Business and unions

Abstract

The union movement enjoyed a high profile in the two years prior to the 2007 election based on its campaign against the Coalition Governments unpopular WorkChoices legislation. The campaign entitled, Your Rights at Work, campaign continued into the election campaign itself. Business groups, by contrast were less united and less focused. From a union perspective the campaign was its ‘Stalingrad’.

Keywords:

• unions
• business and politics
• political campaigns

Notes

 1. Sharan Burrows, victory speech on election night, 24 November 2007.

 2. The combined business campaign was entitled ‘Let's Keep Workplace Reform’. It was launched in August by the BCA, ACCI and the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) who estimated that together they employed over 4.5 million workers. Significantly, the NFF, the Master Builders Association and the Australian Industry Group refused to endorse the campaign; Australian, 9 August 2007, p 8.

 3. Michael Chaney, ‘Injection of facts into the IR debate’, Australian, 9 August 2007, p 16.

 4. See details of a leaked Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) briefing reporting community fear and distrust in the Australian, 3 August 2007.

 5. Business Council of Australia, BCA Quarterly, Issue 4 2006–07, BCA, Melbourne, 2007, p 5.

 6. ibid.

 7. Chaney, op. cit., p 14.

 8. ibid.

 9. Australian, 10 August 2007, p 1.

10. Australian, 14 August 2007, p 2.

11. Peter Hendy, CEO Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ‘Tear up ALP's IR plan, not WorkChoices’, Opinion Piece, ACCI, 31 August 2007.

12. National Association of Forest Industries, Labor–Green Preference Deal Disastrous for Forest Industry and the Nation, Media Release, NAFI, 29 October 2007.

13. Weekend Australian, 15–16 December 2007, p 6.

14. ibid.