
Issue No 102		13 July 2001

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News

Rail Workers Strike for their Families' Security

By Jan Primrose

More than 200 workers from the Maintrain workshop at Auburn have taken strike action over their employer's refusal to secure their entitlements in an Industry Trust Fund.

Over the past two years unions have been warning the Federal Government that workers have very little protection of their entitlements when companies fail.

Recent months have seen a series of high profile company collapses including National Textiles, STP, One Tel, HIH, Harris Scarf and others, with millions of dollars in workers' entitlements being lost.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union has responded to the crisis by establishing an Industry Trust Fund called Manusafe, which allows employees' entitlements to be safely deposited on a regular basis, so that in the event of company collapse the entitlements are safe.

The scheme has the additional advantage of allowing workers to change jobs but have full portability of their entitlements. The money deposited in the Fund is invested and profits can then be used for training schemes and job creation projects. A similar scheme to protect long service leave works very successfully in the construction industry.

Members of the AMWU are so committed to Manusafe that it is now a key part of their current campaign on wages and conditions.

Workers at Maintrain, who build and maintain a large part of the State's passenger rail fleet are not prepared to take a risk on their future security. While they are still negotiating on a number of issues in their Enterprise Agreement, they are not prepared to back down on the issue of Manusafe.

AMWU State Secretary, Paul Bastian said that the Federal Government had failed to take responsibility for introducing legislation to protect workers facing the loss of their entitlements.

"When workers at National Textiles lost all their entitlements the Prime Minister promised to take action to protect other workers"

"All we have seen is the introduction of the Federal Government's mean and degrading Employee Entitlement Scheme"

"Under this Scheme, workers have to wait months for any payment, and then all they get is less than one third of what they are actually owed."

"Workers have a right to 100% of what they are owed by their employer - not one cent less!" said Mr Bastian

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  Issue 102 contents

Interview: Jolly Green Giant
Senator Bob Brown on the upcoming federal poll, balances of power and what the Greens can teach the trade union movement.

Workplace: Call Centre Takeover
Theresa Davison brings us this real-life story from the coal face of the call centre industry.

E-Change: 1.2 Community � The Ultimate Network
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at the potential for network technologies to reconnect communities.

International: Child's Play
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has recently entered a new alliance with the Child Labour Schools Company to support a project for child labourers in India.

History: Flowers to the Rebels Faded
With the departure of our own Wobbly, a look at the development of the Wobblies in Australia and their view of Labor politicians and the work ethic seems timely.

East Timor: A Dirty Little War
In this extract from his new book, John Martinkus recounts the scenes in Dili immediately following the independence ballot.

Satire: Telstra Share Failure Ends City-Bush Divide: Everybody Screwed Equally
Communications Minister Richard Alston today claimed that the government had fulfilled its promise to ensure that the bush was not disproportionately disadvantaged by Telstra's privatisation.

Review: Cheesy Management
Currently climbing Australian best-seller lists is the 'life-changing' motivational book 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Rowan Cahill has a nibble but doesn't like the taste.

» Search for a Dude Begins

» Public Money Backs a Stellar Bully

» Workers Get First Meal Break In Five Years

» Soft Penalty for Video Nasties

» Negligent Employers Should Pay

» Brit Cleaners Serve It Up to Aussie Boss

» Rio Tinto Guilty of Hunter Valley Sackings

» Rail Workers Strike for their Families' Security

» Nurses Seek Urgent Action on Pay

» Workers Win Tip Top Delegate Rights

» Telstra Halts Latest Privatisation Plans

» Requiem for the Banks

» Surfers Remember Oil Slick Disaster

» Widespread Mail Disruptions on Cards

» Minister for Caged Hair Gets Hot Welcome in West

» Cleaner Wins Right to Attend Family Reunion

» Howard Cuts R&D Spending by 15 Per Cent

» Fears Grow Over Shangri-La Protests

» Mick Young Play Award

» Activist Notebook