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Issue No. 151 | 06 September 2002 |
Looking for the Light
Interview: Packing a Punch Bad Boss: Basher Takes Back Passage Unions: Five Star Shafting Economics: TINA � Rest In Peace International: Against Bush's "War on Terrorism" Environment: Saving the World History: A Radical Scribe Poetry: With A Little Help From My Friend Satire: Colonel Gaddafi Promotes Himself to General Review: Workplace Dictatorship
Grassroots Drives Safety Campaign Deloittes Curry Favour on Sub-Continent Rail Workers Buck Individual Contract Wage Bribe Bush Regenerators Weed Out Dodgy Deal Hairdresser Wins Fight For Wage Justice Cabin Crews Argue for �Safety in Numbers� �Slave Labour� In Insurance Industry Beattie Plods into Risky Territory
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review Bosswatch Women
Charity Begins At Home
Labor Council of NSW |
Bad Boss Basher Takes Back Passage
*************** 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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