Coronavirus: the odd couple truce working to save jobs

The COVID-19 crisis has rapidly transformed relations between the union movement and the Coalition.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus. Picture: Gary Ramage

Sally McManus had arrived at a memorial for Victorian unionist Cameron Hill in Malvern, in Melbourn­e’s inner southeast, when her mobile phone rang.

It was Scott Morrison. Not only had the duo not spoken before, the Prime Minister was ringing to thank the ACTU secretary.

Morrison had learned that McManus had told Christian Porte­r, the Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister, that unions were prepared to put aside traditional hostilities and work cooperatively with the government and business as the nation faced health and economic shockwaves from the coronavirus pandemic.

With community debate raging over whether schools should be closed, Morrison told McManus he especially wanted to thank the education unions, as he knew teachers were going through a hard time.

Their conversation last Saturday morning is emblematic of how the COVID-19 crisis has rapidly transformed relations between the union movement and the ­Coalition, shredding traditional rules of political engagement and uniting ideological opponents in a mission to try to combat the threat to lives and jobs.

Not only do McManus and Porter speak daily via video-­conference, they have set up a WhatsApp group to communicate frankly and quickly about the fast-moving, multi-pronged crisis.

“If you told me I was going to be BFF with Sally McManus three weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed­ you,” Porter told The Weekend Australian.

McManus said the phone call with the Prime Minister was one of many extraordinary moments over the past two weeks. “The whole thing is surreal and what seemed surreal yesterday seems normal today,” she said.

“You think it’s strange that you are in regular discussions with people who were literally trying to destroy parts of the movement a month ago.

“That seemed very strange last week; it doesn’t seem strange now.”

About 10 days ago, McManus told a video-conference call with Porter and employer groups that the union movement was willing to work with the government and business to try to save lives and jobs. “I said we were willing to step up and we want everyone to put aside the differences or hostilities we have had in the past and do that,” she said. “That was obviously well received. The government has obviously stopped (the union-busting) Ensuring Integrity (Bill). Nothing else is a priority.”

New allies

Porter, who has been working out of Canberra or Perth, initiated the daily video meetings with McMan­us, who has been operating out of a friend’s apartment in suburban Sydney.

“The usual playbooks have been binned,” Porter said. “Sally McManus has been great. Personally, she’s been sensible, easy to deal with, trustworthy.

“For me, she’s a person who comes with a proposed solution in tandem with a known problem. And I might not agree, in every case, with the solution that she’s offering but we are able to stress-test the solutions with each other.”

He said McManus’s attitude had been “very refreshing” and noted the work done to facilitate landmark agreements between unions and employers to change award conditions and keep employee­s working and businesses operating. “It’s turned into a co-operative productive relationship because both of us have one agenda item and that agenda item is protecting and saving jobs. That’s it,” Porter said.

“(If you had told me) that we would be on a regular WhatsApp group and communicating frankly and openly, and in a way where we are trusting each other with observ­ations, and information, and ­potential solutions to problems, I would not have believed you, but that’s where we are at. And so far I think it’s a relationship that’s helping to solve problems.”

McManus said the discussions with the government had been “very constructive, very honest on both sides”.

“No one is playing any games at the moment,” she said, describing Porter’s approach as “practical, decisive­ and honest”.

“(The relationship is) surprisingly very good. We just didn’t have a relationship. We just haven’t ever worked together before­. I think he genuinely is very focused. He is the one sitting in his seat like I am the one sitting in my seat when this pandemic has ­happened.

“I think he is genuinely driven by doing everything he can, as obviously­ I am, and every other union official is.

“We have a common interest, even if we don’t have the same view about what needs to happen.”

Before hardcore unionists and Coalitionists get too alarmed, the new alliance does not mean they always agree on the best path forward­. McManus says privately to Porter what she says publicly: that the government should support a guaranteed wage subsidy of 80 per cent for displaced workers; that embracing this policy­ would allow the country to be shut down — other than for essential services — for weeks without people losing their job or income.

She said the Coalition had communicated poorly at times with the community, sending the wrong messages to employers. The current­ “half-measures”, she said, were dragging out the crisis at greater cost and risking the loss of more lives.

How does Porter respond to such criticism? “He always ­listens,” McManus said.

Stress-testing

Porter said he saw the relationship as “stress-testing each other’s ideas and proposals”.

“The productive part of the relatio­nship I have managed to form with Sally in a short period of time is, where a problem arises, we are not sitting around writing PhDs on the problem. We are putting­ solutions to each other, stress-testing them, seeing what can work, what can fly, what can actually be achieved,” he said.

“Sometimes personality types rub up against each other, sometimes they get along well, and sometimes you are going to get the opportunity to find out which you are going to be, and we’ve had an opportunity to find out.

“It’s working­ great. She is ­working in a collaborative and co-operative way that is producing an outcome that is saving jobs.”

As well as their direct relationship, cabinet ministers are for the first time talking directly with union leaders in different industries. The success of the dialogue has been mixed so far, but the discussions were largely previously unheard of under the Coalition. ACTU president Michele O’Neil has been co-ordinating union discussion­s with employer groups, including the Australian Industry Group and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on how business and unions can work togeth­er to save jobs.

New deals

Groundbreaking agreements af­fecting­ hospitality workers and up to one million workers under the clerical award have been struck, with a similar deal being tried in the restaurant sector. Porter praised the “marvellous” work of Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross in quickly getting major changes to awards ­approved.

That said, the size and speed of the job losses and the escalating number of coronavirus cases is not only upturning the way we work and live, it is causing major anxiety among Australians.

“A week ago, we were talking about it being unprecedented,” McManus said. “We understand none of our predecessors since 1939 have been involved in anything­ like this, but that almost seems glib now because you have got the coming together of the health crisis as well as the big economi­c downturn.

“The big issue that every affil­iate is dealing with is not just job losses. Obviously, the last three to four days have been horrendous. You look at the announcements: 8000 (job losses), 8000, 8000. In normal times, if that happened once in one place, that would be a big deal. Now it’s just lists of places.

“On top of that is the anxiety of workers. That is getting worse … because of the pandemic — the ­realisation for a lot of people that this is actually really serious.

“I think two weeks ago there were large parts of the population that were thinking we were going to get through this without too many people dying. As people see what’s happened in Italy and watched the curve go up in Australia, most of the population now realise how ­serious it is. That’s playing out with every individual, every family, every workplace.”

Neither Porter nor McManus know if and how the tumultuous events will change relations between­ employers and workers once the country recovers from the pandemic. “Big events always change relationships. What the nature of that change is, it’s too early to tell,” McManus said.

Asked if government-union relations would change, Porter said, “Mate, too far ahead, it’s day to day at the moment”, before excusing himself for a cabinet meeting.