Jobs Summit Fringe Festival: Michaelia Cash will warn about bad old days of mass industrial action

WA Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash will warn about the country returning to the “bad old days” of mass industrial action if the demands of unions are met by the Albanese Government. The West Australian can reveal Senator Cash will on Thursday tell a Jobs Summit Fringe Festival — focused on industrial relations — that Labor needs to stand up to unions and not “bow” to their demands. She will say Australian workers are being pressured to become union members and go on strike, which could result in Australia’s economy being brought to a halt. “It is very clear to me that the Australian Council of Trade Unions is going to stand over this government and make demands at the jobs summit and beyond,” the Shadow Employment and Workplace Relations Minister will say in her address on the same day the Jobs and Skills Summit kicks off in Canberra. “From everything we have seen so far from the Albanese Government, they will likely capitulate to these and other outrageous union demands. In 1976, a peak period of workers taking to the streets to call for better pay and conditions at work, there were 2.5 million Australians who were union members. That’s compared to 1.5 million in 2016. “The feedback that I am getting is that the union movement around the country has been emboldened by the Labor election victory. We are seeing that in the corridors of Parliament House,” Senator Cash will say. “I believe we will see increasing industrial unrest... companies renegotiating EBAs will find the demands of the unions much higher than they expected. I’ve already heard of pay demands of as high as 12% per cent. “The demands of the unions to the government will increase and this government will inevitably bow to them.” Unions led by the ACTU are pushing for changes to Industrial Relations laws that would simplify the system and hand more power to workers. This includes a move to more widespread industry-level bargaining that would allow employees in the same job at different companies to band together to strike pay deals. Carolyn Smith — secretary of the powerful United Workers Union whose members include six McGowan Government Ministers — said there were “clearly” major issues with the current IR rules. “Less and less people are getting pay rises through that system and we have seen wages go backwards in real terms now for a number of years,” she said, adding multi-employer bargaining was a staple of other western countries. “With the level of concern and outrage we’re seeing from some employer groups you’d think it was a new crazy idea but it’s how most of Europe functions,” Ms Smith said. “And no one else is putting any other solutions on the table. I don’t see the employers putting forward any solution except ‘Hey, things will get better.’” Ms Smith also slammed the suggestion big wage increases would feed into cost-of-living pressures, keeping inflation higher for longer. “It’s interesting that it’s always people who earn a lot of money who make that argument,” she said. “I’ve never heard a cleaner or an aged care worker make that argument. What they’re saying is, how do I pay my rent? How do I put food on the table?”