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Issue No. 151 06 September 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Looking for the Light
As Labor searches for its Light on the Hill at last a senior Labor figure has come out and said it: the main game for the ALP should not be about shedding union involvement but making the movement � and that involvement - stronger.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Packing a Punch
Former Hawke and Keating Minister Gary Punch injects some sanity into the debate over unions and the ALP

Bad Boss: Basher Takes Back Passage
A new contender for our Bad Boss has emerged as 140 Stegbar workers confront a boofhead with bad attitude, writes Jim Marr

Unions: Five Star Shafting
What is twenty three years of unbroken, fulltime service worth? Eight weeks, according to Tony Abbott, the Federal Government and the cheapskates who run Sydney�s posh Hilton Hotel.

Economics: TINA � Rest In Peace
Sydney University�s Frank Stilwell argues that the �There is No Alternative� school of economics should be consigned to the dustbin of history

International: Against Bush's "War on Terrorism"
Washington has become the first State Labor Council in the U.S. to call on the AFL-CIO to seek repeal of the USA Patriot Act and oppose the Bush Administration, reports Fred Hyde.

Environment: Saving the World
After a ten-day talkfest, are we any closer to saving the world, asks Nick Lucchinelli

History: A Radical Scribe
John Shields loks at the life of Lloyd Ross' brother, Edgar, and his work as a journalist and activist in Broken Hill

Poetry: With A Little Help From My Friend
Even oil giant BP Australasia came out and supported the Kyoto Protocol - but that was not enough for our beloved Prime Minister.

Satire: Colonel Gaddafi Promotes Himself to General
After years of ribbing by his Axis of Evil peers, General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran and General Than Shwe of Burma, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi has finally promoted himself to General.

Review: Workplace Dictatorship
Award-winning journalist Barbara Ehrenreich went undercover in low-wage America to see how people live on six bucks an hour. And what did she find? They can�t.

N E W S

 Cole Comfort: I�m Not Biased

 Grassroots Drives Safety Campaign

 Deloittes Curry Favour on Sub-Continent

 Ansett Workers Short-Changed

 Rail Workers Buck Individual Contract Wage Bribe

 Carr to Drive Hilton Deal?

 Bush Regenerators Weed Out Dodgy Deal

 Insurers in Redfern Rort

 Hairdresser Wins Fight For Wage Justice

 Cabin Crews Argue for �Safety in Numbers�

 �Slave Labour� In Insurance Industry

 Westie Fires Up Over Durries

 Beattie Plods into Risky Territory

 Sydney to Host Social Forum

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Ian West on Suncorp Metway
NSW MLC Ian West lifts the lid on moves to impose 'start before you start' clauses in the insurance industry

The Locker Room
Terrible Terry and the Nice Guy from Fitzroy
As the debate over the new coach hots up, Phil Doyle believes that all is not as it seems on the good ship Swan.

Week in Review
War on Terror
Next Wednesday, September 11, marks the anniversary of one of the most brutal acts of terrorism in modern history. Jim Marr�s picking it will pass by virtually un-noticed

Bosswatch
Broken Trust
The corporate world is holding back the waves of accountability with a crackdown on trusts rubbished and resistance to a new plan to increase corporate disclosure.

Women
All In the Family?
Labor Council�s Alison Peters went looking for a family friendly workplace and got caught in a cheesy smokescreen.

L E T T E R S
 Collex Decision is Terrible
 Charity Begins At Home
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Bad Boss

Basher Takes Back Passage


A new contender for our Bad Boss has emerged as 140 Stegbar workers confront a boofhead with bad attitude, writes Jim Marr

***************

How many times do you need to be @#?<$ up the arse before you know you are a poofter?

The eternal question was posed by Peter "Basher" Williams to a recent mass meeting of workers at window manufacturer, Stegbar's, Rowville site in Victoria.

Williams earned his Basher sobriquet in a limited but controversial career as an AFL footballer with the Richmond club. He is apparently so enamoured of the decades-old publicity that he has maintained the identity for his current job as Stegbar's Victorian state manager.

Basher has taken a two-pronged approach to bargaining with his 140-strong workforce - strident personal abuse of individuals, and launching the most offensive weapons in the employer's arsenal, designed and constructed by defence consultant Peter Reith.

Basher has threatened to take outside AWU organiser, Rod Lineham, a man about half his size and, just last week, directed a tirade of personal abuse against a job delegate, so severe that union negotiators got up and walked out of talks.

Demands for apologies from Stegbar's Sydney head office have, thus far, fallen on deaf ears.

Since enterprise bargaining negotiations, with the AWU and CFMEU, began a few months back, Basher has threatened stand-downs; to replace full-timers with casuals; taken legal action against his workers in the IRC: and, just last Thursday, locked everybody out.

Fortunately, he's no Chris Corrigan, and some of the missiles have backfired, like when the Commission ruled against his claim that the CFMEU was not bargaining in good faith.

Another positive outcome of his intemperate approach has been unifying members of the AWU and CFMEU, something beyond most labour activists.

Both groups found common cause in nominating Basher, and Stegbar, for Workers Online's Tony Award and, we have to say, the inter-staters loom as worthy candidates in a strong field.

More importantly, Basher's convinced the two unions to jointly pursue enterprise bargaining negotiations.

They've all but accepted Stegbar's four percent offer on wages but have co-ordinated bans and rolling stoppages in a bid to win justice on outstanding redundancy, super and long service claims.

CFMEU organiser, Clare Burford, points out that Basher is not the lone villian in this piece, that he has raised the stakes on behalf of out-of-state owners.

US-based transnational, Jeldwen, recently bought a significant stake in Stegbar and Burford is convinced that its arrival and a more aggressive industrial relations stance are more than coincidental.

"Since Jeldwen arrived on the scene there has been a marked change in their approach to their employees," Burford reported. "They have become much more aggressive."

It's a view endorsed by the AWU's Bill Shorten.

He points out that Stegbar has thrived on the back of a loyal workforce, some of whom have given the company as many as 38 years of their lives, which goes a long way towards explaining the importance of redundancy, super and long service provisions.

Shorten blasted Stegbar's Rowville campaign as anti-worker and un-Australian.

"Locking out loyal workers is no solution because when it comes to resolve these workers can go one day longer than the company," he promised.

Meanwhile, Tony-nominee Basher is a chance of seeing his name in the headlines again, after all these years.


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