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
The legislation is dominated by provisions giving the Minister the power to change key aspects of the scheme through regulation - effectively by-passing Parliamentary scrutiny.
This means his legislation could breach a long-standing principle dating back to the executive rule of Henry VIII, which prevents a government governing by regulation.
While a breach of the Henry VIII clause is not unlawful, it is widely condemned by legal commentators for being an abuse of power by the executive.
Legal experts have told Workers Online the legislation provides very broad regulation making powers which allows the Government, without proper Parliamentary scrutiny to manipulate
� thresholds;
� the lump sum amounts available to injured workers, including amounts for permanent impairment;
� the retrospectivity of sections of the bill
� legal costs;
� costs of medical reports
� the powers of the Commission
"These are extraordinary powers for a Parliament to bestow on a Minister," our legal deep throat says.
Common Law Inquiry Called
Meanwhile, the government has released the Terms of Reference for the inquiry into common law in workers compensation to be chaired by Justice Terry Sheahan.
The inquiry was one of the concessions John Della Bosca made during negotiations on his WorkCover cost-cutting package.
The terms of reference include:
- recommending the appropriate threshold for "serious and permanent injury" necessary to recover damages at common law.
- to examine more efficient ways to process common law clams
- to identify ways to reduce unnecessary costs in the processing of common law claims
- and to investigate ways to reduce the incentive for pursuing common law claims.
Unions will have four representatives on the Inquiry's steering committee. They will be John Robertson, Andrew Ferguson (CFMEU), Greg Donnelly (SDA) and Sandra Moait (NSW Nurses).
While Della Bosca denied newspaper reports this week that he is considering the move, he is still refusing to act to rule out the option by taking the power off the statute books.
But fears are growing that the current round of cost-cutting is nothing more than the preparation for the sell-off of the scheme to private insurers.
The privatisation of underwriting was approved in legislation in 1998, but delayed indefinitely after pressure from unions and some employer groups.
It is also understood that the insurance industry, at the time, believed the scheme was too generous to injured workers to generate the sort of profits their shareholders demand.
But following the collapse of HIH, trade unions have called for the legislation allowing the Minister to privatize the scheme to be totally repealed.
Labor Council secretary John Robertson says that, despite Della's Bosca's carefully framed denial, suspicions would remain until the power was taken out of the law.
Bring Back Government Insurer
Meanwhile, the Public Service Association's Maurie O'Sullivan has gone further, calling on Treasurer Michael Egan to bring back a government-owned insurance office.
"No doubt the spin-doctors who fought so strongly over the years against regulation of the insurance industry will beat their breasts and will thump their craws in disbelief and horror at such a suggestion," O'Sullivan says.
"But I suggest very strongly to you that when the NSW Government ran the GIO there was a damn sight more credibility about that office than there is today about the entire insurance industry."
by Mark McGrath
***************
While the major daily newspapers last week carried screaming headlines about NSW Premier Carr's claims that unions blockaded democracy, behind the scenes Carr's bureaucracy quietly crucified virtual democracy by blockading the union movement from electronic access to Parliament before some of the more principled and sensible officers of the NSW Parliament resurrected virtual access to our MP's.
The Virtual Crucifixion
This tale begun last Thursday when Workers Online released a special bulletin requesting its subscribers to support the union's workers compensation campaign by submitting a protest form on the workers comp campaign site on LaborNET [http://labor.net.au/compo/] that generated email to all NSW Upper House MP's.
The response was overwhelming, in just a couple of hours over 300 submissions were made through this protest form generating over 13,000 emails to Upper House MP's. The NSW Government's mail server started to groan under the load causing email gridlock amongst the bureaucracy. Apparently, this upset some of the political powers that be in Governor Macquarie Tower and later that day all email addressed to NSW parliamentarians being sent through Social Change Online's mail server (SCO is the technology provider for the NSW Labor Council's LaborNET & Workers Online sites) was blocked.
The irony was laughable, Bob Carr spent most of the week demonising unions proclaiming their parliamentary picket as an assault upon democracy, yet here was his bureaucracy deciding to close down electronic access to Upper House MP's that were soon due to vote on the workers compensation bill.
You Don't Need the Wisdom of Solomon to Work Out that Citizen Email aint Spam!
Email is increasingly becoming a ubiquitous and legitimate form of communication that people are using on a routine basis. So to block members of the public from email access to NSW Parliamentarians is equivalent to blocking telephone, fax or postal access to members of Parliament; something that most fair minded citizens would find outrageous.
The argument mounted against these online protest forms was that they produced what is known in the information technology industry as "spam". Spam is unsolicited email to private individuals of usually a commercial nature: it is the web equivalent of junk mail. Webopaedia defines spam as:
"generally e-mail advertising for some product sent to a mailing list or newsgroup."
source: http://www.webopaedia.com/TERM/s/spam.html
Clearly then email generated from the Workers Compo site on LaborNET was not spam as:
- it was not email of a commercial nature
- it was email submitted by individual citizens
- it was email sent to members of parliament who by their very position should be open to any submissions to the public and;
- it was email based on issues of serious concern to workers of NSW and a matter of vital interest to the public
The fact that these emails were being generated via an online form on LaborNET is irrelevant: the means by which submissions are generated should not prejudice the intent and content of submissions made by members of the public.
The Resurrection Shuffle
These points were made in representations by this author to the officials that are responsible for the business of Parliament: the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, John Murray and the President of the Legislative Council, Dr. Meredith Burgmann to have the email blockade lifted. Meredith Burgmann was amazed that the blockade was even instituted and regarded it as "an outrageous undermining of democracy". After consultations with the Speaker advice was given that blocking email or any other form of communication to MP's was a breach of parliamentary privilege. Thankfully, messrs Burgmann & Murray saw sense and promptly arranged for the email blockade against the NSW Labor Council to be lifted.
The Truce
During this virtual melee' LaborNET decided to play the good guy and pulled down the offending forms that was making online life distinctly uncomfortable for certain Upper House MP's. A technical solution is being developed during this virtual truce that will enable online protest forms to be restored without threat of blockade and for NSW parliamentarians to be protected from spikes in email traffic.
It's taken some pain and embarrassment, but it seems that the NSW State Government is now acknowledging that email is a legitimate form of access to members of parliament.
All seven workers at Ingleburn branch of the ANZ have all been placed under performance review - meaning they are under a formal threat of dismissal - for failing to refer customers to enough house, car and income protection insurance products.
They argue that the sales targets are unfair and unreasonable given that most of the bank's customers are regulars who have their financial affairs under control.
Badgered on the Job
Julie Reynolds became the final staff member to be placed under review earlier this month just two days after she was disciplined for wearing a union badge to work - even though this is a right recognised by the High Court since 1913.
Reynolds says the fact the entire branch is under review is a sign that the targets don't work and actually undermine good customer service.
The Finance Sector Union has placed the practise of setting sales targets for bank staff on the agenda as it steps up its industry-wide campaign for fair wages and conditions.
Key concerns include:
- negative impact on service with tellers being forced to push unwanted products on regular customers.
- no difference in targets for tellers in depressed suburbs and affluent, commercial precincts.
- no training for staff in the actual products they are expected to sell
- ability of the bank to change products and increase targets sometimes retrospectively without any consultation with staff.
The FSU's Geoff Derrick says the practise is just another form of "intrusive performance monitoring" and is contributing to the decrease in customer service at local branches.
Campaign Ready To Roll
Meanwhile, this week marks the beginning of the FSU's biggest industrial campaign in 20 years after the banks failed to respond to a union deadline on enterprise bargaining.
The action will begin with rolling stoppages in regional bank branches such as Hunter Valley, and hit a different region next week.
Staff across the country are fed up and have indicated that they are prepared to walk off the job in a stand against the banks' refusal to consider reducing workloads and guaranteeing job security during the latest enterprising bargaining negotiations.
The action will include stop work meetings, bans and strikes and will involve all members at different times. It will be targeted to minimise customer disruption while sending a clear message to the bank about the need to make an improved offer to staff.
"It cannot be reasonable that you can have record profits, Boards awarding themselves 50% pay increases and CEO's earning up to $100,000 a fortnight, and at the same time you offer wage increases that are less than cost of living increases to those working in the front line of your operation" Derrick says.
The NSW Law Reform Commission into Privacy is understood to contain important safeguards for employees from covert surveillance of email communications.
But while details of the report were released to the Sunday Telegraph in April, along with a commitment for legislation to match the recommendations of the report - the actual findings remain secret.
The NSW Labor Council made submissions to the Law Reform Commission, that email surveillance should broadly reflect existing legislation on video surveillance.
Under those laws covert surveillance is prohibited unless an employer receives a court order, while overt surveillance is covered by a strict code of conduct.
Labor Council will write to Attorney general Bob Debus seeking clarification on the government's intentions and timetable for this important workers right initiative.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow today called on the Federal Government to take action to reverse the growing gap in pay between men and women.
Ms Burrow's comments mark the 50th anniversary today of the International Labor Organisation's Equal Pay Convention, which has been ratified by 137 countries since its adoption in 1951.
"The value of women's work has never been properly recognised in Australia. The Howard Government's policies are undermining the modest but important gains won by women workers since the first national equal pay case in 1969," Ms Burrow said.
Official figures show the wages/gender gap has worsened under the Howard Government. Latest Australian Taxation Office data for 1998-99 shows the average taxable income for men ($34,460) was more than 46 per cent higher than for women ($23,599) - an increase of more than one per cent since 1995-96.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that the gap between male and female average weekly pay packets stretched from $158.40 in May 1998 to $166.10 in May 2000. In general, women workers continue to earn only two-thirds as much as men.
"It's discriminatory and unacceptable that in 2001 women do not receive pay equity. Along with cuts to child care, education, health and the GST, women are under extra financial hardship, but the Prime Minister shows no concern," Ms Burrow said.
"This will be a vote-changing issue for many women later this year.
"The ACTU's test cases on maternity leave for casual workers and reasonable working hours will go some way to improving the situation of women in the workforce, but much more needs to be done," Ms Burrow said.
The ACTU Executive will discuss the equal pay issue when it meets in Melbourne next week.
The concession was made during another week of talks in the long-running dispute over Death and Disability protection for firefighters.
FBEU state secretary Chris Read said while the strike was called off, relations with the government were still severely damaged.
"This unambiguous attack on effective representation and a voice for employees in the workplace will not be forgotten by this Union, nor I imagine by most affiliates to Labor Council," Read says.
The FBEU is standing by its decision to disaffiliate from the NSW Branch of the ALP until Bob Carr ceases to be Premier.
Read said this had been a tumultuous week for the labour movement. "Ulysses S Grant in 1877 hit in on the head when he said that: 'Labour disgraces no man. Unfortunately you occasionally find men disgrace labour'."
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union has raised concerns about the cost of plans to lay off the workers in the Sydney metropolitan area, as well as hundreds more in rural and regional NSW.
The CEPU's Jim Metcher says the decision will have a serious impact on service standards and Telstra's own efficiency.
"The very people that Telstra want to push out the door are those more experienced staff with the most skill," Metcher says.
"It costs at least $70,000 to train each of these workers and around five years for each of them to reach their full skill level."
Metcher says the outsourcing frenzy within the organisation as leading to other inefficiencies.
And Metcher says a major concern is that 70 per cent of the jobs Telstra will be reducing out of its Customer Field Workforce will be coming nfrom rural and regional NSW.
Ethical Investor magazine reports that South African specialist health and safety lawyer Richard Spoor - the South African lawyer that has acted successfully for 5000 South African mineworkers in the Cape plc asbestos case brought before the House of Lords in the UK - estimates there are a half-million South Africans with 'silicosis' contracted as a result of poor conditions in gold mines.
In a recent paper "THE CAPE ASBESTOS CLAIMS: The Implications for the South African Mining Industry" Spoor estimates the total compensation owed to these people to average 100,000 Rand each - a total amount of 50 billion Rand.
Assuming that Billiton predecessor company Gencor - historically, along with Anglo American and Gold Fields, one of the largest gold miners in South Africa - carries at least a 10-15 per cent liability for compensation, this equates to a $A1.18 billion potential exposure.
That amount is at least twice as high as the $400-500 million Ok Tedi compensation payout ordered against BHP.
Billiton disposed of its precious metals assets to Gencor - which is still listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange - and many of the gold mines that the diseased mineworkers were employed at have ceased operation.
However, as is revealed in Ethical Investor, Spoor believes that Billiton (now BHP Billiton) could still carry liability and, as the company with deepest pockets, may well be the target of litigation.
The Cape plc asbestos case, one of the first workers compensation cases ever mounted in South Africa, is widely predicted to be headed for a multi-million settlement since the House of Lords upheld an argument that the matter should be heard in the UK.
In Spoor's view, the Cape case forms a precedent for the bringing of such workers compensation actions against an overseas parent company although that company is not directly the operator of the facilities in question.
East Timor - Through the Eye of the Lens
Australian press photographers exhibition: John Martinkus, Ross Bird, John Feder, Dean Sewell, Jason South, Steve Tickner, HT Lee, Belinda Pratten, David Dare Parker and Andrew Meares
In conjunction with the launch of A Dirty Little War
by John Martinkus with foreward by Xanana Gusm�o
Sydney: 12 noon Friday 6 July 2001
Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney
Women and Power: Residential Workshop for women officials
22 - 27 July Currawong - Sydney
An opportunity to get together to consider ways of increasing women's power in the workplace, industry and the union movement.
Topics include:
� Women's ways of organising
� Women and leadership
� Work and family
� Linking to the community, local and global
Guest speakers include: Helen Creed (ACTU Vice President; Chair ACTU Women's Committee); Dr Barbara Pocock (Director Centre for Labour Research Adelaide University); Andrea Gaskin (Organising Coordinator Service & Food Workers Union of NZ); Louise Tarrant (LHMU National Organising Coordinator)
Course fee: $840
Any questions about course content please contact Cathy Bloch or Nadine Flood on 02 9264 9744
Hiroshima Day 2001 March & Rally Sat August 4
At 8.15am on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, incinerating 140,000 men, women and children.
Three days later at 11.02am, at least 74,000 men, women and children were killed in Nagasaki by a second atomic blast.
For many years, the Hiroshima Day Committee in Sydney has organised a commemoration of these events, under the slogan of 'Hiroshima Never Again'.
Over the years, the march has focussed on different issues. But the central theme has always been: the only answer to nuclear threat is to abolish all nuclear weapons.
Protest against the US National Missile Defence plan
The 2001 Hiroshima Day commemoration takes place against the background of the US National Missile Defence plan. Australia is involved in this plan through the US military facility at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs.
The US National Missile Defence will destroy the existing international arms control and disarmament regime, provoke a new nuclear arms race and trigger a wave of destabilising events around the world.
NMD is, in fact, an offensive program which would allow the US to attack other countries without fear of retaliation.
With NMD, the US Government is using its economic and technological strengths to launch a new arms race. The aim is to reinforce US dominance in the Asia Pacific region - as Asian countries, especially China, are provoked into exhausting economic and social resources in their attempt to match the US military might.
NMD is the armed wing of globalisation.
Australia's involvement
The use of the US base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs for NMD will involve Australia and make us a nuclear target. The Australian Government's support for NMD makes us complicit in a program that will significantly destabilise global security.
92% of Australians called on the government to take a leading role in the elimination of nuclear weapons, according to a Morgan poll. The Federal Government has chosen to ignore those views and the Senate resolution calling on the US not to deploy NMD.
Hiroshima Day 2001 provides an opportunity for all thinking Australians, trade union members and the wide community, to demonstrate your opposition to the US Government's missile plans.
Commemorations will also refer to local issues, such as the threats from the planned new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights and plans for a nuclear waste repository in Australia.
Hiroshima Never Again:
Hiroshima Day Committee: PO Box K257 Haymarket NSW 1240: Chairpersons: Bronwyn Marks, Brian Miller, CFMEU Construction, NSW Branch.
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."
******************
To relive the lows and plumb the depths of Reithy's reign, get your own copy of 'Ship of Tools' at http://www.plutoaustralia.com
Unions thank their Negotiators |
Unlike most trade unions, policing in Australia, and certainly in New South Wales enjoy almost total membership of their trade unions. Where the general workforce is experiencing declining trade union membership, policing is not in such a situation. This creates a dilemma for police officers, as was clearly demonstrated on Tuesday, 19 June 2001.
Their dilemma is not helped by a Premier and government that seeks to use them to defeat whatever the Labor Council of New South Wales activities of that day are described as, either picket or blockade.
The workers compensation legislation adversely affects police officers and yet, despite legitimate protest activity, police officers are required, under their oath of office, to do their duty according to lawful direction. As a police officer of some years, I was extremely proud of the way those officers on duty at Parliament on that day conducted themselves.
When they did their duty, some unthinking, faceless cowards, using the anonymity of a large crowd called them all the usual names. Can anyone imagine the affect that being called scabs and all the other adjectives had on those officers, especially when they realize the effect that the proposed legislation has on them as workers.
It is very difficult for a police officer to be a unionist, especially in view of their oath of office. It is even more difficult when you have a sense of duty that actually seeks to force the individual to perform acts that are contrary to both their ideology and welfare. Notwithstanding that, police have to sometimes do so, and particularly in times of industrial disputation.
It was extremely sad to see those officers at Parliament so abused and maligned by both sides on Tuesday. Police have, over the years, developed protocols for dealing with industrial disputes. Those protocols involve police being intermediaries, in order that affected persons can express their democratic right, whilst at the same time, others can go about their lawful business. Part of that process has been the evolution of non-violent protest and removal.
Arrangements had been made for the implementation of those protocols on Tuesday last. It had been agreed that members of parliament and their Staff would access the premises by the Government Road entrance. This message was conveyed to appropriate persons. A number of strategies were outlined to the appropriate government member in terms of their accessing the Parliament however, for whatever reason, those members chose to walk up Macquarie Street and enter the parliament by crossing the picket line.
This curiously seems to be completely at odds with their (and my) parties' ideology, however that is another issue. Clearly this action created an unnecessary confrontation. The operation commander 'confirmed that he made the decision, following discussion with those involved.'
The Premier of New South Wales sneaked into Parliament during the day along with at least one other Minister. The Minister for Industrial Relations apparently stayed overnight in the Motel Macquarie. To read that the Premier viewed his sneaking into the Parliament as some form of leading his government is lost on me however, unlike the Premier, I am just a poor simple policeman.
The police officers in Macquarie Street were then confronted with the ultimate dilemma. Should they provide a safe passage for the parliamentarians in accordance with their duty or should they as workers, decide the risk was unacceptable and walk away. With some pride, along with the rest of the community of New South Wales, I saw those officers do their duty magnificently.
That dangerous situation was exacerbated when an imperious Premier appeared on the Parliament House veranda to wave and blow kisses to these workers. These unthinking and careless actions by the Premier did no more than to incite and inflame thus creating more danger for those police officers.
Since that time, we have heard and read all sorts of spin on the situation. I am advised, by members of Parliament, that they are being advised that I am being untruthful about the strategies available for their security, that I am just saying that as part of the Labor Council strategy.
Unlike members of Parliament, I am a serving police officer and thus subject to the provisions of the Police Service Act. Untruthfulness carries significant penalties for me, unlike the politicians of this state.
Unfortunately for all those police officers on duty, the Premier and his government paid scant respect to them on Tuesday last. The moral dilemma of being a cop or a unionist will always haunt police officers. Sadly it is doubtful that the actions of the premier and his government will haunt them the same way.
Jeff Kennett thought the same way about cops being unionists.
Ian Ball, President
Police Association of NSW
Dear Comrade
When are we going to follow the lead of the Fire Fighters Unions and break with the ALP. How many times do we have to be screwed till we learn that the ALP has no intention of acting in the interests of the workers of this state.
The use of military to break the miners strike, the accord, the smashing of the BLF, breaking the pilots strike, S11, M1 now July 20. Just more proof that the ALP is a bosses party and not a party for us the workers.
When is the Labour Council of NSW going to come to their senses and break with the capitalist ALP, when is LaborNet, and Worker Online going to critisise the ALP for ways and publish the truth.
The rank and file know the ALP doesnt support them and want a real workers party and a real organ of the workers. If Workers Online cannot duely attack the Labor Party and the Union for supporting them, then Workers Online will no longer be a organ of the workers of this state, instead of being a progressive force it will be an obstacle relegating itself to the same leagues of the Murdoch - Packer dailies. Please publish the truth as seen by the workers, and not the truth as seen by the capitalist union leaders. No to the ALP, No to Socialist Alternative, for a real workers party and organ!
Comradely yours
Justin
Ed:'s Reply I hope we've gone far enough this week for you!
Dear Workers Online,
Congratulations on making it to the 100th issue. Anyone that doubts the impact Workers has had on the union movement in Australia should consider one simple statistic:
Since Dec 1999 Workers has attracted 870,000 page views - not bad for a publication with no marketing budget or big media player behind it.
Well done and here's to the next 100 issues.
Regards,
Mark McGrath
Brett Evans correctly identifies that getting support requires differentiating yourself from your opponents.The question is how is Federal Labor going to do this?
To convince voters to back us we must have attractive plans for education, health and a fair tax system that differentiate us and that people will vote for.
My wish list for a Labor Policy agenda with concrete proposals that people will vote for includes
Medicare: Lets stop proping up private insurers profits and plough the money into an expanded medicare service.70% of Australians left private insurance by 1996 so clearly this is an argument we can win.
Education.A big shift in funding towards government schools.Thats where 80% of parents send their children so how about 8o% of the Federal funding.
Fair tax.Why don't we just say we will get of the GST and get the extra GST revenue off the top 10% of income earners.
Debate should be the Life and Soul of the Labor movement. I would like to hear from other Workers Online Readers who have views on what Labor needs to do to win.
Paul Smith
Re: Paul Howes - Once We Were Tuckpointers
Dear Paul,
In the last issue of Workers you wondered out aloud what the hell a Tuckpointer was and asked if anyone had the answer to let you know.
Well here it is...
To quote
To point (grooved mortar joints) with a thin ridge of fine lime mortar or putty.
So without putting too finer point on it, Tuckpointers could have well played a foundational role in building NSW Trades Hall, so its nice to think they still might get a cut of the action in the financial divvy up.
Question still remains though, are there any Tuckpointers out there?
Cheers,
Glenn Pidgeon
by Peter Lewis
John Robertson |
Do you have any regrets about the past two weeks?
No, I don't have any regrets at all. In fact, I think the past two weeks have been important in setting up the agenda for Workers Compensation, and I think it has put Workers Compensation on the agenda - certainly within the media and the broader public.
The issue of the Parliament House protest is still something that is causing a lot of discussion in the movement. Was it a picket or a blockade?
Well, I don't know whether it is relevant whether it was a picket or a blockade. We were asking ALP members not to cross it because we wanted their support in having further amendments made to the Bill, and I don't know that it s necessary to work through what it was. The fact is, we didn't want them to cross it - we wanted them to support our position. It was also important to demonstrate to union members that the trade union movement is prepared to their entitlement to fair and just workers compensation.
Are we any further advanced than we were before the incident at Parliament?
On Monday we made some progress in terms of the Bill that was to go before Parliament. I think we are certainly more advanced tin comparison to the Bill that was introduced into Parliament in April. I also think we are further advanced in terms of having some of the ALP members understand the level of anger towards this Bill. I think the unfortunate part is that there are people within the ALP at Parliament House who are trying to put a spin on this that it was orchestrated by the CFMEU, when in fact that wasn't the case. The Campaign Committee was unanimous in its decision and all of the unions that are on the Right were supportive of it. They moved it, not the Left.
Do you still think that there is an under-estimation in Macquarie Street at the depth of feeling about Workers Comp?
Absolutely. Any discussion you have with the MPs up there, their view is that this will all go away, when in fact that is not the case. The unions have been out there talking to their members and trying to get them to become active around the issue and the response from members reflect how genuinely concerned they are about the reform agenda. And I think that there is a view within Government that the level of anger is not really there. I think they really do need to start to seriously think about how angry workers are.
Workers Compensation is a really critical issue for workers. They would prefer to go home un-injured each day, but they like to know that if they are unfortunate enough to get injured in a workplace accident that they can rely on the fact that they will get workers' compensation, and that is important. They don't want to see that entitlement taken away.
It certainly appears to have been a baptism of fire for you. How do you feel, when people say, for instance, that unions are now putting a Beazley Labor Government at risk?
I don't accept that that is the case. I think for the trade union movement that one of our greatest difficulties has been, certainly in the last 10, maybe even 15 years, that we were seen to be in the pocket of Labor governments. I think there has been a view within a whole range of workers that that is the problem with unions. That they don't, if there is a Labor Government, represent their views, and I think it is appropriate for us to demonstrate that. Yes we would prefer to have a Labor Government than a conservative government, but at the same time that doesn't mean that we are going to sell our members out for the sake of a Labor Government.
Have you got a line though, at which you do hold back in the interests of the Labor Government?
You are very aware of the actions that you take and the possible implications of that, but at the end of the day, I think that if you are serious about the job that you have to do, you have got to strike the balance between the two, but you have got to fall in favour of the workers. That is what you are here for. That is what you are here to do.
Now, having a Labor Government is obviously also in the interest of workers, and I guess depending on what the issue is, you have got to strike that balance at a particular point in time.
One of the roles of Labor Council has traditionally been to act as an intermediary between its affiliates and the government of the day at Macquarie Street. How would you characterise relationships with the Government at the moment?
I think the Government still recognises that the Labor Council has got a key role to play in that relationship. At the moment the relationship probably is - I'm not sure I would say strained - but there are tensions there because of what happened the other day, but I still believe that the government recognises the role that Labor Council can play, and the Government, I think, at the end of the day wants to ensure that the Labor Council continues to play that role. That requires goodwill by both parties, and I think over time, through this dispute, we can re-establish some more goodwill.
One criticism of the Parliament House incident is that you have fired the biggest bullet that a union movement can possibly fire in the first stage of the campaign. What else do the unions have up their sleeve in the ongoing Workers Comp Campaign?
I'm not sure if I want to forewarn people about what we might do, but I still think there is a couple of big salvos that we have got in the cupboard, and I think at the appropriate time if they need to be used, they will be used.
One of the critical things in this whole process, and in any campaign for that matter, is to not be predictable. That is, that maybe industrial action is not the critical issue in getting the Government to alter its view, and certainly I don't believe that it is the industrial action that is going to be the thing that turns this around. I think there are some other issues that we have still got, or some other actions that we can take that can influence the government and the way this dispute is resolved.
What do you see as the next flashpoint being in the Workers Comp Campaign?
The two issues that are still outstanding are thresholds - the thresholds will be what determines whether a worker gets access to common law and also to lump sum payments. And the other one is going to be the common law inquiry. The outcomes there are obviously going to be critical.
One of the issues with common law is that if you are injured and you are not at work, you have got the right to sue someone for negligence, and our concern is that if you happen to be unfortunate enough to be at work and get injured and the employer is negligent you won't be able to sue them. Now, we say that is unacceptable, because when there is negligence you should have the right to sue, whether you are at work, whether you are wandering around a shopping centre, you should still be able to sue someone who is negligent.
Looking beyond WorkCover, what are your other priorities as Secretary of the Labor Council?
I would like to integrate the ACTU Organising Centre into the Labor Council. I believe that if we are to continue to drive organising, it is appropriate for that particular operation to become part of, or certainly work more closely with the Labor Council. I think there is a lot more we could do in that area.
I also would like to have some discussions with the regional labour councils about how we can better utilise the functions that they perform in New South Wales, because I believe, certainly in regional and rural NSW, there are great opportunities to go out there and organise workers in those areas. I think our Sky Channel meeting on Wednesday certainly highlighted the fact that regional areas are seen to be involved - and for the first time in history, they had the opportunity to be involved in what has become a fairly significant campaign.
Is it difficult following on from a character like Michael Costa?
It is because Michael had a very powerful personality, and they are certainly big shoes to fill. I certainly believe Michael taught me a lot, and I hope I can fill the hole that he has left behind. But at the same time Michael and I are different in a whole range of areas, and some of the things that Michael did I won't do, and I guess he would say the same things - that some of the things that I have already done, he wouldn't have done.
Traditionally, the Labor Council's relations with the ACTU have been strained at best. Will that change under your leadership?
As long as the ACTU recognises the role that Labor Council plays, I think we can work closely. I am certainly prepared to endeavour to work more closely with the ACTU, but I think that requires a recognition on their part that Labor Council is the pre-eminent Council and that we are not going to be dictated to by the ACTU on issues. From time to time we will have alternate views - and they have got to be accepting of that. If they can do that then yes, I think we can work more closely, and I am planning to try and do that. I have already started talking to Greg Combet about a range of things where we can work cooperatively, and I am prepared to see how things go.
Finally, what would be your benchmark for success as a Labor Council Secretary?
Probably the same as Greg Combet - and that is that I would like to see a turnaround in the declining membership, certainly in NSW where there is still a decline going on. I am keen to go out and demonstrate to people that the trade union movement is vibrant; it is active; it is prepared to go out there and struggle for good causes. My focus is also going to be on industrial issues, but at the end of the day I would like to think that we can make a difference and actually turn around the decline. Part of that will require the Labor Council to drive unions towards becoming more active on issues and organising new members. I am committed to encouraging unions in this direction and providing the assistance of the Labor Council where it is required.
Parliament Picket HT Lee |
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They say a week is a long time in politics but nothing could be further from the truth when you consider the workers' compensation dispute and the events of the last few weeks or even months.
What should have been a very considered and sophisticated approach to reforming the workers' compensation system turned into a political crisis because of the government's inability to recognize the anger and distrust associated with its 'take it or leave it ' approach from day one.
Every concession made by the government in the proceeding negotiations was done so reluctantly, and as we found out on Friday the 15th of June they either misunderstood our position or were not prepared to stick to the agreement. They declared they would reintroduce the proposed reforms into the Parliament on Tuesday 18th June although we had asked for more time to resolve a number of outstanding issues, which we had clearly understood to have been previously agreed.
The events of Tuesday 18th June 2001 are now history, but I need to respond to some of the criticisms and inaccuracies levelled at the Labor Council and fire back some salvos of my own.
First and foremost, this was not a set of negotiations in the context of some factional dispute within the Party. This was a very serious industrial issue, which required good faith bargaining, and a high degree of trust to get an outcome which would be acceptable to the trade union movement and its members at large.
Unfortunately Della must have made a call that the historically conservative Labor Council would ultimately concede for the good of the government and that some how Della's drafting of one Ian McDonald to his Parliamentary Secretary's position would keep the so called hard left unions in their place. What the government and Della didn't understand is that nobody was going to sell their members short on what was and still is is a bread and butter issue for the trade union movement.
When the affiliates met on Monday, 17th June to discuss the government's so-called final package, there was outrage across the political spectrum of unions. The union movement was intent on making sure that nobody misunderstood our position. We didn't like the legislation and clearly our assessment was that it had the real capacity of reducing the access to and level of entitlements to injured workers.
A unanimous consensus emerged from the meeting to do everything possible to frustrate the passage of the Bill and to get the Government to agree to defer it or at worst agree to further amendments.
The Labor Council and its affiliates took the unprecedented action of organising a picket of parliament once it was reported that Parliament House staff were going on strike. We don't for one minute regret that decision.
What was regrettable were the decisions taken by the leadership of the Government, which simply exacerbated the situation on the day. Refusing to meet at Governor Macquarie Tower, crossing the picket line through the front entry rather than via the car park as agreed with the Police negotiator, and gloating victory signs did nothing more than to further enrage unionists and workers alike.
These actions just worsened the already fragile relationship which had built up between the political and industrial wings of the movement on this issue. The Premier could have got his people in via the back entrance, without the difficulties encountered by taking the so-called "tough" approach.
Questions need to be asked why this whole incident couldn't have been avoided by delaying the passage of the Bill to resolve the outstanding issues?
I hear many Labor parliamentarians both left and right are trying to rewrite history with respect to the picket. The reality is many members crossed the picket. (and I include those who snuck into parliament in the early hours of the morning ) Nothing will ever change that fact.
However we need to move on. Blood letting about who did or didn't cross the picket could simply become an unnecessary distraction .The main game is to try and resolve the outstanding issues.
On Monday the 25th June Bob Carr agreed to meet the Labor Council after we took the conciliatory action of lifting bans on government revenue. The Premier conceded a number of issues to us on the legislation. This unfortunately was too little too late and the anger against the Government increased dramatically as the acceptance of the concessions made by Carr were reported by the media as a defeat or back down by the trade union movement.
Nothing (of course) could be further from the truth. We had acknowledged on Monday afternoon following concessions made by the Premier the reality that the Bill would pass the Upper House with the support of the Liberals. In John Robertson's words "we needed to move on". The Bill dealt primarily with dispute and process issues, not the major issues of Medical Guidelines and Common Law. These of course are the big-ticket items which will ultimately determine whether injured workers will be better or worse off under the proposed changes. These are the issues which are still to be determined.
The largest mass meeting ever held in New South Wales took place on Wednesday, 27th June via Sky Channel. I attended one of the 300 odd venues (Liverpool Catholic Club). It was standing room only for the 600 people who attended. The workers at Liverpool like the other 200,000 odd workers left the room in no doubt about our position and much more informed about the dramatic effects that Della's new reforms could have on their working lives. They also left ready and willing to engage in the second phase of our campaign if called upon to do so.
Nobody should think that Workers Compensation will be swept under the carpet. At the same time all of us at Labor Council want to resolve this issue in a way that might restore the relationship between the industrial and political wings of the labor movement. But be under no illusions this won't be easy. During the next round of the campaign I hope our parliamentary representatives realise the seriousness of the issues.
The Labor Council may not be the Government's favoured son at the moment but history will recall the day we clearly put out members first and drew the line in the sand. Let's hope that in the next round of negotiations we can meet at that line and kick a goal for workers.
Chris Christodoulou is a deputy assistant secretary of the Labor Council of NSW
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The interesting thing about researching the 1987 reforms through the Labor council archives is the absence of any criticism. Back then a deal was done to secure support from the Council. Times are different these days.
What we did stumble upon was this report to NSW teachers by none other than Cathy Block, then an industrial officer with the Federation.
It may not capture the passion of the times, but it does lay out the key areas of concern from trade unions of the time.
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At a heated meeting on April 16, 1987, the NSW Labor Council decided to accept the State Government's proposals to change the workers' compensation scheme.
The Labor Council decision was opposed by a significant number of unions including the Federation, on the grounds that the Government's latest proposals do not meet Labor Council's policy of no reduction in benefits for injured employees.
Since the Labor Council meeting, the Federation Ironworkers Association has changed its position, and now also opposes the new scheme.
The main alteration by the Government to its original package was to lift the ceiling of weekly total incapacity benefits from $480 to $500.
Total Incapacity
Currently a totally incapacitated teacher receives full pay for the first 26 weeks on compensation.
The Government's latest proposal is for a ceiling of $500 per week on weekly payments in the first 26 weeks.
Effect:
All teachers earning more than $26,070 per annum (3y9, GA5 Technical Teacher, Step 9 - or above) will have their current entitlement cut.
Federation continues to oppose the $500 ceiling as most of our members will suffer cuts in benefits.
Partial Incapacity
Currently, Section 11(2) of the Act provides that where a teacher is unable to do his/her own job, but is fit to do some other job, and the Department does not provide suitable alternative work, ("light duties"), the partially incapacitated teacher is considered to be totally incapacitated and is paid the total incapacity benefit.
All partially incapacitated teachers currently receive the total incapacity benefit because there is not such thing as "light duties" for teachers.
The Government will abolish Section 11(2) of the Act and will provide:
� Full compensation levels, up to $500 per week for one month, while the teacher is seeking suitable employment, rehabilitation and/or vocational retraining.
� If the teacher undergoes approved rehabilitation and/or vocational retraining, full compensation (up to $500 per week) will be paid for a further 6 months. At the end of the rehabilitation period, full compensation will be paid for another month or until the teacher gains employment.
This new scheme will provide up to eight months on full benefits once the teacher has been deemed to be partially incapacitated.
In theory, someone could be on full benefits (up to $500 per week) for a maximum of 14 months - six months total incapacity, followed by one month while seeking rehabilitation, six months while on rehabilitation, then one month while seeking employment. In practice, this period is likely to be shorter.
Rehabilitation Unavailable
If a partially incapacitated teacher does not comply with one of the above situations, that teacher will receive payments set at the difference between weekly earnings prior to the injury or illness (up to $500) and the level of earnings he/she would be able to earn under an award if employed in suitable alternative work. Payment will be at this level, whether or not the teacher is able to actually obtain such "suitable alternative work".
Condemned to Poverty
It is this aspect of the Government's proposals which have received greatest criticism from the union movement - proposals which will condemn injured employees to live in poverty.
If for example a stress injured teacher is considered to be fit for reasonably complex clerical duties attracting award earnings of $450 per week, that teacher will be paid the difference between previous weekly income (or $500) and $450 - a probable $50 per week.
Partially incapacitated teachers with long term illness/injury will be most severely affected, and could be forced to live on social security or in poverty.
Federation's Policy
Despite the majority decision of the NSW Labor Council to accept the Government's proposals, the Federation remains opposed to the changes.
We support the NSW Labor Council's original position that there should be no reduction in benefits. Teachers will be disadvantaged because:
1. Most of them will not receive full pay for the first 26 weeks as they do at present because of the $500 ceiling.
2. They will not have a reasonable living income for long term partial incapacity due to the abolition of Section 11(2).
3. They will no longer have access to common law when their employer is found to be negligent.
Federation will continue to work with other unions in an effort to have both the NSW Labor Council and the State Government review their positions in relation to these changes to worker's compensation. The situation will become clearer once the draft legislation is made available to unions late in April.
by Social Change Online
Right: McGrath |
Firstly let me state upfront what this article isn't; an attempt to offer the use of the Internet as a panacea to the union movement's decline in membership and erosion in relevance to many workers in the new economy. Employing an intelligent internet strategy won't solve a union's problems on it's own, but it can amplify and accelerate the strategies a union is employing on the ground to recruit and engage members.
It's hardly worth stating that the Net is fast becoming an everyday means of communication for an increasing number of people (Australia now 4 million regular Net users ). It has a vast reach and is becoming deeply integrated into many people's lives. Whilst take-up of the Net has been greatest among higher income earners (51% home access for household income $50,000 or more ), lower income are closing the gap. In May 1998 households with income of $50,000+ had 4.7 times the rate of Net access of households with incomes of less than $50,000. By May 2000 this rate had contracted to a factor of 2.7. Many attribute this to the kids effect: mum and dad buy their kids a computer for school/uni, kids hassle for Net access and get online, then mum and dad become web savvy courtesy of the kids.
What is more significant for unions is that the take-up of the Net is greatest in the demographic where unions have the most to gain: young workers in cities (77% of 18-24 year olds accessed the Net in 2000 and Australian capital cities accounted for 74% of Internet subscribers in 2001 ).
A sceptic might say, "so what - nearly 100% of working Australians have access to a TV, telephone and letterbox, what's a web browser and an email box for half that many going to do for the union movement?" The point is not about sheer access, it's about the nature of the medium. Unions are about are about building networks of collective support: the web is a networking medium that enables collectivism. This article will be emailed out to several thousand subscribers to Workers Online for the cost of a few dollars, doing the same via post would increase the cost a thousand fold.
Fortunately many Australian unions have recognised the need of gaining an online presence and have established a website but unfortunately, many of these are yet to get the basics of a Net strategy right.
Most union sites suffer from a lack of professional information and graphic design and are poorly equipped as far as interactive applications goes (mainly due to enthusiastic amatuers volunteering to do sites on the cheap). A poorly designed interface makes websites effectively unusable. To paraphrase the renowned web useability expert Jakob Nielsen:
"useability rules the web, if a user can't find the content they want will never see it and never be influenced by it."
Professional design on the other hand will be intuitive to the user's needs and will enable content to be found easily and quickly. But this is only one third of what's required for a competent site, meaningful content and interactive applications are also required. Whilst content will ultimately be determined by how much of a story a union has go to tell its audience, interactive interactive applications can push the content and engage the user. This boils down to a suite of tools:
To web savvy unionists the use and benefits of these applications will be obvious. But for the less experienced its worthwhile briefly explaining the most important of these applications: the CMS. The gurus say content is king, well if that's the case then CMS's are the kingmakers of websites. A CMS enables anyone to update a website and removes the technicalities of web coding from the publishing process. This then allows a union to keep their sites alive with fresh content - critical for gaining repeat visits from users. Email subscriber lists are usually married up with CMS's. A good content management system will allow you to simultaneously output your content to an email list (like Workers Online, which is completely managed by a CMS).
Whilst a professional public website is essential, the real gains in the future will be made in tools that enable a union to support the organising process between organisers and members for each workplace. In webspeak we are talking auto-generated secure extranets. In union speak we are talking private websites dedicated to each unionised workplace with restricted access for organisers and members that can be rolled out on demand using sophisticated web technology.
Some may scoff at this notion as techno-optimist wish listing. But think about it; organising a workplace is all about network building, holding meetings, distributing and working up documents, discussing issues and voting on them. All of the processes that the Net performs ably.
To be clear, I'm not advocating that the Net replace the face to face organising process on the shopfloor, rather I'm proposing that a workplace dedicated extranet would complement and enhance this process. Hands up every organiser that's been frustrated at recruitment attempts by workers; not being able to attend meetings, not getting their hands on critical documents and not being able to get in touch with their organiser.
A dedicated extranet would enable the worker to stay in touch with their organiser, keep informed about issues and participate in union processes and not be disadvantaged if they cannot attend workplace meetings. So how would this work? An extranet would house the following applications:
Some may recognise this as the Yahoo Groups (formerly e-groups) model. True but using those commercial bureau services would be problematical to unions on several fronts:
The cost of developing the above technology would probably be prohibitive for a single union, but it would be viable of a peak-body sponsored this development and shared the technology out to its affiliates.
Having one officer produce all of the dynamic content of a website for an active and large union soon becomes burdensome. A better solution that complements the organising model of devolving union power down the heirarchy is the distributed content management model where a collection of individuals have publishing access and responsibility for certain content areas of a site. The advatanges here are two-fold: firstly, quantity of content can be increased and secondly, quality of content can be enhanced by enabling content producers to specialise.
Using other organisations and people to grow your own web content and being able to share your own content with other like minded organisations are the principal ideas behind content syndication.
In the early years of the Web, most sites were not concerned about sharing content with other sites. But today, the trend is that sites are increasingly interdependent and many rely upon integrating content that originates from somewhere else. Such content might include news feeds, events listings, a set of project updates, and even interchange of corporate information. Effective integration usually requires a good deal of effort on the part of the information provider, as well as the recipient of each unique content source.
The union movement in Australia already has a simple but very successful version of this model in operation: the Workers Live Newsfeed on LaborNET made up from a network of over 80 correspondents around Australia. Internationally we have Labourstart providing a similar global service. In both cases content is generated via a network of correspondents submitting content to a central source, which then farms out this content to all of its subscribers.
But there is a smart new technology called Rich Site Summary (RSS) that will allow complete flexibility in receiving and ditributing content across sites. RSS is based on the next generation web language: XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) and will enable site owners to configure syndicated content conditionally. This means that unions would be able to filter news from a variety of sources according to certain criteria that could be changed on demand.
The Net's attributes of universal access and asynchronous communication (being able to communicate without being in live contact with others) means that it's the perfect networking medium to build campaigns.
With professional information design and some smart content management tools unions can give themselves an online platform to reach out to workers that they might not otherwise come in contact with. But to use the Net to seriously organise and campaign online requires unions to go the extra mile and invest in some advanced web technology that is dedicated to their particular needs.
Sources used:
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Trade union journals, newspapers, and journalists are an important part of Australian political and cultural history. For example the longest-running labour movement publication, the Australian Worker, has a listing in the authoritative Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1985), having employed or published major literary figures like William Lane, Henry Lawson, Mary Gilmore, John Shaw Neilson, and Frank Moorhouse.
Long serving Australian Worker editor Henry Boote (1914-1943) similarly rates an entry, while Clyde Cameron recently claimed in the journal Labour History that Boote was "the greatest Labor journalist of all time".
During the late nineteenth century, and through much of the twentieth century, trade unions embraced the maxim "the printed word is the best organiser".
Size Matters
While much has changed since the heyday of Boote, and overall union membership has plummeted, we are still dealing with at least 1.9 million fee paying trade union members in Australia, and a few million associated family members.
This is a huge committed, and potentially sympathetic, trade union base. Numerically it is vastly superior to the numbers organised in any of the political parties; it is superior to the collected person-power of the Armed services; and is rivalled numerically, perhaps, only by organised religion.
At a time when trade unions are looking to rebuilding from the bottom up with strategies like energetic recruitment programmes, and strengthening of both the delegate and organiser systems, the role of the printed word should not be overlooked.
Wasted Potential
For too long trade unions have neglected the power of the union journal or newspaper. In recent decades some labour movement journals have only appeared erratically, while others have been given over to internecine politics and leadership self-aggrandisement. Union journalists tend to be expected to be media factotums, instead of specialist journalists.
This is a terrible waste. With potential readerships that in cases match the circulation figures of mainstream magazines, the potential for union based publications to develop, elaborate, advance and sustain a union world-view is immense. Collectively labour movement publications could, and should, constitute an informed and credible counter to the anti-union thrust of the mainstream press.
Two union publications that are on the right track are the Maritime Workers' Journal (circulation 9000), journal of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), and Education (circulation 65,000), journal of the NSW Teachers Federation.
Communal Clout
The Maritime Workers' Journal has a magazine format, averages 32 pages per issue, and is published six times a year. It is a glossy publication, uses colour freely, and combines material from union officers, the rank and file, and a professional journalist. In recent years the journal has published some of the most detailed journalism in Australia on the scandalous "flag of convenience" issue, the exploitation of Third World maritime labour, and marine pollution.
A number of aspects of the journal help make it a popular and powerful union tool. Members contribute articles; there is a lengthy Letters section which is at once political, nostalgic, and often humorous; rank and file obituaries, authored by fellow workers, regularly appear, sometimes in great numbers. Collectively all this helps foster a communal consciousness and sense of belonging, which in turn helps give the union its political clout.
During the Patrick Dispute (1998) many observers wondered at the solidarity and sense of community pervading the culture of the MUA. Such wonder comes as no surprise to readers of the Maritime Workers' Journal.
As part of its communication strategy, the MUA has developed an award winning website. During the Patrick Dispute this really came into its own. Faced with restricted media coverage of its position on the complex matters in dispute, the union posted its analyses of events and statistics on the web, countering the Employer/Government media blitz.
The MUA message got out locally and internationally, helping account for the significant international and local widespread support the MUA attracted.
Chalkface Journalism
The teacher journal Education is a 32-page newspaper, published 12 or 13 times each year during school terms, and personally mailed to each member of the powerful NSW Teachers Federation. It is produced by a team of four people, including an editor and a sub-editor. Advertising of educational and teacher oriented products helps defray production costs.
Like the MUA journal, Education blends material generated by union officers, the rank and file, and journal staff. The Federation's Research Department frequently uses the journal to keep members abreast of latest research relating to current campaigns and initiatives.
During the 1970s and 1980s the Letters section of the journal was extensive, lively, and reputedly the most read section of the paper. During the 1990s the volume of Letters to the Editor decreased; the current editor is trying to reinvigorate the tradition.
For the majority of State school teachers, industrial awareness has a great deal to do with the journal. This is complemented by Federation's website which has both public access and a password protected, "members only", area. Constantly updated and increasingly sophisticated, this website has been used to great effect in recent industrial campaigning. Most teachers have free workplace internet access.
Unionism for Students.
The future of trade unionism depends to a great extent on the understanding of trade unionism amongst future workers. Future unionists are currently in schools and universities; as part of life in a market-force driven capitalist society, they are exposed daily to individualistic and anti-collective media and cultural messages.
If trade unionism is to have a healthy future, it seems commonsense to seriously try to spread the union message amongst future workers. The internet provides ideal propagandist and educational opportunities.
The internet is part of the lives of the majority of young Australians; schools and tertiary institutions abound with computer and internet facilities. At some stage the majority of Australian secondary school students encounter the subject of trade unionism as part of historical and social studies up to Year 10. Thousands of tertiary students encounter trade union topics and themes as they variously progress through Arts, Economics, Commerce, and Business degrees.
All trade unions should provide attractive historical and explanatory background materials on their websites, aimed at students. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the Australian Workers' Union, and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union are examples of industrial organisations that have tackled this challenge. The ACTU effort is particularly attractive to both students and teachers, the latter being able to download complete lessons.
Considerable school and tertiary student interest in the 1998 Patrick Dispute has led the MUA to facilitate access on its website to relevant background material. Specific tertiary and journalistic queries beyond the general are, where possible, handled personally.
While the provision of website material aimed variously at school and tertiary students, requires money, some creative thinking, and perhaps the engagement of professional education expertise, it is arguably an important and prudent investment in the future. For those who question the efficacy or relevance of this sort of use of the internet, check out the American Central Intelligence Agency's website to see how capitalism's arch spooks attempt to reach school age children; it is an instructive exercise.
Old Wisdom
As the twenty-first century begins, the printed word has not disappeared and seems in no danger of extinction. World-wide a handful of media barons have realised this; scrambling for power and influence they seek to monopolise as much of the print media as possible, and similarly television, radio, film, and the new Information Technologies. At the heart of this greedy scramble for the old and the new is the Word, either printed or electronically rendered on computer screens.
Trade union builders of the twenty-first century should realise this. The old wisdom about the power of the "printed" word should be embraced, and all available technologies imaginatively and boldly exploited accordingly.
Rowan Cahill is a labour historian who covered the Joy manufacturing Lock-Out for Workers Online
Noel Hester |
When I started working with unions and the Internet in 1996 a survey of unions would probably have revealed that few used email, that they had next to no web presence and their general use of information technology was primitive. When I talked to union leaders about the Internet and its future importance I usually got sceptical looks like I was Brother From Another Planet.
Measured against this history we've come a long way in five years and we have many successes to celebrate. Workers Online is a phenomenon and one for Australian unions to be proud of. To be still alive and kicking let alone growing and maturing at 100 issues is a great feat that deserves accolades.
Over the years, how many attempts at establishing a progressive newspaper or magazine have died in the water within weeks or a few months as the seed capital dried up and activists walked away exhausted and demoralised? Workers Online proves what unions can do with a little bit of money, a can-do person driving the project, a helping hand from savvy activists, and a leadership willing to take a punt, all combined with the potential of new technologies.
Elsewhere there is progress too. At the national level the ACTU has made a serious commitment to placing communications - including the use of online tools - as a central plank of its strategies.
Several Labour Councils have moved towards a significant presence on the web.
Many individual unions now have impressive, sophisticated, well-maintained sites.
You can argue that the trends are in the right direction, although overall, the use of the web and email by unions is uneven and adhoc.
It's only a tool
But to look at the Internet as something that is somehow separate from the mainstream of union activity and its goals, and to measure our progress accordingly, is to miss the point. A groovy looking website with nothing to say or to do is a fat lot of use. The Internet is merely a tool to communicate and to organise and if we're rigorous in analysing how we are progressing in that context we still have a long way to go.
Too few unions give communications - in any form - the importance it deserves, in terms of resources allocated or as part of organisational strategy. There are unions of a significant size without a journal, a website or a dedicated media officer. It's not hard to work out why with most unions confronted with dwindling membership and resources. When you have to pinch pennies, areas like the journal or training are easy looking targets.
But it is these areas that deserve more investment, not less, in a time of crisis as they provide leverage on our resources and activities. For many members the journal or the website is the only contact they will have with the union. As Workers Online has proved, investment in the technology and having a smart operator at the wheel can have an impact that dwarfs traditional union ways of working.
Having worked as a media officer for several unions I've seen how such cost cutting or the failure to invest can actually cost unions a fortune. If a national office cuts its journal and pushes the responsibility for communications on to the branches, the loss of scale of production balloons the costs out astronomically. I know of one federal union which produces an excellent 20-page full-colour journal with professional photography and journalism at less than 50 cents per unit. I know of another example where the national union cut its national journal and a six page newsletter put out by a division of one its branches cost $3.50 per unit. That sort of cost cutting can be bad economics when put under scrutiny.
Similarly when talking to unions about building a website I was always confronted with the refrain that, great though it would be, the union just couldn't afford it. At the same time I knew of a small branch that was picking up 8-10 new members per month through its website. That's 100 odd new members per year - say $30,000 in dues annually. The failure to invest was actually costing those unions dearly.
For Communicating Substitute Campaigning
Slowly but surely unions are realising that they need to change if we are going to survive and that renewed grassroots activism is the key to our future strength and relevance. It involves serious cultural change and part of doing things differently should be using technology for the times in an innovative way.
For all the successes we have had like Workers Online the truth is it's still all small beer in the IT world and we have some way to go to fulfill the potential of the (now not so) new technologies. We need to go up a gear. Unions are doing OK in using the medium for publishing but the Internet's real value for us is its 'connectivity' - its effectiveness in networking. For all the hype about the Internet the 'killer app' is, and always has been, email. While you can find some excellent examples of union campaigning using email we are still some way off using it effectively as a principal organising tool.
Our challenge is to keep abreast of where the technologies are going - no easy matter -and integrate the online tools: websites, email, and whatever the industry comes up with in e-commerce, databases and WAP communication - with effective campaigning and organising strategies.
Realistically we need to work more effectively together to harness the potential and share the costs. IT requires an investment that most unions would baulk at despite the leverage and long term savings it makes. We need to share our resources and pool our strengths more consistently and effectively.
We're in the fight of our lives and to fight back we must fight smart. The web, email, communications and organising are all part of an infrastructure we need to harness and use in a progressive way to turn it around.
Noel Hester is web coordinator for the ACTU
by The Chaser
The Chaser |
The US Supreme Court described him as one of the country's worst ever murderers, and expressed surprised that he was able to get away with his killing spree for so long.
The governor admitted under cross-examination that he was responsible for more than one hundred killings in the past year. He said he didn't think his murderous rampage was wrong, because he only targeted convicted prisoners, some of whom were even guilty of their alleged crimes.
"I've always believed in an eye for an eye," he said. "If you take someone's life you should expect to lose your own. No one's taken more lives than me, so it's only right that I be sent to the chair. In fact no one advocates my execution more strongly than I do."
Debate about capital punishment has escalated in the US since the execution of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, who himself was in favour of the death penalty because it made him more famous.
"I couldn't get headlines like these from just sitting in a cell," he said, shortly before his death. "Being killed makes me a martyr. It also means no more prison food."
After being led into his execution chamber McVeigh declined to utter any last words, as his mouth was frozen numb from eating so much ice cream. He instead issued a darkly evocative poem from Pam Ayres.
The execution was broadcast to relatives of the victims, many of whom asked to change channels because they were missing "Friends". The closed-circuit telecast failed to win its timeslot, and was slammed by the critics who found the ending too predictable.
The execution has forced US President George W. Bush to initiate a comprehensive review of the death penalty in America.
"I want it widened to include parking offences," he told Congress last night, before quickly excusing himself to move his car.
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Murray Whelan's inside work would be unknown outside Victorian ALP circles without Shane Maloney. His stumblings through the corridors and the internal workings of a political party and government have been chronicled in Stiff, The Brush-off, Nice Try and The Big Ask. Maloney has changed names to protect the guilty and innocent.
John Cain himself, and many financial journalists have raked over the coals of the financial disasters that eventually spelt the death of the Cain government. There has been less interest the day-to-day activities of the foot soldiers, backbenchers, minders who run the electoral and ministerial offices.
Maloney began in 1994 with Stiff, set in 1984 during the first Cain government, with Murray then the humble electorate officer to Charlene Wills, Member of the Victorian Legislative Council in the seat of Melbourne Upper, and Minister for Industry. We also meet Murray's grasping associate, Angelo Agnelli, at the time Charlene's media flak and later to succeed Charlene in the seat. Murray spends his time dealing with the great range of people wanting the local member to solve their problems, with the major focus here being Mr Adam F****** Ant. Murray is constantly dealing with the factional battles within and between the ethic communities in the electorate, I feeling many would know well as he deals with the Turks, the Italians, and his estranged femocrat wife.
His family life and the tensions therein are part of this as he struggles to care for his son Red (and eventually loses him to his wife in Canberra. An ongoing feature of the series is Murray's concern and attempts to get him back. An area where he ultimately triumphs (as he does in many fields, always in unexpected and unusual circumstances).
Stiff thus covers a death in a freezer at an abattoir, the meatworkers, Ayisha and the Australian Turkish Welfare League, the Kurdish plight, the Office of the Status of Women Industrial and Technological Change Secretariat (OSWITCS) and other acronyms, do-it yourself abilities and how to get ripped off by your builder.
For the budding pollies out there using Murray as a guide to how to run the ship of state there are lots of pithy reminders of what is involved. When taking Mr Picone to meet the Minister about a disturbing story in the local Italian press which seems to have some bearing on ALP support and the pre-selection process, Murray notes that Picone, in publicizing his grievance, was "merely observing the cardinal rule of those who live in a safe seat: never allow yourself to be taken for granted."
Lunching is an important part of the climb too, and the drawback of Chinese food for the caffeine-addicted hacks is noted, "By some obscure culinary demarcation agreement, Chinese restaurants are prohibited from serving decent coffee."
This following the lunch with Agnelli, whose rise to prominence would be familiar to many. He got in with a legal firm specializing in compo claims. An indifferent lawyer, but excellent at following his political nose up the food chain, he eventually poached most of the clients from the firm who hired him, set up his own practice, and then concentrated on becoming a factional heavyweight on the Socialist left, using the connections he made on the way. Agnelli is a serious player but is "fearful of the rough company of party organizers from down the line...crude types who came fully equipped with invisible networks, tacit alliances, and uncertain ambitions. We who could fill halls with a single phone call."
By the end Murray has in his unorthodox way dealt with the body, and been pushed into the job as Agnelli's minder as he takes over from Charlene in a somewhat reluctant electorate. They don't like party heavyweights being dumped on them either.
We move then to The Brush Off (1996) where we find Agnelli as Minister for the Arts and Water Supply, and Murray sadly missing out on the full enjoyment of Salina's delights, in the Botanic Gardens as they stray from an arts function. Finding a body in the fountain somehow takes the edge off proceedings, and Murray finds himself knee deep in the wheeling and dealings of the Melbourne art establishment and the big end of town. There is more to Salina than Murray realizes, and she keeps herself well ahead in the art game. Again the union connections play a big part, with his discovery of large-scale fraud in an art exhibition at Trades Hall. This time he manages to save Agnelli's and the ALP's bacon with his sleuthing, coming up with the money, and manages to transfer away from the sharks of the Art world to Water, where he gets to open lots on new sluice gates, and his water-skiing improves out of sight.
This all takes place in the atmosphere of declining economic fortunes and as Murray comments, "whenever I hear the stuff about belt-tightening, I can't help but think how much bigger some people's belts are to begin with."
The last chance to save the party features in Nice Try (1998) as the attempt in 1990 to win the 1996 Olympic Games for Melbourne is the frame for the story. In the end, as we know, Melbourne never had a hope, "crossing the finishing line well behind Atlanta, Athens and Toronto.
"It was a humiliating rebuff...There is after all, nothing more demoralizing than coming fourth in an arse-licking competition"
What hope did they have when, as Murray muses, one of the IOC officials discussed family matters with Murray and commented how proud he was of his children, all seven of whom had just won scholarships to Georgia, Atlanta Tech. Quite an achievement considering one of them was still in primary school. The official was planning on being at the graduation in Atlanta in six years time.
Murray has been dragged into trying to get the various groups in Melbourne on side for various strange reasons, so he has to organize an Aboriginal Sports Institute as a major marketing device to impress the committee. Unfortunately the death of a young Aboriginal sportsman complicates matters, as do memories, feuds and defections left over from the 1956 Games. Murray makes a gesture to fitness himself, attempting to give up the smokes and going to a gym in this one. The well being of Red and his long distance fatherhood also play a lot on Murray. He manages to wangle red the main role in the dream the Torch relay, a closing event that leads to a hilarious chase through the kitchens, upsetting the Wallaby Ragout and many other fine Australian dishes.
The lost bid and the pay dispute with the Missos who work for the Water Board (which leads to many problems, particularly s the man who steals Murray's car makes a habit of breaking hydrants around the city with the car that are not fixed) are the straw that breaks the ALPs back in Victoria. Agnelli gets promoted in the end to Transport, which leads on to Murray's problems in The Big Ask (2000) as he deals with the hard men in the Transport Workers Federation. The Premier resigns, which leads to a female Premier. Anxious that we don't misjudge the ALP on this, Murray reminds us that this "should not be misconstrued as a commitment to gender equity. It just means the boys are losing their grip."
In The Big Ask The Victoria markets are the scene of a murder apparently involving Murray's truckie contact, who is on a mission to roll the corrupt union leadership in this one. Murray, meanwhile, gets involved in Agnelli's scheming aimed at ensuring he keeps hi pre-selection against a challenge that he asks Murray to run against him (and funds Murray to do so).
The fallout from these activities are unexpected for all, and Murray is finally able to regain custody of Red, do the right thing by ALP standards and send him to private school, and beat of the claims of women candidates in time honoured ALP fashion. Claims of ALP hypocrisy are answered with "as if that wasn't an accusation with which we had long learned to live."
A great series chronicling the rise and fall of the Victorian ALP. Don't be fooled by the marketing of the books as fiction. It all might have happened amongst the ALP tribes in Melbourne, or anywhere.
Stiff, The Brush-Off, Nice Try and The Big Ask by Shane Maloney. All published by Text Publishing.
Labor Council's Michael Gadiel |
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Orthodox Christian thinking is out of touch with the real world according to Bishop John Spong. Formerly the Anglican Bishop of Newark, New Jersey and author of a number of works, including his most recent "Here I Stand" (Harper Collins). Given the controversy, and associated publicity surrounding his tour, it is was not surprising to find that it was standing rooming only at his address to the Sydney Institute last Tuesday.
As a confirmed (and lapsed) Anglican I have followed the debate within the Anglican Church with some interest. But my real motivation for attending, is an interest in the parallels between the debate over reform within the church and that within the Trade Union movement.
The similarities between the plight of the church and the trade union movement are many. Both are old world institutions, both are suffering declining membership, both are fighting the perception that they are less relevant, and they are both associated with particular values. The church, the custodian of the Christian Judaeo ethical set, and the Trade Union Movement of collectivism and comradeship. The currency of these values are seen to be diminished by the decline in their associated institutions. Both the churches and the trade union movement are looking for a way to re-make themselves, and reverse the slide.
Using and analogy with the US Supreme Court, Spong argues that the Bible leaves the way open for progression of human thought by containing both majority and minority reports. In a court, the majority report becomes law and the minority report either disappears, or becomes the basis of future review. He argues that as our consciousness in a particular area rises we have to re-think our views. Sometimes the minority view can become the majority. To a layman like me this sounds like "we must change with the times".
In particular, he argues that Christianity has struggled to adapt to developments in Science over the last five-hundred years. He cites examples such as the conflict between evolution and creationism, and the (recently withdrawn) proscription against Galileo. Obviously none of this is earth shattering stuff - but the significance is that Spong as a senior clergyman of the Episcopal Church (the US branch of the Anglican Church) is publicly saying it.
Traditionalists would argue that the strength of the church, and organised religion lies in its adherence to the Bible, that the dilution of their beliefs would further erode the support that the church currently has. It seems that this is not a dissimilar dilemma to that currently faced by the trade union movement. Generally our level of support is declining, but we are still strong in our traditional areas. They stick to us because they have always been core supporters.
The problem is that changing to encompass broader community support becomes more difficult because there is the perception that Trade Unions are abandoning their base. It is difficult to change with the times, particularly if you have remained static for some time because those that remain are attracted to your constancy.
Spong also spoke about the concept of God. In the Old Testament God Lives in the sky and actively intervenes in the affairs of the world. This is that god that sent plagues down upon the Egyptians and parted the Red Sea for Moses. He argues however that there are other concepts of God in the scriptures, such as God as a rock - a stable platform upon which humanity rests. Also God as wind, the Holy Ghost as "the breath of God". Spong argues that such concepts of God are more suited to a previous age.
Spong's strongest message came through when asked about his notion of God. His answer - God was life, vested in people, that people become divine by becoming fully human. This involved: living life fully; loving wastefully and being everything that they can be. The similarity between his philosophy and the Buddhist concept of enlightenment was not lost to this observer.
Indeed, Spong seems to have successfully embraced the post-modern argument. Those that maintain exclusivity of religion - that is one particular religion is the only true religion and the only pathway to heaven - abandon one of the strongest arguments in favour the existence of God. That there are so many unlikely commonalities amongst the various established religions, even those that have evolved independently. Spong's analogy is that "it is like digging for the same ground water from different wells".
Perhaps, in stretching this analogy to its limit, the final parallel between the union movement in the Church is the debate over the regression into fundamentalism. A spectator from the Pentecostal Church questioned the decline argument, claiming that his church was as vibrant as ever. The reality is that both the church and the trade unions are suffering massive declines in membership.
Spong argues that the fundamentalist churches are simply churning people through, the commitment level is high, but the burnout rate is massive. He argues that fundamentalism is like putting sunlight under a magnifying glass - brighter but burns out more quickly - and is actually accelerating the decline of the church. Surely a renaissance requires firmer ground than this?
Spong concluded his arguments by putting the case that Christianity still has something to offer, even if one accepts the frameworks of the modern world. The danger: that Christianity will join the ranks of the gods of Olympus. I suspect that there is a similar warning here for trade unionists.
Analogy or not, perhaps religion and trade unionism, despite their differences, are encountering similar dilemmas in their battle against decline. Maybe both have something to gain by looking at the lessons of the other. As we know from history, the pendulum always swings back, the trick is to be in the right place to catch it, before someone else does. The question is where to stand, and the challenge is how to get there.
Further Reference: http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/
Sussex Street Fitness Regime circa 1980 |
A 27-year-old press release plucked from Labor Council archives shows that in sport, as in life, there is little new under the sun.
Written by a young Bob Carr - then the Council's press officer - the release announced the 1974 opening of a gymnasium in the peak body's Sussex Street headquarters.
The Labor Council Secretary of the time, Ralph Marsh, hoped the gym would meet the needs of stressed out officials, as well as setting an example for all employers to follow.
The release was unearthed by two of today's Labor Council identities, librarian Neale Towart and organising & research assistant Paul Howes.
They were struck by the themes shared by the 1974 release and an article - Are desk potatoes holding our movement back? - I wrote for this column a few weeks back.
In Bob Carr's release, Ralph Marsh refers to a 1968 report on the health of trade union officials.
'(The report) found that a majority of the union officials were suffering from great nervous tension and, in some cases, symptoms such as insomnia, headache and indigestion,' the release said.
'Many had high blood pressure with the risk of coronaries and there were a lot of ulcers.
'These conditions were a result of the heavy pressures on trade union officials - long hours, irregular meals, frequent night meetings and long periods of travelling.'
Barrie Unsworth, a Labor Council organiser in 1974 and later NSW Premier, was a key mover behind the establishment of the gym.
He told Workers Online that 'people were far less health conscious in those days'.
'Spending hours in the pub, filling up with alcohol and cigarettes - that was accepted. Pursuits like jogging were virtually unheard of,' said Barrie.
In 1974, Barrie was the union representative on the State National Fitness Council.
Approaching the age of 40, he had also developed a keen personal interest in health and fitness.
'We were campaigning for employers to provide free or subsidised exercise facilities and we had to lead by example,' he said.
While the gear in the union gym was primitive by today's standards, it was well used at first by officials of the many affiliated unions located in Trades Hall and the adjacent Labor Council building.
Men and women trained separately at the gym, using equipment which according to the press release included 'an exercise bike with speedo, a jogging machine, a vibrator, a rowing machine, an abdominal board and a sauna'.
But as unions grew and found office space outside the traditional buildings, gym patronage declined.
Five or six years after its opening, the last barbell was lifted in the Labor Council gymnasium.
But the gym was not the only manifestation of the union movement's sporting drive during the 1970s.
After surveys showed that bus drivers had severe health problems, sports institutes were founded at bus depots across Sydney with the cooperation of unions.
'Drivers played table tennis and billiards, but running races were the big thing,' remembers Barrie Unsworth. 'There were regular inter-depot races.'
Barrie remains a staunch advocate for the responsibility of employers to assist workers in keeping fit. He is a Director of Delta Electricity which subsidises gym membership for employees.
But Barrie recalls with sadness the deaths of two labour movement figures - 'two of the fittest blokes around' - who died while playing sport.
One was Frank Stewart, a former rugby league player with Canterbury and Whitlam's Minister for Tourism and Recreation.
Frank, who officially opened the Labor Council gym on May 15, 1974, died a few years later during a squash game.
The other was Paul Landa, who held the Attorney-General and other portfolios in the Wran Government. Paul died in 1986 while playing tennis.
Peter Moss is a Director of Lodestar Communications.
Keating Engages |
IT Workers Unite
It appears that the Labor Council/LaborNET are not the only people talking about IT unions at the moment. Slashdot.org is a US based online news source for geeks and at the moment a lively debate is taking place on their message boards about the need for unions in the IT sector, check it out and join in http://slashdot.org/articles/01/06/19/1151256.shtml
Mapping Politics
I have received several emails of late about a site called "Political Compass" http://www.politicalcompass.org. I'm not sure who is behind the site but the basic deal is you are asked a series of questions about your position on numerous social, economic and moral issues. The site then figures out where you are on their "Political Compass", ie. Left Libertarian or Right Authoritarian. The makers of the site argue the old Left-Right divide is fairly redundant in mapping political opinions, they argue whilst it may be fine for economic issues, social issues is a whole other story, anyway check it out you may be surprised.
Hands Off Workers Comp!
Apart from the LaborNET "Make a Noise for Compo" Site http://www.labor.net.au/compo, there is another Compo campaign page which is worth checking out the NSW Law Society is hosting a site located at http://www.lawsocnsw.asn.au/practice/compo/. The site is also sponsored by Injuries Australia and the Australian Association of Surgeons. It features lots of information on the campaign, Press Releases form the Law Society and campaigning tips.
However on the other side of the fence (or harbour) the Australian Industry Group (AIG) also has a campaign page supporting the Government's gutting of compo. Located at http://www.aigroup.asn.au/workerscomp-media, their site puts the employer's position on Workers Comp.
Workers Health
Our friends at the Workers Health Centre (WHC) in Granville have launched a new site located at http://www.workershealth.com.au. The site provides information on services the WHC provides, Q&A and the history of the WHC.
Keating Engages Online
Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating has recently given his website a facelift. Located at http://www.keating.org.au the site doesn't feature any new content areas but it is now easier to navigate and more attractive. The site contains Keating's major speeches since leaving office, extracts from his book "Engagement", personal information and info on his latest ventures.
Come Back Bill!
Whilst I'm on the subject of former leaders I thought I would check out what Bill Clinton is up to these days. The Clinton Presidential Center http://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com is currently being built in Bill's hometown of Little Rock, it is hopping to be a fully virtual library and center which will showcase the Clinton Administration.
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If you have a site you want Paul to review or add to the LaborNET Links section let him know mailto:[email protected].
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It was either that or a very tough choice, given that the past fortnight has seen Tool-like behaviour from across the political and social spectrum.
We've had:
- Two international leaders who are about to be ex-international leaders stumbling from one State Dinner to the next. One totally myopic, dribbling and speaking utter nonsense - the other the leader of Indonesia.
- A Labor Premier smuggling himself into Parliament, then forcing the rest of his caucus to take the fire from a trade union picket line, standing on the steps and blowing kisses as Labor loyalists were dragged away by police.
- Those same picket-breaking MPs trying to re-write history and turn an act of solidarity with striking Parliament House workers into an anti-Democratic blockade.
- John Della Bosca - The Abdulramin Wahid of NSW politics - for continuing to leave all and sundry thoroughly confused about his workers compensation reform agenda.
- And of course our old mate Piers, for failing to attack us at all for the picket on Parliament. Where are you, big boy?
But at the end of the day, I couldn't bring myself to giving anyone else the limelight this week. After all, I've convinced Pluto Press that there are thousands of Workers Online loyalists desperate to get their hands on a copy of 'Ship of Tools' the Best of Workers Online's First 100 issues. If I don't deliver on this, I'm unlikely to ever get another book printed, so I'm putting all efforts in. And if that means consigning myself to the shed for a week, then so be it.
Maybe it's fair enough. After all what's a Sussex Street backroom boy doing sucking up to feature writers and radio producers in a desperate effort to get some media attention for himself? Surely, he would be better served out their getting stories about repressed workers and attacks on workers compensations. Well yes. And no. Part of the Workers Online project has been to get recognition of a trade union voice - and if that sometimes means making the mouth the story, so be it. It's just that I risk becoming as big a tool as those I rip into on a weekly basis.
Because my thesis is this. We all have Tool-ish tendencies, but those who stick their heads up in the public spotlight end up being larger than life. Take Howard, in private life he is just a small-minded man, as leader of the nation his small-mindedness takes on a grandeur of his own. If he was just a suburban solicitor, Peter Reith would just be irritating and officious, as a senior government minister his down-right dangerous. And if Tony Abbott had completed his training for the priesthood he would get up on a pulpit and sprout incomprehensible gibberish as if it was gospel truth. There goes that theory, I suppose.
Beyond all the theory, the public spotlight has become an end in itself. And it is in this light that I move from behind the shadowy keyboard at Workers Online and say to all my readers - buy this book. Please.
Ship of Tools - The Best of the Workers Online first 100 issues will be launched on Monday night.
It is available online at http://www.plutoaustralia.com
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