OPINE: Sharing the peace
By John Robertson, Head of Unions NSW
There is a mood for collaboration in the country that Labor’s election victory will unleash.
Date: 27 November 2007
During recent months, a lot of myths were doing the rounds about what a federal Labor government would look like. But the biggest of the lot is the one about union bosses taking over the country.
While the mantra may have been a compelling soundtrack to vision of some of the movement's overweight fringe-dwellers, it ignores the history of Labor in power. This provides a far more interesting story than a cartoon storming of the parapet.
The big shift we expect to see under Labor is an end to more than a decade of conflict politics driving the national agenda. The art of politics that John Howard mastered was to create conflict - spark a battle and come out on the side of the numerical majority - up until his IR laws.
The economic and conflict model merged most starkly with Work Choices, where the former prime minister pitted business, unions and working people head to head. There were a number of prizes at stake: for employers, the promise of reduced labour costs and a more marginal role for collective bargaining, and the removal of unfair dismissal rights.
The response of the ALP under Kevin Rudd has been to refuse to enter the conflict, instead seeking to minimise differences with the government to a few core points: Work Choices, education, climate change and Iraq. While this caused visible frustration for government ministers, it is indicative of the sort of government the ALP will form, one that is less focused on conflict and more committed to creating structures that bring together stakeholders.
This approach is consistent with the way Labor governed Australia between 1983 and 1996. From day one, Bob Hawke convened a reconciliation summit with the business community, developed an Accord with the union movement that managed wages while delivering social improvements, and ushered in an exciting era of common purpose that united Australia.
While no one is advocating a return to the formal Accord process, recognising that the centralised wage-fixing model is no longer an economic lever, the spirit of co-operation is one thing that can be expected to return.
Unions and big business have been locked in a pitched battle orchestrated by the former prime minister's Work Choices laws, but both are too pragmatic to carry on hostilities once the ringleader departs the scene. With the Howard laws in place, there was too much to gain for big business not to use them.
What business wouldn't want to strip labour costs by eliminating penalty rates? What union wouldn't put up a fight for its right to represent members in wage negotiations?
Dialogue
But if the laws changed, these incentives to
conflict would be removed and pragmatism would again come to the forefront. For
unions, that pragmatism is based on the simple issue: that working with industry
to create secure, well-paid jobs is the No1 priority. For business, it will be
a recognition that getting on with business will mean dealing with workers and
their representatives again.
This imperative of co-operation will not be limited to workplace relations but will include broader industry and, indeed, economic projects. Expect to see a new era in business-union co-operation in training and skills development, workplace participation and the development of specific plans to foster local industries.
The challenge for the union movement is to do the intellectual heavy lifting to drive these ideas. For example, individual unions have the chance to drive industry policies to create long-term security for their members. And where they develop plans that align their interests with employers, their arguments will be all the more cogent.
When it comes to wages, the challenge lies in working to ensure the benefits of the superior outcomes thatcollective bargaining deliver are not cancelled out by inflationary pressures. Finally, there is the issue of building union density. The defeat of the Howard government sees the end of outright union-busting.
Unions need to build on the momentum of the Rights at Work campaign to grasp the opportunity to promote themselves and increase their base on the basis of what we can offer working Australians. There is such a rich canvas to be explored after 11 years of conflict, there is a mood for collaboration that a change in national leadership will unleash.
This is the fundamental difference to the way the Liberals and Labor manage industrial relations. For the Liberals it is a battle with an enemy. For Labor it is a process to be managed to develop results that are in everyone's interests.
All of which will mean a changed relationship between government and the unions but not, as some seek to portray it, a domination; merely a dialogue where the aim is to share the peace, not win the war.
