Defend Our Rights at Work! Tear up all of Work Choices!
- Target:
- Australian Council of Trade Unions
- Region:
- Australia
Dear fellow worker,
As present and former trade union officials and active trade unionists we are writing in a personal capacity to urge you to sign the petition that appears below. We believe it addresses an urgent need of Australian workers and communities.
Recently the big mining, energy, media and construction corporations’ lobbying campaigns have succeeded in forcing the federal ALP leadership to retreat from its commitments on industrial relations.
Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard’s agreement to phase out Australian Workplace Agreements and the Australian Building and Construction Commission over many years are the latest result of this pressure.
It is imperative that the movement to defend our rights at work answer the lobbying campaign of the big corporations.
The best way to do that is to mobilise the hundreds of thousands who have shown that they are prepared to demonstrate their rejection of Work Choices in the streets. Over the past two years we have seen that when the union movement seriously prepares protest action workers and communities will respond to the call.
These actions, along with the ongoing Your Rights at Work advertising campaign, are also the underlying reason why the Howard government continues to trail so badly in opinion polls.
We urgently need to rebuild worker and community pressure against Work Choices. That’s why the petition calls on the ACTU and State and Territory Trades and Labour Councils to organise another National Day of Protest as soon as possible before the next federal election.
It also demands that Labor abide by its commitment to tear up Work Choices by restoring the basic, internationally recognised, worker and union rights that the Howard government has destroyed.
Sign the petition and let’s all together continue to defend Our Rights at Work!
Yours in solidarity,
SIGNATORIES (as of July 8, positions for purposes of identification only)
• Len Cooper, Victorian Secretary, Communications Division, Telecommunications and Services Branch, Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union
• Gary Robb, Victorian Assistant Secretary, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union
• Chris Cain, West Australian Branch Secretary, Maritime Union of Australia
• Jamie Doughney, Victorian Division President, National Tertiary Education Union
• Bill Oliver (Assistant State Secretary, Construction Division, Victorian branch, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union)
• Tommy Watson (Assistant State Secretary, Construction Division, Victorian branch, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union)
• Ralph Edwards (Victorian president, Construction Division, Victorian branch, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union)
• Tim Gooden, Geelong Trades Hall Council Secretary (Victoria)
• Jim Casey, Senior Vice-President, Fire Brigade Employees Union (New South Wales)
• John Parker, Gippsland Trades and Labour Council Secretary (Victoria)
• Chris Spindler, Organiser, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (Victoria)
• Susan Price, Branch President, University of New South Wales, National Tertiary Education Union
• Dave Bell, former Trade Union Training Officer, NSW Teachers Federation, former State Secretary, NSW Greens
• Jeremy Smith, Branch President, Ballarat University, National Tertiary Education Union (Victoria)
• Mick Baker, Organiser, West Australian Branch, Maritime Union of Australia
• Carol Williams, Branch President, Monash University, National Tertiary Education Union (Victoria)
• Margaret Donehue, Secretary, South West Trades and Labour Council (Victoria)
• Union Solidarity, (Melbourne)
Defend Our Rights at Work! Tear up all of Work Choices!
Since the ALP national conference, the big companies have had the ear of the Liberal and Labor parties about what sort of changes should be made to Australia’s industrial relations laws. The voice of workers and their unions have not been heard. We believe that in order to defend our rights at work workers need to mobilise again so that our voices are heard in opposition to the anti-worker laws.
We therefore call on the ACTU and State, Territory and regional labour councils to immediately call a day of protest that demands:
1. The full repeal of the Howard government’s Work Choices and Workplace Relations Act (including the abolition of all Australian Workplace Agreements in whatever form and the immediate dismantling of the Australian Building and Construction Commission) and;
2. The enshrining in Australian law of the internationally recognised right of workers to take industrial action in defence of their economic and social interests.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Defend Our Rights at Work! Tear up all of Work Choices! petition to Australian Council of Trade Unions was written by Concerned Unionists signing letter below and is in the category Unions at GoPetition.