You can't imagine how thrilled I was when I found out that Wendy Lowenstein had brought out a volume of exerpts from interviews among the unemployed. Until Weevils at Work appeared on the bookstands I was beginning to think that the idea of the unemployed talking about their experiences and the need for our own organisation that would kick arse was a very Seventies sort of thing.
Wendy inspired me to put down just a few of my recent experiences in writing to to see if some sort of chord is struck oamong the readers out there. I don't know what the scene is elsewhere in Australia but the unemployed in Adelaide can pick up the paper (there is only one paper and one newspaper proprietor here) on any Satuday and read that General Motors in Elizabeth and Mitsubishi at its two locations are looking for good, wholesome, hardworking Aussies to build their range of top selling vehicles. Present yourselves to the CES for further details.
At the CES you are warned that if appointments are made for you, you have to front or there will be a range of consequences. Shit, I think, I on a conveyor belt leading me unavoidably on to a job on the factory floor. Ray Martin's right, there are lots of jobs out there.
Next stop the CES Elizabeth which conducts General Motors' recruitment for them. Nice piece of Corporate Statism, I though. I was let into a room with thirty other hopefuls and sat at a desk while Debbie of the CES laid down the line. 'Don't attach any resumes to the form you are to fill out. If you look at the board here you will notice that this is test number one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine. We are currently processing forty three thousand applications and if you were to put your resumes with the forms our filing cabinets would stretch from here to Port Augusta.'
We saw a video: Brockie racing his Commodore around Bathurst, seats being fitted into cars, young workers being shown some process or another. The test went OK. Actually it was bloody difficult and even had it's humiliating aspects. To test our dexterity we had to draw lines between parallel lines printed on the form, first with our left hand, then our right, against the stopwatch - of course! I'll never forget the sight of the group desperately manipulating the paper to speed up the pointless task.
While I waited for notice from GMH (my expectations a bit lowered by this stage) I set off for Mitsubishis. No video or group test here. Just grab the form, go over there and fill it out. Don't ring us we'll ring you. Several weeks later letters arrive saying that there are no jobs at the moment but that I'm on the books as they say and, hyey, who knows. At this stage I mention to a union organiser mate of mine what had happened and he suggests I get in touch with a vehicle builders' organiser mate of his about it. I do.
'I can't promise anything, you know down at Mitsubishis they look at the applications one week and 'file' them the next. I'll see if I can activate yours in case you were unlucky. This will only get you in to do the tests.
These efforts come to nothing. Imagine my anger when I read the paper to find out that Mitsubishi is throwing a sausage sizzle to attract workers, any workers, untrained or not to join the team. Seems demand for the new Magna has gone mad and they just can't get the people to screw them together.
Undeterred I keep asking around those all important networks about potential jobs. A friend suggest I look into PCB (printed circuit board) assembly. He did a skill share course in it and has never looked back. $11.50 an hour and scads of overtime. He's had work for eighteen months solid. Can't wait!
Problem is the course has closed down. Perhaps I could do the ten week TAFE course in electronics. I make some preliminary inquiries with some of the employers my friend recommended.
There's no work but if I feel electronics is my life I could do the course and try for an 'Industrial Placement'. What's that? Well I would have to work for a few weeks weeks for nothing while they teach me a few things and find out if I'm suitable. I can't believe it, my friend in the Communist Party is suggesting I sit up and beg!
As probably know from your own experience, I could go on and on about this sad business of job hunting, about sitting Public Service selection tests and getting top marks and yet somehow being deemed unsuitable. More usual is just unanswered letters or an awkward change of subject when I steer the conversation around to jobs when talking to someone in a position to provide one.
It's at time like these you almost wish you could go back to the Fraser years. People were still unused to high levels of unemployment and despite the 'dole bludger' bashing that went on even then, the enemployed were not so ground down that an institution like 'Industrial Placements' could exist.
In Canberra, where I came from, there was an active Unemployed Workers Union that did street theatre, organised members to ride on buses while refusing to pay fares (they got concessions out of that one!), they had a newspaper and in general had a political life. Nothing like thirteen years of Labor Government to wipe those traditions of struggle from the collective memory!
In South Australia we have an organisation called 'South Australian Unemployed Groups in Action'. Its member organisations are actually the official skillshare outlets, job clubs and what have you and the organisation 'lobbies on behalf of the enemployed'. Wow!
I recently joing the Progressive Labour Party because I'm fed up with the whole political direction of our Tweedle Dum Tweedle Dee Governments. One of the things that turned me on to joining the PLP was its support for the establishment of an unemployed workers union with teeth. Is even this necessary evil too much to ask for? While the system continues to deprive us of work and the chance of an adequate income, we could be working at this, couldn't we?