Dear Antiseptic,

I've actually been placed in an adversarial
position with my employer a couple of times
in the past. Once when our organisation was
being re-structured - and we all had to re-apply
for positions - and another time when they were
'downsizing,' within the organisation - trying
to convince full-time staffers that it was to
their advantage to accept packages and leave,
or become - part-timers. Under Jeff Kennett -
quite a lot happened - that would have been
quite difficult - without union support.

*Under Jeff Kennett -
quite a lot happened - that would have been
quite difficult - without union support.*

Sheesh Foxy, it should be clear to a smart lady
like you, that even Govts cannot constantly spend
more then they earn.

Victoria was frankly a basket case, because previous
Govts did not understand that basic fact.

Kennett did what he had to do, unpopular as it was.

Just look at Greece right now. They too thought that
they could book it all up on credit, fudged figures etc,
but its all about to hit them on the shins.

Reality is hitting home in some European countries.
Govt workers have had to accept pay cuts, dismissals etc.
Alot more is about to follow.

What surprises me is that you don't personally max
out on your credit card, you are clearly level headed
about money. Yet you don't seem to accept the hopeless
situation that Victoria was in, before Kennett sorted it
out the hard way.

Foxy:"I've actually been placed in an adversarial
position with my employer a couple of times"

How many staff actually lost their jobs in that restructure? Was the restructure necessary? Did the Union oppose the loss of jobs, or the restructure itself? On what grounds?

As for the "downsizing", I'd have thought that librarians were a prime group to benefit from improvements in technology leading to huge increases in productivity. For example, when was the last time you assisted someone to sift through a drawer full of index cards? What about the last time you had to spend the time preparing inter-library requests for specific titles, rather than simply accessing the database?

What you have described is a natural process that should be allowed to take its course. It is thanks to Unions opposing productivity-based improvements caused by new technology that we had the MUA/Patricks debacle under Howard.

OTOH, if an employer is refusing to implement reasonable safe-work practises, or is exploiting workers by underpaying, or is making all sorts of other excessive demands on workers or is failing to provide the basic necessities to do a job, there can exist genuinely adversarial situations. I've been involved in several of those, all in the construction / mining sector, under 4 different unions - the now defunct BLF, the AWU, the CFMEU and the CEPU/ETU. I've even been hit by a car driven by a Telstra manager attemptng to cross a picket line (no, I wasn't hurt). In each and every case the Union "settled the dispute" and business went on as usual, while the workers were left out of pocket. The Union reps didn't lose a cent in pay while their members did what they were told and went on strike. On a couple of occasions we struck although noone but the Union Rep claimed to know why - it's solidarity, brother.

Whenever people are given power without genuine responsibility and especially without personal consequence for misusing their power then bad outcomes follow

Anti you make a lot of sense on these issues.

The only thing I would add though is like Foxy I have also been in organisations that have re-structured or downsized. Thankfully mostly without loss of jobs but generally with change in job function or transfers to the new regime.

In government these changes are not always for the better and often are done to preserve the excesses in the senior executive and access to extra funding by merging two areas (one of which for political reasons has the greater funding) to the detriment of operational and high customer service areas within the public service. Change is generally a good thing and is inevitable with ever-evolving technologies but it cannot occur IMO without impartial scrutiny and review.

One of the worst things the government did was bring in bonuses for SES officers based on 'merit' in the guise of positive change. Often managers are compelled to bring about change merely because their bonus depends upon it not because there is any real benefit to productivity. Sometimes the productivity is actually curtailed, such is the nature of the beast.

Governments and public servants are sometimes too focussed on the 'look' of a thing than the realities - sometimes at the behest of their Ministers sometimes not.

Dear Yabby,

What Jeff Kennett did in Victoria was inexcusable.
He may have inherited problems from the previous
government but he left an even bigger and greater
mess when he lost the election.

My husband worked in the hospital system and watched
the gradual deterioration of the hospitals
leading to cannibalisation and scavenging of old
hospital equipment to maintain and service whatever
working medical equipment was left. Schools instead
of being maintained were filled with second-hand
re-locatable buildings. Roads and streets were badly
maintained - costing more to fix in the long term.
And Kennet's only real concern during that period was his
fetish with gun- control. Thousands of mentally-challenged
people were put out on the street to fend for themselves -
Many people were forced into early retirement - while
the Party boys were given high-paying top jobs and other
benefits. And then this man has the nerve to head the
'Beyond Blue' organisation after putting thousands of
people through major trauma and stress.

Dear Anti,

Our Regional Library System was only one example of
what happened here in Victoria under Jeff Kennett.
We were already functioning on skeleton staff -
and multi-skilling I can assure you - further
"dowsizing" -was a joke. Even so that would have
been acceptable - had it not been for the fact
that getting rid of library staff was one thing -
but replacing library staff with dysfunctional
CEOs at top salaries as well as so called
"Library Managers" who knew nothing about libraries
was not only - no saving - but a much larger expense
and unnecessary.

By the way - I retained my job - but many of my
hard working colleagues didn't - and they were
professionals in their areas of expertise - and
valuable assets to the organisation. Hands-on
staff - who were able to deal with all the challenges
that library work threw at them unlike the inexperienced
managers that replaced them.

Foxy, how many of you librarians offered to take a 10-20% pay
cut, so that the jobs of your fellow librarians could be preserved?

Fact is that prvious Labor Govts in Victoria, had created a
financial train wreck, which kept increasing. Everyone protecting
their little patch of self interest, meant that they did not know
how to deal with it.

When its time for the receivers to move in, drastic action is
required and it may not be pretty. You might not like what
Kennett did, fact is he had the balls to do it, unlike any
labor politician. The public clearly understood, for they voted
him back after first term.

Similar things are now happening in the US. Clinton handed over
the Federal Govt to Bush, in great financial shape. The big
question at the time was, how they would spend the surplus.
Within 8 years Bush wrecked the economy, landed the US Govt
in its deepest debt ever and can take a large blame for the GFC.

Obama was left to clean up the mess, but things were so bad,
that had he been touch, global depression would have been the
most likely result. Fact is, it will take years for the US to
dig its way out.

One year later, voters are increasingly blaming Obama. They must
think he's the fairy godmother, who can wave his magic wand and
fix it all in 12 months.

So Obama will cop the blame, as you are blaming Kennett, rather
then the cause of the problem.