1pm 8 September after the rally - meet us

Meet us after the rally – 1pm at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel (cnr Pitt and Bathurst St. City)

Leaflet for 8 September Day of Action

Save the NSW Public Sector - NO CUTS IN NSW
WE NEED STRIKE ACTION TO DEFEND WAGES, JOBS AND PUBLIC SERVICES
We demand

• Union rights to pursue wage rises and improved working conditions
• No redundancies – create more jobs for better public services
• Keep our public services in public hands
• Defend the right to take industrial action in defence of our public services

Public sector workers and public services are under attack in NSW.
The O'Farrell government is threatening 80,000 public sector jobs and robbing NSW public sector workers of their industrial rights. It is intent on cutting pay and conditions, and ransacking services to the community.
Assets and services are under threat of privatization. Sydney Ferries is already being leased to private interests. This is part of a global attack on workers that is dismantling the public sector and shifting costs onto working people. Community sector workers are fighting O’Farrell for equal pay.
If O'Farrell gets away with these attacks, no worker is safe. If the campaign becomes one of simply re-electing the ALP in 4 or 8 years’ time, it will fail. We need a serious campaign of escalating industrial action beyond September 8, that is planned with maximum rank and file participation, and that unites all unions and sectors under attack.
We are a network of unionists and activists who believe that our public services can and must be saved. We aim to drive O'Farrell back by campaigning for our unions to:

• Take industrial action -- strikes, stop works and bans to make O’Farrell’s laws unworkable
• Involve public sector workers via local union branches, workplaces and delegates meetings in developing a strategy to win – with industrial action, joint union-community action and solidarity action with other unions
• Unite with all unions and communities affected by O’Farrell’s attacks to defend jobs and services marked for closure or cuts
• Support individual unions that take a lead, and commit to solidarity action if any unionist or trade union is penalised for defying the laws that limit union rights to industrial action

What can you do?
In your workplace and union

• Mobilise! Talk to your workmates and colleagues. Get our message out to the community!
• Call workplace meetings to discuss O’Farrell’s attacks and the campaign to defend our public services
• Move motions for serious industrial action to stop the government and pass these on to your union’s executive
• Organise your workplace to join industrial action, attend rallies and protests.

In the community

• Meet us after the rally – 1pm at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel (cnr Pitt and Bathurst St. City)
• Join your local Your Rights@Work or a Better Services for a Better State campaign group and get involved in educating your local community about the attacks on public services and public sector unions.
• Contact: Wayne (0401155245), Susan (0400 320 602), Bron (0413 668 916). Email nswunionactivists@gmail.com to be added to our contact list.
• Invite us to provide a speaker for your workplace or community meeting.

This leaflet has been produced by Power to the People and the NSW Union Activists Network http://nswunionactivists.blogspot.com and is endorsed by
Activist Teachers Network - www.activistteacher.com Progressive PSA - www.progressivepsa.org

FBEU joining September 8 NSW Unions march on Parliament

If you're a member of the FBEU, click here to contact your sub-branch rep for more info about what your union will be doing in preparation for the upcoming rally. A Facebook event has also been set up here.

Mark this date in your diaries - this is the next step in the NSW public sector campaign against Barry O'Farrell and his NSW Workchoices.

Rally and March 

Thursday September 8

Assemble at the Domain, Sydney

at 11.30am

Barry attacks the wages and conditions of over 350,000 NSW public sector workers with one hand, gives money back to his business mates with the other

O'Farrell defends $300m tax cut for clubs

August 3, 2011

 

AAP 
 
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has defended plans to give registered clubs a $300 million tax cut.
Laws will be introduced to state parliament on Wednesday to reduce the amount of tax paid by clubs but also impose a requirement that millions of dollars in grants are made to community groups.
The plan was a key coalition state election pledge.

"Clubs not only provide a valuable role in the economy, they employ something like 50,000 people ... but they also provide assistance in communities," Mr O'Farrell told the ABC on Wednesday.

"I'm not shying away from the fact that the club sector's getting a tax grant, any more than I'm shying away from the fact that we abolished a $429 million tax that Labor put on homebuyers.

"We have a raft of tax reduction measures which are designed to stimulate the state's economy, to get more economic activity."

Tourism and Hospitality Minister George Souris told Fairfax radio the government supported the club sector because "they reach every corner of our community and we value them."

Clubs NSW said the new tax arrangements meant clubs would increase grants to community and sporting groups by $89.5 million over four years.

The state's licensed clubs will pay an estimated $2.5 billion in total tax over that period - a reduction of $299 million on the existing arrangements.

"The new tax rates also see the amount of funding donated directly to community and sporting groups rise to record levels with clubs donating at least $264 million in support," Clubs NSW CEO Anthony Ball said in a statement.

"Clubs were formed to support local communities and the proposed new tax rates will allow them to continue doing this."

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson has reportedly refused to commit to supporting the tax reforms.

"While the government is warning of a horror budget with billions of dollars in cuts to community services, education and health they are handing $300 million to poker machine operators," he told News Ltd.

"Three hundred million dollars over four years would pay for an additional 2250 police or 3030 nurses. The government should spend this money funding frontline services instead of handing cash to poker machine operators."

Upcoming regional delegates meetings, and our model resolution

There are a number of upcoming meetings planned by Unions NSW to discuss the campaign ahead and how to respond to the NSW Liberal Government's historic attack on the NSW public sector. Try and attend these meetings if you can - and while you're at it, propose our model resolution. Help show our unions that strong action is needed to ensure O'Farrell's attack does not become the start of a new, sneakier, Work Choices - and that we're behind them all the way.

Click here for our model resolution. 

Further details on the upcoming delegates meetings can be found in the tab at the top of the page.

Need a conversation starter? Use our petition!

Starting a conversation with someone about a workplace (or a union!) issue can be daunting - especially if its your first time. But don't worry - if you're angry about the NSW government taking away your pay and conditions, it's a fair bet your workmates are as well. So we've designed a petition that you can use to start a conversation about O'Farrell's attack on the public sector in your workplace.



We reckon that unless we get active in our workplaces and communities and talk to people about why these laws need to go, we're going to find it increasingly difficult to commit this Government, or any other future NSW government, to stop their attack on the public service of our state.

In order to keep the pressure on the Government (as well as our own union leadership) we need to ensure that the next rally - scheduled for early August - is massive.

To make this happen, the NSW Union Activists' are calling for our unions (and Unions NSW, the peak union body in NSW) to support the call for a state-wide 24 hour stoppage of all public sector workers.

A 24 hour stoppage provides the cover for public sector workers such as teachers and bus drivers - who have a care of duty responsibility for school students - to stop work and participate in union demonstrations around the state.

You can start the conversation in your workplace by downloading a copy of the petition (.pdf) here. 

And don't forget to share your experiences by commenting on this post - we'd especially like to hear from those who've spoken to a colleague for the first time, and have their signature to show for it!

SMH: O'Farrell's new wage law tested

Sean Nicholls

June 27, 2011

 

THE Public Service Association has launched the first challenge to the O'Farrell government's new industrial relations laws which overhaul how the wages of public servants including nurses, teachers and firefighters are set.
The PSA, which represents about 100,000 NSW public servants, has told the Industrial Relations Commission it will challenge the validity of the legislation and also the regulation that outlines the government's new wages policy.
The policy says that pay rises above 2.5 per cent will only be paid after they are offset by savings such as changes to penalty rates, overtime and carer's leave.

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The legislation requires the Industrial Relations Commission to abide by the wages policy in setting new awards.
The president of the commission, Justice Roger Boland, said the challenge would go before the full bench in August.
On Thursday, counsel for the PSA, Adam Hatcher, SC, told the commission the union was not prepared to trade off conditions of employment to achieve a pay rise above 2.5 per cent.
He said the PSA intended to argue that both the legislation and the regulation containing the policy were invalid.
The general secretary of the PSA, John Cahill, said the union would argue that the new laws undermined the independence of the Industrial Relations Commission because it required it to strictly abide by government wages policy. He said the policy forced the PSA into a situation where it was ''effectively trading off employment conditions or the loss of jobs''.
Legal advice commissioned by the NSW Police Association from the barristers Arthur Moses, SC, and Yaseen Shariff found that it was arguable that the change forced upon the commission would be unconstitutional.
The Greens MP David Shoebridge said the party would move to have the regulation disallowed when parliament resumes.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ofarrells-new-wage-law-tested-20110626-1glsw.html#ixzz1QRkYsxJ9