Australia: Massive National Protests Against Anti-Union Laws

Some 300,000 Australians took to the streets and joined union meetings today to protest at the conservative government’s new labour laws which strip the country’s workers of fundamental rights and protections.


Brussels, 30 November 2006 (ITUC OnLine): Some 300,000 Australians took to the streets and joined union meetings today to protest at the conservative government’s new labour laws which strip the country’s workers of fundamental rights and protections. 60,000 people packed into the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground for the main national protest rally, which was linked by video to more than 300 other events in towns and cities around the country.

“The Howard Government wants Australians, to “sit down and shut up”, and take what the employer offers… You can be sacked without rhyme or reason and you have no right to defend yourself,” Sharan Burrow, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and of the ITUC, told the Melbourne Rally.

The ITUC, its Global Unions partners and affiliates have protested to Australian embassies in Brussels, Geneva, London and other cities today, with ITUC Deputy General Secretary Jaap Wienen leading a delegation including Belgian trade unions and Global Union Federations EI and ICEM to deliver a protest letter to the Brussels Embassy.

Since the laws came into force, evidence of their negative impact on incomes and working conditions has mounted, with major employers now seeking to push workers onto individual contracts, removing key benefits and entitlements. The number of cases of employers using the laws to harass and exploit workers and discriminate against union members and delegates continues to increase. Several provisions in the laws violate core ILO standards, including Conventions 87 and 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining, which Australia has ratified, and the Federal Government has now won backing from the nation’s conservative-leaning High Court to override protections which exist under state-level jurisdictions.

“We will campaign in the wider community and ask people to vote for change. What we do now is not just for us, but also for our children and for future generations… I am confident of our capacity to win,” said ACTU Secretary Greg Combet.

For more information, see: www.actu.asn.au

Founded on November 1 2006, the ITUC represents 168 million workers in 153 countries and territories and has 304 national affiliates.

For more information, contact the ITUC Press Department on +32 2 224 0220.