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Vigilance Bulletin No. 38, September 9, 2008
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DP World EA: What we will end up with and what we need DP World EA: What we will end up with & what we need The current DP World Enterprise Agreement (EA) expired on June 30, 2008. Negotiations are slowing drawing to a close. So what can we expect from this EA - and will it meet our needs? At the time of writing National (Part A) negotiations are yet to be finalised, but the agreement will most likely include pay rises of 5% a year for three years and back pay to be back dated to July 1. DP World has pushed for a three year freeze of the consolidated (or shift) allowance for all VSE, GWE and supplementaries. Whether union negotiators have agreed to accept this or not is unclear. Local negotiators have agreed to all shift breaks starting on the hour, which would make the second run 3 ¾ hours long (murder on night shift). The general maintenance roster will see average hours rise from 33.6 to 35.5 hours a week. To be fully compensated for this, maintenance employees will need a one-off 5 to 6% pay rise on top of any nationally agreed wage rise. Will this happen? A higher pay rise and a few extra permanent jobs are welcome. An increase in any roster hours is not. Either way, this latest EA will not address the big issues we face - inflation, casualisation, lack of seniority etc. What we need But some know better. Officials and DP World delegates in Fremantle have lodged a bargaining notice for legal, protected industrial action in order to fight for their claims. Why not other DP World sites too? We would all be in a much better bargaining position if all DP World sites did likewise. The critical lesson to be learned out of this EA process is that the question of leadership comes first. If our union officials are not prepared to lead the fight that we need to protect our jobs and our futures, then we have to be prepared to fight to remove them. A militant program – the only alternative Harry Bridges and his “Albion Hall” group established elected strike committees to take the strike out of the hands of ILA leaders. In England after World War II unofficial dockers’ committees fought for the list of improvements in the Dockers’ Charter, despite the opposition of the leaders of their union (TGWU). But even simple militancy is not enough. Time and time again militants have come up short when confronted with attacks by the government and their “friends” in the labor movement. What we need to turn things around is a rank and file group or caucus that is built on a militant program (such as the one printed below). It is only in this way that we can build a leadership that is 100% on the side of workers and dedicated to using the most militant and effective tactics to win. Such a leadership will have learnt the lessons of the past and would no longer rely on the government and the Labor Party - the party that continues to privatise, hold down wages and keep anti-union laws in place. This leadership would fight for a workers party based on a program to fight for a workers government. Such a government would end the cycle of inflation, poverty and war by nationalising all industry without compensation. Workers control would see production planned for economic need not profit. The ultimate aim has to be the winning of workers’ control of society and ending the capitalist system. The first step down that road is realising that the only way to win at negotiation time is to take industrial action - with the support of our leaders when we can and without their support when we have to. |
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