The ACTU Congress of 1995

Labour History

Volumn , Issue 70, 1996, Pages 198-209

  Martin, Ross ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 85172693431     PISSN: 00236942     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3828/27516418     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (26)

1. R Martin 'The ACTU Con ress of 1993' Labour Histor no 66 May 1994, 150-1
2. Ibid., 141.
3. The 1989 congress, scheduled for five days, ended after four because of problems which the air pilots' strike created for interstate delegates.
4. And it sat for the full five days until 1981, when the afternoon session of the final day was abandoned for lack of a quorum. Thereafter, it was scheduled to meet for four-and-a-half days.
5. ACTU Congress 1995, Minutes, 1. The same source records that the 39 unions were represented by 653 delegates which, together with 13 from trades and labor councils and the five ACTU officers, made a total of 671 delegates.
6. R.M. Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1969', Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 11, no.3, November 1969, 261-4.
7. Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1993', op.cit., 142-3.
8. Unlike all other ministerial speakers at congress, Mr Keating had no written version of his speech circulated in 1989 and 1993. This time, however, one was circulated after the event, and has been appended to the formal minutes of the congress. But there was littl of no correspondence between the spoken speech and the written speech. They were startingly dissimilar in focus, substance, and style. An apt and concise illustration of the difference in style is provided by the contrast between the written opening sentence ('It's a great pleasure to be here') and the spoken (It's great to be back').
9. ACTU Congress, 1995, Minutes, 24-5.
10. Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1993', op.cit., 144-5.
11. Ibid., 145-6.
12. R. Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1991', Labour History, no.62, May 1992,143.
13. Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1993', op.cit., 145. The 1995 figures are derived from the correspondence relating to the appointment of delegates, to which I had access thanks to Bill Mansfield and Lorraine Walles.
14. Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1991', op.cit., 145,149.
15. Ibid., 149-50; and Martin, 'The ACTU Congress of 1993', op. cit., 150.
16. The amendment related to the new 'weighted vote' system on the executive: see below.
17. Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1993', op.cit., 149-50.
18. The topics: syndicate 1. regional recruitment; 2. workplace organisation; 3. organising strategies; 4. outworkers and teleworkers; 5. casuals and part-timers; 6. information technology; 7. training of delegates; 8. enterprise bargaining as a recruiting tool; 9. young people; 10. best practice unionism; 11. women workers; 12. non-English speaking workers; 13. travel and other services and recruitment; 14. union communications; 15. individual contracts.
19. A maximum of 50 enrolments was set for a single session, but no syndicate ever got close to this. The highest enrolment was 38 for the morning session of syndicate 6 (information technology). The highest for an afternoon session was 37 for syndicate 14 (union communications), which also registered the highest overall total of nominations at 69. The lowest overall was registered by syndicate 4 (outworkers and teleworkers), with 10 morning and 15 afternoon nominations.
20. I was reliably informed that four, out of an enrolment of 23, turned up for the afternoon session.
21. These included the presidential address; the endorsement of the president-elect; the farwelling of the president; an 'Australia Remembers' ceremony; signing of the ACTU-Lend Lease agreement; reports on the United Nations World Women's Conference at Beijing; presentation of the ACTU Media awards; presentation of the Meritorious Service awards; and musical contributions by the Victorian Trade Union Choir.
22. As well as the addresses of the Prime Minister and the federal and New South Wales ministers for industrial relations, (and the time taken up with speeches of greeting and thanks, in these cases), the following speakers are included here: the secretary of the New Zealand Finance Sector Union; Joe Kelly, a Melbourne secondary school student; George Slater and Edgar Williams, both retired union officials and former executive members; representatives of Melbourne City Council strikers and Mt Isa strikers; the Organising Works trainees and associated officials; an APHEDA representative; and a representative of the Lend Lease Corporation. Excluded are the contributions made by those non-delegates who addressed syndicates in the role of either 'presenter' or 'recorder/facilitator'.
23. The congress met in plenary session for a little under ten hours, and in syndicates (according to the official timetable) for six hours - though the afternoon sessions of many, if not all, syndicates are unlikely to have run for the full scheduled time of three hours. (The same point is likely to apply, though probably in lesser degree, in the case of the morning sessions as well.) Syndicates apart, ceremonies and outsiders together took up a little under six-and-a-half hours.
24. The other seven dealt with the Accord, child labour, nuclear tests, the Australian republic, Western Australian industrial legislation, the export of live sheep and cattle, and the executive's 'Overview Resolution'.
25. The exception was a new 'Competition Policy'.
26. The resolution as adopted: 'That delegates endorse the policies and strategies presented to Congress along with the amendments recommended by the Executive'.