Issue No 10 | 23 April 1999 | |
NewsVizard Offers Unions Cheap Computers, But Is It a Pup?
A company headed by Steve Vizard is proposing a deal with the ACTU to provide cheap computers to the movement's 2.3 million members in return for e-commerce rights for the next 10 years.
The deal, being promoted by Vizard and vigorously backed by ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty, would offer union members a package of a home computer, cheap InterNet access and associated online services, including web-TV as it becomes available. In return, the company would have the rights to commercially exploit the trade union network in the emerging areas of e-commerce and content delivery into the new millennium. But many unions are concerned that the deal short-changes the union movement and fails to adequately value its membership base. The proposal was presented by Vizard to last month's ACTU excecutive, which resolved to establish a committee to consider the proposal. On the committee are the FSU's Tony Beck, the Nurses' Sam Moaitt, the IEU's Sharan Burrow and NSW Labor Council secretary Michael Costa. The committee met with Vizard again this week, agreeing to give him two months to come up with an acceptable proposal. While the proposal forces trade unions to confront the challenges of the Information Age, there are concerns that Vizard's is the only plan being considered by the ACTU. Michael Costa is pushing to seek broader expressions of interest, possibly putting it out to public tender or investigating joint venture arrangements with union-friendly e-enterprises. "We are dealing with an asset, our membership base, which it is impossible to value at present," he says. "Networks of people will be the most valuable asset in the Information Age. We need to be very careful that we don't just give it away." He says the union movement should not commit itself to the Vizard path, before it fully explores all the options. "I was annoyed to see that those backing the Vizard plan had leaked it to The Bulletin this week," Costa said. "While Labor Council had agreed to work through the proposal with the ACTU, we think its important to air our concerns now the issue is in the public domain." One industry figure told Workers Online the current calculations for Internet Service Providers were up to $1300 per customer, the benchmark set by the recent takeover of Ozemail by America Online. Given these costings, Vizard's proposal, even if it only attracts 100,000 of the union's movement 2.3 million members, would be worth $130 million to him. He said the key movers in the industry are the e-commerce portals, like Microsoft and Netscape. These portals are currently paying huge amounts to get access to subscriber bases. Suddenly union officials are wondering whether the Vizard deal undervalues a union movement's contribution. "Of all the pieces in the information technology equation, it is the hardware, that is the home computers, that have the least value," the insider said. 'These will be given away very soon, much in the way mobile phones are now." "Getting tied into a long-term deal like this is not a good idea," the insider told Workers Online.
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Interview: Latham: Leading With The Chin Labor's heretical voice talks about trade unions and how they'll survive in the land of the Third Way. Unions: Nursing the Numbers Active members are the key to recruitment for one of the state's strongest unions, the NSW Nurses Association. We talk to some of the star recruiters. History: A Sense of Community Historian Greg Patmore looks at labour-community coalitions in the Lithgow Valley between 1900 and 1932. International: Labor Council Official to Dili Front Line Labor Council�s Chris Christodoulou will be one of the first foreign unionists to head to East Timor in the leadup to independence. Review: When Billy Met Lindsay What happens when a British political popster meets with an Australian political thinker? Legal: CyberPorn in the Workplace A new protocol in the NSW public service is setting the benchmark for acceptable use of the internet.
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