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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.
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.
 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
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.
How to Beat the Banks
Collins Goes Cahill
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Evatt Foundation
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News
Howard Shuts Workers Out Of Steel Talks
An urgent steel industry summit called by the Federal Government later this month cannot develop a real national strategy to deal with the United States� 30 percent steel import tariff if it does not involve workers and their representatives.
AWU National Secretary, Bill Shorten, says the Federal Government is only tackling half the equation and will not find meaningful answers at the Summit without including steel unions.
"The Australian Workers' Union represents more than 10,000 workers at OneSteel, Smorgon Steel and BHP. Calling a summit without involving the voice of the workers shows nothing more than contempt for these hard-working Australian employees,'' Mr Shorten says.
"The Bush Administration has worked out it needs to involve unions, so when will the Howard Government learn? How can Australia develop a survival plan for steel when only half the stakeholders are in the life boat?''
Shorten says US tariffs will affect these workers and yet the Federal Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, has not sought to involve unions in a Summit to talk about their future.
"Undoubtedly industry and Government will be the first to expect our members to cop any job losses that may arise out of the US import tariff.''
Shorten says the Howard Government has passed up other opportunities to fight the
controversial US tariff decision.
"The AWU has strong links with the United Steelworkers of America and after recently visiting the USWA we know it is not unsympathetic to our position.''
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Issue 127 contents
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