The independent senator who will determine the fate of the Albanese government’s IR bill is being lobbied day and night by business lobbies and union delegates.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus took to a closed Facebook group of some 4700 union members earlier this week with a call to arms: “We really need your urgent help.”
Occupying the balance of power in the upper house, Pocock, the former Wallabies skipper turned independent senator, is the key to fulfilling the government’s ambition of passing its controversial multiemployer bargaining reforms in time for Christmas. While the carefully spoken progressive, who was elected on platforms of integrity and climate action, has been digesting the mammoth bill, the union movement has been waging what it sees as a counter-war to win Pocock from the influence of industry groups and the right.
In response to comment sought by this masthead about the call to action, McManus said: “Working people joining together as part of political campaigns is the only countermeasure we have to the vast wealth and political power of big business, who are pulling out all the stops to prevent this bill from passing.”
The IEU’s ACT vice-president and teacher Angela McDonald this week posted a video to Twitter telling Pocock she and him had a lot in common, including their service to the community.Holding a bouquet of flowers she said had been bought for the senator with the donations of community members, McDonald said, “we need bread, but we need roses too,” the two symbols of the union movement. “We need the basics, and we deserve real wages, dignity and respect.
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