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- Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah, with your permission, I would like to add that I thank you sincerely for acknowledging my success at being a ... more
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- steve on A few facts on illegal boat people Hey Wendy - I'm an immigrant - I've lived here for 40 years and have learned to ignore people with attitudes like yours but ... more
- James Weir on A few facts on illegal boat people Wendy, I'm surprised anyone lives in Adelaide. Even the Welsh born redheads are getting out of the place. more
- Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah. Again in typical Socialist Fashion, you are denying me my right to form an opinion. Mr. and Mrs. Newton ... more
- Meg on "He's a dog..." I believe that any ordinary person who assaults women would have been charged and jailed not sent to rehab. Has Matthew ... more
- Wendy on A few facts on illegal boat people Look around..In Adelaide now, you cannot spot an Aussie. Everywhere you look its Chinese/Asians, Indians and Pakistani's. ... more
- bigfella on "He's a dog..." Hi z,The point is: How the heck would Phil of Springwood know what sort of parents Bert and Patti were to their son? For all ... more
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- Shanelle on System failure The whole system is stuffed. I have been apart of it for 10years now and still im confused. Im in a bad place at the moment ... more
- James Weir on Barnaby Joyce How many Clem 7's would you like in your Super Fund, Barnaby? It lost $1.5B in it's current reporting period. Only Govts can ... more
- Steve Martin on "He's a dog..." Rebecca Wilson as per normal is just plain out of touch.The hitting of women is wrong but personalising this with "he's a ... more
- Ronny Of Brighton QLD on Preferential voting MichaelIve just come back from a holiday.That bloke Dean Jaensch Siad that if someone(call Him RONNY) had 40% he said 60% of ... more
- z on Preferential voting the way it is working at the moment is the first loser joins with 2nd loser and so on untill they beat the winner, so a ... more
- brisman on Bob Brown The guy is not green he absolutley red through to the core. His environmental visions are shallow and don't serve ... more
- z on "He's a dog..." bigfella, Phil of Springwood is not talking from so called flippantly expertise, Ivory tower stuff but more from commonsense ... more
- robert goodchild on Support our Diggers the sticker Idea is great.I would happily part with $20 for one and would like to see the profit go to families who have ... more
- Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." Hey Bigfella, back again so soon after your mobs magnificent defeat by the Tories, I thought you and the rest of your Left ... more
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- bigfella on "He's a dog..." Congratulations to Phil of Springwood,We've become accustomed to his astute political and social commentaries based on ... more
Wages Breakout
The Australian Manufacturing Worker’s Union has held off its pay claims until now - 1 July, the start of the new Rudd Government’s Fair Work Act.
The AMWU is after at least a 4% rise for all its members and 6% for workers in 'businesses that can afford it.'
What about the businesses that can’t afford 4%?
The new system is designed to encourage collective bargaining. And unions will have the right of entry to workplaces to inspect the salary records of employees.
If the AMWU is successful in its move, there’s no doubt other unions will follow. And that will result in rises way beyond inflation - without any gains in productivity.
It’s very important that we understand what this is all about. Increased pay that follows increased output from the company is good. Increased pay that doesn’t come from increased economic output is bad.
A wages breakout will lead to inflation and misery.
I’ll get some expert analysis this afternoon.
Blog comments
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Gayle,
As the online poll on the AMWU website overwhelmingly indicates, the most important issue for employees at this point in time is job security. A union has a responsibility, as the representative of the employees, to seek the optimum wage outcome without threatening job security. Unions, too, recognise that if a business collapses, the employees lose their jobs. It's a bit of a balancing act.
However, it does seem that some (not all) employers feel no sense of responsibility for the well being of their employees. They'll contract work out to cheap foreign labour or exploit visa regulations, shutting out Australian workers while maintaining huge profits.
Gayle, I applaud you for your attitude towards your employees. You appear to treat your workers as assets rather than liabilities. It's a shame that some businesses, particularly some of our larger enterprises, refuse to do the same, no matter what the economic landscape.bigfella Wednesday 1 July, 2009 - 8:58 PM -
Like Julie Gillard I too was born in Wales and migrated here in 1966.
My father was a union man both in Wales and Australia and while I agree that both employees and employers need a fair go unfortunately I cannot see that current day unions like Politicians can differentiate between the two.
Having seen Unions take hard stands in Wales that caused considerable grief to both the families of the miners and the miners themselves and having seen these families go without wages for weeks on end I can only hope that all unions today look at both sides.
The end result of union actions in Wales resulted in the mines being closed because they became unprofitable, parts of Wales still haven't recovered 40 years later, this was due in part to the greed and ignorance or perhaps one sided views of union officials
As an employer I fully understand the need to be fair to our employees all of mine I regard as friends who are to be appreciated rather than exploited and can only hope that the majority of employers do the same because without people working with us we have no business, however if the unions push us as employers to the extent that we make no profit then there will be no position to offer.
Like bigfella who's attitude I must admit I rarely agree with, and I can tell you now our business books are run from my home and there will be no way that I will open my home to any union rep that decides that he wants to see those books.Gayle Wednesday 1 July, 2009 - 5:28 PM -
Three questions...
Where can I find the phrase "businesses that can afford it"? I am having trouble finding this quote attributed to the AMWU. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
Secondly, is this part of the EB process? EB stands for Enterprise Bargaining. I've always understood that to mean the employer and the employees' representative (the relevant Union) negotiating changes to working conditions and productivity improvements that benefit both employer and employees. Why do you presume that there will be no gains in productivity?
Thirdly, who is Aaron O'Brien?bigfella Wednesday 1 July, 2009 - 2:10 PM
