Resisting Howard's Industrial Relations 'Reforms': an assessment of ACTU strategy Download

Description:

Howard’s planned industrial relations (IR) legislation confronts Australian unions with their worst nightmare. This is obviously the case for rank and file members who face a savage attack on their conditions, but the legislation is also terrifying for the union bureaucracy. Since Federation, Australian capitalism has operated on the basis of mediating class conflict at the workplace through arbitration and conciliation. This did not mean that class conflict was absent, or that the arbitration system was not itself a weapon in this conflict, only that at the base of any such conflict was a recognition by employers and the state of the legitimacy of the union bureaucracy in the industrial relations process. With its WorkChoices legislation, the Howard government has signalled an onslaught on this entire system and, with it, the central role of union officials in the system of structured class relationships.

Submitted On:

27 Mar 2007

Submitted By:

admin (admin)

File Date:

27 Mar 2007

File Author:

Tom Bramble

File Version:

v1

File Size:

57.11 Kb

File Type:

pdf

Downloads:

226