Brian Boyd (unionist)
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Brian Boyd is a trade unionist. He was elected secretary of the
Victorian Trades Hall Council The Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) is a representative body of trade union organisations, known as a labour council, in the state of Victoria, Australia. It comprises 43 affiliated trade unions and professional associations, and eight regi ...
on 5 May 2005, succeeding Leigh Hubbard in this position, one of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
's most powerful
trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
roles. He is a longstanding member of Birds Australia, now called BirdLife Australia. Boyd worked for the
Builders Labourers Federation The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and som ...
from late 1979 to 1988, which included the period when the BLF was deregistered. He coordinated Victoria's building unions, when working as an industrial and campaigns officer with the
Victorian Trades Hall Victorian Trades Hall is the headquarters of the Victorian Trades Hall Council in Australia. It is located on the corner of Lygon and Victoria streets, just north of the Melbourne central business district in the suburb of Carlton. It is the ...
since being elected to the position of Industrial Officer in 1988. In regard to the right to strike and industry-wide bargaining, Boyd was reported in
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
in April 2007 "I'm arguing that there's still no unfettered right to strike, there are limitations on it; we might want to stop work to give consideration to the Iraq war, for instance," The statement was made in regard to the debate around the Federal
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
IR policy leading up to the 2007 Federal election. In regard to
Australian Workplace Agreement An Australian workplace agreement (AWA) was a type of formalised individual agreement negotiated between an employer and employee in Australia that existed from 1996 to 2009. Employers could offer a "take it or leave it" AWA as a condition of empl ...
s (AWAs), Boyd has voiced concern many may breach OHS law following statistics released in April by the major newspapers that claim 30% of AWAs do not allow workers to have rest breaks during scheduled hours of work. He has called AWAs that breach OHS regulations as criminal and asked that
WorkSafe Victoria WorkSafe Victoria is the trading name of the Victorian WorkCover Authority, a statutory authority of the state government of Victoria, Australia. History After being renamed in 2014 as Victorian Work-cover Authority by Minister Gordon Rich-P ...
prosecute any employer found to have taken away this safety condition under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. "Workers are protected by occupational health and safety law. Our Victorian law says that the employer has to provide a safe system of work – and that includes decent rest breaks," Boyd said. "Employers think they can do what they want under Howard’s laws, but they are forgetting that state-based OHS laws still call them to account."
VTHC claims AWAs are breaching OHS law
'' safetysolutions.net.au Posted: 18 April 2007. Accessed 14 May 2007
In May 2009 Boyd was re-elected unopposed as VTHC Secretary for a further 4 years. He has been a member of the Australian Council of Trade Unions(ACTU) Executive since 2005. On 2 May 2013 Boyd was re elected for the third time as VTHC Secretary. He said at the time he was looking forward to campaigning against Tony Abbott in the lead up to the next federal election due on the 14/9/13. In 2013 he wrote the introduction to the review booklet entitled : 'The Builders Labourers Federation -Lessons for the 21st Century-Never Powerless' with other contributions from : Norm Wallace, Paddy Donnelly, Dave Kerin, George Despard and Malcolm McDonald. Early in 2014 he wrote the book entitled : 'There is corruption...and there is...CORRUPTION - An exposé of turning a blind eye to corporate bribery, fraud and greed in Australia', published by the ETU Vic Branch. In July 2014 Boyd went on Long Service Leave, and formally retired from the Victorian Trades Hall Council in November of that year, though he remained an active member of the
CFMEU The Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) is Australia's largest Trade union, union in the construction, forestry, wikt:maritime, maritime, Textile manufacturing, textile, Clothing industry, clothing and Shoemaking, footw ...
and continued to serve on several committees as a CFMEU representative. From 2015 onwards Boyd became a part-time freelance writer on industrial, political and social issues, continuing on particularly as a co-editor of the Victorian building industry's quarterly magazine ON SITE. In 2017 he took a particular interest in the viability, effectiveness and fairness of the 30 year old industry superannuation scheme set up by the Hawke/Keating governments progressively between 1983 and 1992. A progressive newspaper the Green Left Weekly published a two part critical analysis of the issue-July 11 and July 18, 2017. In June 2018 The Victorian Branch of the Electrical Trades Union, led by Troy Gray, published a more comprehensive book on the industry superannuation issue by Boyd, entitled" "DONT FORGET SUPER" (see details below).


Personal background

Brian Boyd was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 17 July 1951. He immigrated to Australia in 1956 with his father (Thomas Boyd), his mother (Sarah "Sadie" Boyd née Toan), his brother Leonard "Lenny" and sister Lynne. His youngest brother David was born in Australia. Brian grew up in the industrial Latrobe Valley, specifically Morwell where he graduated from Morwell High School in 1969. From 1970 to 1976 he tried various tertiary institutions before graduating from La Trobe University with a BA Dip Ed. Between 1979 and 1991 he was married to fellow trade unionist Mary Bluett. In 2010 (5/6) he married longtime partner Christine Thomas. In Dec 2010 IR academic Gordon McCaskie, overseen by Swinburne University professor Dr Peter Love, successfully completed a master's degree based on a biographical thesis on Brian Boyd's industrial and political life. By Dec 2012 this thesis was published as:"Brian Boyd-A biography of a trade unionist"by Gordon McCaskie,.Price 68 euros.Published by Lambert Academic Press (go to Google of L.A.P. then Title, then project Number 66228, then ISBN for ordering). Boyd became world-renowned when he famously said, "John Howard is as welcome in Melbourne today as a yellow-bellied black snake at a barbecue!" at an anti-WorkChoices rally in 2006. At a "BUST THE BUDGET" rally in Melbourne 12 June 2014, Brian Boyd told the anti-Federal government protesters in Bourke St. that Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Treasurer
Joe Hockey Joseph Benedict Hockey (born 2 August 1965) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. He was the Member of Parliament for Division of North Sydney, North Sydney from 1996 Australian federal election, 1996 until 2015. He was the Treasurer ...
that they "as welcome in Melbourne today as two feral cane toads in a backyard swimming pool".


Bibliography

*''Inside the BLF: a union self-destructs'' by Brian Boyd, Melbourne, Vic. : Ocean, (1991). * "Full Moon Over Mindanao-A trade union trip to the Philippines" by Brian Boyd Melbourne :Publicity Works,(1993), * "Melbourne Trades Hall 150th Anniversary Commemoration Booklet 1859-2009 by Brian Boyd ''et al.'' Melbourne :VTHC/THLI publication (2009), * "There is corruption...and then there is...CORRUPTION! An exposé of turning a blind eye to corporate bribery, fraud and greed in Australia", compilation and commentary by VTHC Secretary Brian Boyd published by ETU Vic JUNE 2014. * "DON'T FORGET SUPER" by Brian Boyd Melbourne, published by Electrical Trades Union -Vic (June 2018),


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Brian Trade unionists from Melbourne Living people 1951 births Australian trade union leaders