"Not every bona fide’s results in a happy ending to a good drama". The intervention of the Victorian Labor Government into the current crisis between unions and employers has only served to increase the tension that already exists with industry, which had been steeling itself against industrial action and bans, and has been an unproductive move in resolving the dispute.

This is illustrated by the decision of the Victoria Builders Association to close construction sites throughout Victoria beginning from the third of March 2000, because of the "unsustainable demand from the unions" they said, "we had no alternative but to stand up and fight against unions".

However, there are rumours and growing signs that many employers don’t agree and they are not going to support the decision of shutting down construction sites. In addition, they have already moved to talk with the union trying to reach an interim agreement for a thirty-six hour week and a six percent pay rise for this year.

The crisis is therefore far away from being settled because of the great differences between the two parties and the recent controversial legislation, passed in the Parliament proposed by the Minister of Workplace Relations, Mr Peter Reith, concerning a basic change of workplace.

Australian workplaces have had a long history of strong trade union struggle and significant achievements over business decisions. We remember the event in 1894 when Australian workers stopped work for about 6 years demanding better conditions and basic changes to the existing Workplace law. That strike was the longest in Australian history, which resulted in the granting of the Labour Day holiday in Australia.

The recent disputes emerged at a time when the new Victorian Labor Government took power after seven years in opposition. In this period, the conservative Liberal Government adopted laws of privatisation, which gave more power to private enterprise and puts more pressure on the unions and workers to protect their own interest of economic and political power.

In fact, the Victorian Labor Government’s, initial response was a moderate move of non-alignment, but after strong and intense pressure from various sources, in particular the opposition, the premier dumped his previous strategy, creating a precedent when he spoke against union demands which has put him between a rock and hard place.

The nature of the crisis in Victoria between unions and employers has a very deep root, both politically and economically, because it has affected the views of political parties and business activity. Although, the architects of the crisis are unions and employers, the Liberal party has a great interest in the deepening of the current dispute because of three reasons:

Firstly, they want to show the public that the unions are eroding the booming economy in Victoria built by the previous liberal government of Jeff Kennett.

Secondly, they are trying to show the public that the current Labor Government is not doing enough to stop the action of the unions and they argued that the Government was beholden to the trade union movement.

Thirdly, the opposition is trying to create an atmosphere of conflict between the Labor Party and unions, which is almost implicitly occurring.

In reality, what is stuck between the rock and a hard place is not only the Premier Mr Steve Bracks but his Government as a whole, because of its minority nature, with a short period in power and a huge economic and political challenge at the federal and state level. For example, many laws are in the hands of the Federal parliament which is now headed by the Liberal party and National Party, who are extremely opposed to the union movement and fight them constantly, using slogans created by themselves saying`` it’s tragedy that when you look through history where industries have failed to move with the times and have said we don’t want to change". But in practice their determination is to adopt contract and casual Labor in workplaces, with individual non-union contracts for each worker, because it is the only way that they can abolish the union movements. On the other side, the unions argue that the Federal Government’s push to promote individual contracts is a direct breach of the act’s freedom of association provisions.

The scale of the dispute is very big because both parties are very powerful, institutions- Unions and Enterprises, and it could have an enormous impact on our lives socially, economically and politically.

Many people think of this dispute superficially, that it is simply an industrial dispute between two parties, but in reality, it is far more serious than it appears. The Federal Government of the Liberal Party wants to implement its program of economic privatisation, based on Margaret Thatcher’s theory of Economic Rationalism. In addition, the Master Builders argue that the unions are refusing to accept the evolution of workplaces in the twentieth century because they still have a strong belief in the closed-shop unionised workplace, which is unacceptable to the Master builders.

For these reasons, the Victorian Government will face a difficult task to resolve this problem, because of its delicate and sensitive nature. However, it is trying to take the best steps to harmonise the environment, organising separate meetings with the parties, listening to their views and informing them of the object of the Government to settle the crisis.

This crisis hasn’t impacted only on the State of Victoria but it will also have an impact on federal, nation wide, and then international levels, because the Australia economy has a great link with the international market, especially in Asia where the labour market is very cheap and the living standards are lower. In fact, some analysts predict that this crisis will affect Australia’s exports and imports, if the parties concerned do not accept in principal, to resolve their differences through dialogue, tolerance and compromise, restoring economic stability in Victoria and mutual understanding between unions and employers.

In my view, it is human nature to disagree with different opinions, systems, methods and to have economic advantages over others. This dispute is happening between two disparate groups who have always been in conflict because one group fights for survival and the other is fighting to make more profit. Finally, after a long strong struggle, both parties, with the`` argey bargey" of industry negotiations, will reach a compromise agreement in this dispute in order to achieve economic stability for the state and to create a situation which could lead both parties to a mutual confidence, understanding and good relations for the future.

The Victorian Labor Government took an extraordinary step to achieve those goals and freed itself from a very difficult situation. It organised a summit called 'Victoria Together', chaired by Bob Hawke a veteran union movement leader and former Prime Minister. The aim of this conference was to bring together, Business groups, Union Workers, the Chamber of Commerce, welfare groups and indirectly to find a solution to the dispute between unions and employers, and to demonstrate the government’s capability to handle every dispute within its territorial jurisdiction; finally this has happened.