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24 November, 2002Government is working with major car and car components companies to destroy the bargaining strength of workers in the Australian car industry.
AUSTRALIA: According to the national daily newspaper, The Australian, the Australian car industry is setting up a A$1 million (US$559,875) fighting fund to take on unions through the courts as it tries to convince the federal government to grant a A$2 billion (US$ 1.12 billion) handout to the sector. The fund has been jointly developed by the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries and the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers, which represent Ford, Holden, Toyota, Mitsubishi and hundreds of smaller components firms. Use of the fund would be triggered when a union engages in what the car industry calls illegal strike action.
The IMF-affiliated Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union says the news article reinforces how seriously the government is working with major car and car components companies to destroy the bargaining strength of workers in the Australian car industry. It appears it has been run to prepare the public for the release of a government report that will seek to blame unions for problems facing the industry.
Since 1999, and in the face of significant anti-union penal provisions, the AMWU has been building a strategy to line up separate enterprise agreements with similar or the same expiry dates. The objective of this strategy is to prevent employers from forcing downwards bargaining by isolating workers from each other in the bargaining process.