E D I T O R I A L

Crean-ite Is Not A Dirty Word
Amongst the economic fundamentalists within Paul Keating's office, to be a Crean-ite was the ultimate insult. Today as their vision of an unregulated economic paradise gets the death wobbles, it should be worn as a badge of honour.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Trans Tasman
The head of the New Zealand trade union movement, Paul Goulter, outlines the importance of this weekend's Kiwi elections

Cole-Watch: The Full Story
In 20 years mainstream journalism around New Zealand, the UK and Australia, Jim Marr has never witnessed anything like the Cole Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry.

Unions: The Right To A Life
In the wake of this week's Reasonable Hours decision, it�s time to once again civilise working time, writes Noel Hester.

Bad Boss: Phoenix Rising
Eddie Lombardo just noses out fellow Royal Commission star Ferdinando Sanna for this week�s Bad Boss nomination.

Politics: The Virtuous State
Following Tasmania's first position in The State of the States 2002, the ALP stormed home in the State poll, reports Christopher Sheil.

International: The Champions
They may be top of the world's football pile, but Brazil also has the dubious honour of 50 million living in poverty, writes Mark Weisbrot

History: Mandatory Mums
Women had been in revolt against �compulsory motherhood� for many years prior to the introduction of The Pill in the 1960s, Neale Towart discovers.

Corporate: Network Governance
A new way to govern public or private sector organisations is becoming urgent as society becomes more complex and dynamic, writes Shann Turnbull.

Review: Navigating The Doublespeak
How can you show a workforce the truth behind managerial doublespeak when the promise of big bucks is wooing them from their collective ideals? Offer them free tickets to Ken Loach's The Navigators and watch the penny drop.

Satire: Hector The Galah Found Hiding
Hector the Galah who was thought to have been stolen from West Ryde has been found hiding on the roof of a building in Surry Hills. He has resisted all attempts to capture him but when interviewed told the following story.

Poetry: Eight Days a Week
This week the Industrial Relations Commission came down with a decision in the reasonable hours case which, while a long way from what the ACTU wanted, could give a bit of steel to workers who want to take back what's theirs.

N E W S

League to Blow Whistle on Sweat Shops

Rados Shames Ruddock Into Action

Virgin Contracts Spark Wage Rage

Jobs, Cargo Sail Over Horizon

Reasonable Hours Call to Arms

Big Tobacco Turns to Union-Busting

Athens Workers Pay Ultimate Price

Cranes At Risk in �August Winds�

Abbott�s Savings To Cost Workers

Trades Hall Revamp On Track

Top Nurse Bows Out

Name Caller Back to Work

Congo Unionists Need Help

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Crossing the Divide
Former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser made history addressing the AMWU national conference on an issue of mutual concern - the treatment of asylum seekers

The Locker Room
Lounge Named Best On Ground
The latest casualty of corporate sport is the loyal spectator on the hill, writes Phil Doyle

Postcard
Appeasing Morocco Is Dangerous
Kamel Fadel updates on the latest developments in West Sahara's battle for independence.

Week in Review
Save the Last Dance ...
Labor and the Democrats swap places for the next dance at the political tango, while across the ditch, those darned Kiwis show big brother how it�s done � again!

Bosswatch
Walls Come Tumbling Down
It was a week of carnage on the markets � and for a few former corporate high-fliers it was even uglier. Justice? Or just a system in decay?

L E T T E R S

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Phoenix Rising

Lombardo and Sanna are phoenixers, according to the CFMEU, operators who open and close down building companies at the cost of workers, suppliers, state and federal governments.

Now don't go getting surprised by their Royal Commission appearances. They weren't called so their own practises could be examined but because both were more than happy to pay out on a union trying to monitor their activities.

Evidence revealed that the pair had significant lists of company scalps under their belts. Sanna was well on his way to double figures but he was pipped because of the real life story testified to by one of Lombardo's victims.

Indian immigrant, Mohammad Ali, started his Australian working life with job experience at Ricon Constructions, one of the entities in which Lombardo was a director. He graduated to full time work as an estimator and was made up when, in 1996, Lombardo and a fellow director asked him to take a directorship.

It is worth noting, at this point, that Lombardo conceded he was barred from being a company director in the same year.

Ali was told that being made a director was an honour and a sign of respect, so he accepted the position.

"After this, I continued to perform my duties as an estimator for the company, Hitex Concrete Pty Ltd, just as I had peformed such duties before, except that I was asked to sign cheques for the company from time to time by the people in accounts, and I did so. My salary remained unchanged," Ali said in a statutory declaration.

He said that Lombardo and others met from time to time at the company's premises but he was not invited to attend these meetings.

As per instructions, he said, he took any letters or documents addressed to his home to the company.

In September, 1998, Lombardo and a partner asked him to become a director of another company, Hitex Concrete Australia Ltd, and again he agreed.

In December of that year he was informed that the first company had gone into liquidation and, two months later, Hitex Concrete Australia went the same way.

Ali ceased working with Lombardo and partners and accepted alternative employment.

On August 6, 1999, Ali was personally served with a bankruptcy notice.

He said he tried to contact those who had been involved with Hitex companies several times but when he hadn't heard back, after a fortnight, sought legal representation on the advice of his new employer.

"My solicitor has now explained to me that the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation had obtained a judgement against me in the nature of a penalty in an amount equal to the unapid amount of Hitex Concrete Pty Ltd's group tax liability," he said.

"Until I was told this, I had no understanding of the circumstances in which the judgement had been entered against me, or my rights to defend the matter."

Ali was not available to comment on Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Abbott's contention, that a bad boss was better than no boss.

While CFMEU officials say Lombardo is not typical of industry employers neither, they insist, is he unique.

This point was made by two sub-contractors who insisted on Royal Commission hearings so they could tell their stories of being left high and dry by different operators who shut down, cancelled their obligations, then re-appeared, leaving honest operators in the lurch.

Lombardo appeared at the Commission as a supervisor for TCB Concreters. Ali said Lombardo had told him that TCB was, in reality, his company.

When they work out who is actually in control, we'll know who to send the Tony nomination to.

   See previous Tony nominees

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005