3rd Australasian Organising Conference

Central Council, 12 December 2005

Report adopted

This year's conference was the largest to date with close to 1000 participants representing unions across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The overwhelming turnout was mainly attributed to an increase in union interest with organising approaches to combat the federal IR attack.

PSA Conference Participation - Benefits

The PSA was well represented at the conference with industrial staff and local delegates/activists actively involved in the conference program. Highlights include:

The PSA maximised on the advantage of the conference being held at a site where we are the major general staff union. We were the only union to have local members actively involved in the program.
All members of the local UNSW union community were invited to the conference welcome. CPSU/PSA members formed the largest contingent of members proudly waving flags and holding up the CPSU 'Your Rights at Work' Banner.

Katie Callanan, a member of the UNSW WOC, gave an inspiring speech to the conference. The speech focused on the marked benefits she has felt working in a well organised workplace, compared to her last job where she felt victimised as a union member with low union density and a workplace which engendered fear of association. Katie talked about the benefits of a strong union enterprise agreement and being involved with her WOC where..."you get a real sense of satisfaction in seeing your collective actions realised".

In the conference workshop program the CPSU/PSA ran a session called 'Initiatives in Union Education'. The workshop was designed by Delegate Development Organiser Glen Conroy and co-facilitated with UNSW Organiser Matthew Henderson and delegates Michelle Price and Nick Pappas. The workshop demonstrated customised delegate development training that the CPSU has been running across the University Sector (early this year Glen gave a central council report on this in field based training).

Having delegates involved was effective in giving first hand impressions of the positive benefits with customised training in the development of skills and knowledge, building sustainable workplace union structures, recruitment and worker to worker communication. The workshop was well received and illustrated that the PSA is actively implementing organising in the workplace. It was one of the few workshops that had a focus on audience interaction.

Steve Turner and David Carey facilitated a number of conference workshops and David provided logistics for the Papua New Guinea delegation.

Conference Evaluation

An important peak body forum for unions across the country to network and gain a national perspective of organising and campaigning (particularly 'Your Rights at Work' initiatives).

Valuable participation of international speakers from the UK and New Zealand labour councils.

Workshops gave useful information on campaigning and organising techniques, but in the main did not allow for audience discussion and involvement.

The PSA achieved strong local member involvement.