That hard core Socialist sheila from the CPSU is bunging it on big time with the usual warped Socialism of take from the rich and give to the unions.McManus attacks ‘greedy’ mining companiesEWIN HANNAN The Australian12:44PM August 8, 2017
Sally McManus takes aim at 'greedy' mining companies. Picture: Supplied.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus has attacked “greedy, tax dodging” mining companies after they joined Martin Ferguson to call for new legal restrictions on unions and greater scope for employers to offer individual workplace contracts to workers.Ms McManus today condemned a renewed push by the Minerals Council of Australia for pro-employer changes to the Fair Work Act claiming its “workplace reform fantasy will destroy the lives of working people.
Mr Ferguson, the former ACTU president and Labor Minister turned resources sector lobbyist, will tonight back the industry proposals, urging the Coalition to take workplace law changes “out of the deep freezer”.
While not naming Mr Ferguson, Ms McManus said the “rewarmed” proposals by the Minerals Council would drive down wages and make it easier for big corporations to casualise their workforces.
Ms McManus said the council had “dusted off the WorkChoices agenda of individual workplace contracts, alongside proposals to drastically reduce working people’s power at work”.
“The council, a Coalition ally which spent millions electing former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and campaigned against the mining tax which would have benefited Australian schools and hospitals, represents the interests of multinational mining companies, many of which pay zero tax,’’ she said.
“The mining companies are the most powerful multinationals on our planet. Their greed knows no limits. If we were all working for $4 an hour with no job security whilst they paid no tax, it would still not be enough for them.”
She said companies, including BHP, Adani and Rio Tinto made billions of dollars in profits but “now they want to cut their workers’ wages and curtail workplace safety”.
“This plan is just an attempt to rebrand parts of their wish list that has already been rejected by the Australian people,’’ she said.
“The only people who can put limits on their greed are the Australian people. We need stronger workplace rights to ensure this occurs”
She said the companies had a license to print money during the mining boom yet fought against paying tax, while they extracted our resources.
“The legacy of the boom for working people is a budget deficit, hollowed out job prospects and companies so powerful they keep demanding more and more,’’ she said
“We have seen the normalisation of tax avoidance by massive corporations. Every Australian suffers as a result of the greed of tax dodging big business.”
In a speech tonight, Mr Ferguson will say the Fair Work Act had swung the pendulum in some areas back too far in favour of unions.
Mr Ferguson has been working with the council to produce the package of proposed changes that also includes limiting the content of enterprise agreements to restrict the bargaining capacity of unions.
He says the Coalition should remove the ability for legal industrial action over business decisions and restrict clauses in agreements to direct employment matters.
He said the right of entry rules were rigid, allowed entry even where a union was not party to an award or agreement applying to employees at a premises, and had resulted in significant operational disruption in the mining industry.
He called for a narrowing of provisions prohibiting adverse action against employees for exercising their workplace rights or engaging in industrial activity, and a rewriting of the current framework for negotiating employment arrangements for planned new sites and projects.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/sally-mcmanus-attacks-greedy-ta...COMMENTSAdam 2 DAYS AGO
The majority of workers who work on mining sites earn well over 100k a year I wouldn't call that chicken feed and a lot of them are on individual contracts get your facts right Sally Mcmannus for you come out with your scaremongering rubbish !!!
David 2 DAYS AGO
McManus fails to mention that the mining boom brought Australia back into surplus, where Howards Liberal government was able to repay all of Australia's debts and invested further surplus funds for times when Australia needed it.
McManus further fails to mention that it was the extremely poor (some say criminal) governance of Labors Rudd and Gillard and their failed policies which left the Australian government with huge debts, -all of which were acquired during the mining boom.This type of financial mismanagement and waste is almost unheard of.
If this type of financial mismanagement were to occur in the private sector, the management who oversaw the loss of such finances would be out of a job, sued by investors and thrown into prison. This is the extent of the level of mismanagement that Rudd and Gillard displayed during the two terms of Labor governance. It was pathetic!
For McManus to fail to mention these facts amounts to the intentional misleading of the Australian public. This is the type of danger that she brings for Australia and its people.
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