Can a leopard change its spots?

“IF we’re honest, most of us would accept that a bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband, not withstanding all his faults, you find that he tends to do more good than harm. He might be a bad boss but at least he’s employing someone.”
Tony Abbott, 2002.

This quote, which a lot of you will have seen before, is a useful summary of the views Tony Abbott, the man who would be Prime Minister, has about work and workers. And it’s a quote worth unpacking in the light of his record as Minister for Workplace Relations.

It ignores that fact that it’s employees’ hard work and productivity that generates profit in the private sector and positive social outcomes in the public and community sectors.

But I want to focus on what it says about his views about power and respect. Abbott’s view is that working people are only entitled to one reaction towards their employer: and that’s gratitude. And it’s one-way gratitude.

Like all union people and most Australians, I think something different. Working people are entitled to dignity and respect from their employers and a measure of security and control — of power- over their work. So let’s examine Tony Abbott’s record as Minister of Workplace Relations.

Tony Abbott was Minister for Workplace Relations for less than three years, over the course of 2001 to 2003. In that short time, he packed in an extraordinary amount of anti-worker and union-busting activity. Here a just a few of his “greatest hits”.

(I’m sure I’ve forgotten some of Tony’s attacks. Please add any I have forgotten as a comment below).

1. He launched the Cole Royal Commission which spent $65 million attacking building workers and their unions. Once he received the report he introduced legislation to set up the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

2. When workers at carpet manufacture Feltex had a dispute about wages and entitlements he met with management, then urged the workers to drop their claims and supported the employer’s plan to sue the workers.

3. He explicitly and publicly sought to “trade” Government support for the car industry (which employs 50000 people) for the companies implementing a radical IR agenda, including individual contracts. He insisted the car companies set up a $1 million fund to sue workers and unions. (Later, as Health Minister, he tried the same thing, asking drug companies who received PBS income to implement AWAs.)

4. He attacked a partnership between a job placement provider and the AMWU that helped redundant workers find new jobs as a breach of freedom of association laws, and launched an investigation.

5. He made Federal Funding to the Victorian Government to upgrade the MCG to host the Commonwealth Games contingent on Victoria attacking the building unions.

6. He threatened to sue striking workers at BHP Steel’s Westernport plant, even when the company didn’t want to.

7. He published an article on unpaid worker entitlements, attacking redundancy agreements as too generous and saying that the Award maximum of 8 weeks was enough. In other words, the problem with unpaid worker entitlements was that the workers had too many entitlements.

8. He said component workers engaged in a strike in SA were guilty of ‘treason”, and in December 2002, he introduced a Bill to specifically target the activities of unions on the car industry.

9. He backed the right of shipping firm CSL Australia to sack Australian crew of coastal ships and replace them with cheaper foreign labour.

10. He told striking workers at Morris McMahon, whose employer was refusing to recognise and bargain with their union to go back to work as the company offer was a “Rolls Royce” deal.

11. He attacked workers taking protected industrial action at Tristar, and when asked on ABC Radio if the Government would intervene to help settle the dispute he said no, only to stop the strike.

12. He attacked and tried to legislate against the right of unions to set their own fees for membership, even though unions are voluntary associations and should be free to democratically determine their own affairs.

13. He introduced funding guidelines for Higher Education that required Universities to offer AWAs and strip Award conditions, even if they didn’t want to, or lose Federal funding. He had earlier tried the same thing with school funding.

14. He changed the Commonwealth Government Bargaining Framework to force public servants onto AWAs even when the individual Department didn’t want to use them.

15. He pushed for a non-union agreement in his own Department, and 90% of the staff knocked it back.

16. He helped appeal the Emwest decision of the Federal Court that gave workers the right to seek a redundancy pay deal if their Collective Agreement didn’t include one.

17. He supported an appeal by employers in Electrolux to restrict the right of workers and their unions to bargain over employment related matters.

18. He refused to release documents detailing the Government’s involved in the protracted meat dispute at G&K O’Connor, where union members were locked out for 9 months and endured pay cuts of up to 60%.

19. After building workers at Grocon overwhelmingly rejected a non-union agreement, he attacked the union and accused them of “coercion”.

20. He announced a special fund of Commonwealth money for employers to mount court action against workers and unions involved in disputes.

21. He opposed the ACTU claim before the Industrial Relations Commission to increase redundancy pay in Awards, and intervened in AIRC hearings, seeking to prevent unions being able to be heard on behalf of members.

Tony, I’m starting to see the pattern here…

It’s not just that he thinks the boss is always right. It’s a pattern involving the consistent use of the power of the Government to mount a ferocious assault on workers and there unions.

And it’s is a reminder of what’s at stake in the federal election.