The Official Organ of LaborNET
click here to view the latest edition of Workers Online
The Official Organ of LaborNET
Free home delivery
Issue No. 128 15 March 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Why I'm Marching
If you haven�t guessed already, I'm no Labor apparatchik. In fact my entry into politics was through the old Nuclear Disarmament Party.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: The Wedge Buster
Labor's immigration spokeswoman Julia Gillard talks about her job of developing policy to blunt Howard's wedge.

History: Fighting for Peace
Was the first Palm Sunday parade a celebration or a protest, asks Neale Towart.

Unions: Rattling the Gates
When Pacific Power workers traveled from Newcastle to Macquarie Street this week life-long loyalties were on the line, as Jim Marr reports.

International: Facing Retribution
Serious fears are growing for the safety of Zimbabwean trade unionists after the tainted election defeat of their former leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web
Electrical power industry workers in Korea are relying on the internet, and mobile phones, to successfully organise a militant nation-wide anti-privatisation strike.

Industrial: Working Futures
Can an assortment of economists, lawyers, historians, industrial relations specialists, unionists, journalists, sociologists and psychologists help us develop a decent future for work and social relations in Australia?

Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble
To compress the full and exhilarating life of The Greatest to film-length is no easy task but Ali makes a reasonable fist of the job writes Noel Hester.

Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid
The hopes of embattled Governor-General Dr Peter Hollingworth took a battering last night, after he learnt that the rescue bid for his survival is being headed up by Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew.

Poetry: PSST
From Sue Robinson to Michael Kirby, some things in politics are constant...only the names have been changed to defame the innocent.

N E W S

 Girl's Maiming Sparks Entry Plea

 More Time Off for Babies

 Workers Break Bank Cartel

 State Law Push For Virgin Sites

 Outrage at Privatisation by Decree

 Woomera - Flames, Razors, Rope and Despair

 Bus Drivers Block ALP Funds

 Crean Gets on Front Foot

 Nurses, Teachers On The Money

 Asset-Stripping Sparks Walk-Out

 Opposition Grows Over Howard's Freedom Attack

 Heffernan Prompts �Right of Reply� Demands

 Della Dumps Dunny Blues

 Smith Flies Into Turbulence

 Guards Force Drinks Break

 Levy Struck to Support Rockhampton Meatworkers

 ACTU Assists former Ansett Staff

 Activist News

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The War on Terror - Impunity for Abuses?
Federal Labor MP Duncan Kerr argues that governments are using the fears of the post-Septmeber 11 environment for thier own ends.

The Locker Room
Oh, The Humanity!
So, sports people are human after all. Now there�s a headline.

Week in Review
Tomorrow, The World
Jim Marr picks over the entrails of a week in which world domination, or at least hegemony over that part of it in which the principal operates, is a recurring theme.

L E T T E R S
 Carr and the Fire Fighters
 On Inequality
 Harmony Day
WHAT YOU CAN DO
About Workers Online
Latest Issue
Print Latest Issue
Previous Issues
Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation


Labor for Refugees

BossWatch



Letters to the Editor

Carr and the Fire Fighters


When the New York City firefighters arrived in Sydney last week Bob Carr treated them like Champions. A cortege of police outriders, Ministerial limousines and sparkling new fire engines not yet commissioned for service escorted the heroes of New York City from Sydney Airport to the five star Regent Hotel at the top of George street.

Our Bob was quick to link himself and his own political destiny to these men of heroism and tragedy.

With hindsight It seems all too familiar to John Howard and his snap decision to hop on the 'War on Terrorism' bandwagon twisting it to his own political advantage. Only this time our Bob was sharp enough to know that the whole world loves a winner.

No expense was spared in making our prized guests the coupe d' etat of the international tourism circuit. CNN, NBC and ABC all made great play of The Stars and Stripes being hoisted atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A triumph of US Imperialism and perhaps just a whiff of success for Bob.

With 347 New York City firefighters dead this is far and away the single greatest tragedy to have hit any fire service in the world. 195 firefighters remain missing and with less than three weeks to go until the cement mixers move in and reconstruction begins, it is unlikely they will ever be found.

Firefighters relate to each other in a far more intense way than many other workers do. The need to trust your life to another person means camaraderie is essential if you are to motivate yourself to run into a burning building while everyone else is running out. Fire Brigades are like families and losing 347 members of your family must be devastating.

The New York City firefighters were keen to meet their fellow "Brothers and Sisters" from Sydney so the call went out to all the fire stations around the city and about fifty of us turned up at the pub to say hello. They were all delighted to have found themselves in Sydney and after about three schooners of VB they were starting to look very jet lagged.

One young guy told me how he had lost his entire crew and that after one of the towers came down he had to be dug out of the rubble having been lucky enough to be the Engine Keeper on that day. Its hard to know what to say to someone who has lost their entire family.

While I hope I never have to experience the grieving these workers are going through they did tell me that their loss is in some way cushioned by the fact that every family of a firefighter killed on duty in the US is given a lifetime pension of 100% of the firefighters wage. A sharp contrast to the US $8 per week that the families of firefighters in NSW are entitled to under the current Death and Disability provisions Bob Carr extends to his state's firefighters.

No one in NSW wanted to take away the accolades the NYC firefighters received while they were in Sydney but perhaps now they are gone the Premier can explain

why NSW firefighters have the worst Death and Disability provisions of any firefighters in the OECD.

Why the decision to butcher the workers compensation entitlements of all workers in NSW shouldn't have firefighters angry at the spectacular hypocrisy of a Premier who enjoys some of the very best Death and Disability provisions in the world through his

Parliamentary Superannuation Scheme.

Pretty dangerous work really slinging insults and shuffling papers, but then the cheap grog and silver service dining room does keep them in tip top condition.

Who knows perhaps the next time I have to drag another unconscious victim from the 26th floor of the housing commission flats in Waterloo I might get the red carpet treatment from Bob Carr.

Then again some of the poorest people in Sydney live in the twin towers in Phillip street Waterloo, not exactly the Big End of town.

Stop the crocodile tears Bob, bushfires or high rise the public expects to have firefighters covered not thrown into Tony Abbotts damnation of the working poor.

Simon Flynn

Redfern Fire Station


------

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 128 contents



email workers to a friend latest breaking news from labornet


Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/128/letters1_one.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005

Powered by APT Solutions
Labor Council of NSW Workers Online
LaborNET