Need for international unions

SMH 04 November 2011 by Piergiorgio Moro
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Not surprisingly, the Qantas dispute is not an isolated case. It is part of an overall push by airlines in the region to reduce costs by decreasing the wages and conditions of their workers via casualisation and outsourcing. In the past year we have seen similar issues at play at Philippines Airlines, Garuda Airlines, and Malaysia Airlines. At Philippines Airlines, about 2500 workers have now been on strike for more than a month over the issue of outsourcing their jobs.

By striving to be internationally competitive, airline companies have embarked on a global "race to the bottom" in terms of pay and conditions for their workforce.

For Qantas employees, this is becoming a new reality. Qantas is no longer just the iconic Australian brand. Qantas is an international company that may have its headquarters in Australia but resides in many countries.

For workers, there is only one way forward in order to defend their wages and conditions. Workers and unions will need to emulate companies like Qantas and go global as well. Unions will need to be able to work, organise and bargain at the international level, exactly the same as the companies that employ workers.

Unions will need to organise new standards and structures so that workers can receive the same pay for the same work, can have the same conditions and benefits regardless of the city, state or country in which they live. This will undercut the companies' relentless search for cheap labour as the labour costs will be equalised across various countries. The result will be that jobs will not be outsourced to the country that has the least organised and cheapest workforce, but will instead be located where they are most suited.

This new type of organising will not be easy to implement, but the constant pressures of globalisations will make this inevitable. The only question is whether we, as unionists, are going to make this transition ourselves, when our forces are still strong, or will we be forced, once our present structures have proved inadequate.

The maritime unions, under the auspice of the International Transport Federation (ITF), have shown the way. The ITF has established an international minimum wage for seafarers, regardless of what country they are from, or in which country their ship is registered in. The Maritime Union of Australia has successfully blocked international ships while in port until the wages of the ships' sailors were paid in full.

Creating trade unions in the 1800s was not easy, but it was done. Trade unions over the years have shown an incredible ability to adapt. The time to change is upon us again. The alternative of having no trade unions, for workers to be un-organised, is too grim to bear.