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Issue No. 128 | 15 March 2002 |
Why I'm Marching
Interview: The Wedge Buster History: Fighting for Peace Unions: Rattling the Gates International: Facing Retribution Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web Industrial: Working Futures Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid Poetry: PSST
Girl's Maiming Sparks Entry Plea State Law Push For Virgin Sites Outrage at Privatisation by Decree Woomera - Flames, Razors, Rope and Despair Asset-Stripping Sparks Walk-Out Opposition Grows Over Howard's Freedom Attack Heffernan Prompts �Right of Reply� Demands Levy Struck to Support Rockhampton Meatworkers ACTU Assists former Ansett Staff
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
On Inequality Harmony Day
Labor Council of NSW |
Tool Shed Flying High
Any suggestions that the union movement holds a grudge at the expense of their members should have been put to rest this week after the ACTU welcomed Chris Corrigan's buy-in of Virgin Blue. ACTU secretary Greg Combet clearly signaled he was not about to go and re-fight the waterfront war and accepted that the deal improved the prospect of Ansett workers retrieving their entitlements and, better, finding new jobs in the industry. While suspicions about Corrigan remain, the fact that he was ultimately a pawn in a bigger political game and has worked well with the MUA since that time, means that unions will be able to work pragmatically to make Virgin Blue a long-time player. From what we hear, there have been similar constructive talks with rail unions since he bought Freight Rail from the federal government. But if unions and Corrigan are prepared to allow sleeping dogs lie, it seems that Dick Smith wants to get out the muzzle, don the balaclava and open the war on a new front. He launched a remarkable attack on aviation unions in this week's Sydney Morning Herald, blaming them for the "unbelievable inefficiencies and high costs" in the industry and lauding Corrigan for confronting his workforce head-on. At a time when the aviation industry is experiencing unprecedented turbulence, with one airline collapsed and Qantas in the middle of complex negotiations with its workforce - it's hard to think of less constructive intervention. It's also a strange message for someone who has set himself up a one-man industry for anti-global patriotism by establishing his own, modestly titled 'Dick Smith' line of Australian-made products. The problem is that Australian economic sovereignty is all about respecting our national culture, including our strong collective industrial relations system that has delivered the high wages and conditions which he now rails against for being 'inefficient' for effectively representing Australian workers. Indeed, Smith was himself the President of the private pilots union in Australia (AOPA) where he campaigned for this position on the basis that the incumbent leadership of AOPA was not militant enough nor tough enough with the government of the day. Now, by calling to tear down unionism in the aviation industry, he is also advocating an assault on the Australian institutions he purports to champion. This is the man who as head of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority championed the idea of 'affordable safety', based on the premise that genuine safety was not economically viable. By the time he had resigned from his position he'd fractured the organization in two and been accused by his own department as being 'dangerous'. His latest salvo comes in response to questions from the federal ALP over his change of heart towards Transport Minister John Anderson. Twelve months ago, Smith described Anderson as the worst-ever transport Minister and even threatened to run against him at the federal election. Now they're best mates and Smith is on a high level CASA advisory board, where he has ample opportunity to run his anti-union agenda. If you join the dots you can see where this vision inevitably lead an airspace system that allows aviation enthusiasts like himself to fly free of charge. The commercial aviation industry can pay for the national airways system. At the end of the day that means the passengers - and the down-trodden worker - subsidising Dick's adventuring. View our Gallery of Tools Nominate a Tool!
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