Yarra Council, dubbed Victoria’s most left wing council, tonight voted unanimously to only give contracts to companies with collective agreements. The motion was moved and driven by Australia’s only socialist councillor, Stephen Jolly of the Socialist Party, but also supported by the 3 Green, 3 ALP and 2 independents.
It expressed strong opposition to Australian Workplace Agreements and organised for industrial lawyers to draft legally binding wording to keep all Council contractors on collective agreements.



This motion is direct slap in the face to the Howard Governments attempts to undermine awards and enterprise bargaining agreements.



Councillors called for other Councils to follow suit in the next months. “Yarra Council is now a bridgehead in the fight to make all Councils AWA-free”, said Cllr Jolly.



The meeting was attended by dozens of workers and trade unionists who burst into spontaneous applause upon the vote.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 11th, 2005 at 8:29 am and is filed under Australian news and analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.