
Issue No 106		10 August 2001

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News

Tri Star Only the Start of Entitlements Push

Workers entitlements have been placed firmly on the political agenda, following the victory this week by TriStar workers in the battle to secure their entitlements in the event of company collapse.

The 320 Marrickville workers whose two-week strike stopped the motor vehicle industry, voted to return to work after the company agreed to take out insurance to protect their entitlements.

The Metal Group of Unions - which includes representatives of the AMWU, AWU, ETU and NUW - have warned that they will campaign across the manufacturing industry to ensure that all workers have similar protections.

Australian Workers Union state secretary Russ Collison told the NSW Labor Council that the TriStar dispute has clearly shifted the debate on entitlements. "The question is no longer why? but how? - how do we protect workers entitlements?"

Collision says the actual mechanism - a trust fund or an insurance bond - is of less concern to workers, then the knowledge that they have some form of protection/.

SA TV Workers Seek Entitlements

Meanwhile, the cast and crew of a children's TV show has called on the South Australian Government to back its rhetoric with action over entitlements.

Under pressure from Howard, the Olsen Government this week deserted other states and signed up for the federal taxpayer-funded entitlements scheme.

The Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance in South Australia has now called on both Governments to bail out the cast and crew members of the children's series "Chuck Finn" owed substantial amounts of wages and other entitlements, by Barron Entertainment, now reported to be in administration.

" Barron Entertainment postponed production of "Chuck Finn" last year due to financial uncertainties with hundreds of thousands of dollars owing to cast and crew; debts the company has acknowledged," MEAA spokesperson Stephen Spence said in Adelaide today..

Spence says MEAA has had extensive negotiations with the company on payment but to no avail. "Encore" the industry magazine has now reported that Barron Entertainment is in administration with combined debts of millions of dollars.

"MEAA is concerned that without Government intervention employees' wages and entitlements may never be recovered and has called a meeting of representatives from the cast and crew on 15 August 2001 to develop our campaign for Government assistance." Spence says.

"It is simply not fair that these film workers should through no fault of their own see hard earned wages disappear into thin air. This is yet another of example of why safeguarding workers' entitlements through an appropriate scheme is so crucial."

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Issue 106 contents

Interview: In Exile
Burmese's government in exile's Minister for Justice U Thein Oo talks about a struggle for democracy that has become a test of international solidarity.

Politics: A National Disgrace
Labor's IR spokesman Arch Bevis gives his take on the workers entitlements issue and its mismanagement by the Howard Government.

E-Change: 2.2 The Information Organisation
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at how network technologies will change the way organizations operate in the Information Age.

Media: The Fine Print
Mark Hebblewhite looks at how the major dailies handled the Tri-Star dispute and finds that the story really does depend on the telling.

Human Rights: A People Besieged
Labor MLC Janelle Saffin, an active supporter of the pro-Democracy movement in Burma, sets out the issues behind the ILO sanctions.

International: Postcard From Brazil
The CFMEU�s Phil Davey reports on a rural movement that puts our National Farmers Federation to shame.

History: Indonesia Calling
They needed no resolutions. Soldiers and workers who did not know one another moved together, the black ban started to reach out across the harbour from the noisy, smoke-filled room.

Solidarity: On the Frontline
Australian trade unionists are providing practical help for the Burmese through projects funded by APHEDA-Union Aid Abroad.

Satire: Skase 'Too Ill' to Fly Home for Burial
Spanish authorities have deemed Christopher Skase too ill to return to Australia for his own funeral.

Review: Living Silence
In these extracts from her new book, Christina Fink goes inside Burma to find a world where military repression is slowly crushing a people.

» Revealed: ABC Censors Industrial Reporting

» WorkCover Revisited � Public Sector Laws Rammed Through

» Bras First in Burma Boycotts

» Tri Star Only the Start of Entitlements Push

» New Spying Tactics Hit Work Cars

» Howard�s Secret Anti-Worker Plans

» Direct Action to Increase Nurses' Worth

» High Court: Courier Was Employee

» Victory for Academic Freedom

» Put A Stop To Acoustic Shock

» Builders' Bucks: Payroll Tax Evasion Rife

» Tassie Workers Brew Up a Storm

» HIH Collapse Hits Arts Industry

» Labour for Hire Not Entitlements

» Rail Inquiry Into Treatment of Homeless

» ACTU Awards To Reward Union Excellence

» Activist Notebook