Chris White challenges Kevin Rudd's industrial relations policy. The right to strike is fundamental to the right to freedom of association.

The Howard government has removed the right to strike almost to the point of suppression. It came as a surprise to hear Kevin Rudd picking out strikes as a problem in his speech to the National Press Club on April 17.

 
 
 
 
 

Organised labour must be prepared to use every tactic against WorkChoices, writes Tristan Ewins.

It was with an air of anticipation that I boarded the bus for the Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 30. The determination to "Fill the G" was almost overwhelming in its scope. The redeveloped MCG - capable of holding anywhere near 100,000 people - would be a challenge to fill, but judging from previous attendances at ACTU rallies the prospect did seem within the realm of possibility. A protest of such magnitude would renew the labour movement’s mandate to take the fight to the conservatives and to engage in whatever kind of action that was necessary to repeal John Howard’s extreme industrial relations laws.

 
 
 
 
 

Liam Mitchell of Sydney activist network Worker Solidarity shows how community pickets can help workers in struggle.

Workers, unions and community activists have had a victory at Thompson's Roller Shutters yesterday [November 15]. The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union signed an enterprise agreement with the company, which included a wage rise, increased redundancy entitlements, entitlements back paid to July 31 and a written agreement from the company that no striker would be victimised. The workers agreed to sign and are returning to work this morning. The unlawful dismissal case taken by the union for the worker sacked after complaining about racial discrimination is still to be resolved.

 
 
 
 
 

Mike Newman looks at the June 28th day of protest and rejects both the official 'waiting for Beazley' and the impatient-left's 'mass-strike' strategies

"They reckon we used to run the country a while back … I reckon it wouldn't be bad if we did run it."
Greg Combet, ACTU secretary

The Australia-wide June 28 day of protest against Howard’s boss-friendly industrial laws saw another determined response from the Australian working class.

 
 
 
 
 

Phil Sanford reports on a May 21 rally in Sydney's west to build for the ACTU day of action on June 28.

The Howard government's anti-union laws will mean a dramatic decline in the standard of living, the secretary of UnionsNSW, John Robertson, told a meeting of more than 100 people in Toongabie in Sydney's west on May 21.

 
 
 
 
 

A primer on South Australia's labour movement, by Dan Murphy.

Dan Murphy is a union organiser active in the Your Rights at Work community campaign in Adelaide and a member of the Southern Adelaide Workers Defence Commitee.

Defence not Defiance is the title of the authoritative history of the South Australian labour movement. Written by academic John Wanna in 1981, as the name suggests it contends that historical and cultural factors have determined that the political and industrial wings of the labour movement in this state have tended towards moderation and even conservatism......

 
 
 
 
 

Anthony McLaughlin, comments on a Federal ALP member's IR Forum (April 2006) held in Inner-Western Sydney.

Anthony Albanese, the federal member for the unhappiest electorate in Australia, Grayndler, presented the "Future of Industrial Relations" forum on Wednesday April 12 to a crowd of more than 200 ALP and politically curious residents at Leichhardt town hall, Sydney.