
Issue No 100		29 June 2001

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News

STOP PRESS: Quite Frankly, Reith Goes!

The bane of the trade union movement, former Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith has announced he will retire from Parliament at the next election, rather than face a challenge by a rank and file MUA member.

The man whose mission in life was to turn union-bashing into a national pastime and balaclavas into a dockside fashion accessory, is bowing out after more than two decades in politics.

MUA Celebrates

Maritime workers celebrate departure of 'the minister for mass sackings' industrial mercenaries, balaclavas & dogs on the docks

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin described Reith as the hatchet man for the Howard Government in its conspiracy against Australian workers and their families -- the Patrick Dispute.

"No Australian worker will be sorry to see him go," says Crumlin, "Reith is to blame for the Howard Government's anti-worker industrial legislation. His political aspirations are in tatters. He is now a shadowy, infamous figure in the eyes of the Australian electorate -- a political liability to the Howard Government"

Mr Crumlin says it was obvious Reith was concerned he would not be able to defend his seat against maritime worker and MUA member Wayne Finch who is standing in the next elections as a member of the Labor Party.

Dogs and Balaclava's

Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Arch Bevis says that Peter Reith would forever be remembered in the minds of most Australians for the savage dogs and balaclava wearing thugs used in the Patrick's waterfront dispute of 1998.

"The waterfront dispute will be remembered as the low point in Australian industrial relations for more than a generation. All Australian workers have been affected by the laws put in place by Peter Reith and John Howard which stripped away hard won terms and conditions of employment.

"Peter Reith was a zealot in pursuing an agenda that he and John Howard both shared. It has produced a far more gladiatorial and aggressive industrial relations environment highlighted by the Patrick's waterfront dispute, together with bitter strikes and lengthy lockouts by employers. Peter Reith's role in the most savage and divisive dispute in a generation will, in minds of most Australians, be the thing that he is remembered for. "

No Tears Shed by Workers

The ACTU says that union members would shed no tears over Peter Reith's resignation from politics, describing him as one of the most divisive and extremist industrial relations ministers in Australian history.

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet says Reith had led the attack on job security and employee entitlements over the past five years, and would be forever tarnished by the image of balaclavas and dogs on the waterfront.

"Peter Reith has been the bovver boy of the Howard Government. He has become an electoral liability because of the unpopularity of this Government's attack on the living standards of working families," Combet says.

"Mr Reith was a divisive figure, and a biased Minister. He always sided with employers, even berating them at times to be tougher on their workforce. For these reasons workers will shed no tears at his departure."

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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!