cepu mag mar07 d5 · pdf fileautumn 2007 communicator the magazine of the cepu nsw...

Autumn 2007

CommunicatorThe magazine of the CEPU NSW Communications Division

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2 | The Communicator Autumn 2007

ON MESSAGE

Branch PresidentWayne Hewitt

Branch Vice-PresidentsRodney Baxter, Cynthia Talato

Branch SecretaryJim Metcher - 0418 656 [email protected]

Branch Assistant SecretarySteve Dodd - 0419 220 [email protected]

Branch Organisers (Postal)Peter Chaloner - 0418 655 [email protected]

Gil Enzon - 0418 658 [email protected]

Michael Etue - 0418 613 [email protected]

Tan Kien Ly - 0419 220 [email protected]

Branch Organisers (Telecommunications) Lyle Brittain - 0419 613 [email protected]

Shane Murphy - 0407 656 [email protected]

Branch Industrial OfficersSusan Sheather - 0409 651 [email protected]

Tri Nguyen - 0406 426 [email protected]

Aaron Stockdale - 0410 317 [email protected]

Nicky Lee - 0404 858 [email protected]

Nathan Metcher - 0404 854 [email protected]

Your Rights At Work Co-ordinatorPaul Sekhon - 0404 854 [email protected]

Branch Committee of Management (Postal) Stephen Brewer, Jason Tram, Gordon Saticieli, John Masters, Ramon Gammad, Geoffrey Johnson, Peter Psomas, Robyn Steele, Maxwell Wiley

Branch Committee of Management (Telecommunications) Zoran Ancevski, John Bloomfield, Peter O’Connell, Les Riddle, Kingsley Searle, Sepwita Fepuleai, Joe Di Mento, Massimo Catania

The Communicator is the journal of the CEPU NSW Communications Division.

Published quarterly Send your story ideas and letters to [email protected]

Editor: Jim Metcher. CEPU

Design: Hyve Creative, [email protected]

PRINT POST - PP 242296/00037

Address: Level 3, 81 George St Parramatta NSW 2150

Phone: (02) 9893 7822

Fax: (02) 9893 7396

Web: www.cepu.org

Email: [email protected]

CommunicatorThe magazine of the CEPU NSW Communications Division

TheNSW working families have a clear choice 2007 is shaping up

as a crucial year for CEPU Communications working families.

As the fi rst anniversary of John Howard’s anti-worker WorkChoices comes around, the attacks on hard-won conditions are coming fast.

Postal workers at Wetherill Park have been stripped of their RDOs and shift penalty rates. Telstra’s fi eld workforce are being starved of overtime to force them off their collectively negotiated agreement and on to individual contracts. Postal workers at Rockdale were docked four hours’ pay when a union-organised safety meeting ran just minutes over time.

In addition, many of our members are reporting outright bullying and bad behaviour from their bosses. Bullying mightn’t be enshrined under WorkChoices, but the laws swing so far in bosses’ favour they feel confi dent to behave as they like.

Your Union is working hard with members to protect and restore rights at work.

We’re keeping up the pressure on Telstra and Australia Post management by using a range of tactics: speaking openly in the wider community to expose unfair boss behaviour; conducting member petitions against bad treatment by management; using all legal avenues available; and utilising the leverage we have in negotiating new collective EBAs.

But our number one priority is to defeat WorkChoices.

In 2007 we have an opportunity to exercise choice and defeat WorkChoices once and for all, commencing with the NSW election on March 24.

Opposition Leader Peter Debnam has revealed he is a strong supporter of the WorkChoices IR laws and has promised to hand over to John Howard the measures Morris Iemma has put into place to protect NSW workers.

Mr Debnam has promised to cut 20,000 thousand public service jobs – one in every seven nurses, police and teachers – and 200 mental health nursing jobs, affecting the services CEPU Communications working families rely on.

A NSW Labor Government, under Premier Morris Iemma, has committed funding

to increase essential services in health, education and transport.

Later in the year, voters have the chance to give John Howard their verdict on WorkChoices.

As Deputy Labor Leader Julia Gillard told CEPU offi cers recently, another victory for John Howard would see WorkChoices further entrenched in Australian workplaces, boosting bosses’ confi dence to remove hard-won rights and conditions.

Federal Labor has promised to scrap AWAs, turning off the lifeline to the heart of WorkChoices. This can only happen if Kevin Rudd is elected Prime Minister.

Rudd and Gillard have committed to consulting with your union and listening to the views of union members across the country in shaping Labor’s industrial relations policy.

In this most important 2007 election year, it’s crucial for your union representatives to learn of every attack on workplace conditions, every moment of bad boss behaviour and every case of unfair treatment against you or your workmates.

If you have a bad experience to report, then I urge you to tell us your story.

2007 can be a history-making year. NSW working families have the opportunity on March 24 to send a clear message to Canberra on the unfair WorkChoices IR laws. It is as simple as voting for a NSW State Labor Government under Premier Morris Iemma, a strong Labor leader who knows and values the importance of working families’ rights at work.

Jim MetcherBranch Secretary

FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND ACTIVITIES AT THE CEPU VISIT WWW.CEPU.ORG

NEWS

The Communicator | 3

“Things are getting very bad. Managers have started moving us around with no warning, to unfamiliar areas where we don’t know the work systems or machines. If you don’t meet the sorting rate, they cut your overtime offers.”

A fi rst line supervisor was recently counselled – leaving a black mark against her employment record – for approving two workers speaking to their union, said Metcher.

“On this occasion when I went to Strathfi eld, two women workers were threatened with counselling because they spoke to me for three minutes in the reception area. The next night, their supervisor was counseled because she’d approved their three minute absence,” said Metcher.

The CEPU has issued survey forms to all 1400 employees at SWLF, asking them to report on the enforcement of Australia Post’s Code of Ethics and name bullying managers. Many hundreds of the surveys had been completed and returned to the union when the Communicator went to press.

The CEPU will not recommend an enterprise agreement to members

until Australia Post cracks down on management bullying.

Australia Post employees have reported harassment and unfair use of disciplinary procedures on a wide scale, said CEPU State Secretary Jim Metcher.

“There’s a culture of fear in large workplaces and it’s having huge psychological effects. As (National Secretary) Ed Husic and I go around to workplaces to talk about EBA7, one of the biggest issues we hear about is workers not being treated with dignity or respect,” he said.

At the largest Post workplace in Australia, the Sydney West Letter Facility (SWLF) at Strathfi eld, employees have faced disciplinary action for the most minor transgressions, like failing to swipe on or off or returning minutes late from tea breaks.

“There has been a dramatic change. There is too much monitoring, the MMF sorting rate is too high,” said SWLF mail offi cer Maria Cheetham, an Australia Post employee of 12 years.

We want dignity and respect at work

Commuter blues AUSTRALIA Post and Telstra employees will lose access to workers comp if they are injured on the way to or from work.

Under new laws, people are not covered until they start working.

For example, a Telstra communications technician who leaves home on the Central Coast at 6.30am, logs on at the Hornsby exchange at 7.30am and receives his fi rst job at North Sydney won’t be covered until he starts work at 8am.

He used to be covered when he left his front gate.

“It’s a big issue for our members,” said CEPU organiser Susan Sheather.

“Workers are no longer covered during travel time or during unpaid meal breaks.

“People are at risk every time they leave their house. Postal workers who take their motorbikes home won’t be covered.

“These laws were pushed through with no consultation, it’s another sign of the Howard government’s contempt for working families.”

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE CEPU’S E-BULLETIN - EMAIL [email protected]

Similarly harsh behaviour is being experienced at other Australia Post workplaces. At the Rockdale Delivery Centre, employees were docked four hours pay when a union-organised safety meeting about a new mail bundling system ran 10 minutes over time.

“John Howard’s WorkChoices laws have given bosses the confi dence to think they can do what they want. But we won’t compromise on fairness or safety in the workplace,” said Metcher.

“Our EBA7 negotiations are progressing, albeit slowly. Key claims on conditions like shift penalties, franchising and a fair pay rise to meet infl ation still remain outstanding issues.

“But fairness and respect for our members is the bottom line. In my meetings with Australia Post EBA negotiators, I’ve told them to clean up the behaviour and reinstate proper people management skills in the workplace or face a potential spoiler of any new EBA7 being accepted by employees across the country.”

For the latest progress on EBA7 talks, see www.eba7.org

“Our rights are worth fi ghting for”.. SWLF mail offi cer Maria Cheetham

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NEWS

The Communicator | 5 FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND ACTIVITIES ON THE POSTAL EBA VISIT WWW.EBA7.ORG

Shifting the goalposts

Western Sydney warehouse workers are fi ghting for their RDOs and shift

allowances after Australia Post slashed their conditions.

The workers are employed under EBA6 terms and conditions, but have been told they will no longer receive monthly rostered days off or access to a shift starting at 5am – cutting their pay by 15%.

Employees of Post Logistics’ Retail Supply Chain (ie Employees of Post Logistics’ Retail Supply Chain), who pack and supply orders of post offi ce products, recently moved from Smithfi eld to Post Logistic’s Wetherill Park complex.

Before the move, Australia Post foreshadowed converting the workers to a different enterprise agreement covering Post Logistics third party work, which would have left these long-term EBA6 employees worse off.

During hearings before the Industrial Relations Commission, Australia Post conceded to a CEPU challenge that employees should remain on EBA6 because they don’t perform work for third party Post

Logistics business clients. But, shortly after returning from a New

Year break, the workers were handed a letter telling them their RDOs and early morning shifts would be cut.

“These are key conditions of the enterprise agreement and management has withdrawn them with no consultation whatsoever,” said CEPU organiser TK Ly.

“The withdrawal of 15% shift penalties will impose fi nancial hardship on our families. There is always work available and we believe there is no justifi cation for ending the early morning shift.

”Rostered days off are important for balancing work and family commitments.”

The workers celebrated the success of the CEPU campaign to keep them under EBA6, but were furious about Australia post’s backhanded effort to slash their conditions, said union rep Blake Colbran.

“Some families will be out of pocket over $200 a fortnight,” said Colbran.

The CEPU has initiated formal dispute action against Australia Post and will fi ght and campaign with the workers for the conditions to be retained, said TK Ly.

Fay Jerrard

“Everyone was shocked to

get the letter. I’ll lose over $200 a fortnight because they’ve cut the 5am shift. I have to move, because they put my rent up but my wages have gone down.”

Blake Colbran “I use my RDO to get jobs done around the house, so that on the weekend I can spend time with my six-year-old daughter. The RDOs don’t cost Post anything, we work additional time during the month, so I don’t see why they can’t manage RDOs now.”

Kie Chung “The 5am shift was a good shift, I did it for fi ve or six years. Of course you come to rely on the shift allowance. What if the managers lost 15% of their pay? They wouldn’t be too happy.”

Pania Stephens “I’ll be down over $200 a fortnight. I just got a mortgage last year, I’ll have to try and do more overtime on the weekends or get a second job.”

Derek Hay“I use my RDO to look after my mum and take her to the doctor. She has severe arthritis and can’t walk. I suppose I’ll have to take a sickie to take her to the doctor now.”

Shift over… Post Logistics workers told their

story to Labor leader Kevin Rudd


NEWS

average of 3.2 points, said Murphy. Managers are also pushing up point rates,

then using good results to lure workers on to AWAs. Technicians on individual contracts are paid extra for points earned above a minimum number of jobs.

Some technicians who don’t meet their individual targets are being pushed off service and on to construction maintenance teams.

“The manager’s AWA bonus is dependent on keeping up the points generated by the team, so people are getting pushed sideways,” said Murphy.

“People can’t give a gold-medal performance every month, it doesn’t mean they aren’t doing their jobs.”

Anyone who can’t meet their daily points target for a genuine reason should record the reason in their diary and present it to their team leader during their next one-on-one meeting.

Any member pressured over targets or threatened with performance management should contact the union, said Murphy.


AWA pressure points Telstra is applying the whip to its fi eld

workforce by continually raising personal performance targets.

Members report they are being given unrealistic monthly targets, then threatened with ‘performance management’ – a process which can lead to the sack – if they fail.

“For some time now members have been complaining about heavy-handed tactics by Telstra,” said CEPU Organiser Shane Murphy.

The national average for Telstra technicians – calculated monthly – is 3.2 points a day, said Murphy.

But technicians are being given individual targets of up to fi ve points a day, based on previous performance.

“Someone might have had a good month, with a run of easy jobs, but they can’t achieve the same results every month,” said Murphy.

Technicians have been threatened with ‘performance management’ if they fail to meet their individual target, but they can not be disciplined unless they fall under the daily

AWA rip-off costs thousandsTELSTRA is penalising EBA technicians tens of thousands of dollars a year in a bid to force them off their collectively-negotiated agreement and on to individual contracts.

The communications giant is using overtime dollars to drive take-up of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs).

Technicians are reporting that after-hours and weekend work they have carried out for years is being withheld and only offered to those who have signed AWAs.

“We have received a lot of calls from award members saying team leaders are only asking AWA staff to work back, even though the award staff have volunteered,” said CEPU Branch Assistant Secretary Steve Dodd.

The alleged discrimination is hurting technicians. With base salaries around $50,000, many budget on the extra $20,000 to $30,000 a year they have long received in overtime.

Dodd says he has spoken to affected technicians who fear losing their homes.

AWA technicians have been offered 12-hour shifts and receive ‘points’ – which convert to dollars – for jobs over the standard 30 per fortnight. EBA technicians aren’t offered the longer shifts.

CEPU members have been told outright they will continue to suffer discrimination if they don’t sign AWAs, said Dodd. “One of our members was told: ‘if you want to earn any extra money then you should think about signing an AWA as they are all on big money’.”

But as the Communicator went to press, Telstra changed the points system for AWA staff, cutting the amount paid for extra points earned. Some AWA employees are already $400 per fortnight worse off.

Victorian techs suffer the same problem, prompting the CEPU Victoria branch to initiate legal action against Telstra over the discriminatory allocation of overtime. The NSW branch has collected data and evidence to contribute to the challenge.

Telstra’s behaviour has bred hostile and unnecessary divisions within the workforce, said Dodd.

“At one Christmas party, AWA staff sat at one table and EBA staff at another. It’s a sad state of affairs. The CEPU is seeking that all overtime and extra hours of work be evenly offered across the Telstra fi eld work force.”

NEWS


New website a hit THE revamped CEPU website has hit the mark with communications workers.

In the week after its January 4 launch, 800 fi rst-time visitors clicked on www.cepu.org and 560 came back for another look. New members have signed up to the union online, others have switched to direct debit and members have also used the website to sign up as union reps.

The success of the site is due to wide-ranging research by trainee organiser Nathan Metcher, who came up with the design after looking at Australian and international union sites, but most importantly the needs of CEPU members.

“Our members value the site because it provides easy access to relevant, up-to-date industrial news and information,” said Metcher.

A new addition to the site is the use of video clips relevant to the labour movement. The CEPU will also consider producing its own online video broadcasts in future, said Metcher.

Log on to the new CEPU website at www.cepu.org

No bundles of joy for Post Thirty Rockdale workers have

knocked off an unsafe and inefficient Australia Post mail bundling system.

The employer played hard ball, docking wages after staff held a meeting to discuss their concerns.

On January 25, 30 employees at the Rockdale Delivery Centre took part in a CEPU safety meeting to discuss concerns about a bundling trial for pushbike and motorcycle rounds.

When the meeting ran 10 minutes over the scheduled morning meal break, Australia Post directed workers to return to work. When the meeting fi nished, the manager threatened to dock four hours of their pay.

Under WorkChoices, employers can dock workers four hours pay for taking any industrial action.

The meeting in question was a meal-break safety meeting and didn’t constitute industrial action, said CEPU State Secretary Jim Metcher.

“It was an important meeting. The affected workers had significant concerns about health and safety risks associated with this new bundling system which

Post was attempting to force on them. Employees were entitled to be heard,” Metcher said.

After workers were threatened with their pay being docked, they waited patiently outside the building. An hour and a half later, the docking was confirmed and the workers refused to finish their shift for no pay.

The workers lost four hours pay, but gained a renewed sense of solidarity and commitment to collective action, said Metcher. Union membership at the site has risen to nearly 100%.

Previous trials of the multiple-bundling mail system – which requires posties to increase the number of bundles they carry – have led to adverse outcomes, including unsafe work practices and increased sun exposure, said CEPU organiser Susan Sheather.

Since the Rockdale protest, Australia Post has backpedaled on its unsafe trial program for the multiple-bundling delivery system.

“It’s a win for your rights at work,” said Sheather.

Picture: Jane Dyson, St George and Sutherland Shire Leader

Picture: Jane Dyson, St George and Sutherland Shire Leader



NSW VOTES

The ALP is asking NSW voters for a history-making fourth consecutive term. Vaucluse’s Peter Debnam says they don’t deserve it. We cast a worker’s eye over the alternatives.

Imagine waking up on Sunday, March 25, to learn Peter Debnam was the premier of NSW.Hungover or not, there would be sore heads around working

class communities.Debnam, the Member for Vaucluse, is going head to head with

Lakemba’s Morris Iemma for the leadership of Australia’s most populous state.

Their websites are interesting, family is up front and centre. Iemma features wife, Santina, and their four children, in pictures and videos.

The fi rst sentence tells us all he wants us to know.“Born in 1961, Morris Iemma grew up in a household centred on

family, faith and community.”Debnam has gone one better, drafting the in-laws and grandkids to

greet visitors with a beaming shot of extended family and a glowing tribute from the Missus.

“For 25 years, his strong values and loving commitment to family life have been a mainstay for all of us,” says Deborah Debnam.

But below the spin are differences that will affect NSW families for years to come.

It starts in their homes and grows wider as you examine backgrounds and policies.

Debnam is a former businessman, albeit not a very successful one, who represents residents of Bellevue Hill, Double Bay, Dover

Heights, Point Piper, Woollahra, Rose Bay and Vaucluse.Lakemba, formerly Hurstville, takes in suburbs like Belmore,

Wiley Park, Riverwood, Punchbowl and Narwee along Sydney’s Bankstown rail line.

Iemma is a steady-as-she-goes social democrat with no inclination to scare the horses.

He highlights health, public transport and other social services as his priorities and commits to the modern orthodoxies of balanced budgets and reduced taxes.

Major initiatives, since he succeeded Bob Carr as Premier, include New Trade Schools, which kick-start apprenticeships for students while they study for their HSCs, and hospital-based After Hours GP Centres, designed to reduce waiting lists. Iemma also promises major public transport initiatives if he is returned.

Importantly for workers, the NSW Labor government has campaigned hard against John Howard’s WorkChoices laws.

The government has worked with unions to fi nd innovative ways to reduce the damage caused by the anti-worker laws. It has led a High Court challenge against WorkChoices, introduced new laws to protect the work rights of under-18s and drafted new legislation to protect injured workers from unfair dismissal.

Debnam’s CV on the Liberal Party website highlights his New Right credentials.

Speaking out… CEPU members joined a protest

outside Debnam’s campaign launch

VOTE 1:Services for working families


Bruising encounter worth the effortStarring in TV ads highlighting the dangers of a federal IR takeover was a bruising experience for Karen Fernance but she has no regrets about putting her body on the line.

Fernance, a nursing unit manager at Bankstown Hospital, was battered and bruised during 10 hours of filming as she wheeled a patient trolley for the cameras.

“We were working on a film set where the corridor was narrower than we were used to and I kept banging into the trolley,” Fernance said as she showed off deep bruises on her legs.

They were nothing compared to the pain she believes nurses and other NSW workers would face if a Liberal State Government handed IR powers to Canberra.

“Nurses have really moved forward as a profession in recent years and I don’t want to see that frittered away,” she said.

Fernance was joined in the ads by emergency nurse Sam Jomaa, clinical specialist nurse Scott Neirinckx and registered nurse Jacinta Symes.

The hard-hitting radio and TV campaign comes on the back of a report that shows removing award protections would drive nurses out of the profession.

Fears of a federal IR takeover loom for all state public servants, with penalty rates, equal pay provisions and dismissal rights all up for grabs.

Emma in commandConcerned job cuts would impact on policing, Emma Mathews became a pin-up woman.

She’s on posters across the state that question Peter Debnam’s ability to build services with an axe.

“If administrative support is cut those jobs will be filled by officers taken off the streets,” Mathews says. “There’s no option. You can cut the staff but the jobs still have to be done.”

Admin staff free up sworn officers for frontline policing across NSW.

From local area commands to specialist units, public servants are integral to the force’s operations.

Mathews is in the Professional Standards Command, based at Randwick.

The Command helps maintain public confidence in the police. It sets standards for conduct, performance and integrity as well as investigating alleged breaches.

“Once an investigation is complete we make recommendations about what action should be taken. Well, I don’t make recommendations, that is the job of the Assistant Commissioner,” she says.

Matthews says threats of job cuts affect the police at all levels.

“The way things are going, it concerns everybody.”

He lists memberships of the Bondi and Australia Israel Chambers of Commerce and associate memberships of the Sydney Institute and Centre for Independent Studies.

The Sydney Institute is headed by former James Hardie boss, Meredith Helicar, while the latter organisation has produced papers advocating scrapping unfair dismissal rights, lowering the minimum wage and promoting individual contracts - all policies central to John Howard’s WorkChoices legislation.

While dodging specifi cs, Debnam recently told the Sydney Morning Herald – “don’t doubt that I’m a conservative”.

And he has policies to match.

The two that have caused most discussion since he took over Liberal Party leadership have been promises to turn the rest of NSW’s IR system over to Canberra and slash 20,000 public service jobs.

All his other policy promises are based on savings to be made from taking a razor to the public service.

But nurses, police offi cers and teachers all insist those cuts can’t be made without matching reductions to frontline services.

Transport workers are warning a Debnam win would put public transport at risk of service cuts and privatisation.

“Transport needs extra funds, along with improved planning and accountability,” says Alex Claassens, a long-term train driver and president of the Rail Tram and Bus Union. “That cannot be done by cutting the number of employees working in public transport.”

He says privatisation is fl agged by the Coalition’s emphasis on “service providers”.

Aiming to break the Labor-Coalition stranglehold on NSW politics will be the Greens ticket, headed by Lee Rhiannon.

Like Labor, the third party will resist moves to hand workplace laws to Canberra and cut public services. It has already adopted a sweeping public transport reform agenda, promoted by rail, tram and bus workers, and promises to put water and climate control higher up the agenda.

There is a choice on March 24.

Message from the Premier For hardworking CEPU families, this election ultimately comes down to one big question: who is really committed to improving and expanding the public services that NSW working families depend on?

In the 18 months I’ve been Premier, that’s been my top priority. That’s why we’re opening trade schools for kids, so they can start their apprenticeship while still at school; creating After Hours GP centres to help cut emergency waiting times; and putting 799 more police on the street, with 750 more to come. We know there’s more to do, but we’re headed in the right direction.

By contrast, Mr Debnam is so out of touch he wants to cut 20,000 positions from our public services, which would affect one in every seven nurses, teachers and police. That would mean worse schools, worse health care, worse policing for the working families who depend on those services.

The choice could not be clearer: Better services or service cuts?

So when you vote on March 24, please give us a mandate to get the job done.

Thanks for your support – and remember only Labor puts working families first.

Morris Iemma MPPremier of New South Wales

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CONFERENCE

Ideas for change CEPU Communications Division officers from NSW, Victoria and Queensland met in Sydney on February 19 and 20 to discuss ways for the union to move forward in today’s changing industrial climate.

Guest speakers included a number of shadow ministers and representatives from UnionsNSW and the ACTU.

“The challenges facing the union movement and working families are enormous and we can’t afford to keep doing things in the same old way,” said NSW State Secretary Jim Metcher.

“During the conference we discussed and debated new organising strategies and different ways to service our members, increase membership and ramp up the fight against injustice in the workplace.

He said: “We’ve looked at experiences from across the union movement and non-profit sector. Over the coming months we’ll be introducing some exciting new initiatives for CEPU members and their families.”

“THE government would throw money at AWAs, by tying federal funding to the introduction of individual agreements, we’ve seen that happening at institutions like universities,” Gillard told a CEPU divisional offi cers conference held at the NSW Branch Parramatta offi ce in February.

“Employers will be much more confi dent to implement WorkChoices if this government is returned.”

Gillard said a Rudd Labor government – which has promised to scrap AWAs – was still drafting the detail of the worklace policy it will take to the election.

At the heart of Labor policy will be a commitment to collective bargaining, but people currently employed on AWAs can be reassured they will not be moved to worse conditions if Labor wins.

WorkChoices laws are widely viewed as unfair on working families – a reality even the government has now accepted, said Gillard. But Labor now has to tackle Howard’s spin that while they may be bad for individuals, they are necessary for the economy.

“The government’s now saying: ‘We know you don’t like it but it’s for the economic good of the country’. That’s a load of nonsense, and it’s important we don’t let people fall for it,” Gillard said.

Productivity fi gures released since the introduction of WorkChoices don’t show any boost in productivity – nor is there any evidence to suggest that shifting from a collective to an individualised bargaining system boosts productivity, said Gillard.

Gillard held a wide-ranging discussion with CEPU offi cers covering many industrial concerns relevant to communications workers including Telstra AWAs, health and safety laws, workplace surveillance, Australia Post’s doctor policy, and plummeting workplace morale.

Labor will seek CEPU input on its IR policy and election campaign, Gillard said.

Gillard ready for workplace stoushA victory for John Howard at this year’s federal election would entrench the WorkChoices laws hurting families around Australia, said Deputy Opposition Leader and ALP IR spokesperson Julia Gillard.

Top Right: ALP Communications

Spokesperson, Senator Stephen Conroy

Bottom Right: SGF Union reps

Ramon Gammad and David Wong

with Jim Metcher.

Listening and learning… Julia Gillard working with the CEPU team

On the ground Ramon Gammad and David Wong, mail officers and long-serving union reps at Australia Post’s Sydney Gateway Facility, told the conference about their organising challenges and strategies.

“Our job as union reps has become much harder since the Howard government came to power in 1996,” said Wong.

“We’ve also had new management at our workplace, their priorities are nothing but production and profits. Managers are very aggressive towards their staff.”

Gammad and Wong told the conference how they’ve worked together to adopt new organising strategies, based on strengthening the relationship between union reps and members.

“We’ve focused on developing networks to spread information and encourage collective bargaining,” said Gammad.

“We have regular meal break meetings, particularly when members are facing major problems – like being disciplined if they are one or two minutes late or missing out on tea money when working overtime. We focus on working constructively with management to get a good, fair outcome.”

“Ramon and David’s presentation was inspiring,” said CEPU National Secretary Ed Husic. “They’ve shown how dedication and persistence can bring dignity, respect and fairness back to the workplace.”


Telstra managers wondered what on earth a piece of board was doing on the table

during a long health and safety meeting. Four hours in, Laurie Chalker picked his moment, raised the board and delivered it an almighty blast of fl y spray – the same brand Telstra linemen were provided with out in the fi eld.

“I nearly sprayed the whole can. All the varnish peeled off the board, the spray got into the air conditioning and all 24 fl oors nearly had to be evacuated,” Chalker laughed.

“I said, ‘this is what you want your people to spray on themselves?’ They got the message.”

After a long career as a Telstra technician and trainer, followed by 27 years as a full-time CEPU offi cer, Chalker has packed away his fl y spray and retired to tend to his beloved farm.

Chalker was 14 when he joined the Post Master General as a Junior Postal Offi cer in the Southern Highlands town of Taralga in 1960. The following year, he moved to Bundanoon as a night telephone operator. Two years later

he went to Moss Vale as a postman, before starting training as a linesman.

Later, with Telecom – as the company had become known – Chalker developed skills using explosives and spent most of the 1970s as a technical instructor.

After many years of union activism – he tasted his fi rst industrial action at 15 – he left Telecom in 1979 to work full time for the union.

“People said it would get easier over time, but it never did. Standing up and representing people’s rights at work was always a hard slog,” he said.

Among his proudest union achievements are signifi cant pay wins for telecommunications workers, an overhaul of the pay structure for communications offi cers, and his contribution to Telstra occupational health and safety procedures.

At one point, he oversaw 56 OH&S committees statewide, reporting concerns to a central management committee, and leading to the infamous fl y spray incident.

“I always looked for new ways to get their attention,” he explained.

“In one meeting I asked everyone to bring in one piece of the new safety clothing and equipment they were introducing for COs. I put it all on and I’m 6 ft 2, but I couldn’t stand up. That was the end of that.”

Chalker held a number of full-time positions in the CEPU NSW Communications Division from organiser to Branch President, serving as Assistant Secretary up until his retirement.

Branch Secretary Jim Metcher said Chalker never ducked a challenge and he had been through the telecommunications deregulation that led to an array of new industry players and employment arrangements.

“Laurie took the lead in fi ghting for and securing fairness in pay and conditions for all telecommunications workers, whether they were on awards, AWAs or sub-contractors,” Metcher said.

Posting results

THERE was a time when Australia Post employees were encouraged to do a great job.

But in her 11 years as a mail offi cer at Australia

Post, Nicky Lee – now a CEPU trainee organiser – saw a turnaround in management’s

attitude to employees who went the extra mile. In retail, where employees like

to offer the best possible service so customers will return, they are now expected to complete each transaction within a minute.

Posties were once encouraged to take the initiative in decoding and delivering partially-addressed mail.

“If people go the extra mile and do the right thing now, they’re penalised,” she says.

Lee left Australia Post to work for the union last September because of her strong opposition to WorkChoices.

She finishes her traineeship in September and her goal is to help build a network of young union activists across Australia Post.


PEOPLE

Laurie’s best spray

Delivering the message... Nicky Lee

PEOPLE


Ed Husic recalls Laurie Chalkers’ unconventional negotiating style.

Rudd to fight for CEPU rights

“There’s a clear choice in education, and the environment. But it’s in the area of workplace laws that Australians have the starkest choice,” Rudd told the crowd.

Howard’s WorkChoices laws were eating away at the rights and conditions unionists had fought for and won over decades, said Rudd.

“Mr Howard says the future lies in tearing up those basic provisions which have been in place for decades.

“I don’t want to be in an Australia where people are forced onto AWAs. I don’t want to be in an Australia where employers walk away from shift allowances and overtime,” said Rudd.

A Labor government would restore the rights cut by WorkChoices, and work hard to make sure Australia’s labour force was trained for the best jobs available in the future world economy.

Rudd took the time to speak to many CEPU reps and members, and he spoke at length with workers from Post Logistics Wetherill Park warehouse, where workers recently had their shift allowances and rostered days off cut without consultation.

Recently retired Branch Assistant Secretary Laurie Chalker’s legendary

career was honored at the CEPU 2007 annual dinner on Saturday March 10.

Hundreds of CEPU reps and members were joined by special guests including union leaders and state and federal Labor MPs at Rooty Hill RSL to celebrate Chalker’s signifi cant contribution to the labour movement.

CEPU Communications Division Federal Secretary Ed Husic remembered Chalker’s strong interest in the training and skills of union members; his willingness to try new things; his unconventional negotiating style and the organised chaos of his desk.

“You could fi nd anything on Laurie’s desk, a wrench, some piece of equipment he’d found, and piles and piles of paper. Laurie believed in only two kinds of paper – the kind you fi le, and the kind you roll up and smoke,” said Husic.

NSW Branch Secretary Jim Metcher thanked Chalker for a long, loyal and productive partnership in leading the branch.

Federal ALP Leader Kevin Rudd, the guest of honour, was welcomed enthusiastically and received a standing ovation for his inspiring speech on the need to defeat the Howard government at federal elections later this year.

He spoke of his plans for an education revolution and tackling climate change.

Kevin Rudd vows to beat Howard’s workchoices

Jim Metcher thanks Laurie Chalker for a long and successful partnership


Lawyers for the P&T Branch, its members and their families in NSW and the ACT

Slater&Gordon

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Reputation & Results www.slatergordon.com.au

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Lawyers for the P&T Branch, its members and their families in NSW and the ACT

AROUND THE MOVEMENT


www.workers.labor.net.au

Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones has shamed John Howard into getting a

dying a man one-third of what he was owed under a negotiated agreement.

Howard dispatched new Workplace Relations Minister, Joe Hockey, to Tristar Engineering in Marrickville, after Jones broadcast the tragic circumstances of cancer-stricken employee, John Beaven.

Tristar agreed to pay the father of three $100,000 less than what he was entitled to under the agreement it had signed with unions, just two days before he died in a Sydney hospital.

The company has used Howard’s workplace rules to terminate its enterprise bargaining agreement, leaving another 31 employees without millions of dollars in accrued entitlements.

The federal government took action on Beaven’s case barely three months after

Howard’s six-figureshame

Billion dollar victoryASBESTOS disease sufferers couldn’t have brought James Hardie to heel under WorkChoices.

That was the assessment of dust diseases campaigner Bernie Banton after shareholders at the rogue company voted to set aside $1.6 billion to assist dying Australian and their families.

“The unions were vital. Without their support this would never have come to fruition. It’s as simple that,” Banton said.

“It couldn’t have been done under WorkChoices. The unions would have been restricted in the support they could have offered and that would have weakened our campaign.”

Corporate skulduggery, including misleading the NSW Supreme Court, was uncovered when the NSW Government launched a commission of inquiry into a corporate restructure that saw James Hardie relocate to the Netherlands.

Despite damning Jackson Inquiry’s fi ndings, the company continued to play hardball in negotiations with the ACTU and asbestos disease sufferers.

Banton labelled the fi nal agreement, voted up in Holland, as the “greatest victory for people in corporate history”.

Banton said he had always believed sufferers and their families would win.“I have the faith to believe that good will overcome evil,” he said. “And what they tried

to do was evil.”

Howard refused to meet a delegation of Tristar workers who travelled to Canberra to plead their case.

Tristar is refusing to make redundant a hand-picked group of veterans with up to 48 years service, although it has no contracts or customers.

The federal Industrial Relations Commission rejected union arguments that it was against the public interest to allow the company to dud long-serving employees.

Tristar’s owner, the Arrowcrest Group, used legal threats against media outlets to try to shut down publicity about its actions.

Women are losersAUSSIE women are being rorted by WorkChoices, according to a university study.

An analysis of the legislation’s fi rst nine months, by Queensland’s Griffi th Business School, found overtime rates being stripped out of AWAs at an accelerated rate.

Professor David Peetz said retail and hospitality workers, as well as females across the private sector, had suffered falls in real income.

He revealed productivity had also fallen.

The research found 82 percent of AWAs registered since WorkChoices eliminated overtime while 63 percent had abolished penalty rates.

Grubs upCANBERRA eateries face big fi nes after unions sprung them screwing guest workers.

Last year, the LHMU waged an aggressive campaign against a string of establishments using federal government Section 457 visas to underpay Filipino employees.

The revelations were rubbished by ACT employer groups but courts have imposed hefty penalties on Zefi relli Pizza, and Pangaea Bar and Restaurant.

Zefi relli was slugged $50,000 for underpaying two Filipinos, while Pangaea was ordered to pay $64,000 and back pay guest workers more than $4000.

John Howard’s Offi ce of Workplace Services described the fi nes as “staggering”.

Bosses net own goalQUEENSLAND’S best netballers called in their union after being ordered to sign individual employment contracts.

Netball Queensland sacked two players and threatened other members of the elite Firebirds squad, claiming federal industrial laws allowed it to chop childcare and annual leave entitlements.

It barred Melanie Groves and Peta Stephens from training with teammates when they refused to sign the contracts.

Players called in the AWU for a crisis meeting in Brisbane.

LATE MAIL

*Look for these books on www.amazon.com

A spate of rage murders by postal workers across the US Postal Service since the 1980s gave rise to

the term ‘going postal’. In the first post office massacre in 1986, 15 people

died and six were wounded in Edmonds, Oklahoma. Two people were killed in a shooting in Chelsea, Massachussetts, in 1988. A worker shot himself in his post office in Pomway, California, in 1989. The macabre list goes on.

Post offi ce massacres – which gave way to a spate of shootings in other workplaces, then schools – are the subject of a provocative book Going Postal, Rage Murder and Rebellion*, by American writer Mark Ames.

Going Postal explores the killings as consequence of the ‘Reaganomics’ reforms which swept through the US in the 1980s, cutting average worker earnings while executive salaries skyrocketed; and alienating employees in a more hostile and competitive work environment.

Steve Seltzer tackles the same theme in a US Postal Employee Network (www.postalemployeenetwork.com) blog. He argues the high level of murder, suicide and fatal accidents within the postal service is a result of the on-going anger and frustration of postal workers at their work environment.

“While they still forbid the workers to have the right to strike the Congress forced the Post Office to re-organise themselves more and more like a private business,” writes Seltzer.

“This created the drive for massive automation and speed-ups in the workforce. Using strict work rules, management used these rules to target workers that they wanted to get rid of … (leading to) explosive incidents of violence in the workplace.”

On a lighter note, British fantasy author Terry Pratchett explores the frustrations of postal workers in a new book. Going Postal* chronicles one man’s struggle to bring a dysfunctional postal system back to life in an age of electronic mail in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork.

Get the latest news from the CEPU every week by registering at email: [email protected]

Rage against the machine

Model postie POSTMAN Pat – the ever-cheerful star of kids’ TV – bumbles around his fi ctional Yorkshire village of Greendale chasing

his cat Jess, helping his neighbours out of impossible fi xes, and occasionally delivering the mail.

The series started in 1981 and now screens in some 18 countries worldwide including Japan, despite concerns Pat’s three-fi ngered

When the heat gets unbearable – call your team leader or OHS rep and seek shelter in the shade. If they disagree, contact the CEPU state offi ce. If you feel sick from the heat, see your doctor and claim workers compensation for lost time or treatment.

Mercury rising TELSTRA communications technicians around the state sweltered in heatwave conditions of up to 43 degrees over summer.

Soaring temperatures bred confusion among technicians, with some believing they could stop work when the mercury hit 100 Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), said CEPU Branch Assistant Secretary Steve Dodd.

There is no agreed temperature limit on outdoor work, but technicians should not perform work in unsafe conditions.

hands would be interpreted as a symbol of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafi a.

Pat’s been warmly endorsed by Britain’s Royal Mail, his mail van sports the offi cial logo and the character is rolled out for promotional events.

Now, reports indicate Postman Pat is being overworked. British website The Spoof (www.TheSpoof.com) reports Postman Pat, in his capacity as shop steward of the National Union of Kidshows, is leading an industrial campaign to reduce the time they spend on air.

“We are fed up being taken for granted. Parents just sit their nippers down in front of our shows and get a break. Nobody

thinks of us though and now with the advent of DVD we’re on all the bloody time,” Pat was quoted as saying.

cepu mag mar07 d5 · pdf fileautumn 2007 communicator the magazine of the cepu nsw...

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