Indigenous business is union business - in State Transit

By Philip Hope, Deputy Delegate, Waverley Depot, RTBU Tram & Bus Div, NSW

Philip Hope

For 10 years from 1957 to the historic 'Right wrongs, Write YES' referendum of May 27, 1967, unions like the Waterside Workers Federation, the Australian Railways Union, the Building Workers Industrial Union, the Seamen's Union and the Teachers Federation funded the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and its push for equal rights.

I am proud to see once again the union movement in the front line fighting for Indigenous and basic human rights.

Employment and Aboriginal people

In July 1999, the Howard government introduced the Indigenous Employment Policy to address the shocking disadvantage of Aboriginal people in the labour market. Unemployment is officially at 17%, but it is really much higher - perhaps 40%, since only 32% of indigenous Australians participate in the labour market, compared to 64% for all Australians. About 70% of all jobs held by Indigenous Australians are in the public sector or rely on public funds. About 25% of all jobs held by indigenous people are unskilled, compared to 9% for Australia as a whole.

The Indigenous Employment Policy has three elements:

• Job Network

The private employment services, which have no special programs for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

• Corporate Leaders Project

A partnership between companies and the federal government where the company commits to employ indigenous people, and the government considers funding.

• Structured Training and Employment Projects

This provides flexible funding to employers who provide apprenticeships and other structured training which leads to permanent jobs for indigenous people. The NSW Premier's Department, together with the federal government, provides funds to public sector agencies and local councils which employ indigenous people. There is a focus on entry-level jobs and front-line service jobs.

At the 2003 ACTU Congress, the Australians Marginalised from decent work, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Policy aimed to bring down the unemployment figures for indigenous people to the Australian average. The RTBU supports this policy and State Transit is an equal opportunity employer. Together they have the resources, capacity and policies to help fix this indigenous unemployment problem.

To do this, State Transit and the RTBU need to work using cultural and social awareness, directly market to the indigenous communities where they operate, and then ensure that jobs are retained and the people have a career structure.

The help of elders in each community will be needed, first to explain what we are trying to achieve and to request permission to do so. There are people from ATSIC, the Land Councils and organisers of CDEP schemes and other trade union activists who can help. As the communities learn about how this employment strategy can work, there will be wider job creation.

The RTBU should grab this opportunity with both hands, because 'Indigenous business in Union business'. This is our part in the true reconciliation story.

The cross-cultural training should start at the Executive level and go down to the supervisors and bus operators. A commitment for this to happen is essential. Then there has to be commitment to the jobs, the funding and the career paths for the new employees, and a way for then to be represented at all levels.

Then the identified skills for State Transit admin, operations, and maintenance jobs have to be marketed to the communities and people recruited.

State Transit's target should be 2.5 percent indigenous employment. Right now it is less than 1 percent.

In the eastern end of the State Transit area there are four indigenous communities that can be directly targeted for this employment program. The RTBU should also aim to employ 2.5% from the indigenous communities where we operate.

The ACTU 2004 Indigenous Conference called on the unions to implement a common membership fee. It also called for a CDEP Award, and that CDEP be put into union organising strategies. It called for urgent work to ensure that indigenous workers had access to industry superannuation.

The participants called on unions to have indigenous issues high on normal executive and council meeting agendas.