BLUE-COLLAR jobs are disappearing faster than expected in Australia, devastating families and local communities along the way.
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The latest hammer blow for Australian workers came yesterday with the announcement that up to 1000 shipbuilding jobs would be lost in Williamstown.
Defence manufacturer BAE Systems has withdrawn its tender for a government building project after calls to fast-track it were ignored.
The contract — worth up to $600 million — was to design and build 20 Pacific patrol boats.
The government could not commit to the project for at least 18 months and for BAE to remain viable it needed continuous work.
The result is that once again, manufacturing jobs have been thrown on the scrapheap.
The BAE decision comes hot on the heels of the car industry’s demise and with it, the end of the components supply industry that forms such a large part of it.
We are continuously told that in the so-called new economy the demand for Australian manufacturing is on the wane.
The jobs of the future, we are told, will be filled by smart people with university degrees. We will become a smart economy, not an old-style economy built on labour, manufacturing and hard work.
Tell that to the 100 or so workers who will lose their jobs at BAE. What does the future hold for them?
Tell it to the thousands of car workers and component-industry workers who are yet to lose their jobs. Where will they find work in the new economy?
Australia is changing along with the rest of the world, but we are not keeping pace with the loss of jobs caused by giant steps forward in technology.
The country is in desperate need of a coherent industry plan squarely aimed at creating a wide range of jobs across a broad range of industries.
We don’t have one.
In regional Victoria, the problem is worse.
The days of full employment and a career for life have long gone.
Now, many people struggle to find work wherever they can find it in an increasing part-time or casualised labour force.
Where will it end?