Unionists In SA Celebrate 140 Year Anniversary of United Trades and Labour Council

Written by: Ned K. on 2 November 2024

CFMEU members in SA staying strong: delegates' training a couple of days ago (CFMEU Facebook)

On Friday 1st October over 150 Union Organizers attended the annual SA Unions Organizing Conference which also celebrated the 140th anniversary of the SA United Trades and Labour Council which formed in 1884.

In 1884, the name "Trades and Labour" was fitting because at that time most of the recognized Unions consisted of trades people and most of them were men.

140 years later, the same body goes by the name SA Unions which is more appropriate as the make-up of union membership is far broader now than workers with a trade. There are many more union members who do not have a formal trade and about 50% of members of Unions in SA are women workers.
That fact was reflected in the large number of women Organizers at the SA Unions Conference on Friday.

The Conference came at a difficult time for the relatively new SA Unions Secretary Dale Beasley. He has had the task of uniting the affiliated Unions at the state level following the federal Labor Government's disgraceful attack on construction workers by placing their Division of the CFMEU into the hands of an Administrator.

To Dale's credit he demonstrated for all to see, including two ALP MPs who were guest-speakers, that workers’ collective organizations are quite capable of discussing differences and working out problems internally through democratic processes. 

There were strongly held views among Organizers at the Conference regarding the actions of the federal Labor Government against the CFMEU. Everyone had a chance to speak and despite differences of opinion, everyone's view was respected.

One of the guest-speakers at the Conference was the Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt. He copped plenty of criticism from Organizers about the implications for workers of a Labor Government interfering in the internal affairs of a Union, paving the way for deeper attacks on workers' mass organizations by future governments particularly a government led by Dutton. Murray Watt did not retreat from the official Labor Government position that it was united with Unions as the political arm of the "labor movement" and that the Government's aim was to ensure that the Construction Division of the CFMEU returned to running its own affairs no later than 3 years under an Administrator!

One of the women Organizers at the Conference said to Watt in so many words that if he and other Labor MPs wanted union members' support in the coming federal election campaign, he and they had better take on board that many union members are extremely concerned about the Government's interference in the internal affairs of a Union.

Murray Watt did appear to be quite surprised at the level of anxiety among Organizers and he left the Conference with plenty to think about. He was particularly surprised and embarrassed to know that in SA there was no Union Official with the authority to go on to a building site to investigate a health and safety issue on the site. The reason for this was that the Government's new laws against the CFMEU resulted in all the relevant Officials of the Construction Division being given "the bullet" by the Government appointed Administrator!

This dangerous situation of construction workers in SA not being able to have their Union Official come on site to investigate a safety issue was seen as absurd by Conference Organizers.

They had just heard from the first guest-speaker, Kyam Maher, the SA Labor Government Attorney General about recent reforms to the Health and Safety laws in SA. The new laws enable a Union to take a safety issue caused by employer neglect to the South Australian Employment Tribunal (SAET), effectively as an industrial matter. 

Organizers at the Conference were under no illusions about the coming attacks on workers if a Dutton led Coalition wins the fast-approaching federal election. They acknowledged the changes to the Fair Work Act mentioned by Murray Watt in his speech, such as Same Job - Same Pay, Multi-Employer Bargaining, Delegate Rights and tighter laws around definition of a Casual worker. 

They also realized that workers’ and their Unions’ solidarity and collective strength is needed irrespective of which political party forms government under capitalism.

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