Page 1333 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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Do you call that assisting workers? I have personal experience where I have had to dig my hand in my pocket because somebody, for family reasons, had fallen behind and was not in a position to pay his arrears. Do you call that democracy? There is no compassion in those sorts of unions.
There are plenty of unions that are good but there are also quite a few that are bad, and there are more unions that are bad than there are employers that are bad at the moment. In these economic circumstances, most employers value their employees very much more. There are many employers that have kept their staff on, when they really could not afford it financially, because they have compassion. They realise that the workers have stood by them for the last 10 or 15 years and now it is time for the employer to stand by that employee.
Compulsion is never going to work. I grew up in Holland during the war, when the Germans wanted to make everything compulsory; in eastern Europe everything was compulsory. I can assure you that it is not going to work. People like their freedom - their freedom of choice, their freedom of expression. If you have lived under a regime where you could not speak out because you would get turfed into gaol if you said something against the regime, then you know what compulsion means.
Mr Berry: Who were among the first to be discriminated against? Unions and unionists.
MR WESTENDE: Mr Berry, employers are compelled to open their books to any labour department inspector, so why say that you cannot go and inspect them? Most employers these days share their balance sheet with their employees. More employers are going into cooperative schemes with their employees. I can assure members on the other side that any employer worth his salt will realise that it is far better to have loyal employees and look after them than to try to squeeze them, as some unions will do. If Mr Berry wants proof of what I have just said about forcing them to resign three months in advance, I will be very glad to provide it.
Mr Berry: No; the rules require them to give three months' notice.
MR WESTENDE: And pay three months' membership in advance before the union will accept their resignation. If you do not believe it, I can provide you with proof. Madam Speaker, as I said, I was not going to speak on this matter, but I could not help trying to rectify some statements made that were far removed from the facts.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (11.30): Madam Speaker, I would like to speak on an issue that I do not think has been touched yet. I firmly believe that Mr Moore's Bill, if it were to have the desired effect in the ACT, would greatly enhance the lives and the conditions of many workers, and I should like to explain how that is the case, from a position I do not think anybody else has put. Everyone is very well aware of my role with the Pharmacy Guild, and I suspect that everyone is also aware that the Pharmacy Guild is a union and is registered under the same piece of legislation that all other unions are registered under. As an employers union, we obviously have our members' interests at heart.
Mr Berry commented that if it were not for compulsory unionism there would not be any wage increases.
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