Neoliberalism has failed, time for a new deal, says Sally McManus

The Australian 12:00am September 1, 2017

Ewin Hannan

ACTU secretary Sally McManus will today call for a “new deal” for unions and workers to address record inequality caused by the “failed ideology of neoliberalism”.

Ms McManus says Australia is nearing the end of a 30-year “neoliberal experiment” that has seen concerted campaigns to systematically weaken unions and leave workers “with little protections in the face of the King Kong-sized power of multinational corporations”.

In a speech to be delivered in Brisbane, Ms McManus will call for the scrapping of the Coalition’s planned corporate tax cuts while backing Labor proposals to tackle negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.

She will say workplace laws must be changed to remove incentives to casualise work; increase the powers of the Fair Work Commission; change bargaining laws to benefit unions; and rebuild a relevant, modern and strong safety net for workers. “Unions are the essential element to keeping inequality in check,’’ she will say. “It will not be enough to strengthen the support for individual workers if we do not also strengthen the support for their collective power — unions.

“The union-bashing must stop. The laws that make the job of unions harder and harder must be addressed. It is in the interest of all Australians that we have a strong union movement.”

Australian unions operated in an environment of “no support and continual, vicious attacks” and faced the harshest laws in the OECD, she will say.

“We are the people that win the increases to award wages and agreements yet we receive no institutional support and many people benefit from our work without contributing to the cost. It is the same as having to give away a product for free. If the same situation existed for companies where they developed and produced something and then had to give it away for free, they would not survive.

“Our society needs unions but due to this problem — commonly called the ‘free rider’ problem — we have a market failure.”

Every OECD country found a way to support unions, she will say, “because they recognised unions were about increasing wages and building a strong economy. In Australia we need to build that recognition and develop the supports to keep unions able to lift wages and improve our economy. This is the new deal we need.”