E D I T O R I A L

Brand Spanking
Some of the biggest names in corporate Australia are copping a spanking right now – and while the troubles are of their own making the fall-out may have broader consequences.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Generation Next
The Australian Services Union's Luke Foley is one of a group of thirty-somethings taking the reins of the union movement.

Legal: We’re All Terrorists Now
The Government’s hastily cobbled security laws are so all-encompassing that jamming the boss’s fax could see you eating porridge in Long Bay for the rest of your life, reports Noel Hester.

Unions: Holding the Baby
The concept of Carers’ Responsibilities doesn’t appear to have penetrated the ageing walls of the Australian Retailers Federation, reports Jim Marr.

International: Taking It To The Streets
In the past few days 22 million workers have taken to the streets in two countries over the global push to cut workers rights, as Andrew Casey reports.

History: Off the Wall
Creative campaign posters provide a colourful archive of worker struggles from the past, writes Neale Towart.

Economics: Financing International Development
John Langmore details the significance of the first International Conference on Financing Development held in Mexico in March.

Satire: Queen Mum's Life Tragically Cut Short
The world has been numbed by grief and shock, after Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother unexpectedly died last night at the tender age of 101.

Review: Return of The People’s Parliament
The last two weeks has seen the return of the most democratic program on the television, Big Brother. Cultural theoritian Mark Morey reports.

Poetry: Silent Night
Our resident bard, David Peetz, turns his hand to the Senate Inquiry into a Certain Maritime Incident.

N E W S

Tobacco Giant's New Smoking Gun

Evidence Proves McJobs A Reality

Workers Die Waiting For Justice

Abbot Sparks Nuclear Reaction

Sick As A Dog Or Pissed As A Parrot?

Workers’ Anthem – Hip Hop or Grunge?

DOCS Crisis – At Risk Kids Slipping Through Net

Call Centre Workers Stiffed - Survey

Broadcast Blues at SBS

South Coast Medical Centre in Della’s Sights

Sydney Take-Off For Security Campaign

Israel On Dangerous Ground

Technicians Take Aim At Canon

Intel Faces Email Censure Challenge

Megawati Reopens Marsinah Case

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The Politics of Unfair Dismissal
Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations Robert McClelland finally nails down the Labor line on the Abbott sackings laws.

The Locker Room
Tipping the Scales
Jim Marr argues that policing of the ten-metre rule is creating havoc for footy tipsters.

Bosswatch
Stand and Deliver
It might be tough for some - but for shareholders and executives, life is just dandy.

Week in Review
Stretching the Truth
The political porkie still reigns supreme on the big stage but, good news in the form of a warning, some tall tales from the past are unravelling with embarrassing consequences…

L E T T E R S

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Abbot Sparks Nuclear Reaction

NSW unions are stunned at the Office of the Employment Advocate’s move to reject the Lucas Heights project award, agreed between the Labor Council and construction contractor John Holland.

Industry sources say it has baulked at clauses covering delegates rights and immigration.

Abbott and Employment Advocate, Jonathan Hamberger, are the architects of the controversial Cole Commission into the Building Industry and the latest rejection is viewed as another step in their campaign against the CFMEU.

Illegal immigration has become a tool in the bid to drive down wages and conditions in the building industry. Government has all but given up policing the issue, leaving unions, particularly the CFMEU, to monitor a situation with serious implications for workplace safety, tax and compo compliance.

CFMEU branch secretary, Andrew Ferguson, calls the OEA's stance on the union's standard immigration clause "outrageous".

It is a line developed by Labor Council secretary John Robertson who will ask both the Minister and the Employment Advocate to explain themselves.

"This Government went to the last election saying it would determine who was going to come into Australia but, in practise, that isn't happening," Robertson said.

"We have employers using illegals to pay cash in the hand, avoid payroll tax and a number of other requirements.

"They have left a huge loophole in the law which employers exploit by simply failing to ask the relevant question - are you a legal worker? If, by some chance, they are caught they simply deny any knowledge and walk away."

Robertson said the issue was the "acid test" of whether or not the Howard Government was serious about combatting illegal immigration.

The problem, he argued, is that for political reasons it has concentrated its firewpower on 5000 illegal entrants, rather than the 58,000 people who overstayed their visas, last year alone.

Labor Council will meet OEA representative next week in an effort to resolve the impasse.

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