- The Guardian
- Issue #2203
Guardian the Workers’ Weekly spoke to Loukas Kakogiannis, secretary of the Retail and Fast Food Workers’ Union (RAFFWU) about the legislation the Carroll Labor government is introducing.
Guardian: So tell us about the effect of this legislation
LK: The legislation is designed to de-register incorporated associations with an industrial purpose, which means any association with a purpose of furthering, protecting, or representing the industrial interests of members of the association. It is designed to deregister RAFFWU.
If the proposed legislation were to pass, RAFFWU would be presented with an ultimatum from Consumer Affairs Victoria to either apply for registration under the Fair Work Act or be wound up as an incorporated association.
If RAFFWU were to apply, there’s no guarantee of success. The Fair Work Act is set up to protect union monopolies. The SDA would write a blank cheque to bankroll their case against it. If we win, it could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, using up RAFFWU resources that we want to spend organising retail and fast food workers into industrial action.
Ben Carroll wants to mislead people the bill targets ‘red’ unions – fake cooker Liberal Party fronts set up during COVID. The ‘red unions’ are a red herring to curry the support of Labor folks for a bill the rights of retail and fast workers to democratically organise in a real union.
Make no mistake, Carroll is SDA. He was elected by factional forces of the Labor Party, and he is effectively doing the bidding of his masters, the SDA.
Guardian: So, what’s the plan?
LK: We’re working on getting the legislation voted down. We are urging anyone who supports genuine fighting unions to contact Greens and other upper-house MPs to urge them to vote against it. Union members can write to their union leadership group and the Victorian Trades Hall to demand that they publicly oppose the legislation.
