealing with the everyday cost of living.To have all this paid for by the Australian people/families you are now sending into a financial hell must be a real good feeling john.With unity all dictators fall,lets vote with the goal to remove the cause of Australia's woes and restore workers and families rights.We fought to get these rights and we should fight to keep them for our families. Sean. Perth WA.
I helped fill the G in Melbourne. It was wonderful to be part of such a great turn out. Fantastic job done by the organisers and all who helped on the day. Gave the impression of a very well organised outfit! Great variety in using music, very short speeches, great MCs, well known personalities and video clips to get the important (and very scary) messages across about the new IR regime and OH&S changes across. WELL DONE. I went back to work and told everybody how good it was!
Congratulations to all involved, Wish I could have been there. I like the idea of doing this on a weekend when more people can get time off work.
Don't give up!
Hi
If only the unions and workers of this country put as much effort into doing their job instead of protesting, Australia would be an even better place to live and work.
This kind of action is selfish as it ONLY emphasizes the me, me, me approach.
Far too many of the "rights" gained at work have been falsely gained by forceful union action in the past and have not necessarily been duly deserved by workers.
Far TOO MANY of union members ride on the "coat-tails" of other members and do NOT contribute sufficiently to a productive workforce. Far TOO MANY receive unjustfied wage rises and do NOT provide a responsible return for the monetary/workplace benefits gained by union pressures.
It is interesting to see the intense union pressures being brought to bear on the employers of the nation, when the genuinely deserved rights of employers are made available to them.
It is interesting to see that unions object to all the things with which they are dissatisfied but NEVER consider the difficulties endured by the employer.
Sure there are SOME instances where the system is openly abused by employers and this I abhore.
How about striking for something realistic like Sole Trujillo's (Telstra) obscene paypacket.
Employers *DO* deserve the right to sack non-productive or otherwise unsuitible workers. THe employer has put THEIR money on the line and should not have to kow tow to the employee's demands. The opportunity to work for an employer is a privilege NOT A RIGHT of the employee. The employee is retained within the workforce by performing to his best ability and SHOULD NOT be due to FORCEFUL coersion by other workers.
Australia is a much better nation despite the pressures brought to bear by unions. Australian workers are by far better off than they ever have been in the past. Let's keep it that way by working the way we should and not make life difficult for others.
Hello,
Firstly, I attended the rally in Tweed Heads at Seagulls Club. My husband, who is a shift worker, dragged himself from bed to attend also because he did not want to miss out on such an important event!
I wanted to share the fact that I am from California and have never belonged to a union....namely because unions are not available to represent all sectors of employment.
When I came to Australia, I was absolutely enthralled with the fact that not only did we get 4 weeks annual leave here (minimum), we also got leave loading......not to mention all the other perks that working Australians enjoy!
In America, 4 weeks holiday is generally unheard of......unless you've been employed for 10 years or more!
In America, we can work for "peanuts" because there has been no union negotiation for better pay and working conditions. We are competing not only with people coming across the border from Mexico but also from other countries to make a better life for themselves. These people are willing to work for less wages and poorer conditions because they have to. Instead of healthy competition it just creates slave labour.
If the Australian working population re-endorses John Howard and his IR package, then we will be heading in the same direction as America....there is no doubt of that. The current benefits we have will be just a distant memory. As a nation, should we not be moving forward?
As a new Australian, I would really hate to see the hard work and sacrifices made by your forefathers be lost to memory because we were too apathetic to continue the fight for our working rights and, even more importantly, to leave a pathetic working legacy for our children and grandchildren!
I, for one, DO NOT want to go back to the poor working conditions I had in America.
If ever there was a time to band together........ IT IS NOW!!!!!
Yours in Unity,
Ruby
I'm one of the many workers who wanted to attend but couldn't because of an
unavoidable work commitment (I know that' s a contradiction really! but it
was unavoidable) and I feel that the tide might be turning just a bit -
there has been a long time where the economic rationalist forces have been
steadily on the increase, at the expense of real advances in our society in
terms of quality of life for everyone - I don't have high hopes about it
all, but perhaps we are all waking up just a bit....
“This was no Anzac day clash, no Essendon Collingwood game. This was
more like VFA attendances,” smirked Peter Costello in Parliament. He
was, of course, referring to the 55,000 or so people at the MCG
protesting his government's extreme anti-union laws. In one sentence,
Costello revealed two things. He knows nothing about politics in the
industrial arena. He also knows nothing about Australian Rules Football.
I was there at the MCG for that historic day. Sure, the ground wasn't
full, and we wanted to fill it. But I always want demonstrations to be
bigger. When 250,000 turned out for the rally against the war in Iraq in
February 2003, I was kind of hoping for half a million! I think every
activist feels the same way about every protest.
I was talking to one of my union's organisors the day before – we
happened to meet on the train. We both had big expectations for the
rally. He told me a very funny story. He had been handing out
how-to-vote cards for the ALP in his electorate the Saturday before in
the Victorian State Elections. The two young women handing out for the
Liberal party near him were two family members of the Liberal party
candidate, and were obviously doing this as a matter of family
obligation rather than political commitment. This is how desparate the
Liberal party is, in general, for activists. The Greens activists were
spruiking “think long term, vote Green”. Wanting to be funny and
blissfully unaware of the irony, the two young women were countering
this with “no, think short term, vote Liberal”. So if Costello and the
ACCI are so sure that there's majority support for anti-union laws,
let's see how they go filling the MCG. I think the Liberal Party would
be hard pressed to mobilise 550 people, let alone 55,000. The farmer's
protest only managed around 1,700 the week before the election.
But the anger was palpable. This is the hard core of the union movement,
my friends. Fifty-five thousand people at the MCG is a pretty big “hard
core”. There was no strike called for this rally. Everyone who was there
had to indivudually make sure that they had the time off from their boss.
The messages from workers directly affected by these anti-worker laws
were powerful as they carried not just the ring of truth, but the actual
reality facing thousands of workers here across Australia. The mood of
the crowd was very angry and very serious – the stakes are very high. We
did not hesitate to file out of the MCG and make our way to Federation
Square on foot, young children included.
Peter Costello seems to think that this protest was the union leadership
staking everything on one throw. He also seems to think that the Labor
leadership and the union movement are the same thing. But we took the
headline story on ABC, Seven and Nine news. The coverage on Seven and
Nine was completely unsympathetic and towed the Liberals' and the ACCI's
line – but they still gave us the first story that dominated the news!
The simple fact of the matter is, when the union movement in this
country moves, we can't be ignored.
I can't help but wonder, however, that the message that was dramatically
changed from “Your Rights At Work – Worth Fighting For” to “Your Rights
At Work – Worth Voting For” helped Costello crow over the MCG being half
empty (and yes, it wasn't half empty, it was half full!). From
Costello's point of view, this was just an electoral stunt by the ALP
and their active membership and won't translate into an election win for
the ALP because there's lots of time between now and the next election.
For me, however, the solution IS the movement – the movement isn't some
way through to the solution. I disagree that the only way to change
these laws is to vote in a government that can get rid of them for us.
The movement itself can force a situation where laws become a dead
letter because everyone's ignoring them. For the union movement this
happened last in 1968 when Clarrie O'Shea – a tramway union official –
was jailed for defying anti-union laws. There was a general walkoff and
his fine was “anonymously paid”. The anti-union penal powers remained on
the books and were never used again.
Half a million workers across the country protested the laws. There are
going to be further protests. There are going to be further information
and advertising campaigns. In the end, Peter Costello's words in
Parliament were just the usual hum-drum anti-union rhetoric. So he is
displaying his ignorance of the real nature of the union movement with
his comments.
And football? Well, the VFA hasn't existed for many years. The VFA was
abolished and a new Victorial Football League was founded with VFA
teams, but also composed of the reserves teams from Victorian AFL clubs.
Costello is out of date on football. And he's out of touch on industrial
relations.
Jonathan Sherlock
For a forecast of 36o it was a chilly morning in Melbourne. A few hundred eager workers and union staff had gathered around the ground at dawn unfurling their banners and flags and setting up stalls. The coffee vans were a welcome sight.
Inside the MCG some famous faces were wiping the sleep from their eyes as various event organisers rushed around them making last minute checks after the all-night preparations.
Long banners were hung from the upper levels displaying the multitude of unions and community groups who would be attending. An enormous Eureka flag hung over the long room. The hallowed ground was covered with huge banners saying "your rights at work worth fighting for".The excitement was building.
At seven the gates opened to invite a steady stream of workers, some with children, and other concerned public. Casey Donovan and Jimmy Barnes provided appreciative early birds with a sneak preview of what they would hear.
CPSU members past and present and their families filled row after row in the southern stand, flags waving in a sea of red and white. A couple of Mexican waves kept them in good spirits.
Then at eight the building crowd was welcomed to the MCG by the traditional owners, and the entertainment began.
There was music, film of workers from another era, and some warm-up from Brian Nankervis of RockWiz fame had everyone chuckling.
At nine the rally started and was broadcast around Australia to over 300 locations. Casey sang the National Anthem. Corrine Grant kept the likes of Greg Combet, Sharran Burrow, Kim Beazley and others under control, while Dave Hughes was his usual self. Even Her Majesty the Queen made a guest appearance!
But there was a serious side, as James Hardie asbestos sufferer Bernie Banton told the rally that under current laws, "we would not have been able to stand here today with victory at our grasp, because these new IR laws forbid the unions to support us".
Other workers told their stories of unjust treatment under the government's unfair IR laws.
To thunderous applause, Kim Beazly restated his intention to rip up the unfair laws if he won the next election.
After closing comments, Jimmy Barnes fired up the crowd with his classic Working Class Man and Stand Up before dedicating his final song to John Howard - You Got Nothin' I Want.
The crowd made its way outside and marched to Federation Square, including the large CPSU contingent.
The reason why a lot of people didn't attend the protest Day is that they were afraid of losing their jobs under the new laws.
Where my wife works (Public Service) she said their leave had to be pre aproved before they were allowed to attend the rally. So, of course few from her work got to go.
But we all can vote at the next election, in private. Let's hope the IR laws are over turned, as promised.
Enjoy many things, like freedom
Trev
As I was walking away from Parliament House in Canberra after the rally I was (fortunately) stopped by a brave older woman who asked me of the success of the rally. I said it was a success and she said that her workplace had warned staff not to attend. I said who and she hesitated and then timidly waved her hand quickly at the building behind her - Information, Communication, Techmology and the Arts (?) Its the building opposite DFAT in Sydney Av.
So how much scare tactics and threats were used against employees so as not to attend the rallies or the marches?
Maybe bad timing of the MCG event
I lived in Melbourne and know (now) that the timing of the MCG event was bad as rally supporters trying to get to the MCG by train had to struggle with workers during the morning peak. Next time do the big event outside peak train times. I am aware that some train lines were down but the observation stands.......
David
Hello so sorry I could not make it but i told loads of people who could make it to go to the Rally in Perth , my work imposed a no flex leave policy for all of November because we were too busy , sorry but I think it was a tactic to stop many at my office who wanted to attend , Just another example of what we're up against i guess. Which is exactly why these rallies are so very important!!!
I reckon you would have had another 22 and their families had the no flex rule not been imposed!! GRRRRR
I, together with 4 other fellow staff attended the local rally at Bathurst Panthers Club last Thursday. I had been to previous rallies, but my colleagues had not. All 4 fellow staff members thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are keen to attend more. They also feel motivated enough to try and get other staff to join the union.
One of them even stated that they had a lump in their throat and felt quite emotional during the march.
I was there,really enjoyed it. Will be there again on 22 April 2007!
When are workers going to break the IR Laws because that is how Clarrie O'shea and his union beat the laws despite the ACTU not intially supporting them
Its all about building power in the workplace not in the court, the parliament or the union office
Post a Comment