Rhiannon Carter, Strategic Research Officer at the ACTU, writes
The one thing that I have noticed from the crises that have befallen the global economy and many domestic economies around the world in recent years is the welcome absence of rhetoric around greedy or out-of-control unions being to blame. At the height of the crisis it was the big end of town facing the heat and the blame.
The blame for the spectacular failure of the market in the United States, in Britain, in Europe and elsewhere cannot and should not be placed at the feet of labour and its representatives. It was not unions standing in the way of business that pushed the United States to the fiscal cliff it now is precariously perched at.
The reason for this is not necessarily good news for unions: the decline in union density and power has meant that the voices and views of labour have become increasingly marginalised.
But this dark cloud has a potential silver lining. It shows that the instability of the market, the crisis that has occurred is not the fault of workers or unions. It has predominately been the fault of business leaders, regulators and perhaps even the system they have created. Those at the top have been the ones causing problems for those at the bottom – not the other way around.
These events should spark reflection in those commentators who insist so fervently that unions were the cause of economic woes in the 1970s and 1980s, that greedy workers and unions with too much power were the ones constraining business and governments from making sound economic decisions. Given the current state of affairs in the global economy, it should make us question that logic, perhaps if that blame has been placed elsewhere we wouldn’t be in this current mess.
Given this situation it is to my dismay when I see in the media today the return of rhetoric claiming that it is unions and ordinary working people that are a threat.
Workers and unions did not cause the Global Financial Crisis and any attempt to try to push anti-union, anti-worker measures now linking them to the fallout from the crisis is false and self-serving on the behalf of conservatives. The claims led by the ACTU for a pay rise for the lowest paid workers every year is met with cries of dismay from many sections of the business community, it seems commentators are quick to forget it was the highest paid that helped to throw global economies into crisis.
Somehow the focus is shifting - now paying enough to the more than 1.4 million workers who are Award-reliant to enable them to keep up with inflation is a central threat to our economy. Not the financial institutions that recklessly invested money that required bailing out, not businesses who found the money to reward their executives with obscene amounts of money in pay and bonuses and even more in golden handshakes when they were ousted from their positions when stock prices faltered and they were laying off staff.
It is the same when the issue of insecure work is discussed; again the business lobby and conservative elements are trying to characterise the attempt to ensure that all workers have access to secure jobs as greedy unions trying to destroy flexibility and productivity.
If the Global Financial Crisis has taught us anything it should be that unions are not the problem, nor are workers. And more to the point they have never been the problem, this rhetoric should not be making a return to our national discussion, while criticisms of the real perpetrators fades. Asking for decent jobs and wages, asking for a measure of stability and security does not and has never been the root of economic upheaval or fiscal meltdown.
If anything worker power and unions can be a positive force in economies, ensuring that people are paid enough to live and spend, to keep workplaces and bosses accountable for their actions, assisting in educating workers and creating a positive and productive work environment.
We gave bosses a chance to run the show. It didn’t work out so well, perhaps it’s time we gave workers a chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment