Hi Foxy,

Forty thousand is small change.

Look more closely at the Cleanevent scam: some of the lowest-paid workers in Australia, required to work weird hours, had their effective hourly rate cut from $ 25 to $ 15, something like that, with the removal of penalty rates for early mornings and weekends - just for this one company, Cleanevent. Other companies - and this is the vital part of the scam - still paid the award rates. Since they couldn't now compete with Cleanevent, they went out of business.

In return for the union-assisted monopolising of the business, the company agreed to sign up all its employees, mostly casuals, to the union, the AWU. So, unawares, the workers were, by hook or by crook, whether they knew it or not, whether they wanted to or not, AWU members. We're talking about many thousands of workers, so this has added considerably to the AWU's standing at national conferences etc. Since they backed their man, Bill Shorten, to head the Labor Party, it's intriguing to speculate whether or not this Cleanevent scam has crowbarred Shorten into that position - and potentially that of Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Cleanevent has made, on one estimate, four hundred million dollars since the deal was struck.

But that's not all ! For a considerable period, Cleanevent was giving the AWU a back-hander of forty thousand dollars per year, perhaps half a million dollars during the life of the arrangement.

So how many other deals, each more devious and anti-worker than the last, have been done by the man who would be Prime Minister ?

[TBC]

[Continued]

I was in a fairly good union once, out of half a dozen. I was a dough-presser in a major bakery which made most of the State's pies and pasties. Winters were very busy, summers very quiet. In summer, we did the day's work in six hours but got paid for eight.

One day, early in summer, the employment bloke called the women workers together and asked them if they would mind getting paid only for the six hours they worked. Nobody said no. Meanwhile, us blokes kept getting our eight hours' pay and, to our shame, not one bloke remarked about the deal. [This is back in the days when women workers rarely had cars, so they had to get taxis to start work at five a.m., 1.30 a.m. on Fridays, or get their husbands to drop them off].

After about eight weeks, one woman grumbled to one of the blokes, who went around to see the union bloke in the Trades and labour Hall. He said that if he got one complaint, the deal would be overturned. After the next shift, one woman rang him up and complained. He immediately saw the Industrial Advocate who ordered the company to immediately reinstate the arrangement for women as well as the men, AND to repay the women all the back-pay that they had missed. None of the blokes gave a toss.

Looking back, I realise that surely the Union would have known through its on-site man, so they could have acted much sooner - and one wonders if they would have at all, if nobody had put them wise to it. Still, it broke my faith in both unions AND in 'worker solidarity'.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid ?

Cheers,

Joe

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

I shall repeat what I've stated in the past.

I am a member of a union, but I've never been put in a
position where I've had to go out on strike. And although
I'm also frustrated when the union does its job badly,
I support without reservation the right of all working
people to join together so as to preserve and protect
their livelihoods.

What I do admire about Mr Shorten is that he's not of the
"old guard." He has stated that the only way in which
the country can work properly is for management and labour
to co-operate with one another, not condemn one another.
He recognises the fact that union s have to be more
sensitive to the realities of modern economic conditions and
that sectarian attitudes and greed serve the cause of labour
badly.

It will be interesting to see the findings of the Royal Commission.
Mr Shorten may well be bruised by them.
He faces many difficulties ahead of the next election -
including the Labor Conference at the end of July.

The Opposition Leader will face difficult questions on a variety
of things - including asylum seeker policy, party reform,
recognition of Palestine and free trade - amongst others.

However, Labor is still ahead in the polls and Mr Shorten is
still the preferred PM (by a few points). So neither the
Coalition or Labor should be too conifdent at this stage.

Both parties still run the risk of losing their support base
and having it drain away. We know that things can change in
politics in a flash.

Interesting times ahead.

cont'd ...

This made me smile:

Bruce McMillan, wrote in the Saturday Age, July 11,2015:

"$80 million to discover Shorten is Opposition Leader.
Money well spent."

Hi Foxy,

Yes, you may be right about " .... sectarian attitudes and greed serve the cause of labour badly."

Those greedy cleaners, getting up at four in the morning to clean toilets - who the hell do they think they are ?

Or do you mean the unions ? Or the Labor Party ? Can you honestly say that the Labor Party still serves workers ?

Joe

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

I am quite familiar with how hard people work.
Be they toilet cleaners, factory-workers, or
any one else earning a crust -
so there's no need for your patronising attitude.

From your posts I gather that you are anti-union.
Fair enough. I'm not. As I told you earlier -
I support without reservation the right of all
working people to join
together so as to preserve and protect their livelihoods.
We are in critical times and Australia requires a
re-assessment of the relationship between labour and capital,
a re-assessment which takes into account the politics of
industrial democracy, profit, and job sharing, and long-term
planning.

What I don't believe in is business having the right to get
whatever it wants - and that this is in the best interests
of the working people of this country.

What we don't need is the "kick-the-worker-today-and-take-the-
money-tomorrow" attitude that comes from the Cold War warriors
who are currently at work around the place. I believe in
conciliation - not arbitration. I believe that things can be
worked out if there is co-operation between Management and labour.
So does Mr Shorten.