NTEU TO JOIN THOUSANDS PROTESTING GOVERNMENT’S IR CHANGES
29 June 2005
NTEU members will join thousands of other workers in rallies across Victoria tomorrow, as part of the ACTU’s National Week of Protest against the Howard Government’s proposed changes to Australia ’s industrial relations system.
NTEU members will participate in the main central rally to be held in Melbourne, and at rallies being held in Geelong, Albury/Wodonga, Portland and Ballarat. Members from Gippsland, Ballarat and Bendigo will travel by bus to join the central Melbourne rally.
NTEU Victorian Division Secretary Matthew McGowan said that university and TAFE staff are at the ‘cutting edge’ of the government’s attacks on workers’ industrial rights and living standards.
"The government announced on 29 April that university staff would be singled out for special treatment, imposing a series of unwanted and unnecessary industrial relations changes that universities will have to comply with in order to obtain further government funding,” Mr McGowan said.
“Changes such as the requirement that all staff be offered an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) are designed to weaken staff’s ability to bargain collectively, and the NTEU’s capacity to defend staff rights and employment conditions.”
Following the NTEU’s successful National Day of Protest on 1 June, Mr McGowan said that NTEU members are proud to be joining their colleagues from other unions in letting the Howard Government know that Australian workers are opposed to the government’s IR agenda.
For further information and comment:
Matthew McGowan 0417 054 110
Michael Evans (media) 0418 241 664