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Safety First
This week's Safety Summit, called by the Carr Government, is a timely opportunity for the union movement to put occupational health and safety into a contemporary perspective.
Interview: Safe as Houses
Labor Council secretary John Robertson outlines the union movement's priorities in the lead-up to this week's Safety Summit.
Safety: Ten Steps to Safety
On the eve of the NSW Safety Summit, Workers Online went looking for the ten biggest workplace health issues and what needs to be done to address them.
History: Staying Alive
Neale Towart winds the clock back to discover that contemporary arguments that regulators should stay out of workplace safety and let the market do its business are nothing new.
Unions: Choose Life
While Commissioner Cole struggles with the concept of unions trying to improve workers’ wages, out in the real world, bosses daily thumb their noses at safety authorities, as Jim Marr discovers.
International: Seoul Destroyers
The rise and rise of the Korean national football team in the World Cup competition was more than matched by the rise and rise of the number of imprisoned Korean trade unionists.
Corporate: Crash Landing
Did Ansett workers’ productivity really crash Ansett? Jim McDonald weighs up the evidence.
Activists: The Refusenik
At 20, Rotem Mor has spent more time analysing how he will live his life than most people twice his age. A month in prison and another 18 serving in the Israeli army saw to that.
Review: Dumb Nation
Michael Moore's new book, 'Stupid White Men' exposes the rorts behind the Bush presidency with bitter humour, writes Mark Hebblewhite.
Poetry: Helping Out The Rich
From proposals to 'deregulate' (ie raise) university fees, to attempts to restrict workers' right to strike in the name of 'genuine' bargaining the Government's rhetoric about helping out the battlers is wearing just a bit thin.
 Redundancy Bonus for Members Only
Tax Office Backs CFMEU Case
Lib MP Named in Cole Commission
Sentencing Guidelines for Safety Breaches
Revealed: Costello’s Hit List
Virtual Cold War Over
Safety Lock-Out Enters Second Week
Unions Seek Talks With New Airport Owners
Journos Attacked by NRMA
Strip Bosses Face Dressing Down
Beattie Called Into Bargaining Impasse
Nurses Deliver Largest Ever Petition
US Braces for its Own Waterfront War
Activists Notebook
The Soapbox
Back to the Future
McKenzie Wark argues that the future of the book relies on the future of a sphere of public debate. Bosswatch
Chain Reaction
The Big Australian discovers a uranium mine it never knew it had, a corporate fraud sparks a worldwide market plunge and the price of investing ethically.
The Locker Room
Three Colours Blue
After a World Cup that saw post-colonial cultural theorists chanting 'we beat the scum one-nil' on the Terraces of Inchon, it was the natural order of things that prevailed, writes Phil Doyle Postcard
Poll Positioning
Unions Tasmania secretary Lynne Fitzgerald gives an overview of the State Election called earlier this week. Week in Review
The Weight of Office
Apart from the Teflon John, power walking at his own pace, would-be leaders everywhere turned in shockers as Jim Marr discovered.
Link Wages to CEO Pay
Voodoo Unionism
Good News from the Pilbara
Go Mark, Go
Double-Standards
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News
Journos Attacked by NRMA
Australia’s journalist union has called on the NRMA to withdraw actions seeking to compel journalists to reveal confidential sources or face possible jail terms
The three journalists, the SMH's Anne Lampe and Kate Askew and AAP's Belinda Tasker are refusing to reveal their sources after the NRMA won orders in the Supreme Court compelling them to name sources who provided information about matters discussed at NRMA board meetings. The information was subsequently published on the grounds of public interest.
Federal Secretary of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Christopher Warren, says the ability of journalists to receive confidential information is fundamental to a free press.
"Unless people are confident that they can talk to journalists without being identified, the only information the media will receive is a bland diet of press releases and staged events. It will also have a devastating effect on future efforts to expose wrongdoing.
"That's bad for democracy and bad for freedom of speech," Warren says.
Under the Journalists' Code of Ethics, journalists are required to respect confidences "in all circumstances". If the journalists refuse to reveal their sources under examination, they can be held to be in contempt of court. Once found to be in contempt they can be jailed until they purge their contempt.
"Unfortunately, there has been a tendency for the judicial system to increase pressure on journalists to reveal confidential sources over the past 13 years," Warren says.
"Australian courts have to recognise - as courts in Europe and the US have come to recognise - that the principles of freedom of speech involved in confidentiality of sources are essential to the operations of a democratic society.
"In the meantime, the NRMA should withdraw their actions immediately. Journalism's integrity should not be the victim of an organisation's internal conflicts."
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Issue 142 contents
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