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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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News
Unions Fight 'Industrial Blackmail'
Employers routinely use their power to block the payment of union dues as an industrial tactic during disputes, a major Test Case in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission has been told.
In one instance, the IRC has heard how Fairfield RSL blocked the union dues while in the centre of an industrial dispute over casual workers. Similarly, Blacktown Workers Club stopped deductions during a dispute over rights of access and have never restored them.
In another case the Sydney City Council withdrew union dues during enterprise bargaining negotiations, even though no industrial action had been undertaken.
The Labor Council of NSW has launched the case in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to make payroll deductions an award condition.
Labor Council assistant secretary Mark Lennon says the case is aimed at stopping employers using the with-holding of payroll deductions as a form of 'industrial blackmail'.
"We have numerous examples of employers blocking membership fees when it is in dispute with a union." Mr Lennon said.
"This not only runs contrary to the employer's financial obligation to their employees, it purports to financially bludgeon the union into submission."
"We see this as enshrining a fundamental right of employees to have their wages paid into a nominated account."
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Issue 127 contents
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