
Issue No 100		29 June 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

Picket MPs Face More WorkCover Heat

State Labor MPs who crossed the Parliament House picket will be visited by delegations of rank and file workers and asked to publicly state their position on workers compensation.

The meetings, to be coordinated by Labor Council's Workers Compensation Campaign Committee, will mark the next phase of the ongoing campaign to protect workers compensation entitlements.

Over the next month, all MPs will be asked to spend an hour with local workers, viewing a video of this week's statewide Sky Channel broadcast and filling out a questionnaire on their position on injured workers rights. These responses will then be placed on the LaborNet compo page.

All but 17 of the State Labor Caucus either broke the picket or smuggled themselves into the House before it sat. They are now seeking to redefine the June 22 action as a 'blockade' rather than a 'picket'.

But if there's any doubt in their minds, it seems that the Parliament House pay office is clear. They've circulated an email to all internal Parliamentary departments seeking to identify those on the picket from within the House's staff with a view to docking their pay.

Golden Chance to Organise

While the trade union movement this week accepted "the reality" that the first wave of the Della Bosca reform package would pass State Parliament this week - vital aspects of the original Bill were taken out after a sustained trade union campaign.

Labor Council secretary John Robertson last night briefed the executive on the next phase of the campaign, which would focus on ensuring Della Bosca sticks to his written commitment to that 'no injured worker would be worse off' under changes to medical assessment guidelines.

Robertson says the head of the ACTU Organising Committee Michael Crosby will be asked to work on ways of ensuring rank and file members have ownership of the campaigns.

New information and lobbying materials are also being prepared, with the campaign theme: 'I work and I vote'.

Sky Channel's Big Hit

Round Two of the campaign was officially launched on Wednesday, when more than 200,000 workers attended a public meeting broadcast to more than 200 venues around the state.

Workers committed themselves to support the Labor Council's ongoing campaign for their entitlements by taking their message direct to their local MPs and committing themselves to further industrial action

In several centres including Wollongong, Newcastle and Dubbo workers later voted to walk off the job for 24 hours. They joined workers in the construction, manufacturing, electrical and printing industries in taking strike action.

They heard form Robertson, as well as members of the Labor Council negotiation committee - the Meatworkers' Patricia Fernandez, Nancy Searle from the Police Association, the Teachers Federation's Joan Lemaire and the CFMEU's Rita Mallia.

Robertson says he was overwhelmed by the turnout, which sent workers the message loud and clear that unions had not sold them out on this issue.

For a full transcript of the Sky Channel meeting click here:

http://www.labor.net.au/news/1134.html

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  Issue 100 contents

Interview: Baptism of Fire
It�s been a rugged few weeks for Labor Council�s new honcho. But John Robertson accepts it comes with the territory.

Politics: Seven Days that Shook Our World
Chris Christolodulou surveys the wreckage from a week when the political and industrial wings of the labour movement collided.

History: History Sometimes Repeat
This is not the first Labor government to attack workers compensation entitlements. Some believe the Unsworth Government�s 1987 reforms were the beginning of the end for that administration.

Technology: Unions Online: Where To Now?
Social Change Online's Mark McGrath goes looking for what's on the virtual horizon for the union movement.

Media: The Printed Word Revisited
Rowan Cahill looks at the resurgence of the workers press and the lessons for unions in better communicating with their members.

Unions: Time For Second Gear
The trends are in the right direction but unions are still drinking small beer in the IT world and need to allocate more resources to communications generally, argues Noel Hester.

Satire: Texan Governor Faces Execution
The governor of Texas has been sentenced to death row after a jury found him guilty of killing hundreds of people.

Review: The Insider
Neale Towart looks at a literary anti-hero who brings the factional machinations and double-deals of the ALP machine out of the back rooms and into the light.

» Picket MPs Face More WorkCover Heat

» Della Tries a Henry VIII

» Privatisation Opens New WorkCover Front

» The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Virtual Democracy

» Bank Staff Forced to Flog Insurance

» Email Surveillance Report Gathers Dust

» Fifty Years On, Women Still Short-Changed

» Firefighters Withdraw Strike Threat

» Telstra�s Sells Off Skills Base

» BHP - Billiton Faces $1.8 Billion OHS Claim

» Activist Notebook

» STOP PRESS: Quite Frankly, Reith Goes!