With the heat on Telstra in the lead up to next week's votes on the non Union agreement, management did what management does best:

• use lots of money on lawyers to threaten those that have a different view to them.

The CEPU and other Unions have been raising serious concerns about the downsides of Telstra's proposed non-Union agreements.

While Telstra's been leaning on staff to vote for its deficient non-Union deals, it's tried to clamp down any alternate views to the management line.

So - in a desperate attempt to shut down different views about its deal - Telstra took the Unions to the Federal Court with tough talk of penalties and gag orders.

We can only guess that Telstra HR's aims with this court action have been:

• tie up Union resources fighting a case in the Federal Court
• distract employees with legal antics - in an attempt to divert attention from the problems with the non-Union deals
• do anything to try to undermine the Union call for a fair go

But all this action came to nothing when the Federal Court dismissed the application this afternoon.

Breath-taking:

Telstra's claims that there's been false and misleading information out there is breath-taking.  Consider this quote, straight from the AIRC this week:

"Telstra’s strategy from the outset was to make it appear that it was prepared to negotiate an agreement with the Unions but without any real intention to do so . . . Telstra intended negotiations to proceed to a particular point in time before diverging on another course."

AIRC Senior Deputy President Lacy.   AIRC 714 - 8 September 2008
 

History repeating at Telstra?

In the lead up to last year's Federal Election, with the promise of new workplace laws, Telstra rushed out last minute AWAs. 

Result? 3,000 employees knocked them back.

Not satisfied, Telstra took those unsigned AWAs, turned them into a mass AWA and badged them up as a "collective agreement" in October 2007.

Result? Nearly 80% of affected employees who voted said "No thanks".

Now, with new workplace laws right around the corner, Telstra is rushing out more non-Union deals - but, this time, uses this threat: "If you don't vote these up, you won't get a pay rise for 12 months".

Pretty strong words when you consider:

• Companies are paying top dollar to attract and keep staff in an environment of skill shortages

• Telstra will want to keep staff to help rollout a new broadband network.

We ask you to see through Telstra threats and antics - All members are urged to vote NO to get Telstra back to the negotiating table.