Ownership

• Commercialisation and privatisation of public owned, government operations – has been constantly on the agenda.
• Fewer and more dominant owners in each industry.
• Single multi national corporations are broadening their base of industries – from one industry into others. For example: from the cleaning industry into catering; construction plus water supply, etc.
• MNC buy outs:
• Construction
• Cleaning
• Hospitality industries
• Expansion of sub-contarcting – "pyramid sub-contracting". "Who is the employer?"

Technology, work organisation, management style

• Technology – fewer workers doing the same or more work.
• Widespread introduction of ‘team based work’. Supervisors as "coaches".
• New classification structures – breakdown of old demarcations; sometimes, allowing progression to higher wages on the basis of skill.
• "Multi-skilling", trend to competency based training.
• Increased management control over who does what work and how, when etc.
• New management jargon: "win-win problem solving" instead of bargaining and negotiation, "the level playing field", "facilitators" and "coaches" instead of supervisors, "quality control", "Taking us back to the 60’s" for anyone who opposes management’s agenda.

Work force

• Decline in manufacturing.
• Increase in service industries.
• Serious fall in union density
• Lots of workers dependent on overtime:
• Paid overtime to maintain their income
• Unpaid overtime to keep their job
• Less trust in the union
• Amalagamation of unions – better organised / better at enterprise bargaining
• A two or three tiered work force:
• Enterprise bargaining – tend to do well, especially with a strong union presence. For example – Nestle.
• Workers on the award but no enterprise agreement – not so well
• Workers paid less than award or unemployed

We had a long discussion about the ‘division’ of the work force – we need to understand this problem more. Not just within our own country, but also across the region. (Don Sutherland – education officer).

We did not discuss the question of ‘why’ these changes have been occurring enough. A priority for our next meeting.

2. Construction Industry changes:

• selling of Australian owned companies to multi nationals. For example: Baulderstone Hornibrook, Concrete Construction
• trend to comparing the performance of the Australian construction industry to overseas industries. Multi nationals can benchmark how long it takes to put up an office or hotel tower in Berlin compared to Sydney. They can compare labour costs etc.
• ternd to multi nationals who are highly diversified – for example, Vivendi, a French mnc involved in Construction and also the water industry. So, we need to make contacts across industries and across countries.
• Unionised wages through Enterprise Bargaining Agreements are higher than workers who can’t get an enterprise agreement.
• Harder to identify who the employer is. A worker may have a job – but through multiple sub-contracting – who is the employer? Who should we really be bargaining with?

3. We summarised the impact on workers of the changes. The main points are:

• Workers lives (with some exceptions) are a lot more stressful.
• They are sick of change. They don’t like it and are ‘frightened’ of it. They have a ‘gutful’ of it.
• It is more dangerous to go to work.
• Morale at work is low. There is less comradeship. "Workers are less loyal to their work."
• In workplaces where it is not as bad, for example Nestle at Blacktown, it is because of the union. Things seem to be better in the unionised sector. But even among the unionised some ae not as well off as others – for example, women workers.
• And, one third of young people cannot get work – not even in the labour market.

4. Our questions

… to help us learn about the experience of workers and unions in other countries:

• What proportion of the work force is in the government sector / public sector? Is privatisation occurring? And, in which parts of the public sector? Have there been any campaigns against privatisation and what has been the outcome?
• What is the level of union membership generally? And also, sector by sector?
• Do large companies tend to treat workers better than smaller companies? Are they better equipped to deal with unions? To what extent are British and European companies more likely to involve unions / accept unions in negotiations? (In Australia they seem to ‘give in’ to unions more easily.)
• To what extent do your labour laws provide an environment in which unions can organise in the workplace?
• What are the causes of stress for you as a worker?
• Has the removal of international barriers increased the ability for workers to organise? Is there pressure on multi nationals to treat workers in developing countries as well as elsewhere?

5. Our next session is: