 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
Issue No. 127 | 08 March 2002 |
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
Issue No. 127 | 08 March 2002 |
|
||
|
||
With Caucus due to consider the future of Pacific Power International (PPI) on Tuesday, unions will spend the coming days attempting to convince ALP back-benchers to delay the sell-off until after it is considered by the May State Conference.
Unions see PPI as a vital state asset, responsible for long-term planning of power resources, regional development and the maturing sustainable energy industry
Labor Council secretary John Robertson warns the Carr Government the sale would risk further alienating the union movement and have the potential for electoral backlash, after winning the last State Election on an anti-privatisation promise.
"If this sale goes ahead the power industry will inevitably be privatised," Robertson says. "If the public sector doesn't have the capacity to plan its growth, that role will fall into private hands."
A Slap in the Face
The Public Service Association's Maurie O'Sullivan says the Carr Government is asking for trouble if it proceeds with the sale.
"The Labor Party is struggling to come to terms with its defeat in the last federal election," O'Sullivan says. "A government that breaks such a core election promise and flagrantly disregards its own party policy in doing so is a government asking for defeat."
O'Sullivan says he's bewildered by the decision that is a "slap in the face" for the union movement, who will lose significant membership through the process.
The Electrical Trade Union's Bernie Riordan says the explanation is simple: "We all know Michael Egan is not very bright, but he's really hit a high-water mark on this occasion."
Common Position
Unions have consistently argued against the PPI sale, arguing it is a:
- a highly skilled technically capable organization.
- an integral part of the NSW power industry
- an organisation that possesses significant scientific skills that are compatible with emerging markets for sustainable energy and alternative generation.
- an organisation that aligns well with a range of NSW Government policy priorites such as regional development and sustainable energy.
The joint position calls on Pacific Power International to be established as a stand alone state owned corporation.
Unions will rally outside State Parliament to draw attention to the issue next Tuesday at 10am.
Reith’s changes to rules governing the operation of the Defence Signals Directorate came to light this week. They appear to have been a retrospective attempt to sidestep responsibility for breaking pre-existing rules during the MV Tampa crisis.
Central to the hush, hush manoeuvre is a broadening of the Directorate's right to use state-of-the-art electronic intelligence gathering equipment to spy on Australians.
Previously, that was barred, but just days out from last year's election, Reith legitimised spying, then reporting to Government, on activities which affect national security, foreign relations and even the country's "economic wellbeing".
Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, identifies the last criteria as a direct threat to unions.
"Both Government and employers constantly argue that any form of industrial action has national economic ramifications," he says. "Given their past record, that means they will intercept union communications. It's all the justification they need."
Robertson highlights the waterfront dispute, orchestrated by Reith, and the MV Tampa debacle as examples of this Government's willingness to use state forces against unions.
"This move, when combined with the whistleblower legislation, represents the greatest attack on the rights of ordinary Australians since the time of Menzies," Robertson says.
MUA assistant branch secretary, Sean Chaffer, also has civil liberties concerns. "Yes, it is a vehicle to spy on unionists right to organise themselves industrially but further expansion of the DSD also means a general invasion of people's and organisations' right to privacy," Chaffer says.
The Labor Council will take the issue up with Prime Minister John Howard as well as canvassing the Labor Party, Democrats and Greens in a bid to have the Reith rules overturned.
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.
The union executive, buoyed by employer moves to lift their wage offer in the wake of this week’s two-day stoppage, will recommend that any further action take the form of fare-free days.
There is growing confidence, however, that scheduled talks will resolve the issue.
The executive has agreed to a 10 percent increase, over two years, but Workers OnLine understands there is still an argument over how that figure will be arrived at.
Employers are proposing four percent backdated to January 1, another four percent from next January, then the remaining two percent over the final six months of the agreement.
The union, concerned by the effect of shrinking rosters on take-home pay, wants six percent upfront, and backdated, and the remaining four percent from January 1, 2003.
The 10 percent figure would give bus drivers parity with state rail workers.
Employers moved their offer from eight percent on the eve of this week's stoppage which effected more than one million commuters but that came too late to prevent drivers walking off the job in Sydney and Newcastle.
Union representatives will take a recommendation on the wage campaign to a mass meeting of drivers on Thursday. If workers accept their union's revised position the ball for resolution will be firmly in the Government's court.
The ACTU executive this week endorsed a detailed report prepared for the Independent Education Union by the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education as a basis for a comprehensive policy position.
Key recommendations of the report include:
- ending the Temporary Protection Visa system and giving all refugees immediate access to Permanent Protection Visas.
- ending mandatory detention and replacing it with a compulsory processing system.
- all asylum seekers to be released into the community after initial processing for health and security checks unless a court order is obtained
- ending the system of tendering for the management of detention facilities and returning them to direct government control
- establishing a fast-track processing facility on Christmas Island.
- ending the Pacific Solution and entering negotiations with Indonesia and other source countries
IEU NSW secretary Dick Shearman said the union commissioned the report in response to concerns about the divisive debate by its members, who work in independent schools of all denominations.
"Before we can hope to shift community attitudes to a more humane postion, we need to deliver workable policies that meet legitimate community concerns about the integrity of our borders.
"I think the report we have put forward is both responsible and compassionate.
"We need to stop fighting on John Howard's terms - the first step is to change the language around terms like 'mandatory detention' while recognising legitimate concerns about the need to process new arrivals."
View the full report: http://www.nswactieu.labor.net.au/whatsnew/research.pdf
The International Womens Day campaign began with an ICFTU press conference in New York followed by a seminar on empowering women through organising. The events coincided with the 46th meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
The ICFTU and its Global Unions partners are calling on members, national trade unions, and trade union centres, to mobilise their respective movements around the issue of "women's right to decent work," the main theme of the campaign in 2002.
The ICFTU represents 157 million workers in 148 countries and territories.
Meanwhile, Sydney schoolgirl Jessica Harvie (15) of Monte Sant Angelo Mercy College, launched Oxfam's Community Aid Abroad report with the following statement.
"We are not machines. International Women's Day is a time for celebrating the achievements of women and for challenging those things that stop women from achieving their full potential. Today we want to challenge Nike and Adidas to stop profiting from the exploitation of women in Asia.
We've learnt from this new report that 80% of Indonesian workers in factories producing for Nike and Adidas are young women aged 17 to 29.
We've learnt that they work in dangerous conditions and are shouted at when they work too slowly. We've learnt that most are forced by their poverty to send their children to distant villages to be cared for by relatives and
that they commonly only get to see their kids three or four times per year.
I want to ask executives from Nike and Adidas, could you stand to be always separated from your children? Could you stand what it would do to your family? Could you deal with wondering whether your children will recognise
you next time you get to see them?
Asian women are not machines. They work hard to make a living and to provide for the needs of their families and they should be treated with respect - the respect that is their due.
Your companies pay millions of dollars to sporting stars and make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. How about making sure the women who make your shoes are paid enough to meet the basic needs of their children? How
about making sure the factories are safe so that women don't get sick from breathing in dangerous chemicals and don't lose fingers in cutting machines? How about making sure they are free to join unions? How about
making sure they are free to speak honestly about their factories without fear of losing their jobs?
Young people in our generation are the ones who buy your products. We are the ones who make you successful. A lot of young people don't know anything about sweatshops, but as more and more of us find out you are going to have
to change. You can't sell a cool image while so many of the women who make your shoes are being treated like dirt. We're not going to let you.
We demand greater action on workers rights.
Through the Fair School Wear campaign we've learnt how migrant women are exploited as home workers in Australia. We've taken steps to ensure that our school uniforms are made by companies which have signed the Homeworker
Code of Practice, and we're helping to campaign to pressure other companies to become part of Fair Wear's No Sweatshop Label.
We're going to support FairWear and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad's campaign to stand up for the rights of workers overseas producing for companies like Nike and Adidas.
When women around the world work together for change, we know we can make a difference.
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.''
Rio Tinto is proposing to roll over existing individual contracts on their Hammersley Iron and Robe River sites into a Federal collective workplace agreement. This is to opt out of the WA State IR system where new agreements must at least meet the same standards as relevant awards.
Unions say there are other options available to workers and the company is not giving enough time - only two weeks - to consider the consequences of the changes and the possible alternatives.
Will Tracey an organiser for BHP unions in the Pilbara says he has been receiving a significant number of calls from people on Rio Tinto sites who want to knock back the new agreement.
'They are saying it's unfair. Under the new West Australian laws it will be fairer,' he says. 'The company never asked them if they wanted a new agreement and what should be in it.'
The Carr Government agenda is revealed in an invitation to participate in a new working party whose terms of reference do not reflect the recommendations of last year's Labor Hire Taskforce, chaired by former ACTU President Jennie George.
That report recommended that a Task Force be established to work out the best ways of implementing a licensing regime. But the new working party has been asked to revisit the question as to 'whether' there should be a licensing regime.
Frustrated Labor Council secretary John Robertson fears the worst. "You have to question how serious they are about dealing with abuses in the industry when they suggest a central issue should be canvassed again"
"We are concerned the recommendations they have already received will become just another report gathering dust at Macquarrie St.
"Our second concern is that Government is already dragging its feet over the recommendations it appears to have accepted. It took 14 months to commit to an education program and 15 months to get this working party started.
"Maybe, it's the department trying to rewrite terms of reference for the working party because the need for licensing has already been accepted. We will participate on that basis, rather than going over all the old arguments."
Labor Council assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou, Peter McCelland (CFMEU ) and Wayne Forno (TWU) will promote that line on the latest working party.
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."
The NSW Labor Council is insisting that transcript service provider, Auscript, drop efforts to drive down working conditions by pushing a non-union agreement and start dealing with the Australian Services Union.
"Since privatisation, the company has taken every opportunity to attack working conditions so it can compete with the worst backyard operators, some of whom pay piece rates," explains ASU secretary Michael Want.
"It has recently lost the Family Court contract and has no future at all without experienced reporters, many of whom are ASU members. Yet, it is looking for a non-union agreement under which its problems will be transferred to a vulnerable, casual, female workforce."
The ASU traditionally organised workers at the previously state-owned Commonwealth Court Reporting Service. Under that banner the organisation had a reputation for providing quality, secure services.
"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.
The site, sponsored by the Labor Council of NSW, has released its first 'Geek Scopes', compiled by its own in-house mystic.
She will draw on generations of astrological knowledge to provide advice to IT workers based on the alignment of their planets.
For example, Aquarians are this month warned against distributing personal information via email, while Leo's are counseled to work solo.
Geekscopes can be found at: http://itworkers-alliance.org/issues/general/29.html
During last years' visit to PNG by an ACTU delegation, the PNG National Women's Council stressed the huge need to address the lack of PNG women in the Parliament and decision making forums. They said that women need political representation to ensure that women-friendly policies, legislation and national programs are pursued.
The newly formed Labor Party is the first political group in PNG to express a woman-inclusive agenda for Government.
Co-ordinator of the women's faction of the PNG Labor Party, Jane Kesno said the party has so far identified six women candidates for the coming elections. Ms Kesno said women need to be encouraged to take up the challenge and be encouraged to contest and provide good leadership, something, which has been missing for many years.
Pricilla Kare was elected Vice-President of the Party at the first conference of the Women's Wing in February. Pricilla will be contesting the Kerema seat held by Sir Thomas Koraea.
In discussions with Jane Kesno, it was confirmed that the women candidates and party organisation are in need of assistance in the form of money, training, invaluable sharing of experiences, setting up networks and accessing useful material.
Events organised so far for their visit include a function at Parliament House hosted by Meredith Burgmann on the 21st of March and a fundraiser at the NSW Labor Council Annual Women's Dinner on the 22nd March.
Funds are urgently needed to assist with airfares. $1700 is required. So far $200 has been donated by the NSW IEU.
Any offers sincerely welcome, cheques can be made payable to PNG Solidarity Action and directed to Sandra White at the NSW Independent Education Union, GPO Box 116, Sydney 2001 or call Sandra on 9202 2600 or 0408 477 301 for further information.
The international secretary of CUT Brazil says his mission is promoted by hopes of a breakthrough success for the left in this year's general election in his homeland.
Famous former metalworkers official, Lula, is drawing 30 percent in presidential polling while the labour movement is confident its political wing, currently holding 10 percent of seats, will significantly improve on that result.
"The Labor Party in Australia has experience of power. We can learn from the lessons of the trade union movement in this country," Jakobsen says. "We know winning elections is one thing, keeping the movement together is another."
That situation is crucially important for Brazil which, until recently, suffered under an authoritarian right-wing regime.
Progressive unions were a key force in overturning that situation, something that has led the Brazilian peak body to participate in annual meetings with South Korean and South African counterparts.
Jakobsen is interested in the possibility of extending those gathering to include unions from other medium-sized economies such as Australia and Canada.
"Potentially, we have much in common. It would be interesting and useful to pool our experiences," Jakobsen says.
He will visit East Timor, another former Portugese colony, next week where he hopes to identify areas in which the Brazilian movement can assist the Timorese.
"Thank god for everything you have done," Maureen Elizabeth says.
"I am very lucky, I am very, very lucky that so many people keep supporting us in our struggle - without your support we cannot do anything."
The LHMU and its members - like other hotel unionists around the world - have supported the Shangri-La hotel workers campaign by contributing money to a Rice Fund to feed picketers.
In Australia many of hotel union members are sympathetic to the Shangri-La cause because their families come from Asia - Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
LHMU secretary Annie Owens promised her union would continue to support the Shangri-La hotel workers in a number of ways, including financial support for the Rice Fund.
Maureen Elizabeth had worked at the Shangri-La Jakarta hotel for more than five years, and prior to that at the local Hilton and Mandarin hotels - but today, because she is on a blacklist for her union activities - she can't find another job.
The Shangri-La Jakarta hotel is one of 38 hotels in an Asian regional chain owned and operated by one of the world's richest men, Malaysian-born billionaire Robert Kuok.
You can inquire about backing the Shangri-La Rice Fund by contacting the Asia and Pacific region IUF office in Australia at 02 9264 6409 or on e-mail at: iuf-asia@iuf.org
Palm Sunday
March 24, 12 noon
Meet Noon Sunday 24 March 2002 at Belmore Park (Eddy Avenue, Central Station).
SILENT MARCH to Victoria Park (next to Sydney Uni) for a joint festival with Walk Against Want.
Speakers include: Tom Uren (former Whitlam Minister), Sister Susan Connelly, Jo Vallentine (former Senator), Lyndia Miller & John Robertson (Secretary, Labor Council of NSW).
The MC will be Lex Marinos and Music will be by Astro Tabasco and Guests.
***********
Labor for Refugees
The Plenary Meeting of the NSW Branch will be held on March 13 at 6.00 pm in the LHMU Auditorium, 187 Thomas Street, Haymarket.
For more information email refugees@labor.org.au or visit http://www.labor4refugees.org
The first Labor for Refugees Southern Sydney meeting will be:
Tuesday 12 March
7:30pm (aiming to finish by 8:30pm)
Banquet Room
Revesby Workers Club
Brett Street Revesby (next to Revesby train station)
*************
PLUTO SEMINAR : 6.00 PM WEDNESDAY MARCH 13
WAR ON TERRORISM: AUSTRALIA'S INVOLVEMENT
There's been little public debate on Australia's role in the 'war on terrorism'. In the last few days the war in Afghanistan has greatly intensified and according to news reports so has Australia's military role.
Pluto has brought together a distinguished panel of speakers to address this issue - the first seminar in the Pluto Institute series at Berkelouw Books this year.
War on Terrorism :
Implications for Australia
Speakers:
Duncan Kerr MHR, ALP member for Denison
Kerry Nettle, Greens Senator-elect for NSW
David McKnight, Senior lecturer, Humanities, UTS
Brian Goddard, Peace activist and photo-journalist
Ahmad Shboul, Arabic & Islamic Studies
Sydney University
Venue: Upstairs, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
6 . 00 PM Wednesday March 13
Admission $10 and $5
Bookings: Email brendan@plutoaustralia.com*
***********************************************************
EVATT BREAKFAST SESSIONS ARE BACK: MARCH 18
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE SUBURBS? TWO VIEWS
The Mayfair Room, Southern Cross Hotel
Cnr Elizabeth & Goulburn Streets
Sydney. ( close to the Goulburn Street)
The speakers: Mark Latham, MP and Dr Brendan Gleeson
Chair: Professor Frank Stilwell
The cost: $10.00 and $5.00 concession
RSVP Evatt Foundation, Ph 9385 2966, Fax 9385 2967, email evatt@unsw.edu.au
--
********************
Protecting Genetic Information
Public meeting
Tuesday 12 March 2002
6.00pm - 8.00pm
(Tea/coffee will be served from 5.30pm)
Advances in genetic science and technology are occurring at a rapid rate -- offering obvious benefits for
better medical diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, there are community concerns about the
possible dangers arising from unfair or improper use of genetic information.
Genetic information and samples may be used in medical research and practice; tissue banks and genetic
databases; health administration; employment; insurance and superannuation; access to service and
entitlements; law enforcement and evidence in court.
The Australian Law Reform Commission and the Australian Health Ethics Committee are conducting a joint
inquiry to see what sort of regulation is needed, in relation to human genetic samples and information, to:
• • protect privacy • • provide protection from unfair discrimination • • ensure high ethical standards of conduct.
Parliament Theatrette
Parliament House
Macquarie Street
Sydney
(venue has wheelchair access)
Fax: (02) 9284 6363 TTY: (02) 9284 6379
Website: www.alrc.gov.au
Further information:
Australian Law Reform Commission
Ph: (02) 9284 6333
Email: genetic@alrc.gov.au
Parramatta Riverside Theatres,
Cnr. Church & Market Sts.
Parramatta
(venue has wheelchair access)
Public meeting
Wednesday 13 March 2002
6.00pm - 8.00pm
(Tea/coffee will be served from 5.30pm)
Llike many people are sick of banks and the way they treat people. I am taking a stand and others are doing the same. I want banks to understand who's money they are using, start respecting that and teach them a lesson in the process.
This email has been sent to close friends who may send it to their friends and so on. I am, along with close friends taking my money out of the bank for a three day period. Hopefully millions of other Australians will do the same thing, on the same day. Maybe many other people will read and pass on the below message.
I ask you to do the same only of your own free will. If you are not happy with the way your bank treats you please read on.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TEACH BANKS A LESSON
What would happen if everyone took his or her money out of the bank at the same time?
Would the Banks finally learn to stop screwing the customer? Remember, banks are nothing without our money.
Australians are sick of the major banks screwing us daily. You can teach Australian banks a lesson by withdrawing or transferring your money for a three-day period. If everyone did this over the same weekend then tens of thousands of people would send the banks a powerful message; maybe millions could do this by the July date and change banks for the better.
What will happen?
Banks could loose tens of millions of dollars in interest charges/fees and importantly learn a big lesson; don't screw customers! When 100,000 customers take out all their money for a three-day period. Banks could lose interest on almost 1 Billion dollars! Imagine if one million people did the same thing.
What to do
Between July 17, 2002 (Wednesday) and July 19, 2002 (Friday) withdraw or take all your money out of the major Australian banks. It must be kept out over the weekend to make an impact on the banks.
Take money out as much money as you can in cash or transfer it all to another bank. (Not one of the big four banks)
Withdraw as much money as you can from EFTPOS and ATM machines. (Keep it in a safe place)
Forward this email to everyone you know including Television and Radio Stations, Newspapers, everyone. The more people who do this, the bigger the lesson we can teach the Banks!
Let's show the banks whose money it is, once and for all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To understand how banks create money out of thin air, ponder this:
1. Suppose you have $1000 in your account.
2. The bank counts it as part of their reserve and lends Fred $1000.
3. Now you have $1000 in your account and Fred has $1000 that he is paying interest on.
4. That adds up to $2000 on paper, even though only your original $1000 ever really existed.
5. Using the 10% Statutory Reserve deposit requirement allowed by our government, and hoping that not too many of their customers will ask for their cash at any one time, the bank can lend ten times Freds $1000.
6. This is why they are so rich.
Explanation:
If I loaned you $1000, you would have $1000 more and I would have $1000 less.
But the total money in circulation would not be changed.
The banks claim to do the same. Now, banks make loans every business day, so borrowers accounts would be going up, hence - depositors accounts should be going down - but they aren't.
The truth is, unlike the loan between you and I, when bank's make a loan, nobody's account goes down, but the account of the borrower goes up, so there is an increase in the money in circulation. Where did this money come from? How do they do this? Well, what do you get when you get a bank loan? Numbers added to your account. Banks literally create money at the stroke of a pen (punch of a computer key) when numbers are added to the borrower's account. This money costs literally nothing to create, and the banks do not have any responsibility to any depositor because they do not lend their depositors funds as we have seen. Where did banks get this huge power to create money? In a nutshell, from their knowledge and our ignorance of the nature of money.
Dear Sir,
Only a fool would disagree with the declarations and protestations by Comrade Rowan Cahill, as he attempted to unpack the lie of an impotent Union movement.
Workers Online Issue 125
Unfortunately his truths are as thin as a new generation Durex which had been pasted on with a glue the consistency of flour and spit, and they are as illusory as the "Phantom True Blue", labour voters in Western Sydney.
Indicative by his rhetoric , Comrade Rowan has definitely read that classic by Dale Carnegie "How to win friend and Influence People", with his picturesque, if somewhat derogatory description of not only myself, but my family and neighbours, "the slippery, amorphic, shadowy "Aspirational voters" and "I "refer, to not , the "figments of a Paranoid imagination", but to those Australians who don't want more of the "Collective Lamington" for their families than they themselves had , they just want a share.
Well Rowan, as I said I agree , and I don't think that the Union Movement is a spent force, as I have repeatedly stated over many years, it is very similar to our natural environment , where before a regeneration is possible the fruit of the old must suffer the fate of fire...
At sedition such as this, can you not feel the tremors of the "Socialist Aristocracy", those in whose presence we must genuflect, those families which have been weaned from cradle to grave on the teat of public benevolence for generations? I need not cry out the names of the culprits, for, even if we deny their nakedness, we all know who they are, as they busily orchestrate their gaggle of rabble in defence of their own barricaded citadels, and every now and then sacrificing a burnt offering to placate that angry and vengeful God "The Electorate".
I can recall a Brother, at a Union Branch meeting actually calling for the destruction of the Union structure, to enable a strong uncorrupted foundation to be built on integrity, solidarity, and brotherhood, not on cronyism, nepotism and incest.
It is often stated by sycophants on the bludge, that, "If it isn't broken, then don't fix it.
Well, both Vehicles for Australian socialist politics are not only broken, the wheels have fallen off, and they have been stripped by their leaders and dumped in the wasteland, in anticipation of the vandals destroying the testimony to the stain of guilt on those that would lay claim to statesmanship.
As for explaining how a de-unionized ALP would function without the comfort zone of Unions. Financial Contributions and the election time holidays for the paid Union Officials, this is no different than the infant who has soiled its diaper. If you have ever had experience with this, you will notice there is no crying or tantrums, until the diaper is changed. Because the infant in its innocence is happy sitting in the soft, warm and odorous diaper, unlike the parasitical insatiable political tapeworm whose natural environment is writhing in the remains of Human defecation.
As for the reference to "Collectivism" being regarded as "Old Fashioned", I think not. It has been the perverse use of this gift of community "Collectivism" and "Solidarity", given by the people, and misused by those they pay to represent their interests. It is the entrenchment of those who gained positions of influence, not through meritocracy, but through the penchant for camaraderie by those who had dropped the portcullis on workers fleeing from the Tory Terrorists and then assumed pontifical tenure ensuring this, by surrounding themselves with greedy little useless bastards, while the workers starved outside the gates of castle "Trade Union".
The end result being, as that old ALP stalwart Richo says "The mob always find you out" , and why would one not serve a benevolent master rather than be a serf to your own servant. To do otherwise would be madness....
Rowan claims that trade Union membership is growing in the U.K... I agree. But he offers no explanation.
Well, as one who has many links in the U.K..., I can confidently share the information that it has been predominately through the efforts of New Labor, and only after the purging of the Old Guard and the useless flotsam which trails the Banana Boats as they head out to the North Sea to dump their loads.
The template is there, and with little or no modification it will work for us too!
As for the dinosaur/trade union metaphor being a political device originated in some corporate padded think tank, I think not?
I have for quite some time now frequented places other than those of employment, including several of our educational institutions, and the prevalent thought among those that are not indifferent to Unions, is definitely an attitude of hostility to and their unusual and undemocratic behaviors.
While I attempt to disabuse these neophytes , of their mindset , I cannot alter the truth ,and although it is my belief, that it is not the philosophy of Trade Unionism, its promulgated purpose, or that it is the majority of members that are iniquitous and who behave heinously with a tacit impunity, my personal experiences are in some cases very spiritual and uplifting, and in fact, I am constantly reminded of Jesus, when he received the identifying kiss on the cheek from (James), no it was Judas, to indicate to the Pharisees whom they were to arrest.
This is commonly called "the kiss of Caiaphas ".
I've had my spray, now I leave Comrade Cahill, with another truism to get on with:
"Always, there are different ways of looking at the same thing ...
We can regret that rose-bushes have thorns or, we can rejoice that thorn-bushes have roses."
Yours in solidarity
Joseph Furphy...
Tom Collins
PS: As for the Mardi gras, about ten years ago I put forward a suggestion at a "City", "Joint Consultative Committee "meeting that we participate in the Mardi Gras, but that's another story, for another day..
by Peter Lewis
|
|
|
|
Firstly on Ansett, you've obviously been copping a bit of heat in recent days. Do you have any regrets on the way you ran that campaign?
Well I haven't copped any heat from anyone in the Unions nor from the Ansett workforce and I think that's because the ACTU and the Unions stood up for people's jobs and they fought to get Ansett going again and tried to save thousands of jobs.
The Unions could not have done any more and the staff could not have done any more to try and save those jobs and get Ansett going and I think people understand that well. The feedback I've had from Ansett workers has been tremendously positive and very supporting.
Notwithstanding the disappointment of Tesna pulling out, I haven't felt any heat. There has been some criticism from conservative media commentators that you'd expect, but other than that, I've got no regrets about what we did. We are proud to fight for jobs.
Are you convinced that the outcome would not have been better if you'd allowed the original administrators to just wind up the company?
Oh, there's no doubt about that. The last administrators put some viable businesses on the ground. Some of the Ansett businesses were profitable and yet they were grounded and that destroyed the value. It was very clear at that time that we would struggle to get the entitlements paid to the employees and we wanted to develop a strategy with the administrators to get the thing going, restore value, save jobs and by restoring value get entitlements paid.
We took commercial advice on these matters at that time and we don't regret any of those decisions that were taken. Where we stand now, four or five months down the track is that we have some degree of confidence (which is no guarantee) that we can get people away with their entitlements paid once the asset realisation process has been completed.
You really got right into the nitty gritty in terms of the whole process of the Ansett collapse and potential rescue. What does that say about the kind of role that Unions take in this more volatile economy? Is it a new model for the way unions will handle this sort of situation in the future?
I think it is an important indicator. Putting aside the disappointment of Tesna's withdrawal, I think it's inevitable that the Unions will play active roles in insolvency processes. The voluntary administration procedure under the Corporations Law had only been there for seven or eight years and we're still learning - as some of the commercial world is. The unions are a little bit behind of course, but we're catching up quick and if we're going to meet targets of saving jobs by saving companies and seeing employees entitlements met, Unions will have to be very active in the insolvency process and use the Corporations Law. I'm not engaging in any revisionism about the level of activism we had in the sense of insolvency. It's been a very important experience, we've learnt a lot from it and we've learnt more than anything that we must be actively in there, engaged in it, to get the outcome for the people we represent. If we walk away from it, it's to leave the whole thing to the banks and the commercial operators who'll do nothing but look after their own interests and those interests do not coincide with the interest of workers. The Unions have to be actively in there representing employees.
How did the election result from late last year change your agenda for the ACTU over the current year?
It hasn't substantially changed our agenda because the key thing for Unions is still to continue upon the process of organisational change. Rebuilding the Union, looking for where the Union can grow, improving our workplace activism, building delegates and it is through that mechanism that Unions will achieve better living standards, better health and safety in the workplace, better outcomes for the people who we represent and also in the broader community. So that our program we've set a couple of years ago in that regard and we've had a five to ten year horizon as you well know, we're going to press on with it, those objectives are fundamental no matter who's in government.
We've had a debate here today at the Executive where I've tried to give a little bit more focus and urgency again, but there very important. If Unions (as we do) continue to collectively aim towards improving living standards for working families in this country, the Unions have to be well organised and strong.
And we're going to keep on that. The election result does have a significant influence though in many other aspects of our activities and not the least of which is going to be fighting off another conservative agenda to wind back employee rights, removing employee protections. We're geared up for that and we've won those battles before. I'm sure we can win them again. Obviously that influences our program, but the fundamentals I don't think change.
So what's your big positive agenda item for the next three year period?
On the organisational front, I want to get up a trust that we've set up called the UNION EDUCATION FOUNDATION and when it's established we undertook at the ACTU last year to put $1 million into that this year and I'll see what I can do next year. We're currently seeking other sources of funding as well. And I would like this year, to really get into place, a sustainable delegates and activists education program. That's one of the key organisational imperatives we have and that's going to take some time.
On the rights of employees and paying conditions, wages are still very important for us. We've been hammering away at that for some time. The debate about inequality and the capacity of low-income households to make ends meet is broadened and that's something we've tried to drive. Because it's clear that not only do you need decent minimum pay increases stronger than what we've been achieving, we're going to fight on to get better, but you also need measures through the tax transfer system to improve payments to low income workers and low income households to make a substantial difference on inequality. That's going to be a continuing single issue.
Superannuation is going to be important. We are now heading towards having a Union debate about how we do get contributions up to 15%, which is universally recognised for people to have decent retirement incomes that's going to be needed, we have been increasingly concentrating on that.
We are going to running further work family cases over the course of the next couple of years. We're doing the basic work at the moment to have a look at the Carer's Leave Entitlements a case for extending unpaid Parental Leave. Information is coming in that a lot of women would prefer to have a longer time off to spend with their child, a whole range of issues around a working family that are very important. We are bringing to a conclusion our reasonable hours test case, and assuming we make progress in that area, that's only the start of making a difference on working hours.
What will then be required is for Unions and employees in workplaces to use the rights that we're trying to create in the award system to make a practical difference in the arrangement of their working hours to family commitments, to have better rostering arrangements, shorter overall working hours, heal the health and safety problems driven by obsessive hours, that's another important policy agenda.
There's also the issue of casual employee rights, this year I hope with the LHMU, will be able to launch an application to give casual workers in the hospitality industry the option of permanent employment after a minimum period of employment as a casual. Job security question is very important, we have two million casual workers in the economy, our union membership amongst casuals is growing.
So we have a very clear view about the key objectives that we have over the next couple of years, they are some of the principle ones.
You had a paper put up to the executive on asylum seekers, where do you see those sort of issues intersecting with industrial?
Unions have always played as part of their industrial role a political role. And Unions are highly political organisations, that's self evident and very important. We have a view about the wider society and we articulate that view, part of that is how you improve living standards, part of it is also standing up for people's rights. That's what Unions do. We don't just stand up for people's rights here, we stand up for people's rights internationally. Refugees and asylum seekers issues are very important social and political issues in this country and so, we've been adopting as has the NSW Labor Council in a very progressive and constructive way and in taking on the argument.
You can not allow conservative governments as they have done for the last hundred odd years in their different forms, to continue to appeal to prejudice and intolerance in order to try and win power. And that's what we saw in last November's election. I fundamentally believe that John Howard won that election by exploiting intolerance and prejudice in the community and manipulating it. We now see of course that lies have been told and all the rest of it, none of that surprises me, it's what I assumed to be the case at the time. Now Unions have got a role to go out, as leaders of the community, and argue these issues out and ensure that intolerance and prejudice is debated, the issues at the core of it are debated, and to try and turn people's opinions around and take the fight on.
Even when they're members don't necessarily agree with them?
Yeah of course. You can't be a follower all the time, you've got to lead, that's our responsibility. You've got to lead in this society, you've got to lead community debate, sometimes that's not a popular opinion. Unions at one time we're involved in the "White Australia" Policy, as part of the wider Labor movement. Well ultimately, that was genocide and it didn't happen by magic, but it was debated through and argued out and people believed it was wrong and it was genocide.
The immigration program in this country has presented a tremendous challenge to Unions, there was concern about jobs, there was concern about non-Anglo Saxon immigration programs. Those issues didn't change overnight, people who have got an understanding of Labor history, know that leaders took on those debates, they argued them out with their membership and in the broader community. Justice prevails in these arguments because right is on the side of opposing prejudice and intolerance and it's a similar situation now.
It is a disgrace that John Howard appeals to these things in order to win political power. The Labor movement has an obligation and responsibility to argue the alternative just position as we have done in many times in recent years.
This week we finally got state to state or coast to coast Labor government to State level, how as an ACTU leader do you see that being used to promote workers' rights?
Well it's a tremendous opportunity for the Labor Party to coalesce around a number of key policy issues. Industrial Relations strategy and policy and legislative programs, one obvious area of key interest to us. But there are many others like health and education policies. It is a great opportunity for the Labor Party to coalesce around the fact that they are in power in every state and territory along with the Federal Parliamentary leadership and develop a program for this country. To go out and argue it and set out the values that people stand for. Beneath that there's very practical things that can be done and we seen a historical shift yesterday for example in Rio Tinto's position in deciding now that they are going to abandon individual contracts in Western Australia and move to Federal collective agreements. This is a major development. In part, the company is attributing it to the fact that, the WA Labor government is bringing in new legislation, it's legislation the Unions aren't entirely happy with either I might add, because it's got individual contracts in it but clearly Rio Tinto believe that there is new legislation coming in in Western Australia. It's forcing them into the Federal system but not onto AWA's. They've decided that the cleanest most efficient mechanism for dealing with their industrial relations is a collective agreement. It's practical things like that that are important that can make a difference. I could go through another hundred issues, but there are plenty of them.
Do you think it cuts down the ability of the Federal Government to influence poor worker issues having the State Government?
It naturally puts limits on it, important limits on it. And it also illustrates why you've got to be cautious about talking about a unitary national system. Who on earth would do that with Howard and Abbott at the helm? And when you've got Labor governments in each state and territory and you've got systems there that are better for working people that provide better rights, it's a salutory lesson the dangers of going down that path. I think it's an important counter-point to Howard, but the Labor movement needs to use this opportunity sensibly and prioritise key issues to take advantage of it.
Finally, the whole series review is going on within the Federal ALP, what's your message to Canberra?
The Labor movement is very important, it must be seen in a historical context and Unions and the Labor Party are key components of the Labor movement. The Union relationship in Labor is very very important for working families in this country and any debate about that has got to be approached sensibly and with some maturity. We need to cherish the importance of that relationship over a long time in this country. Having said that we're not standing on history or being conservative about the future. I think that the quality of the relationship at the end of the day is going to be judged upon the quality of our policy and our policy proposals. That's how I'd like it to be judged, I don't want it to be judged on arcane debates about voting rules or getting caught up in some factional nonsense that tends to preoccupy some people's time. The Union movement needs to have good, clear, quality policy priorities and that's what the relationship with the Federal level and in terms of the State levels has got to be based on in the future.
****************
This year marks 100 years since non-indigenous Australian women got the right to vote (indigenous women had to wait until 1962). This centenary of suffrage is something to celebrate but it also a chance to reflect how far we have come in the last 100 years. Have Australian women gained from suffrage or are we continuing to suffer economic, political and social inequality?
Unfortunately the answer is yes to both.
On International Womens Day, 2002 it seems quite clear that women have benefited from the struggles of our great great grandmothers and their sisters to achieve the vote for women. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy. This is a good start - women are equal citizens in this regard. My cynical self however, says "Great, at least we get a say in which bloke represents us in Parliament". The sad fact is that women are still not a critical mass (let alone 50%) in our Parliaments. This means that the experiences of women are less likely to be taken into account when important decisions about our lives are made. There are, however, encouraging signs that things are improving. We've had two women State Premiers and two Territory Chief Ministers. Federally at least one political party (the Democrats) has had four women as their parliamentary leader. There have been and are women Ministers in both State and Federal Governments. What progress there has been has been painfully and frustratingly slow (especially for us impatient types who want it now!).
Some could argue that the small number of women in Parliament reflects womens' good sense - after all who would want to put up with the lying, backstabbing, pettiness and woeful hours that our pollies seem to put up with. Maybe women should concentrate on business. After all that's where the real influence lies in our modern globalised economy. However, the situation isn't much better there. In Australia women make up less than 2 percent of senior executive officers in large private sector firms and about 10% of directors on company boards. Its better in smaller companies and the public sector but still nothing to write home about.
Ok, so we don't run the economy (although you may not want to take credit for such a thing anyway) but we at least contribute through our labour (and our spending). Women are in the workforce in record numbers and the numbers continue to increase. In 2002 it is only the true dinosaurs who claim women should not be in the paid workforce. Compared to 100 years ago working women have much better pay and working conditions and legislated protection from discrimination.
Our great great grandmothers would be happy. Except that there are still a few problems - like women are more likely to be in casual or other forms of precarious employment (i.e. no job security). Women still only earn 82% of what men earn in the private sector and in recent years the figure has been getting worse. Reports such as HREOC's Pregnant and Productive report from 2000 also highlights that while discrimination may be illegal that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I also probably don't need to remind you that Australia is one of only 2 industrialised nations that doesn't have a universal system of paid maternity leave for working mothers (the USA is the other). In the current political environment we're unlikely to get it without a struggle as significant as that of our great great grandmothers' to achieve the vote.
The future strength of the union movement, to me, lies in its ability to organise women workers and to improve their job security, pay and conditions. As in the political scene there are some positive signs that things are improving. The ACTU President is a woman and the ACTU Executive has 50% women. In the latest statistics on union membership released by the ABS the number of women union members grew by 0.9% (OK not much but at least it was growth) compared to men where union membership dropped by 0.6%. The statistics also show that women unionists are significantly better off than their non unionised sisters earning on average $119 a week more.
Like in the business world however women are not well represented in leadership positions in their unions. While 40% of union members are women only 11% of national union secretaries are women and only 20% of NSW state secretaries are women. It is estimated that only 5% of enterprise agreements have provisions for paid maternity leave with most providing between 2 and 6 weeks (well short of the ILO Convention standard of 14 weeks). As a proud and committed unionist this is just one of many challenges I must take on with my union sisters to ensure women workers get a fair and equal deal.
hese examples are only one very small part of the picture. They do however illustrate that while there has been achievements, they have been slow and patchy. Some women do very well and others remain vulnerable. Progress is not consistent and in some cases we have gone backwards. There has definitely been some suffering along the way.
One hundred years on it seems to me that suffrage in and of itself is not sufficient to ensure equality for women. I'm quite convinced that our great great grandmothers would have agreed - the vote was important but its also about how by working together we can make improvements that really matter for us all. Women must continue working together to ensure the promise held out by suffrage - that of true equality - is finally met. We owe it to our great great grandmothers.
|
|
|
|
***********
Every week Brenda Redmond strategises over pennies. After paying the mortgage, for food, telephone, travel, lunches and all the other unavoidable day to day expenses Brenda, a shop assistant at Dimmeys is left with $50 per week.
'I try to save this for unexpected situations like dental bills and for general living expenses,' she says. 'From Christmas to April, all the various bills are due and I am screwed down to every cent. I get by but it leaves nothing extra.'
'When my oven broke down I got a new one from son as a Christmas present. Normally I would have had to wait for 6 months to build up the money. On my wage you just can't go out and buy anything spontaneously except if it's on hire purchase. Then you get in trouble with credit cards. If I need something right now, I have to resort to credit, but I make sure it's only for bits and pieces.'
Still Reeling From the GST Slug
Brenda is one of 1.7 million low paid wage workers who rely on Living Wage increases to keep their heads above water financially. This, Brenda says has become increasingly difficult since the introduction of the GST.
'The GST has made a difference - on the utilities particularly. You do notice it, a $20-25 increase on the utilities bill and on food it's about $8 a week.'
ACTU Secretary Greg Combet says the living situation of Brenda and thousands of Australians like her contradicts the pathetic claims of the Howard Government in their submissions to this year's Living Wage case.
'The Federal Government has argued that any pay rise for the lowest paid in our community should be capped at just $10 a week. Mr Abbott's rationale for this mean spirited offer is his claim that a family on the Federal Minimum wage with two children is $40 per week better off after the Government's GST tax package,' he says.
'That is simply wrong. Mr Abbott's figures do not take any account of the price rises caused by the GST or the fact that the so-called tax cuts were really just a hand-back of bracket creep.'
Once bracket creep and price rises are taken into account, the ACTU calculates that a single person on the Federal Minimum Wage was $14.42 per week worse off after the Government's tax changes.
A single income couple with two children under 12 years of age earning $25,000 per annum (just above the Federal Minimum Wage) were $7.77 per week worse off.
'Mr Abbott has also misrepresented the value to workers of the ACTU's Living Wage claim. A single worker on the Federal Minimum Wage would receive $17.50 after tax if the ACTU's $25 Living Wage Claim were granted in full,' says Greg Combet.
'By comparison, under Mr Abbott's proposal a worker earning just $26,500 per year would get nothing. Life for the low-paid is already tough. The hypocrisy of Tony Abbott who recently received a $120 per week pay rise arguing that a $10 increase for the lowest paid is all we can afford adds insult to injury.'
A Bleak Future Without A Decent Pay Rise
Brenda says if her salary wasn't increasing every year through the Living Wage life would be increasingly bleak for her and her family.
'The annual Living Wage increase is just a nibble, it's a small break which then catches up with you over the next twelve months with inflation. Before when I did the shopping I was at least able to bring home chocolate teddy biscuits, milo, coco pops. I couldn't do that now, it would have to be for a special occasion.'
'My niece is living with me at the moment. She has finished her traineeship but is now back on the dole. The bills will go up. The phone bill, heating, and the food bill will go up. But I want her to have social contacts, I want her to be comfortable.'
|
|
|
|
****************
From the well-appointed cafeteria above the CFMEU Construction Division's new offices Sydney unveils herself. Not the slick, swished back city they used to look on from Kent St in the CBD but people's Sydney in all her colour and diversity.
Choose your faith. There are domes, spires, crosses and minarets; Dooleys Club for those with more Catholic tastes; and, just to cover the field, Rosehill Racecourse with the Clyde Oil Refinery as a backdrop.
The Olympic Stadium, which helped hundreds of construction workers into mortgages, stands in the mid-distance. Cranes sweep the skyline.
But the union didn't move for the view. Practical considerations included money, accessibility and room to grow. Equally important, according to secretary, Andrew Ferguson, was the need to strengthen community links.
Just six months into their new home, they have sought out, and found, a mix of fellow residents. After-hours, their offices host Amnesty International; an Iraqi Community Group; Asian Women at Work; a Chinese Dance Group; Sydney Western, Labor for Refugees; the Lidcombe branch of the Labor Party, and salsa lessons.
You didn't read it here but Ferguson is reputed to be especially enthusiastic about the dance classes.
In return for use of the premises, the Chinese dance instructor does Mandarin interpretations for the union and its members. Similarly, Iraqi community leaders organise CFMEU forums amongst their people .
The union helps the Korean Research Centre at Campsie and its co-ordinator, Joon Shik Shin, has alerted the Construction Division to a string of employment scams.
The day Workers OnLine visited, two Iraqis were explaining how they and their friends got $100 a day with nothing by way of super, holiday pay, sick leave or workers compensation.
That night 30 Korean tilers were due in to discuss their strong objections to being paid less than half the union rate.
"Labour market deregulation has encouraged employers to believe they can do whatever they like. Government policies have led to a changed mentality," Ferguson said.
"We have immigrant labour flooding the building industry, leading to chronic underpayment, poor safety standards and the denial of entitlements.
"Rather than resist immigration we have chosen to work with it and organise people who are being ripped off as workers. It's in their interests and it's very much in the interests of our more established members."
CFMEU officials estimate that of the 40,000 building workers currently employed in NSW more than half use English as a second language, if at all.
Koreans are prominent in domestic tiling, Chinese in gyprock; while Arab speakers are increasingly being used to slash entry level rates.
This demographic change is reflected in the union's organisational structure. At least 11 languages - English, Maori, Italian, Portugese, Greek, Spanish, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Arabic and Maltese - are spoken by Lidcombe-based organisers.
One, Mohammad Morgani, a former bodyguard for the president of the Lebanese parliament, has been able to crack several scams involving Arabic-speaking workers.
Ferguson insists the make-up of the organising staff reflects the changing membership rather than a deliberate attempt to employ from ethnic communities.
It has undoubtedly, though, led to strong ties with those groups.
"We are in a position now where we know that when a picket arises we can go to the Iraqi, Lebanese, Colombian, Croatian and Korean communities and get 10 activists from each at the drop of a hat," Ferguson says.
Comrades Café, held most months to raise funds, celebrates the multi-ethnic feel. Staff and officials gathered this week for Portugese delights with Colombian workers benefiting from the exercise.
Lidcombe, though, is not a stand-alone operation. The CFMEU maintains a sub-office, staffed by four organisers in the CBD, aware its muscle is strongest on big, well-organised jobs where employers have millions tied up in investments. It was in the central city where workers marched off every site at first news of Peter Reith's standover tactics on the waterfront.
Nor was the move just about reaching new allies.
The room for expansion has allowed the development of a multi-faceted, one-stop shop for CFMEU members.
Besides the organisers, industrial officers, legal and administration staff common to most worker organisations, Lidcombe houses a range of other services.
The three CFMEU-Master Builders Association joint venture companies are next door or on site - Comet, the training operation offering tickets to would-be riggers, dogmen, crane operators and the like; rehab company MEND; and employment company, BWAC. Between them, these non-profit entities employ 40 people and turn over more than $3 million annually.
The joint-unions, Workers Health Centre, is in the CFMEU building and the Long Service Leave Corporation is about to relocate.
Buoyed by stats showing most members lived in Sydney's west, officials were sold on Lidcombe, a key rail interchange for northern, southern and western lines, when they learned something in the order of 600 suburban trains stopped at the station every working day.
Already, nearly 10 percent of financial members are walking through the door to pay their fees in person, compared to just over six percent in Kent St.
Still not satisfied, the union is about to saturate City Rail stations on Lidcombe lines with posters advertising the new premises and the services on offer.
Those who take up that offer will be greeted by an ornately carved Hindu God then, a few steps on, see a mounted, glass-cased South Sydney jumper. The symbolism is potent.
|
|
|
Rowan Cahill |
******************
Polair circled the disputed territory. The Tactical Response Group arrested some 60 protesters, including yours truly. A couple of chair-bound protesting pensioners were carted aside. A relay of paddy wagons ferried the arrested to a nearby police station for processing.
The station is one of those closed by restructuring. A couple of local angry old ladies confronted police supervising the operation. Why was the station open today when appeals for local policing have long been ignored? they wanted to know.
A police rescue unit was on hand; three tow trucks removed blockading vehicles; a cherry picker was called in to help remove a tripod sitter from his eyrie. One protester collapsed during the melee and required an ambulance. An historian's innocent motor bike was damaged by a contractor's four-wheel-drive.
It was a massive and expensive exercise in policing; the best part of three hours clearing away some 200 protesters. As one recalcitrant wryly observed as our paddy wagon sped to the clink, "It must have Costa lot".
Earlier in the week company security personnel had paraded in the area, carrying side arms slung low in gunfighter style; Rottweilers and their handlers were also on display.
On the day of the action a company agent was busy with a camera, photographing protesters and the number plates of private cars parked in the area; the usual prelude to intimidatory legal actions.
Sandon Point, near Bulli on the South Coast of NSW; the afternoon of 14 February 2002; Valentine's Day. The company was the developer Stocklands, with former NSW Premier Nick Greiner on the Board. The protesters were part of a community picket line that had been blockading the site 24 hours a day for a year; retirees, pensioners, Aboriginals, unionists, students, Mums and Dads, kids, surfers, environmentalists.
The day the crunch came, NSW Legislative Council members Lee Rhiannon and Ian Cohen (Greens) were present, as were representatives of the South Coast Labour Council (SCLC).
An Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the picket line had been contesting the right of Stocklands to develop the site, one that is arguably of great Aboriginal cultural significance. High seas in 1998 revealed ancient Aboriginal skeletal and archaeological remains, which led to the establishment of an Aboriginal Tent Embassy once the area was directly threatened with development. Local knowledge claims that similar finds were cavalierly tampered with by official instrumentalities during the 1970s.
The site is home to rare and endangered flora and fauna, is part remnant native wetland, part flood plain, a locally treasured community open space, and a vital green corridor to the foreshore from the environmentally and geologically sensitive escarpment that overlooks the region. The beach is renowned for its world class surf.
Some residents fear development will radically alter and redirect natural drainage systems. They are traumatically haunted by memories of relatively recent local flooding, arguably caused in part by inappropriate development, resulting in multi-millions of dollars worth of property damage, and the reluctance of insurers to honour policies.
Sandon Point is one of the few remaining areas north of Wollongong that still has environmental integrity, and some argue that if it goes, then any talk of coastal integrity by the Carr government is mere rhetoric.
The area has long been the subject of community concern about matters like zoning, and there is a troubled relationship with Wollongong City Council that goes back years.
The Stocklands' development got the final go-ahead following contentious consent from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to "destroy an Aboriginal place".
Planned is an extensive upmarket subdivision comprising waterview allotments. Word has it that the blocks will come on the market at a tad under a million bucks each.
Once police had broken the picket line, the developer moved heavy earth moving equipment and sheds on site, disrupting traffic for an hour. A security fence was hastily erected. Non-unionised out-of town labour was the order of the day.
No sooner had the fence been erected than an injunction came through halting work on the site. Aboriginal groups had filed and won the injunction in the Land and Environment Court. So Stocklands eventually went through the afternoon's process in reverse, removing the earth moving equipment and taking the fence down.
The stay of execution was based on Aboriginal concerns about the nature and thoroughness of the NPWS consultation process before the development was approved. The matter returns to Court on March 20. In the meantime the community picket and the Tent Embassy remain at Sandon Point.
Throughout the dispute the SCLC has taken a mediatory role, demonstrating considerable community leadership, maturity, and responsibility.
It was drawn into events following reference of the matter by affiliates. On hearing community concerns the SCLC decided to work to have these discussed and taken into account by all parties involved.
This has been a long, complex, and difficult process involving the developer, a diversity of community interests, and local politicians including the ALP dominated Wollongong City Council. The process has been all the more difficult against a background of heightening Left-Right ALP regional tensions.
by Andrew Casey
|
|
|
|
**************
A senior Zimbabwean trade union leader has been missing for nearly a fortnight having been abducted by so-called 'war veterans' after a key meeting of the national trade union centre - the ZCTU.
The 'war veterans' have been harassing activists during the current presidential election campaign in an attempt to undermine the Opposition Movement for Democracy (MDC) candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, and deliver this weekend's election result to Robert Mugabe.
If Robert Mugabe 'wins' the election this weekend there are strong rumours he will quickly move to shut down the ZCTU as punishment for its support of the MDC.
The South African union movement, led by COSATU, has begun to prepare plans just in case the ZCTU is shut down. COSATU released a statement of support for the abducted trade union comrade, Ephraim Tapa, and attacked President Mugabe for threatening to deregister the ZCTU.
Ephraim Tapa, is the head of the Zimbabwe public sector union and a member of the ZCTU general council, along with his wife, Faith, were taken from their car after the thugs stopped them as they were leaving the capital Harare. Mr Tapa's two brothers, who were also in the car, escaped although one of them was shot in the arm.
While the abduction was reported immediately to the police no serious investigation has been carried out as police are wary of upsetting the 'war veterans' in their campaign of terror and brutality.
The trade union movement of Zimbabwe has played a central reform role in the lead up to this weekend's presidential election and issued a call this week for a halt to the 'state-sponsored terrorism' in the run up to the presidential elections.
Lovemore Matombo, the president of the ZCTU, says the terror activities of the war veterans is rife and widespread.
" Under the circumstances it would be very difficult in this country to have what could generally be considered free and fair elections, " Mr Matombo told a media conference this week.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC candidate running against Robert Mugabe, was the former, very popular, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions until he left two years ago to establish his political movement.
Ironically the ZCTU was created by the Mugabe administration which in the early years of independence cajoled a fragmented trade union movement into uniting under the one ZCTU umbrella.
However the ZCTU gradually fell out with the government after they complained about misrule and corruption which eventually resulted in a mass stayaway organized by the national union center in 1998 to protest corruption, mismanagement and the rising cost of living.
The 1998 ZCTU protests almost brought down the Mugabe regime and were the precursor to the creation of the MDC by Morgan Tsvangirai.
|
|
|
CHOGM |
***************
Although Africa is mired in debt and many of the leaders present at CHOGM were from the worst affected nations, no strong statement on the issue came out of the meeting. One is left wondering how this can be.
The preoccupation with Zimbabwe's worrying human rights abuses? The intimidating display of wealth? The continuing dominance of well-resourced northern players in the dialogue? The benefits the representatives themselves get from the status quo?
Regardless, debt campaigners were outside, reminding everyone debt is not just a "perennial" issue but one which cries out for effective and immediate action.
The current international response is ineffective - the Heavily Indebted Poor Country initiative (HIPC) - the debt relief programme you have when you don't really have a debt relief programme. It offers too little, too slowly to too few countries.
Despite the rain and relative isolation of Coolum, around 150 people gathered for Jubilee's event outside the Hyatt on Saturday afternoon in memory of those 19,000 children who die each day as a result of the debt crisis. Fr Brian Gore presided over the ceremony. Individual children were named and symbolically placed on an altar, and the reasons for their deaths given in a very moving memorial service ... Roida Mwansa, Nantanin Keita,Yaguine Koita, Fode Tourkana.
We tried to get beyond the statistics and economics-speak, to what the problem of debt means in the everyday lives of ordinary people.
Fr Gore spoke of how "we honour people like Princess Dianna when they die, but each of these innocents is no less important in the eyes of God."
Jubilee also presented 13,700 signatures on the post card/petition to Mr Charles Papp, Deputy Director of AusAid, and his assistant Gillian Melsop. The post card challenged our Prime Minister, as host of CHOGM, to show respect for the people of the poor nations represented by forgiving the debts of the four poorest countries owing money to Australia.
Ms Sekai Holland spoke, from the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe. Clearly Zimbabwe has its unique problems, but the situation has not been helped by her debt problems. Before the Government stopped repaying its debts over two years ago, Zimbabwe was spending far more on servicing foreign debt than on health and education combined. Despite following structural adjustement programmes imposed by the IMF and World Bank, its foreign debt increased six-fold from 1980 until 1996.
Zimbabwe is an example of the pressure placed on fledgeling democracies in Africa. Since many military dictatorships have been replaced by elected governments, leaders have had a hard time convincing their citizens of the benefits of democracy when, at the same time, debt (and other economic issues) have meant living standards have deteriorated for the vast majority of African people. Apart from the culpability of Mr Mugabe's government, poverty creates anger and instability.
Jubilee also lobbied leaders at CHOGM to support an international bankruptcy court, whereby creditors and debtors could be represented equally and the requirement to continue servicing debt would be suspended until the case had been heard. Fr Gore said, "It has long been accepted in civilised countries that it is inhumane to throw debtors into prison or to leave them utterly destitute. We've yet to apply these principles to international relations."
Thea Ormerod is the campaigns officer with Jubilee Australia
by David Peetz
|
|
|
|
But if you happen to pass one, pause, and listen silently. You might just hear the ghostly echoes of long vanished drinking songs. Sounding surprisingly like the very alive Mary Hopkin.
****************
Once upon a time there were two airlines
Their bosses used to raise a glass or two.
Remember how they laughed about the high fares;
We thought that there was nothing we could do.
Those were the days my friend -
We thought they'd never end.
We'd fly to Perth and back in just a day.
We'd have from two to choose.
Engines they'd never lose,
For they were safe and sure to know their way.
La la la la la la la la la,
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days.
Then the Keating years went rushing by us.
The skies were opened up and down came fares.
New airlines sprung up like new season's flowers
And when they died nobody seemed to care...
Those were the days my friend -
We thought they'd never end.
We'd fly to Perth and back in just a day.
We'd have from four to choose.
They'd leave with IOUs
Yes we were young and weren't sure of the way.
Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days
Just then Air New Zealand bought up Ansett
Nothing seemed the way it used to be.
The money seemed to gurgle down the drainpipe
Would that stranded passenger be me?
Those were the days my friend -
We thought they'd never end.
We'd fly to Perth and back in just a day.
We'd wonder what to choose.
How much cash could we lose?
Huge airlines built out of papier-maché.
Li li li li li li li li li
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days
Now at night I think about the cavern
Where all the jobs and money seemed to drain
Oh my friend we're older but no wiser,
The folk who lose their jobs are still the same....
Those were the days my friend -
Out foxed up to the end.
Last flight from Perth seemed only yesterday.
Now there's just one to choose
With sky high revenues
And in the board, they're drinking fine champagne.
Lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lies
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days
David Peetz
davidpeetz@yahoo.com.au
by Tara de Boehmler
|
|
|
|
***********
While the event has been described as one of America's biggest modern military blunders, the movie is conspicuously devoid of any kind of political or historical analysis.
But as our Eric Bana's character reveals, "once the first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit goes out the window". That appears to be the theme of the extended battle scene that is Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down.
During the Mogadishu battle, the rules of engagement restricting the marines from firing at civilians unless they were fired upon first became blurred. But in Black Hawk Down the entire battle is a blur.
In the beginning of the movie the audience is given the chance to bond with the usual suspects, all American, of course. There is the young and gung-ho soldier eager for his first battle. There is the lone dark horse dinner hall queue-jumper with an attitude (Banner). Ewan McGregor plays the wasted office boy who comes into his own on the battlefield. And Josh 'Who?' Hartnett plays the soulful idealist who just wants to "make a difference".
Hartnett's character Sergeant Matt Eversmann is met with much mirth when he meaningfully reveals that he "respects" the Somalis because they are starving, homeless and without opportunity. "We can either help or sit back and watch the country destroy itself," he explains. It is then he is told by his less altruistic comrades that Somalis should only be referred to as "Skinnies".
This de-personalisation of the Somali people is an ongoing theme in Black Hawk Down. While US body parts start flying across the screen soon after the bonding session between audience and marines is complete, the opportunity to bond with the Somalis is never given. Not bad considering only 19 Americans died compared to 1,000 Somalis who lost their lives during the few days in which the battle raged.
It is apparently enough that they are associated with a rogue civilian element battling against Americans. Such an act appears to cancel out any entitlement to have their stories told. The closest the audience is able to get to any Somali character is when one of the militiamen announces that while marines are permitted to kill but not negotiate, "in Somalia killing is negotiation". "This is how things will always be in our world," he says.
The statement casts doubt on Hartnett's aim of making a difference by participating in the battle, leaving it to Banner to explain their presence. Representing the mateship element of war, Banar's answer to people who question his motives for being a fighting man is that "it is all about the men next to you. That's all it is."
While it is understood that in the heat of battle a soldier's own death might be more desirable than surviving his comrades, it is surprising to hear it stated as the standalone reason for putting his hand up to go to war.
If it really was just about Banar's mates, why would he not stay at home, deliver his nearest and dearest a nutritious fry up and try to wean them off the turps? There are surely better ways to express one's undying love.
Rating: 2 stars (mateship gone wrong)
by The Chaser
|
|
|
|
Following their failed bid to save Ansett, the entrepreneurs have turned their attention to what Fox refers to as "another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"I'm very excited about Beta video's future," announced Fox. "If we stick together on this one, I reckon we can get this company back to the days it enjoyed a 0.3% market share."
However, it isn't all smooth sailing for Fox and Lew's new Oedivateb consortium, with the government baulking at Fox and Lew's exhaustive list of demands, estimated as amounting to nearly $2000.
"Look, we're doing what we can to see this deal through," Richard Alston, the Minister for Communications. "Obviously, we're desperate to save the six jobs associated with the company, even if they're only voluntary positions. But of most concern if Beta goes under is the potential for VHS to enjoy a virtual monopoly."
The consortium's list of demands includes a government indemnity of the Beta workfleet's accrued entitlements, with Davo owed as much as $45 worth of Black Stump Restaurant coupons from last year's Melbourne Cup sweep and Trev owed a date with Kevin's sister after lending Kevin his Playstation.
The company's major creditors, Kevin's parents, who have loaned Beta Video the use of their basement for the last twenty five years, are currently holding talks about the proposed acquisition but are said to still hold hopes for a partnership with the more reliable team of Jodee Rich and Brad Keeling.
For a Premier and Treasurer still smarting after being rolled by both wings of the labour movement last time they tried to sell-off the power industry, it is a bold move to privatise the industry by stealth.
The move to explicitly reject ALP policy and privatise Pacific Power International comes in the middle of a review into the future of the Party, where the very decision making structures they have just subverted are under consideration.
It comes when relations between the government and the union movement are still at a low ebb after the bitter battle over the diminution of workers compensation entitlements last year.
And it comes as international skepticism grows over the whole power privatisation agenda, courtesy of supply crises in New Zealand and California, then the Enron debacle.
To get the Cabinet to agree to the sell-off proposal so it can be presented to the May ALP State Conference as a fait accompli was a sleight of hand by a pair of wily political operators.
But to unions who have blown the whistle on the sell-off, believing that the power industry is too important to be hived off to the private sector, the decision is altogether reckless.
On its face, they can argue that - having hived off all the generators, Pacific Power International is nothing but a bunch of engineers and consultants who would be more at home on a company board than a picket line.
But just because they don't wear overalls, doesn't mean they are not central to the future of a publicly owned power industry. These are the people who plan network capacity, design new power supply solutions and construct them when necessary.
With the current system to reach capacity within 10 years, the PPI sell-off will take the capacity to plan our future power supply out of public hands and into the private sector. From there, the path to fully-fledged privatisation is assured.
For the ALP Caucus, many of whom were uncomfortable with the workers compensation legislation last year, the PPI sale decision is a stark choice between the Party's policy and their leadership's personal policy agenda.
Whether they're prepared to roll the Premier, his Treasurer and his Cabinet to uphold Party policy that has proven to be electorally successful will be the question of the week. Either way, it should be quite a conference in May.
Peter Lewis
Editor
|
|
|
Bruce Childs |
***************
As a union organiser I learnt to seek out the natural leader on the job.
The person who would challenge unfairness and give leadership to their workmates by giving them insight about what was really going on.
You also knew that the union on the job was only as strong as the most uninformed members.
Accordingly I congratulate Labour Council on its campaign to challenge racism in the work place.
Our news is dominated by politicians and shock jocks who constantly reduce complex issues to goodies and baddies in double quick time.
At the same time, people are encouraged to look up to sporting heroes. celebrities, beautiful people, business high flyers
and look down on casualties of the system, the unemployed as well as particular ethnic groups from time to time, trade unionists and, now, refugees.
There is a sharp difference in how we treat people at different ends of the spectrum.
Look at the Treasury. It loses four billion dollars punting on the currency. Warships come in at hundreds of millions of dollars above budget and that news battles to make page one and the government says it is not their fault.
After the election, the same government has been exposed in a conspiracy to scapegoat refugees as dangerous aliens.
The government won its War and Order election with the help of Mr Reith.
The deaf, dumb and devious Defence Minister who says that he did not 'tell 'his best friend, John Howard, in a non core sort of way.
Well we want another vote. We want people to vote with their feet on Palm Sunday, 24 March.
Like the proverbial shop steward, we must take a stand and lead our people in voting with their feet.
It will be a silent march, led by respected elders of our community, including trade union elders based on compassion for refugees, peace and justice.
We also condemn terrorism by any, person or group or government. We assert war is not an option.
International conflicts should be resolved through the United Nations.
And national and international courts should be used to bring terrorists to justice.
In conformity with our campaign in the eighties for nuclear disarmament we oppose any nuclear arms race and Australia's role in the nuclear cycle.
Finally, everyone should show compassion for refugees.
Jesus asked "How can you love God when you hate your neighbour.?"
The Judeo Christian ethic prescribes obligations to provide food and shelter for the stranger who shares our humanity and origin.
Moslems are dismayed at the ignorant abuse of their religion and racist attacks on them.
The socialist challenges the exploitation of the refugee, and the denial of social justice. A socialist wants a cooperative society based on mutual aid.
The Humanist will participate because the refugee is denied equality and autonomy.
And all of us can be involved in solidarity, in the longer march until poverty, racism, environmental destruction and inequality are eliminated.
The first step will be the rally with excellent speakers, at 12 noon, on 24 March in Belmore Park.
I invite you to be there.
by Phil Doyle
|
|
|
|
********************
Humanity surpassed itself last week as everyone jostled for the moral high ground amidst allegations from the has-been-that-never-was, Dale Lewis, that a fondness for dance music and its associated lifestyle choices is prevalent amongst AFL footballers.
Of course we all know that the 700 odd professional footballers (and trust me, they are odd) never use drugs, are all fit clean young men who love their mum, and there isn't one of them that's in any way homosexual.
There probably is a bit in what Lewis (Dale, not Peter) has to say. As usual the truth will fall somewhere in between, like the remote down the back of a cheap vinyl lounge.
And you may as well lose the remote down the back of the lounge Foxtel and Optus are to provide more choice to the consumer by merging.
Sources indicate the new entity will be called Foxtus.
Apparent