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Interview: Capital in Crisis
ACTU president Sharan Burrow outlines the global union response to the corporate carnage gripping an increasingly shaky system.
Industrial: No Sweat
Neale Towart surveys the international debate around sweatshops and what can be done to regulate them
Bad Boss: Super Spam
Several late scratchings have seen Workplace Relations Department secretary Peter Boxall win this week’s heat of the Workers’ Online Bad Boss handicap.
History: Living Treasures
Labour History is 40 this year. Greg Patmore looks back at what it took to get a regular journal of the labour movement in Australia up and away.
International: Axis of Evil
George W Bush’s scarecrow trio of Iran, Iraq and North Korea is not an original invention, argues Stephen Holt
Solidarity: Pride of Place
NSW Labor Council and CFMEU flags sit alongside the mounted jersey of former Kiwi Rugby League hooker Syd Eru in a modest home at Manurewa, south Auckland.
Technology: The Art of Cyber-Unionism
More Unionism? Transformed Unionism? Peter Waterman looks at a new handbook for unions and the internet
Poetry: The Masochism Tango
Tony Abbott's comment we should accept a bad boss like a bad husband or bad father has made us all realise that instead of fighting bad bosses, we should love them. Anyone for a tango?
Satire: Foxtel-Optus Merger 'Anti-Repetitive'
The ACCC has ruled today that the proposed content sharing arrangement between Foxtel and Optus Vision would constitute anti-repetitive conduct
Review: Bob Carr's Thoughtlines
Stephen Holt reviews one man's journey from collectivism to the centre
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 Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation
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L A T E S T N E W S |
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Sweat Shops – Coming To A Street Near You
Would you like this next to your bedroom? Odds are, if you live in a residential area controlled by the Liverpool, Fairfield, Bankstown, Penrith or South Sydney Councils, it will happen.
None of those councils, all hosts to clothing industry sweatshops, bothered to attend a meeting organised by Local Government minister Harry Woods this week, to discuss their responsibilities under new factory registration regulations. [full story]
Glassworkers Walk for the Umpire
A push to force workplace disputes before the independent umpire has sparked national industrial action that threatens the motor vehicle industry.
Glassworkers employed by Pilkingtons – suppliers of windows to Australia's export motor vehicle manufactures - have walked off the job in Victoria and will be joined by colleagues in New South Wales from Monday. [full story]
Family Friendly For A Buck
For less than $1 a week Australian employers could provide all the additional funding required to establish a fair national paid maternity scheme.
Under an ACTU-designed scheme 87% of working mothers would be eligible for 14 weeks’ leave on full pay, with others receiving at least average weekly earnings. [full story]
Abbott in Slow GEER
Dumped Marrickville workers have spent the past nine months waiting to receive a payment under the Howard Government's much-vaunted 'GEER' entitlements protection scheme.
Nine months after Fastline Proprietary went belly-up, the first of 50 displaced workers are seeing some of their entitlements; but they are still being dudded up to eight weeks on redundancy. [full story]
Royal Commission Bugs Workers
Telephone taps have been added to the $60 million arsenal ranged against the CFMEU by Tony Abbott’s Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry.
Commission secretary Colin Thatcher's admission to Senate Estimates this week has prompted Labor Council to seek a public assurance from the Attorney General that telephone interception warrants are not being used to monitor conversations related to civil or industrial matters. [full story]
Drivers Frozen Out by Corporate Spin
Bus drivers are being left out in the cold by a State Transit organisation that has failed to get its head around workers rights, after all these years.
As drivers representatives screamed blue murder over their employer’s thumbs-down for early-morning beanies, Labor Council secretary John Robertson recalled that STA’s last foray into head fashion saw them ban Sikh workers from wearing turbans. [full story]
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ALSO MAKING NEWS |
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Coca-Cola Brews Storm In A Tea Cup
Bush Prepares for War on the Wharves
Safety Summit A Hit With Unions
Beattie Faces Bargaining Face-Off
Casual Work Exploits – Catholic Church Agency
More Effort Required On Disabled Workers
Protecting Security Officers From Disease
Activists Notebook
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| "What happens if one catches fire and damages adjoining properties or, worse still, injures people. Where are these councils going to hide then?” TCFUA organiser David Tritton
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The Soapbox
Why Modernisation Matters
Labor frontbencher Mark Latham argues that the ALP's reform agenda must go way beyond the 60-40 debate. The Locker Room
Playing To The Whistle
Phil Doyle takes a look at the man in the middle, and he doesn’t like what he sees. Bosswatch
Inquiry Into Executive Pay
The ACTU Executive this week called for a public debate on spiralling executive pay packets, seeking feedback from workers, community representatives and unions. Postcard
Up In Smoke
Wobbly Radio's Nick Luccinelli reports from England where drug law reform is on the political agenda. Week in Review
Bulldust and Boofheads
Jim Marr casts his eye over a week in which bullshit and bad bosses fought for headlines…
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