E D I T O R I A L

Not So Happy Campers
It's a crude political truism: it's better to be inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in. At least for those on the inside.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Pulling the Pin
Victorian union leader Dean Mighell outlines the thinking behind his decision to quit the ALP and join the Greens.

International: At the Crossroads
From Germany, to Britain, to South Africa, Canada and the USA it seems union members are turning on their political partners � and talking about divorce.

Unions: A Case Of Lost Identity
Victorian Trades Hall secretary Leigh Hubbard warns that more unions could leave the ALP if the current policy review hits the wrong note.

History: Rocking the Foundations
There was not just one model of what a political wing of the labour movement should be, Don Rawson writes.

Industrial: Rocky Road
Thirteen hundred Rockhampton workers are putting cars and houses on the line in an effort to beat off bully-boy tactics from Kerry Packer-owned Consolidated Meat Group.

Economics: Cracking a Coldie
As Australian icons fall around him, Neale Towart charts the rise and fall of the Great Aussie Esky.

Poetry: The Right Was Wrong
A glimpse of history shows that waterfront workers deserve the high moral ground.

Satire: Heffernan�s Evidence Conclusive: Proves He's An Idiot
The evidence released by Senator Bill Heffernan to substantiate his allegations against Justice Kirby have proved conclusively that the senator is an idiot.

Review: Upstairs, Downstairs
Robert Altman's latest movie Gosford Park is hard yakka no matter what side of the class system you sit on.

N E W S

Giant Rat Fights Cole Commission

Dodgy Bosses To Get Life

Unions Back Rugby World Cup

Queue Jumper Abbott In Cash Grab

Refugees Face Bank Imbalance

Guards Act to Plug Leaks

Rabbit Fence Leads Reconciliation to Classroom

Spy Bill Under Fire

Council Takes Up Discrimination Challenge

Power Workers To Decide Own Fate

Thumbs Up for Super Deal

G-G Warned Off State Schools

Fee Pressure Builds on Beattie

Nobel Committee 'Subordinates' Union Rights

Columbians Level Death Charges

Call To Blockade Burmese Junta

Indonesian Threat To Unions

Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Dealing with Prejudice
Former Liberal senator Chris Puplick did not pull any punches launching a new guide for union reps dealing with discrimination issues.

The Locker Room
The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall
Phil Doyle tries to get sport off the front pages and back where it belongs ...

Postcard
Greetings From Lao
In the first in a new series, Union Aid Abroad's Phillip Hazelton, reports from Lao, where he is establishing a vocational training centre.

Cole-Watch
Go West
The Building Industry Royal Commission caravan has rolled into Perth.

Week in Review
Top of the Pops
Johnny Howard and his Masters of Deception kept the beat during a week in which secrecy took over from blatant fibbing as the dark art or choice, leaving the national Hit Parade looking something like this �

L E T T E R S

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Giant Rat Fights Cole Commission

The eight metre rodent debuted in spectacular style at St Luke�s Grammar School, Brookvale, this week, alerting locals to a typical industry rip-off threatening 30 local breadwinners and two family-owned businesses.

Griffith Landscape Management has gone belly-up leaving two sub-contractors facing the wall and workers owed $160,000 in wages and entitlements. All-up, its demise threatens 250 small business which it owes more than $2 million.

CFMEU Labor Council delegate Phil Davey calls Griffith's operation a "classic example of pyramid sub-contracting, leaving everyone below the contractor in serious trouble".

Building industry workers are left out of pocket in similar situations every week. Others are forced into bodgy sub-contracting arrangements, depriving them of wages, superannuation and workers compensation entitlements.

Safety, the exploitation of immigrant labour, and tax avoidance, are other major issues in the de-regulated world envisioned by Royal Commission architect, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott.

The CFMEU's rat has been bred to sniff out these situations and officials say he will "work like a dog" while Cole is in town.

Abbott Goes Missing

Hundreds of striking Manly building workers backed up the Rat's second appearance on the Manly Corso where his height allowed him to peer through the second-floor, electorate office windows of Abbott, who just happens to be the local Warringah MP.

The rodent was unable to report a sighting of the man who has turned his back on constituents affected by the Griffith Landscape collapse. When workers sought assistance from their federal member they were told he was busy and wouldn't be able to see them until the end of April.

"There is a problem in this community that needs attention sometime before the end of April," Davey says.

"Abbott's crowded calendar didn't stop his office ringing the Dee Why police to claim children at St Luke's were being harassed. On the contrary, the rat and his supporters were very well behaved. It was a peaceful protest, something we were congratulated on by the school principle.

Name the Rat

Workers OnLine brings readers the exclusive chance to name the Rat which will go into overdrive when the Cole Commission hits town next month.

Our competition is an opportunity to write your name, well at least the one you make up, into labour history and enjoy a bonus schooner with CFMEU Construction Division secretary, Andrew Ferguson, and the rat's adopted father, Phil Davey.

The pair will sift through entries and announce the winner at the next NSW Labor Council meeting on Thursday, April 7.

Email entries, marked The Rat, to: [email protected]

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005