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Issue No. 127 08 March 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Power Plays
Depending on where you sit, the decision by a State Labor Government to sell off the division of the power industry responsible for its long-term planning is either bold or reckless.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Still Flying
ACTU Secretary Greg Combet looks beyond the bid to save Ansett to a broader union agenda for 2002.

Women: Suffrage or Suffering
Alison Peters marks International Women's Day by surveying the achievements - and shortcomings - of a century of female suffrage.

Industrial: No Coco Pops For Brenda
The working poor get short shrift from the hypocritical Minister For Workplace Relations says Noel Hester.

Unions: Back to the Heartland
Lidcombe, western Sydney. A boring cultural desert, right? Wrong, wrong and wrong again according to CFMEU officials who talked to Jim Marr about relocating their headquarters to a working class base.

Activists: Getting to the Point
Rowan Cahill reports on a development battle that has fractured a South Coast community and the role the union movement has played to drive a just outcome.

International: Push Polling
On the eve of elections in Zimbabwe, trade unionists are paying the price for their commitment to democracy.

Economics: Debt Defaulters
Amidst the colour and movement of CHOGM little was said about the pressing issue of debt relief, writes Thea Ormond.

Poetry: Those Were the Days
The Golden Wing lounges have closed. The last of the commiserating Ansett workers have long since departed those makeshift taverns.

Review: Black Hawk Dud
If you want to find out exactly what went wrong during the US Marines' 1993 peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu in Somalia, do not see Black Hawk Down.

Satire: Fox-Lew Launch Rescue Bid for Beta Video
Businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox have shocked the financial sector with a daring bid to rescue the communications giant Beta Video.

N E W S

 Egan Sells His Brains

 Spying Bill Targets Strikers

 Dunny Wars: Will Workers Carry the Can?

 Drivers Appeal To Commuters

 New Tack on Asylum Seekers

 Go Forth and Multiply � Unions on Women

 Howard Shuts Workers Out Of Steel Talks

 Questions Remain As Rio Rings Changes

 Labor Hire Swifty Exposed

 Unions Fight 'Industrial Blackmail'

 AIRC in Contracting Debacle

 Mayne Chance For A Wage Deal

 IT Workers Get Their Own Geek Scopes

 PNG Women Visit Australia

 Brazilian Unions Study Aussie Experience

 No Shangri-la in Jakarta

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Love Thy Neighbour
Bruce Childs explains why he's reactivated the Palm Sunday committee to take a stand for refugees.

The Locker Room
Debt Before Dishonour
In a week that featured allegations of drugs in footy, fast horses and faster cars, Phil Doyle struggled to keep up.

Week in Review
Bullies Rule, OK?
Jim Marr considers a week which highlighted the absolute joy of being big, rich and powerful in a lassez faire world.

Tool Shed
Leader of the Free World
George W Bush barricades himself in this week's Tool Shed with the sort of double standards that gives world domination a bad name.

L E T T E R S
 How to Beat the Banks
 Collins Goes Cahill
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Dunny Wars: Will Workers Carry the Can?


Workers would face Third World conditions under proposed changes to health and safety regulations that would remove employer obligations to provide washrooms or toilets.

Unions fear this will be the effect of the consolidation of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, which replace the Factories, Shop and Industries Act.

The SDA raised concerns after attending meetings with WorkCover where new draft regulations were tabled that removed provisions obliging employers to provide basic facilities like toilets and washrooms.

Labor Council secretary John Robertson says unions will fight any changes to regulations that allow employers to downgrade on-site facilities.

"We are talking about basic rights here," Robertson says. "If this goes through we'll end up with what are effectively Third World working conditions introduced by a Labor Government.

"We raised this issue with the government last year and thought it had been dealt with. I don't know whether this is just the bureaucrats not understanding what is expected, but I'm going to find out."

Robertson says he'll take up the matter directly with NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca.


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