http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1995503.htm
ACTU imports Americans to spruik evils of deregulated labour
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 02/08/2007
Reporter: Heather Ewart
The ACTUs (Australian Council of Trade Unions) latest ploy in its campaign against WorkChoices is to import three low-paid American workers to spruik the evils of a deregulated labour market. Trouble is, from the American's perspective, Australia looks like industrial nirvana. Transcript KERRY O'BRIEN: Australia has been in election mode for most of this year, and there's every prospect that the formal campaign itself will also be unusually long. But at least we're seeing a few innovations in campaign technique.
From sparring matches on YouTube to political sermons in church, everyone with an axe to grind is looking for ways to connect with those all-important grassroots.
The ACTU's latest ploy in its campaign against WorkChoices, is to import three low-paid American workers to spruik the evils of a de-regulated labour market.
Trouble is, from the Americans' perspective, Australia looks like industrial nirvana.
Heather Ewart reports.
ACTU REPRESENTATIVE: Welcome to the Australia.
IRIS FLORES, AMERICAN WORKER: Thank you.
DOLORES MCCOY, AMERICAN WORKER: Hello, Australia!
ACTU REPRESENTATIVE: Have you ever been on a plane that long before?
ALLEN WHITE, AMERICAN WORKER: No, no.
HEATHER EWART: Plucked from obscurity, these low paid workers from South Carolina and Pittsburgh are on the trip of a lifetime, courtesy of the ACTU and its backers.
They're the stars in the latest phase of the union movement's campaign against WorkChoices, and they're enjoying their first taste of the limelight.
AMERICAN WORKER 3: We got into the videos and stuff. "Oh man, this is great, we've got something to do".
HEATHER EWART: Allen White is a day porter. Iris Flores works two jobs as a school bus driver and cleaner and Dolores McCoy is an office cleaner.
SHARAN BURROW, ACTU PRESIDENT: These workers are very important in the context of our own campaign because they tell a story of an environment that Australian workers don't want.
JOE HOCKEY, WORKPLACE RELATIONS MINISTER: I'd like to meet these people. I'd like to explain to them that Australia has the second highest minimum wage in the world.
JULIE EDWARDS, JESUIT SOCIAL SERVICES: (introduces herself to Dolores) Julie Edwards from Jesuit Social Services. Welcome.
HEATHER EWART: For the next nine days, the Americans are undertaking a whirlwind tour of Australia and a crash course in local industrial relations.
JULIE EDWARDS: How are you feeling about your first meeting?
IRIS FLORES: Ready or not, here I am.
JULIE EDWARDS: Does it feel like a vacation?
ALLEN WHITE: Yes, it is a vacation for me.
DOLORES MCCOY: I'm just excited to be here. I mean, out of the USA, because I've never been anywhere this far.
SHARAN BURROW: Say hello, first of all.
HEATHER EWART: In fact, the workers have been fully briefed at ACTU headquarters about what lies ahead and how to handle it.
SHARAN BURROW: Then you're going to Adelaide and then to Brisbane and then Sydney. That's a very big ask, but what you'll be doing is talking to union members, to working people telling them your stories and the power of your stories is a really big beacon for us.
HEATHER EWART: Allen White is a single parent who's paid just $9 an hour. His take home pay is $220 a week. He gets five days paid leave a year and has no other entitlements.
Dolores McCoy is 74. She's a union member who does better.
DOLORES MCCOY: Right now I do coffee stations and break rooms and I do 19 floors. I get $13.52 an hour.
HEATHER EWART: And Iris Flores works two jobs to make ends meet. She gets no paid annual leave or sick leave and she's considered the big draw card.
SHARAN BURROW: You work two jobs up to 14 hours a day, but you have three children and one of them is working for $2.50 an hour plus tips. Australians are going to find that really horrific.
ACTU SPOKESMAN: Welcome, we look forward to hearing from you.
HEATHER EWART: Iris Flores takes this advice at one venue after another.
IRIS FLORES: My daughter's a waiter at Appleby's Restaurant. She gets paid $2.50 an hour. She only gets paid $2.50 an hour plus tips.
HEATHER EWART: Just how this relates to an Australian workforce that has a much higher minimum wage is never made entirely clear.
Still, the three travellers are growing into their role and Allen White is ready for more questions, and bigger audiences.
ALLEN WHITE: Look, I thought it would have been a lot more questions, a lot more people.
HEATHER EWART: Would you have liked a few more questions?
ALLEN WHITE: No, I'm hungry.
HEATHER EWART: They've sung for their supper on this day. They missed lunch and were treated to a huge banquet at dinner time. They found the menu a little difficult to fathom.
Just like the Australian style of speaking at the meetings and forums they attend.
Did you have trouble understanding the questions?
DOLORES MCCOY: A little bit. Some of them talk too fast.
HEATHER EWART: By the time they reached Tasmania, local media attention is growing, but the Australian accent is clearly still a problem.
AUSTRALIAN REPORTER: Are you worried about the situation in Australia? You wouldn't like to see it develop and become, happen in Australia?
IRIS FLORES: Say that again.
AUSTRALIAN REPORTER: Sorry, the situation in the US, you wouldn't like to see that in Australia?
IRIS FLORES: One more time.
HEATHER EWART: Once they hit South Australia, they're getting into full swing, and Allen White tells the South Australian Premier he should realise just how lucky he is.
ALLEN WHITE: Here is great, though, 'cause you can go to the doctor without any problems you don't have to worry about your bills being paid. Everybody gets fair wage and vacation time paid.
HEATHER EWART: This is starting to become a recurring theme. The more Australian workers they meet, the more the Americans decide they're way worse off in comparison.
IRIS FLORES: They say the US is supposed to be the land of milk and honey, but I see the milk and honey in Australia.
ALLEN WHITE: You get a certain amount of someone when you're on vacation, this and that. This is unbelievable. Yeah. I am surprised, yes ma'am.
HEATHER EWART: Do you think Australians should be grateful for what they have?
DOLORES MCCOY: Yes, they should and they should fight to keep it.
HEATHER EWART: The visitors return to the US at the weekend, with a fresh determination to fight for a better deal for themselves.
It's perhaps not quite one of the key effects the ACTU had in mind at the start of this trip, but there are now three more Americans in love with Australia.
KERRY O'BRIEN: That report from Heather Ewart.