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For the last ten years, as the telecommunications industry began to rapidly change and open up, the CEPU, UNI's Australian affiliate, has sought to promote more union agreements to help strengthen jobs, pay and conditions in the sector.



It's not an easy task.  While they've made headway in some areas, securing agreements with various companies.Lookoing to the future, the industry is set to experience even greater change and growth - especially with the construction of the government's multi-billion dollar high-speed broadband network.

It will become an crucial part of the nation's economic infrastructure.  Its construction will spur on job opportunities.  It will provide a boost to business and the community.



But this network will need skilled workers to build it and maintain it.  And their contribution should be valued and promoted with good pay and conditions.

For some time now, EPMU has tried to secure a fair agreement with Telstra but they have walked away from talks and attempted to roll out non-union agreements as part of their longer term plan to wear away at pay and conditions - while also cutting jobs and redundancy conditions. 

Telstra's also tried threatening the government, claiming it might not even bid for the project -  which some analysts believe might wipe $11.9 billion off Telstra’s value.

Contrast this to other bidders for the broadband project, namely Terria.



So while Telstra is set on a path of job and wage cutting, the union has struck a contrast elsewhere in the industry.

Unions are close to securing a memorandum of understanding with Terria for a co-operative and constructive workplace relationship would help it recruit a highly-skilled and motivated workforce for the project.



It would also provide extra security that the consortium would deliver the project on time and on budget.



Should the Terria bid succeed, the MOU agreement would commit unions and Terria to negotiate a collective agreement in good faith, and to the joint development of initiatives to assist Terria in recruiting, training and deploying the employees it will need.



This is an important agreement and a major step forward for workers in the communications industry.



The agreement would recognise that in order to construct and operate Australia’s new high speed network, Terria needs to have productive, dynamic workplaces and motivated employees and that it would need to quickly recruit a highly skilled workforce.



The agreement is also recognition that fair and efficient industrial arrangements are a critical component of ensuring that major projects are delivered effectively and to the best standards by a productive and appropriately rewarded workforce.



It is essential for major projects such as the national broadband network to be underpinned by a stable and secure enterprise agreement.



Other large infrastructure projects do this and the broadband network should be no different.



In correspondence with the ACTU, Terria chairman Michael Egan  said “Good management, of course, requires good industrial relations and a harmonious work-place”.



He has suggested that the MOU with unions could be along the lines of the “Olympic Agreement” between the New South Wales Government and the trade union movement which successfully delivered infrastructure and services for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.



The CEPU is committed to the goal of lifting jobs, wages and conditions within the telecommunications sector - and the talks with Terria are a natural extension of this aim.

The union hopes that Telstra realises there is more to be gained from everyone working together to help deliver a key piece of the nation's infrastructure - something other companies are more than willing to recognise and work towards.