Australia faces period of industrial turmoil

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 28

Australia faces period of industrial turmoil

I NZPA Canberra, i Autraha is facing its , worst period of industrial turmoil for some years, i with all the indications I of a major confrontation between unions and the Federal ana state government.

Under the Prime Minister, Mr Malcolm Fraser, the Liberal-National Country Party Government has begun a hard-line attitude with unionists with a “work or else” ultimatum. The confrontation has been looming for some months and Mr Fraser has now received the backing of the Victorian Liberal Government, which under Premier Dick Hamer, has suspended 288 new major state contracts worth S4I7M because of unions’ bans on a new Govern-ment-planned power station because of their objections to the site. New Schools, hospitals, water and sewerage works, housing, power stations, transport projects and roadworks are affected by the state government’s decision, unprecedented in Australian industrial history. But the Newport power station dispute is only one of several confrontations between workers and governments which some observers believe could lead to one of Australia’s darkest periods on the industrial front. Mr Fraser, now regularly accused of “union bashing,” has thrown down the gauntlet to the militant Left-wing union leaders.

The unions have responded with a series of strikes and a growing list of disputes which last year put Australia in third place in the world for working days lost by strike action.

Disruptions or threatend distruption include: A 24-hour strike by employees of the Aus-

tralian Broadcasting Commission over proposed changes by the Federal government to the Broadcasting Act, and over proposed financial cuts. A ban on the transportation of semi-pro-cessed uranium, despite opposition by mine workers. A five-week-old strike by production and maintenance workers at the printing plant of John Fairfax and Sons, Ltd, in Sydney, publishers of three daily and two weekly newspapers, and magazines. A shaky peace with oil workers in New South Wales which has already caused a severe restriction in petrol supplies. A possibility of further stoppages on the waterfront following a government decision to retrench 1200 waterside workers during the next few months. Protests at the Newcastle (New South Wales) shipyard over conditions set by the Fraser Government if it is to get a contract to build two ships. Mr Fraser’s Government has told the state dockyard wokers that it will place orders for two bulk carriers worth S47M only if workers agree to nostrike conditions and to forego wage rises outside wage indexation — pegging increases to rises in the cost of living. The Government says it is asking this in return for a $29.2M subsidy for the two ships. If the unions refuse, the orders will go to Japan and 1500 men will be out of work. Mr Fraser is struggling to lower Australia’s ins flation rate of 12 per cent and forecasts of 400,000 unemployed by early 1977.

Mr Fraser and Ins advisers believe the main problems in fighting inflation are wage increases. In spite of an election pledge to continue full wage indexation, it has consistently opposed the granting of the full quarterly consumer price index.

When the Australian Arbitration Commission recommended that the 2.2 per cent September quarter figure should be granted to workers, the Prime Minister ripped up the message conveying the decision. It would, he told journalists, only add to the nation’s problems. Wage indexation has been one of the major factors disrupting relations between the Government and the unions, along with a Government decision to inroduce secret union bah lot legislation. With increasing demands from unions for a 35-hour week, the Fraser Government appears to be stepping up its hardline attitude. But according to a recent survey, the Government’s attitude to trade unions appears to have growing support. The sura vey showed that almost 60 per cent of unionists believed their unions had too much power, compared with only 35 per cent in a 1969 survey. Mr Fraser must have gained confidence also from a recent 24-hour strike called by trade unions in protest against a Government decision to restructure the national health scheme, Medibank, introduced by the prepious Labour Government.

It failed to gain 100 per cent national support, but brought industry and transport to a halt at a cost of S3OOM in lost production and SIOOM in lost wages. The Government now

firmly believes it has the support of the majority of trade union members, and Mr Fraser has supported the Victorian Premier in the power station row. The Prime Minister told Parliament that the Newport power station dispute was not just a matter of the environment but a “question of power.” Mr Hamer, after the Prime Minister’s states ment, moved quickly to introduce legislation making strikes against vital Government projects illegal. Called the “Vital State Project Bill” it provides go ahead with the proposal to blacklist the Newport project. There is still a chance that Mr Hamer will not ask for Royal assent for the bill— but only provided the unions do not go ahead with the proposal to blacklist the Newport project. Mr Fraser and other state governments are watching closely union reaction to the stand taken by the Victorian Premier. It is an indication of just how tough governments in Australia are prepared to be in dealing with unions, which, because of industrial disputes, are costing the nation dearly in export earnings. At the moment, millions of dollars worth of wool are being stored in warehouses as unions have gone back on an agree* ment to handle bales weighting up to 240 kilogram. They now want the maximum weight to be fixed at 180 kilogram after growers changed equipment to cater for the 240 kilogram load. Farmers have threatened to load the bales themselves, but such action would only lead to further disruptions in a country where the Government already has enough problems.