Conference Report: The ACTU Congress of 2000

Labour History

Volumn , Issue 79, 2000, Pages 201-212

  Martin, Ross ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 85172706064     PISSN: 00236942     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3828/27516744     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (38)

1. They included four full-Time ACTU officers, and represented 35 affiliated trade unions and 17 metropolitan and provincial trades and labour councils.
2. It was also the first in 50 years to be convened in a month other than late August or September (an outcome of the timing of the Sydney Olympic Games) and, at three-And-A-half days, the second shortest in more than 50 years: The Melbourne Congress of 1995 ran for only two-And-A-half days.
3. That was as a research officer in the former Storemen and Packers' Union. He joined the ACTU in a similar capacity in November 1974, becoming assistant secretary in 1977, and secretary in 1982.
4. Though there were tributes to both Ms George and Mr Kelty in speeches by Kim Beazley and Bob Hawke, and a particular tribute to Ms George in the new president's opening speech. Like Mr Kelty, Ms George did not appear at the Congress. She did, however, attend the dinner for delegates.
5. See Ross Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', Labour History, no. 74, May 1998, p.163.
6. See R.M. Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1985', Labour History, no. 49, November 1985, p.104.
7. In the event, it appears that the Australian industry superannuation funds did not contribute much directly to the campaign. As Mr Colley put it, 'they're not geared to a 4-6 weeks campaign at the moment'.
8. The senior vice-president, Greg Sword, later put this figure into perspective by suggesting that it amounts to something like 20 times Australia's GDP. The current figure for union-related superannuation fund investment in Australia alone was given in the Congress resolution on Trade Unions and Corporate Governance (see below) as $408.6 billion.
9. At the 1997 Congress, where greater attention was paid to international matters than had been the case for some time, only one foreign trade union representative (from Canada) was given the same opportunity. On the other hand, he was entrusted with the 'Keynote Speech', formerly the prerogative of the ACTU secretary, as was Mr Trumka at Wollongong. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.164.
10. This replaces, though the point was not mentioned at the Congress, a Charter for Shop Stewards which was originally adopted at the 1975 Congress, and later incorporated in resolutions on Industrial Democracy, the last of which was adopted in 1985. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1985', p.107.
11. The Virtual Communities project is concerned with providing low-cost access to personal computers and the internet. Its sales of computers are claimed to have accounted for half the total Australian sales of IBM computers in the first half of 2000.
12. The logo is a lightly decorated version of the ACTU's initials. The logo it replaced, which featured a stylised kangaroo accompanying the initials, was introduced in 1977, when Bob Hawke was president, to mark the 50th anniversary of the ACTU's founding. See R.M. Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1977', Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 10, no. 4, December 1977, p.434.
13. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.160.
14. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.161. In 1997, too, the point was formally affirmed in the terms of the concluding Congress Resolution: The ACTU makes it clear that it does not intend to seek an Accord with the ALP.
15. There are currently 26 affiliated unions in the first category, and 21 in the second (though only nine of the latter chose to be represented at the Congress). These provisions, it may be noted, are in line with Mr Kelty's affirmation at the 1997 Congress that all 'significant' unions should be directly represented on the executive. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.167.
16. In the Congress paper explaining these rule changes, justification for this formal extension of the Executive's powers was, in part, sought by way of the accurate observation that 'in practice the Executive has always formulated policy7. The point was also made by Mr Combet and others in the course of debate. But what was not mentioned, at any stage, was the fact that throughout the history of the ACTU, Executive decisions of this nature have always been subject to an external check. Between 1927 and 1993, they were subject to the approval of a majority of the six state branches (the metropolitan trades and labour councils) of the ACTU; and from 1993, they were subject to the approval of a majority of the members of the now-defunct ACTU Council. This external check has now been removed.
17. The section providing for such conferences had been deleted when the Council was created in 1993.
18. This, given that the remaining two posts are held by the right and the centre, respectively (and given that the senior vice-presidency is held by the right), serves to preserve, well enough, the former factional balance that was threatened with the accession of Ms Burrow to the presidency and Mr Combet to the secretaryship, both of them being from the left.
19. See Ross Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1993', Labour History, no. 66, May 1994, p.141.
20. This involved abandoning the former five allocated women's Executive positions, that were subject to election by Council, and relying instead on a more flexible system of affirmative action which entails giving a variable number of the larger unions the option of nominating a second full (and female) member of the Executive.
21. At the ACTU's founding Congress, as it happens, there was an amendment moved that would have eliminated the 'trade' from the ACTU's title. If it had succeeded, this observer would now be referring to the Congress of the ACIU, the Australian Council of Industrial Unions. See Official Report of the All-Australian Trade Union Congress, Melbourne, May 1927, p.21.
22. As also was the case in 1997: see Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.164.
23. The number of all delegates with voting rights (630) was smaller than the total number of delegates (643) announced when the Congress opened (see above) because the latter figure includes 13 delegates with non-voting 'observer' status only. The figures relating to women delegates are derived from records concerning the appointment of delegates, to which I had access thanks to Bill Mansfield and Mary Donegan.
24. See R.M. Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1979', Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 21, no. 4, December 1979, p.492.
25. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.165. The four unions were the Australian Nursing Federation (75 per cent), the NSW Nurses' Association (60 per cent), the Australian Education Union (56 per cent) and the Health Services Union (55 per cent).
26. Independent Education Union; National Tertiary Education Union; Flight Attendants' Association.
27. Finance Sector Union (46 per cent); Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (45 per cent); Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (44 per cent); Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (44 per cent); Community and Public Sector Union (43 per cent); Australian Services Union (41 per cent).
28. The amendment, about 'old growth forests', was to the Economy and the Role of Government Policy Proposal. There was some confusion about its impact on the terms of the Environment and Sustainable Development Policy Proposal adopted by the 1991 Congress, and that confusion was reflected in the media. The matter was tidied up on the final day when Congress formally re affirmed the 1991 policy.
29. After problems at previous Congresses: see for example, Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.169.
30. The others were on vocational training reforms; the work of ATSIC; the work of APHEDA (Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad); workers' compensation and occupational health and safety.
31. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.169
32. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1993', p.150.
33. See Ross Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1995', Labour History, no. 70, May 1996, p.206.
34. Quoted in Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1995', p.207.
35. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1997', p.169.
36. The initial experiment was the brainchild of Bill Mansfield (ACTU assistant secretary), who has been chiefly responsible for the organisation of the last seven Congresses. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1993', p.149.
37. See Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1985', p.107.
38. The consensus owed its inspiration primarily to the joint efforts of Bill Kelty and Laurie Carmichael (ACTU assistant secretary from 1987 to 1991, and before that a leading official of the old Amalgamated Engineering Union and its successor, the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union). On the consensus, see especially Ross Martin, The ACTU Congress of 1991', Labour History, no. 62, May 1992, pp.149-50.