AWU backs collective bargaining win

Date: 03 March 2005

The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) welcomed today's landmark decision by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to give collective bargaining rights to Victorian chicken growers.

The AWU worked in alliance with the Victorian Farmers Federation's (VFF) Chicken Meat Growers group to support its application for ACCC decision, in order to give small chicken growing businesses a fairer deal from big processing companies such as Ingham's, Baiada and Bartter.

AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten said: "The Chicken Growers deserve to be congratulated for their pioneering work in achieving the first ever exemptions under the Trade Practices Act 1974 to give businesses the right to take collective boycott action."

"It is important that imbalances in bargaining power like those between small chicken growers and the few big business processors can be overcome by a legal collective bargaining process," Mr Shorten said.

"However, the ACCC decision demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Howard Government in its treatment of business compared with workers and trade unions. While the Government is supporting efforts to improve the conditions of small business through collective bargaining, it is trying to abolish collective bargaining rights for ordinary workers."

The Federal Government has introduced legislation to make it faster and easier for small businesses to apply for collective bargaining rights under a planned new "notification" system for the ACCC. However, the amendments to the Trade Practices Act specifically ban trade unions from assisting small businesses in the new notification process. Employer industrial associations are not banned.

"The AWU supports collective bargaining by any person lacking the market power to get a fair deal by themselves, but we are concerned about the blanket exclusion of trade unions from the process. Small businesses like the chicken growers, many of them members of the AWU, should be allowed to choose for themselves who can best represent their interests."

"The Government's legislation could stop the AWU and other unions from supporting small businesses facing unfair treatment like the chicken growers who will benefit from today's decision. The Government should remove the ban on unions from its changes to the Trade Practices Act."

For further information

Contact:	Jeremy Vermeesch
Union:	The Australian Workers' Union
Phone:	03 8327 0888
Contact Mobile:	0431 942 977
Fax:	03 8327 0899
Email:	jeremy.vermeesch@awu.net.au
WWW:	http://www.awu.net.au

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