Re-Patricks and the MUA and rail unions

["STANLEY J. MITCHELL" <mitchell@gold.net.au>]

I just received an e-mail to tell me that my previous posting here was
irrelevant to the railway industry. Well let me tell you, folks, it is
highly relevant to us.
I am a driver based in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. I watch the transfer
of A.N.R to Genisee&Wyoming ownership of that organisation. When A.S.R came
into existence and was negotiating the new conditions, its attitude was
that the union had to agree with what they were offering. It was take it or
leave it. If the union hadn't agreed, A.S.R was prepared to go around with
individual contracts which they were going to offer to people on a take it
or leave it basis. Unfortunately the union involved gave in. They were
trying to protect us, the employees. As it was ARS put the rail industrial
award and conditions back 50 years.
If you honestly believe that you can't do without a good strong union then
I would suggest you pull your head out of the sand and get real.
What Patricks and the federal government tried to do was to discriminate
against union membership. And they tried to do it by illegal methods. They
went against their own legislation. And who are the guilty parties you ask?
1) Patricks Stevedores
2) The National Farmers Federation
3) The Minister for Industrial Relations
4) The Prime Minister of Australia.
Now, if the leaders of our country are prepared to dis-obey laws which they
legislate, will they stop at anything?
As I said in the previous posting, no one disputes the fact that reform on
the water front was necessary, just as it is in the rail industry. But
there is a way to do it and a way not to do it. Patricks chose the wrong
way.
And I am not about to tell people how to go about getting better
productivity out of the work force.
What I am saying is that we need a strong union. We in the rail industry
don't have a strong union. We have the PTU, which is just about as weak as
you can get. The rail employers, over a period of time and by various means
, have weakened the PTU to a pretty well useless state.
Something to think about
the mouth