Union movement united in opposition to internationally unprecedented Ensuring Integrity bill

The Australian union movement continues its campaign against the undemocratic, anti-worker and anti-union Ensuring Integrity bill at Senate inquiry hearings beginning tonight in Canberra.

Australian unions will give evidence at hearings in Canberra, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney against a bill which has no equivalent in the western world and represents an unprecedented attack on the democratic freedoms of working people.

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Sharan Burrow has joined ACTU President Michele O’Neil in Canberra today to denounce the bill.

As stated by ACTU President Michele O’Neil:

“All Australian workers benefit from the work of unions. If unions are shut down or silenced, who will stand up to the powerful, make sure workers are safe, ensure fair pay and conditions and fight to improve workers’ rights?

“Even if you’re not a member of a union, you benefit from the work of unions, whether that’s better nurse-patient ratios in hospitals, stopping privatisation, or better safety standards for firefighters.

“The only people who would benefit from these laws are the Morrison Government and unethical employers, who would be able to get away with wage theft and unsafe work practices.

“The average union member is a 46 year old woman who is a nurse. The Morrison Government and some in business would like to paint a very different picture because unions stand up to the powerful in our country.”

As stated by ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow:

“This bill stands out as one of the most bare-faced attacks on workers’ rights by a conservative government in history.

“The Morrison Government is going well beyond most anti-union governments in the world with this bill. It is seen internationally as a wild attack on basic rights.

“This bill would represent a deeply worrying erosion of freedom of democratic and human rights in Australia.”

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