Lazy unions do their best work behind closed doors and the perfect example of this is the recent dirty deal done between Mc Donald’s hamburger chain and the Shop Assistants Union .
Mc Donald’s is known throughout the the world as being one of the most virulent anti union corporations in the world ,over the past 40 years Australian unions have tried to organise the mainly young people into unions with a spectacular lack of success.
In all enterprise agreements between union members and employers the employers and the union representing union members have to convince Fair Work Australia that the deal can pass the “no disadvantage” test meaning that employees will be no worse off under the new deal .
No reduction in wages ,no reduction in penalty rates, no reduction in shift penalties etc, all in all the employees cannot be disadvantaged for entering into the new enterprise agreement .
This is where deals done between lazy unions and smart employers comes into effect .
In this case the Shop Assistants Union did not have the inclination or the will to interview every employee to advance the benefits of joining the union ,but Mc Donald’s in the past have pulled out all stops by sacking people who show a interest in joining the union or will roster any employee onto zero hours if they do .
Every union official worth their salt attempting to join young people into the union will tell you horrific stories of young people joining the union and being sacked when Mc Donald’s became aware of their membership or when they approached adult wages .
Who Will Sack Ronald Mc Donald When He Turns 18 ?
Which brings us to the latest deal between Mc Donald’s and the Shop Assistants Union and how did it came about?
“No ticket no start “was outlawed by governments many years ago but it is still practiced by lazy unions in collusion with super smart employers wishing to gain unfair advantage over young people unaware of their legal rights .
This is how it’s done the union approaches the employer and states we don’t have any union members here, the union needs members to increase its finances and increase our membership to labor party conferences so let’s do a deal !!
The company respondes by saying we will encourage union membership by our managers saying to employees we want you to join the union, basically a no ticket no start situation .
Of course this is a one sided arrangement as Mc Donald’s will ensure that only some employees join so that they can enter into a agreement to negotiate the new enterprise deal ,the only assurance the union has from Mc Donald’s is that in the future they may encourage union membership.
The union has their foot in the door with a feeble promise that they will “encourage” union membership, Mc Donald’s in the meantime go about slashing shift rates penalty rates and hours of weekend work and every one is happy until now.
Until we now find that Mc Donald’s have saved millions in wages robbing young people of penalty rates ,shift penalties and reduced hours .
The shop Assistants Union would have no more that 5 union members but enough to negotiate a enterprise agreement that allows it to present with Mc Donald’s to FWA to argue a dodgy deal.
There aren 6000 employees at Mc Donald’s but a symbolic membership of 5 people can agree to slash the wages of all .
In order for the Shop Assistants Union and Mc Donald’s to take the reduction of penalty rates ect to Fair Work Australian to prove no disadvantage they must have presented false evidence to FWA .
How else could the union and the employer in collusion make a submission that provided evidence that no employee would be worse off .
Unions and employers are under oath when giving evidence so how did this dirty deal which robbed thousands of workers of their legal entitlements get through FWA ?
Lies were told by both the union and Mc Donald’s in the “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours” deal before FWA and this has to be investigated and the proponents charged with perjury .
At the time of writing we hear that other secret deals were entered into with Coles and other employers and are now being investigated by FWA lets hope that criminal charges are laid for perjury and wages theft .
My biggest regret is that the ACTU the peak body of trade unions in this country has condoned this practice because they are held hostage by the Shop Assistants union because of money the union contributes or the undue influence off its officials on the ACTU executive .
As the union movement gears itself up to fight for the retention of penalty rates why do we have reprentatives from the peak union body agreeing with the dirty deal done by one of their own .
Dare to Struggle Dare To Win !!!!!!