Government News Index
Abbott takes on unions, bosses
AAP
25mar02
TIMID bosses and defiant union bosses have both been targeted by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott.
Union officials who refused to pay fines or disobeyed court orders should be prepared to go to jail, he said today.
"Unfortunately the spirit of Clarrie O'Shea is alive and well amongst some senior officials of unions like the AMWU (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union) and the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union)," he told ABC Radio.
Clarrie O'Shea, former Tramways Union secretary, was the last unionist to go to jail for his comrades.
He spent six days in Pentridge in 1969 for refusing to provide the then Industrial Court with evidence on unpaid union fines, but was released after his fine was paid anonymously.
"When unions receive court orders, when unions and officials are fined, certain consequences must follow and they must obey the order or they must pay the fine and if they don't, well, other consequences follow and, in the end, people who don't obey orders face contempt proceedings and ultimately jail," Mr Abbott said.
"People shouldn't be protected just because of the position they hold or because of their ability to mobilise a couple of hundred heavies protesting outside courtrooms and other official establishments."
He also said company chief executives had become too timid in showing leadership on industrial relations problems and should be more active in debating and pushing through industrial change.
Mr Abbott said in the 1980s and early 1990s, business provided a lot of intellectual leadership to the workplace relations debate and he wanted to see that again.
"Every business person will tell you that he or she faces quite serious industrial issues, but very few of them will say it in public," he said.
"I think we need to come out of our closets when it comes to industrial relations problems.
"We certainly don't notice too much shyness on the part of union leaders and I think business people and indeed everyone else, ordinary workers, who face problems need to say what they are because if we don't know what they are, it's much harder to fix them."