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June-July 2014

We had a great show of solidarity from BAE and Australian Submarine Corporation members last month to support the union’s national campaign to Design, Build and Maintain our Ships Here. BAE delegate Jon Primrose chaired the Henderson meeting, which also heard from Assistant National Secretary Glenn Thompson and State Secretary Steve McCartney.

It was a shame that neither the Defence Minister, WA Senator David Johnston, or the Premier Colin Barnett made the time to attend but we think members made themselves clear with the following motion:

“The meeting of BAE & ASC members welcome the reports on the National AMWU Shipbuilding Campaign. The

meeting recognises the great work of our delegates in representing our yards and interests. This meeting reaffirms its support for this very important campaign.

We condemn the contempt that Defence Minister Johnston has shown us by not responding to our Union’s request to attend this meeting to put the Governments views on the future of the Naval shipbuilding industry.

This meeting endorses an action of calling Ministers Johnston’s office voicing our concerns about this contempt and calling on the Minister to make a decision now to bring forward future naval ship builds.”

More than 7,000 Australian jobs depend

on our naval shipbuilding industry and the government only needs to bring forward the build of a couple of vessels by a couple of years to give certainty to the industry. We don’t think it’s a big ask for the benefits it will bring to Australian skills, defence capability and future opportunity.

Delegates also attended WA Parliament in May to see Cockburn Labor MLA Fran Logan deliver a motion calling on Premier Barnett to do more to support efforts in lobbying the Federal Government on behalf of WA shipbuilders.

We urge all members to keep track of the latest campaign developments through the campaign Facebook site and email updates.

Our government must act to ensure the future of naval shipbuilding and 7,000 Aussie jobs

Naval shipbuilders unite to tell politicians....

BUILD OUR SHIPS HERE!

ASC members on the march through Henderson

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A CAMPAIGNING UNION

STATE SECRETARY’S REPORTAlthough the North West has seen a huge

amount of development in recent years, it’s still a frontier in many ways, especially when it comes to Australian employment. I remember working on North West projects through the 1980s and 1990s. Back in the day the industry standards were 16 weeks on and one off, and I am proud to be part of the struggles that led to our current standard construction FIFO roster of four weeks on one week off.

It wasn’t easy, and we had our share of setbacks. At the time, people were saying we should be grateful to have a job. That there were other people who’d put up with the conditions. That we shouldn’t rock the boat. That the changes we wanted would kill investment in resource development. The truth is that if we’d listened to them we’d still be on 16 and one.

Instead, through the efforts of thousands of dedicated workers, we got the roster down to a more family friendly level. But after more than a decade, the mood for change is in the air again.

We know a lot more about the effects of FIFO on family, on divorce rates and on mental health. We know that air travel is the cheapest it’s ever been. We know that well rested workers are more productive and less likely to be injured at work.

Over the past few weeks National Secretary Paul Bastian and I spent a fair bit of time visiting and consulting our hardworking construction workers in the North West, and the clear indication from members is that we should be moving to a three and one roster.

Will this just happen? Will the bosses roll over out of the kindness of their hearts? Of course not. The Cape Lambert crew are the first off the rank in a struggle that will be resisted by the bosses at every opportunity. Hats off to them for being the first to take a stand. Yet again the NW is setting the standard for the rest of the country.

Just as with all struggles, we will succeed or fail based on our unity and solidarity on the ground. It means keeping people informed, it means talking to your mates and it means setting up workplace structures that bring people in and give people a say.

If our history teaches us anything, it’s that we win together. We’ve done it before and we can do it again.

In unity

Steve McCartney

Will the bosses just roll over out of the kindness of their hearts? Of course not.

New Metals at the Jet SprintsOur latest New Metals event was at the

finals of the West Coast Jet Sprints at Baldivis Water Park.

With new faces and new shops sending reps along, we are building momentum and we’re confident the group is shaping up as real voice for young members within our union and beyond.

Of course younger workers share industries and priorities with the rest of the workforce, but there are youth-specific issues too. From here the challenge is to grow our social events into workplace and community activism. New Metals is about recognising that younger members, especially apprentices, can be particularly vulnerable in the workplace. It’s about

providing protection, education on workplace rights and connecting members to each to develop solidarity across industries.

As New Metals member and BP Refinery trades assistant Andrew Pearse put it: “New Metals is a great initiative because it gives younger people a place to have a say within the union and connect people who are experiencing similar issues at work.”

If you are a member under 30 and are interested in future New Metals events, or have an idea for the next one, let us know by sending an email to newmetalswa@gmail.com, through the AMWU WA Branch Facebook page or call the East Perth office on 9223 0800 from 8:30am until 5pm.

Up at Cape Lambert with National Secretary Paul Bastian talking with members

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AMWU Perth office: 121 Royal St, East Perth Telephone: (08) 9223 0800 Fax:(08) 9225 4744

www.amwu.org.au

Union wins!

Union win for apprenticesThe union had a nice for win for two Skilled Offshore adult apprentices based at Coates in Belmont recently. Ryhim Hajinoor and Jarad Pemberton were told by Skilled that they were covered under a different EBA, which meant, you guessed it, less money in the back pocket.

A bit of digging from East Metro Organiser Gary Carozzi uncovered an HR mistake, which backdated to July 2013 meant a payout of more than $5,000 each upfront and the correct rate of pay into the future.Just another example of how it pays to be union.

AMWU forces HEA payoutRedundancies are a fact of life, and without union protection, companies can and do hold employees over a barrell.

Heat Exchanges Australia employee Mark Burr is one member who can attest to the benefits of union membership at a time of uncertainty.

After putting his hand up for redundancy, Mark was only paid out a fraction of what the company agreed to.

With excuse after excuse from the company taking its toll, Mark sought advice from the AMWU about how to progress his claim. A few friendly reminders later and Mark his his full payout.

There’s every chance Mark would still be waiting without union support!

The pride of the labour movement was on full display at May Day 2014

Two hundred AMWU members joined friends from across the movement

for the midday march through the streets of Fremantle down to the Esplanade where members and their families were welcomed with food, fun and festivities. In particular, the Retired Members Division of the AMWU put in a great performance, taking part in the march and bringing along their families to celebrate.

“As usual the blue collar unions were out in force and I was proud to see so many proud AMWU members flying the flag for our union,” said AMWU State Secretary Steve McCartney.

The origin of the May Day celebration stemmed from a union conference in North America in 1884, which resolved

that May 1st 1886 would be the date to start the Eight Hour Working Day.

In Australia, the first places to achieve the 8-hour working day were in Sydney and Melbourne in 1856, while WA’s first May Day celebration was in 1897.

“May Day is a great chance for workers from every industry to get together with friends and family to celebrate what we’ve achieved by standing and fighting together,” said Mr McCartney.

“It was great to see so many AMWU members come along with their friends and families, and it gave everyone the chance to catch up with some long lost friends and comrades from right around the labour movement.”

Jarad and Ryhim after their win

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A CAMPAIGNING UNION

Hockey’s Horrorshow Will Hurt Battlers MostONE of the true tests of a government – of its priorities, its values and even its ideology – is the Budget, writes ACTU President Ged KearneyA Budget is where a government gets to make its stamp on the nation, and its decisions about how to spend tens of billions of dollars tell us much about its agenda and the type of Australia it wishes to have.

That is why Budgets are so important, and why the media devote so much space and energy to covering them.

This is even more so when a government is new, and relatively unknown.

Last night Joe Hockey delivered the first Budget of the Abbott Government, and the document he released has confirmed what we already suspected: that Tony Abbott and the Coalition are no friends of working people and their families.

Before last year’s election, Tony Abbott promised to be the best friend Australian workers had ever had.

He paraded around in a high-viz vest day after day to prove his credentials.

But a real friend doesn’t cut hundreds of millions of dollars from industry programs and apprentice training that support hundreds of thousands of decent jobs.

A real friend doesn’t hit struggling families with higher medical, fuel and education costs.

And a real friend doesn’t turn their back on the aged, disabled and unemployed when they need a hand to get up off their knees.

No real plan for job creationTony Abbott has had eight months to come up with an economic plan to deliver on his election promise to create a million new jobs in five years.

Instead he has flagged cutting 16,500 public servants and has ripped hundreds of millions out of skills and innovation.

The Abbott Government’s prescription

for Australian workers is now crystal clear: it’s a future for this nation built on insecure work, with people shunted through inappropriate training to unsustainable jobs until their bodies are broken at the age of 70, while hitting them with extra costs at every turn for healthcare and medicine, for education, and for petrol.

Low and middle-income earners – hard working people who ask nothing more than dignity, respect and a fair go – are being asked to bear the brunt of the Budget, while big business avoids its load.

Everyone is being told to tighten their belts. Families will be slugged with extra costs of living, new holes are being punched in the welfare safety net, and thousands of jobs are being cut to fund Joe Hockey’s self-created “Budget emergency”.

The age and disability support pensions will be cut over time. Access to family benefits will be tightened. Young job seekers will be punished by having financial support with-held for six months, and then forced onto work-for-the-dole schemes to earn

an already inadequate Newstart allowance. University students and apprentices will be saddled with heavy debts for their studies and training which will take years to pay off.

But when Joe Hockey said “the age of entitlement is over”, he certainly wasn’t talking about his mates from the big end of town.

The Government still went ahead with a $4 billion company tax cut. It did nothing to change the diesel fuel rebate that benefits the mining billionaires by millions of dollars a year. It left untouched the generous superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy, while removing the Low Income Super Contribution scheme, and freezing the increase in the Super Guarantee at 9.5% until 2018.

It is not the role of government to hand big business a blank checque in the form of a company tax cut.

Illustration by Sam Wallman (www.penerasespaper.com)

AMWU Perth office: 121 Royal St, East Perth Telephone: (08) 9223 0800 Fax:(08) 9225 4744

www.amwu.org.au

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“And Pigs Might Fly”It was crisis day in Parliament The house was hushed and still,As a Member rose with a question:“Are we doomed to go downhill?I am confident of an upturn.”The PM made in reply:“If workers pay is held at bayWe’ll all be home and dry.”

“How true! How true!” cried the workers,“Let’s end this wicked strike,We don’t want a rise in wages,They can stick it where they like.”

“Thank God! Thank God!”Sobbed the bosses.“There’s faith on the factory floor,And now we’ve got his extra lot We’ll give it to the poor!”

They filled their pockets with money,And ran with eager feet,Pressing their surplus profitsOn people in the street

They moved among the dole-queues,And boarded every bus,With streaming eyes and heartfelt cries:“You need it more than us!”

Soon all the people prospered,And the devil became a saint,Now that the sober unionsHad exercised restraint,And the cities were filled with singing and theSound of laughter spread,As hand took hand in golden land And pigs flew overhead.

This Budget is a recipe for the Americanisation of Australian society, with wide disparities of inequality and huge pockets of poverty and working poor.

It is the biggest attack on the social wage this country has ever seen.

Tony Abbott wants to take us backwards, to force ordinary people to accept that they can no longer have the Australian way of life.

Ordinary people who go to work every day in pain because they can’t afford the medical bills to see a doctor or have an operation.

Ordinary people who pass like ships in the night, handing the kids over from one parent to another as mum or dad heads off to their next shift in their second – or sometimes third – casual job to make ends meet.

Ordinary people who want to spend their later years enjoying the rewards of their hard working life, but now face the prospect of working until they are 70.

A lost generation of young job seekersIt’s young people entering the workforce who I worry about the most.

By removing the safety net for young job seekers, the Abbott Government has effectively given the next generation a ‘sink or swim’

ultimatum with no room for failure, while simultaneously making it harder for them to gain employment or earn enough.

It is setting up a generation of young job seekers to be confined to poverty with all the risks this entails for social cohesion.

By scrapping apprentice tools payments and loading them with debt, making university more expensive while simultaneously dissolving universal health care and welfare safety nets we are pushing these young workers to the edge and – in some cases – over.

Increasing homelessness, poverty and stress is no recipe to improving work participation.

And this is just the start because the Abbott Government also have in their sights workers’ wages and conditions.

Coalition MPs and business groups are openly campaigning to abolish penalty rates and cut the minimum wage.

Reducing penalty rates and the minimum wage would hurt all workers – but especially young workers.

Proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act would see the widespread use of Individual Flexibility Agreements, which would once again allow employers to dictate pay and conditions to workers with little regard for a collective agreement or Award.

And the Productivity Commission review into the workplace system will be another Trojan horse to continue the project that began with WorkChoices.

The Commission of Audit drew up the plans, and Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey’s Budget last night has laid out the wood and the nails.

Together they are building a coffin for the Australian way of life.

Only by standing together can we protect this way of life and continue to build a better one today, and for years to come.

This article first appeared on workinglife.org.au on May 14 2014

Tony Abbott wants to take us backwards, to force ordinary people to accept that they can no longer have the Australian way of life.

Poem by Ted Wilshire, first published in AMWU publication, Australia on the Rack in 1982

A CAMPAIGNING UNION

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Vale John Sharp-CollettOur former State Secretary will be remembered as a committed unionist and a man of ability and dedicationOn 11 May this year our esteemed former WA AMWU State Secretary John Sharp-Collett passed away.

John was not only a compassionate man, he was also a very committed trade unionist. The AMWU was fortunate to have someone with his commitment and acumen at the head of the WA Branch during the fractious days of the 1990’s.

From 1990 to 2000 during John’s stewardship, the AMWU faced up to the election of unremittingly hostile conservative governments at both Federal and State levels. It is due to John’s organising and resistance, along with the union he so capably led, that we were able to come out the other side with

our organisation intact and campaigning.

John was a long term member of the union. He joined the then-Boilermakers and Blacksmith’s Society in 1968 and became shop steward (at Fabricated Products) in 1970. From there he became State Organiser in 1978. John led the union capably from 1990 to 2000. John’s active involvement with the Union continued in retirement with first his membership, and secondly his Secretaryship, of the Retired Members Division.

John will be remembered

for his big hat and his wide smile, as much as his capacity for hard work and leadership. He was a dedicated trade unionist and a man of ability and dedication. With his wife and family, we mourn his passing.

- National President Andrew Dettmer and National Secretary Paul Bastian

Workers Memorial Day 2014On International Workers’ Memorial Day, the message was to mourn the dead, and fight like hell for the living

It was a solemn and moving ceremony at Solidarity Park on April 28 as we paused

to remember those who lost their lives while making a living and providing for their families.

State President Tony Hall laid a wreath on behalf of our members and all workers who have been killed at work, for their families who have to continue on and for those injured and sick from earning a living.

So far this year, 2014, 46 Australians have been killed at work.

In 2013, 13 manufacturing workers and a total of 186 workers did not go home to their families at the end of the day. There are 58 workers compensation claims accepted every day from manufacturing industry, the second highest of all industries.

And while we remember the dead, the message of the day was to keep on fighting like hell for the living. Unions give workers the power to stand up and say no when safety is in question. Workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility. Make sure it’s yours too.

Thank you to every AMWU member who contributed to assist the

117 workers battling huge fines from the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Together with the CFMEU and ETU we were able to raise about $130,000 for members and their families, which has now been disbursed.

On behalf of the fined workers, in particular we would like to thank our members at Muja power station Transfield, Alcoa, Premier and Griffin, the AMC and those in NW construction.

We would also like to thank other unions who contributed such as the Australian Education Union.

Although they were only on strike for eight days, the Commission insisted on fines of up to $10,000 from individual workers. These fines were vindicative, punitive and unprecedented in Australian history.

The display of solidarity will help alleviate the symptoms of this injustice, but a cure will only be found in the abolition of the anti-worker, anti-collective rights and anti-fair go ABCC.

- State Secretary Steve McCartney

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Like your union? your union!We have a couple of new initiatives to help you stay in touch with what’s going on in your branch right around Western Australia.

We’ve just launched our new App for Apple and Android, which you can find by searching “amwu wa” at either store.

It’s got the latest events, member news, media, benefits, campaigns and more. It’s free too so get on it.

We’ve also got a new Facebook page up and running so head on over and ‘like’ the AMWU

WA Branch to stay in touch.

We want your pictures and stories too - after all you are the union. So send photos and stories to tom.palmer@amwu.asn.au or message our Facebook page.

It’s all part of making sure we keep in touch with our members and give you what you want.

And if technology isn’t your thing, we’ll still have printed copies of Manufacturing Matters every couple of months!

Fred’s fight inspires win-win for sick kids and workersNot only did they negotiate a ripper EBA, UGL BP refinery members put sick kids first too, writes Neil Wilson KIDS fighting cancer will get a boost along with AMWU members at BP’s Kwinana refinery from a union agreement which spreads the benefit of a solid pay rise.

The health battle of AMWU refinery delegate Fred McIvor helped inspire his 125 comrades working for maintenance contractor UGL to the new pay deal, which was conditional upon the boss also contributing $10,000 to the Kids With Cancer Foundation.

The popular Mr MacIvor, a pipefitter-welder, headed the team which started negotiations with UGL last year for a new agreement but had to step aside when he was disagnosed with a recurrance of cancer.

“Fred was our original delegate but I had to take over and we brought in one of our younger members Gareth Eardley, ” said fellow delegate Gary Allan.

Talks had reached a critical point where the members were considering authorised industrial action, but also knew they were extremely close to reaching a pay deal with the company.

“We weren’t getting much progress at all but then came the suggestion for the company to make a charity contribution

on behalf of AMWU members, “ said Mr Allan.

“Many of us have had a run-in with cancer. Our delegates especially thought of Fred McIvor and another one of the people here who’ve suffered it, plus there’s been our own family members .

“The idea was to help other people in the community and that went over pretty well with the members, they voted for The Kids With Cancer Foundation as the way

to go.”

Recently WA State Secretary Steve McCartney was at the refinery for the hand-over of a symbolic $10,000 cheque, which comes on the back of a two-year agreement featuring an 8 per cent pay rise.

Mr MacIvor, who has the all-clear from his specialist and hopes to be back at work soon, was chuffed.

“It’s very touching, these workers have set aside their own interests,” he said.

“I’m older, I’ve had the treatment and it is not nice at all. The thought of little kids in hospital having to go through that is terrible, so it is fantastic the guys decided to do something for them.”

A great win-win for our union and the kids!

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A CAMPAIGNING UNION

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