E D I T O R I A L

Our Historical Mission
It has often been argued that unions would cease to exist when employers civilised workplaces. Our historical mission would have been fulfilled and we could pack up and spend out time enjoying the equitable society that would be the fruit of our victory.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Something Smells
The Postal Union's Jim Metcher lifts the lid on the very strange goings-on in Australia Post

Cole-Watch: Credibility Crisis
Counsels Assisting the Cole Royal Commission face a humiliating public back down in an effort to bring some balance to proceedings, reports Jim Marr.

Unions: Union Cities
Labor Council's Adam Kerslake has returned from the USA with some new ideas on community unionism

Industrial: Lib Men Gang Up Against Working Mums
Working women are in danger of missing out on an adequately funded paid maternity leave scheme, if recent bleatings are acted upon says ACTU President Sharan Burrow.

History: Eureka!
Neale Towart finds an alternative to Baden-Powell�s imperialist scouting movement, where the youth of Australia was fed such radical ideas as solidarity, collective action, equal rights and internationalism.

East Timor: Don�t Rob Their Future
After 24 years of often brutal Indonesian occupation East Timor on 20 May 2002 finally achieved their independence, writes HT Lee.

Review: Black Chicks Say It All
Dorothy can be whatever colour she wants to be and black chicks can talk about anything, writes Tara de Boehmler

Poetry: Self Regulation
While President George W Bush,leader of the heart of unregulated capitalism, has responded to the recent spate of corporate cowboydom by whipping out a swathe of new corporate controls, Australia's Prime Minister has responded with a feathered touch.

N E W S

Cole to Hear of Criminal Takeover Conspiracy

Mad Monk Stamp on Aussie Post

Calls To End Woodlawn Logjam

ANZ Fined Over Freedom Of Speech Breach

Hotels Eat Up Living Wage

Qantas Union's Gorilla Tactics

Shearers Black Ban Their Hall Of Fame

Democrats Fire Shot for Workers

Teachers Walk Out At Aust College of Technology

Rail Operators Off Track

Airport Security Worker Spat At And Assaulted

CBA Workers Say Enough Is Enough

Union Made Songs For Masses

Doco Dishes Dirt On Howard�s Gas Wrangle

Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Cole Comfort
The election of a federal coalition government in 1996 marked the advent of an aggressively anti union agenda that continues to be played out to this day, writes Paul Davies

The Locker Room
Salary Crap
Phil Doyle goes wading through the hypocrisy and hubris, and discovers where the smell is coming from.

Postcard
All At Sea
It�s on again - the coastal battle between the maritime unions, the government and the shipowners, reports Zoe Reynolds.

Week in Review
The Dogs of War
The battle drums were a-rattling across this wide, brown land and Jim Marr was getting a bit tetchy

Bosswatch
Speak No Evil
The majority of Australian firms stay silent on options they offer their executives as John Howard continues to stonewall corporate law reform.

L E T T E R S

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Our Historical Mission

That theory now seems dead and buried under the weight of corporate collapses that showed how the system has been systematically abused by those at its apex.

Workers do not receive $40,000 per month consultants. They don't book their suitcase first class and pocket the frequent flier points. They don't inflate businesses by shedding workers to up the short-term share price so they can make a Motza on their options.

And yet our federal government refuses to regulate the corporate cowboys - concerned that regulation will be counter-productive by making shonky investments less attractive. Too right ! we say. And for once the ALP agrees.

A return to managerial prerogative in human resources is just one element of corporate excess but, as workers in Australia Post are discovering, it is back in vogue.

After cooperating with management through the most profound change tin information delivery, Aussie Post workers are being rewarded with petty managers who'll even proscribe their toilet paper usage.

Once respected public institutions like Qantas and Commonwealth Bank have fallen into the cycle of putting profits before people and the people who work for them behind them all.

Even the Shearers' Hall of Fame - set up to honour Australian shearers - refuses to recognize the union that is every bit as much a part of Australia's rural heritage

We are witnessing the un-writing of one hundred years of history where unionized workforces collaborated with their employers to build sustainable businesses.

Now the push to cut labour costs outweighs all these notions; trashing this workplace culture so that de-unionisation becomes some sort of Holy Grail.

All the while the public bankrolls a Royal Commission consumed with the minutae of legal technicality rather than the big picture of corrupt bosses and worker exploitation.

As Jim Marr reports, The Cole Commssion has become less an inquiry and more a very expensive game to defame the building union and provide Tony Abbott with ammunition for his broader crusade.

And make no mistake, the enemies of the union movement see this as their time, their war to achieve the Holy Grail of a flexible labour market; not people but an input that can be squeezed and squeezed until the numbers look right.

As long as there are zealots like Abbott, shonks like Adler and a corporate culture that is obsessed by the bottom line, our historical mission will remain.

Peter Lewis

Editor

NB - Next week we celebrate our 150th issue. All contributors and subscribers are welcome to join us for a celebratory ale from 6.30pm Friday at the Trades Hall Inn, Goulburn Street, Sydney.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005