Australian law changes a warning to New Zealand, says Burrows.

Sharan Burrows is a woman at the forefront of the Australian trade union movement's biggest fight ever. Prime Minister John Howard's liberal Government plans to bring in industrial legislation which will replace collective bargaining with individual contracts, get unions out of workplaces, drastically reduce the minimum wage and make it very easy to sack workers without any grounds.

The feisty and no-nonsense former teacher was the key note speaker at last month's biennial Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) conference, which was themed Unions 2010. Burrows is head of both the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

Burrow pitched her speech globally, explaining that labour is not a commodity and crimes against labour rights are crimes against humanity. "As a global community we should be celebrating globalisation," she said. "But there is a war on workers by multi-national employers, and corporate greed is driving onwards, disregarding labour rights, health and safety and workers' respect."

Burrows said the Australian Government had workers in their sights. She made comparisons to New Zealand's former Employment Contracts Act and congratulated New Zealand workers for defeating political parties with industrial relations policies looking back to the 1990s.

The challenge to all unions was to build union power across the globe, to ensure decent work, underpinned by rights. Unions had fought hard for rights in their own countries and now they needed to fight for rights internationally. That meant fighting to secure and maintain not just core labour standards, but legislation for work/ life balance and family friendly law, like paid parental leave, said Burrows.

Drastic changes in Australia had the potential to affect New Zealand, CTU delegates were told. The Australian nursing unions are warning of a major attack on a range of conditions nurses have taken for granted for years, including penal rates, skill payments and annual leave. The lure of better conditions across the Tasman may be a thing of the past and already the National Party and the Business Round Table have suggested New Zealand looks to the Australian changes to create more flexibility here.

A number of NZNO staff and members attended the three-day CTU conference in Wellington. According to chief executive Geoff Annals, other highlights included the attendance of Prime Minister Helen Clark on the day she finally formed a government, the gift of a Maori name for the CTU--Te Kauae Kaimahi (the voice of the workers)--the level of participation by Maori delegates and the presentation of NZNO policy analyst Maori Sharon Clair as the CTU's inaugural Maori vice-president. In her speech to the conference, Clair paid tribute to her many supporters, particularly those from NZNO. "After this weekend, I have no doubt that Maori trade unionists are on the move, the waka has been launched and the plumes are flying high." She also referred to the extent of child poverty in New Zealand. "We have about 300,000 children under 18 living in poverty in this country. This is unacceptable. Our young need to be able to have freedom from poverty, so they can be the leaders we need tomorrow."

Encouraging news for conference delegates was the fact union membership has grown 3.4 percent since 2003. According to the latest figures from Victoria University of Wellington's Industrial Relations Centre, over 12,000 more workers had joined a union. Union membership had increased 17 percent since 1999.

Report by NZNO communications adviser Lyndy McIntyre