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Issue No. 127 | 08 March 2002 |
Power Plays
Interview: Still Flying Women: Suffrage or Suffering Industrial: No Coco Pops For Brenda Unions: Back to the Heartland Activists: Getting to the Point International: Push Polling Economics: Debt Defaulters Poetry: Those Were the Days Review: Black Hawk Dud Satire: Fox-Lew Launch Rescue Bid for Beta Video
Dunny Wars: Will Workers Carry the Can? Go Forth and Multiply � Unions on Women Howard Shuts Workers Out Of Steel Talks Questions Remain As Rio Rings Changes Unions Fight 'Industrial Blackmail' IT Workers Get Their Own Geek Scopes Brazilian Unions Study Aussie Experience
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review Tool Shed
Collins Goes Cahill
Labor Council of NSW |
News Mayne Chance For A Wage Deal
"Mayne Health wants to walk away from their commitments after more than a year of talks between the company, the union and the workforce," Annie Owens, NSW LHMU secretary, said. "During interminable negotiations the company has repeatedly refused to offer a wage rise to its loyal workforce." Pathology workers at Mayne have a good track record of working together and organising to improve their working conditions. LHMU members at Mayne won an important victory a little over 12 months ago when a union campaign in their workplaces introduced significant improvements to redundancy rights. The package created a new benchmark for workers in the private pathology industry in New South Wales. "When our members won this ground-breaking redundancy agreement Mayne was shocked at the union's strength - it seems they want to undermine the collective voice of their workforce by pushing for a non-union agreement," Owens said. Gail Blakeney, the LHMU delegate at Mayne Health's Kogarah site said changes in top personnel at Mayne Health seemed to have slowed things down in the talks between the company and the union. Mayne Health is the dominant pathology and health care company in Australia, employing hundreds of pathologists with major NSW centres at Newcastle, Kogarah, North Ryde and Wollongong - as well as about 130 collection centres throughout the state. The base rate of pay for a Mayne Health pathology blood collector is $13.02 an hour. Meanwhile Peter Smedley, the controversial Chief Executive and Managing Director of Mayne Health , receives an annual base salary of $1, 492, 308 and the benefit of an interest free loan to finance an issue of 2 million shares. Before Smedley became a health industry guru at Mayne Health, in June 2000, he worked in the big money banking and oil industry at Colonial and Shell. "LHMU officials have been visiting labs and workplaces to consult with members and get further feedback on their gripes and workplace complaints. " An LHMU survey and information flyer is being distributed at all worksites . " The surveys which have been returned so far have overwhelmingly showed confidence in workplace delegates and union officials representing the workforce for a union negotiated enterprise agreement." Paint Worker in Scab Victory A paint worker sacked for calling a manager a 'scab' has won an unfair dismissal case and his employer, South African multinational Barloworld Coatings, has been ordered to reinstate him. Brook Shanahan - an LHMU union member for more than a decade - was sacked in early October 2001, after a number of incidents in which a maintenance manager was called a scab, when union members returned to work after a long strike. Commissioner Helen Cargill has ruled that sacking the LHMU member over this incident was ' harsh, unjust and unreasonable' and ordered that he be allowed to return to work. Barloworld Coatings is a paint manufacturer best known for producing the Taubmans brand of paints. "During the IRC hearings the LHMU said our union does not condone abusive and threatening language, but the use of the word scab in itself was found by the Commission not to justify dismissal," Mark Boyd, LHMU NSW assistant secretary, reported.
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