When Labor won the November 2007 election it was widely accepted that the Your Rights at Work campaign, against the Howard Government’s Work Choices legislation was a key to the victory. Public opposition to Work Choices grew from the commencement of the ACTU’s television advertising campaign in June 2005 and remained high throughout the period until the election. i am here promoting this new book:A very good read. I wanted more!
Worth Fighting For: Inside the Your Rights at Work Campaign
By Kathie Muir
Sydney, University of NSW Press
Your Rights at Work was an unprecedented campaign in Australian political history. Longer, more expensive, and implemented across a wider range of media, worksites and community venues than any previous political campaign by any other non-party group, YRaW also attracted a wide range of people as active supporters of the campaign. Many of these people had never been active in union campaigns previously, some were retired or were not union members. The campaign in the 25 marginal seats across the country was a key means for ordinary community members to find out about the laws and to express their support for a better and fairer society. People from all walks of life were outraged by the meanness of the legislation and the Government’s lack of a mandate for its implementation. Some older workers’ were concerned for their children and grandchildren’s future, horrified at the thought that rights they and their parents had struggled and sacrificed to win might be lost to future generations. Some people joined the campaign and changed voting habits of a lifetime because they themselves were sacked unjustly and found they no longer were covered by unfair dismissal legislation.
Kevin a disability pensioner from the Blue Mountains in NSW said he became involved in the campaign because: ‘It’s so unjust what’s happened – the Howard government didn’t have a mandate to do this and it made me very angry. Working on the [campaign] made me feel I was doing something constructive towards getting rid of the Howard government and their terrible IR laws’ (Kevin interview with author).
Denise, a retiree, also from NSW agreed: ‘Howard had no right to do it and that made me angry. He didn’t have a mandate, and it was just stolen. One hundred years of work, what my father went through and what I went through and then all of a sudden! He’s just got no right to do that to people and I don’t want Australia to be like America’ (Denise interview with author).
Others were motivated to become involved through a strong belief in unionism and outrage at the attacks the Government was making on the union movement and on workers’ rights.
‘I want to live in a country where everyone is treated fairly and workers are not exploited by unscrupulous bosses. I want to live in a country where workers are not afraid to stand up to bosses when they are treated unfairly. Under John Howard’s IR laws, these rights are at risk of being lost forever.’ (Lorraine comment from ACTU YRaW online discussion board)
People became involved to try to secure the rights of their children and their grandchildren:
‘because I have teenage kids who are about to begin their working lives. I want them to grow up in a country that values fairness, not the dog-eat-dog mentality of the United States. We are Australians, we should be proud of the good things about our country and fighting to protect them’ (Peter, comment from ACTU online discussion board).
The unions’ YRaW campaign laid the groundwork for the ALP election victory just 12 months ago. Through this campaign people all over the country came to realise the full impact of Work Choices and it changed their views about the nature of the Howard Government. Any concerns the Government was arrogant or unfeeling were consolidated by the realisation of that Work Choices would mean for their own families and for future generations.
The book ‘Worth Fighting For: Inside the Your Rights at Work’ campaign provides a lively record of the development and implementation of the campaign. Through interviews with union leaders, along with participant observation, Kathie Muir traces the innovative nature of the television and paid media strategies, the workplace and community mobilising strategies. Activists involved in the campaign tell their stories of becoming involved and what the campaign meant to them. The coordinators of the community campaigns in targeted seats talks about the response they received from local groups, the keys to success in their areas and their conviction that community alliances are critical to future union campaigning in Australia.
This is a lively and accessible book that provides an invaluable record of the most important political campaign ever undertaken by the Australian union movement and is an essential resource for union education and training.
Order Worth Fighting For 02=43856622 and receive a 10% discount
Price: AUD$34.95 (AUD$31.77 ex-tax)
Author information:
Dr Kathie Muir is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Science at the University of Adelaide. She has worked with the labour movement as an artist and in administrative roles. She has a long-standing research interest in the ways social and political movements campaign to promote their causes and how mainstream media report such campaigns.
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