Workers Online
Workers Online
Workers Online
  Issue No 102 Official Organ of LaborNet 13 July 2001  

 --

 --

 --

.  LaborNET

.  Ask Neale

.  Tool of the Week


News

Telstra Halts Latest Privatisation Plans

By Dale Keeling

Communications Union officials have hailed the announcement that Telstra will not be selling off its construction arm, NDC, as a victory for sanity.

They have also called on Telstra and the Government to ensure that the company is retained intact to work on network modernisation.

The President of the Communications Division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Colin Cooper, said that the union welcomed the decision.

"We have been campaigning against an NDC sell-off for months", Mr. Cooper said." The company represents a core skill base for Telstra and for the whole nation. It should always have been retained within the company."

"There was also no doubt that a lot of those skills would have been stripped out of the company if it had been sold off. The short-term commercial pressures operating on the construction industry would have seen to that.'

"The losses would have been felt particularly keenly in regional areas, where many of the NDC staff are based."

"The challenge now is to see that the skill base represented by NDC is kept intact. There is of course a downturn in the industry - that's one of the reasons the sale fell through. But there's still plenty of work to the done on the national network - especially if we want to be a Knowledge Nation - and these are the people best able to do it."

CEO resigns

An announcement to the stock exchange is expected today confirming that the proposed deal between Telstra and Leightons for the purchase of NDC Ltd. has fallen through. At the same time NDC Ltd. CEO Bob Pentecost has announced his resignation from NDC Ltd. His place has been taken by Senior Telstra Manager, Phil Hastings.

The CEPU is seeking urgent talks with senior Telstra management in a bid to secure ongoing employment for all NDC Ltd. CEPU members.

It is the view of the CEPU that there is more than enough work available through E71s, deferred applicants and the upgrading of the deteriorating Telstra network to ensure ongoing employment of all NDC CEPU members.


------

*    Visit the CEPU

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 102 contents

In this issue
Features
*  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.
*

News
»  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
*

Columns
»  The Soapbox
*
»  The Locker Room
*
»  Trades Hall
*
»  Tool Shed
*

Letters to the editor
»  Strained Relations
*
»  Crocodile Tears
*
»  Wrong Bias?
*

What you can do

Notice Board
- Check out the latest events

Latest Issue

View entire latest issue
- print all of the articles!

Previous Issues

Subject index

Search all issues

Enter keyword(s):
  


Workers Online - 2nd place Labourstart website of the year


BossWatch


Wobbly Radio



[ Home ][ Notice Board ][ Search ][ Previous Issues ][ Latest Issue ]

© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW

LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW

URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/102/news6_telstra.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005

[ Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Credits ]

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW

 *LaborNET*

 Labor Council of NSW

[Workers Online]

[Social Change Online]