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Issue No. 152 13 September 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

The Legacy of 11/9
From the orgy of righteous indignation that has enveloped the �Free World� this week a more chilling truth is emerging: if the suicide bombers were attacking Liberal-Democracy they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Still Flying
Flight Attendant�s Association international secretary Johanna Brem looks at life in the air since last September�s terrorist attacks.

International: President Gas
NSW Firefighter�s president Darryl Snow sent this missive to his members on the anniversary of a day when 343 of their colleagues died in the line of duty.

Politics: Australia: A Rogue State?
ARM director Greg Barnes argues that September 11 has summoned a new era of isolationism and international lawlessness.

History: Levelling September
Counterpunch�s Peter Linebaugh reminds us that September 11 is the anniversary of another seminal battle: the fight for the English commons

Unions: Welfare Max
Maximus Inc is big, American and controversial. Right now its knocking on the door of Australian welfare delivery and there is every chance the Howard Government will usher it inside, reports Jim Marr.

Bad Boss: Welcome to Telstra!
A Telstra call centre has joined the race for Bad Boss after sacking a pregant woman who had the audacity to need to use the toilet

Health: Fat Albert: The Grim Reaper
Workers Online�s cultural dietician Mark Morey chews the fat over this week�s conference on child obesity

Poetry: A Man From the East And A Man From The West
Resident Bard David Peetz has penned this ode to the sacked Hilton hotel workers

Review: The Sum Of All Fears
Tara de Boehmler checks in to see that America�s cultural cringe is alive, well and sponsored by Marlboro cigarettes

N E W S

 �Robbed Generation� Seeks Stolen Wages

 One Year On: Ansett Crash Still Hurts

 Cole Exposed By Immigration Scam

 Car Workers on Howard Hit List

 Mystery Windfall for Hilton Workers

 Shock: Abbott Backs Workers

 Union Billboards Censored

 Track Grab Ignores Lessons of Glenbrook

 Casual Approach to Air Safety

 Bosses Say No Living Wage For NSW Childcarers

 Pastry Workers Tell Boss To Get Puffed

 Injury Toll Mushrooms

 Victorian Zookeepers Down Buckets

 Pride and Safety for Workers Out!

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

Legends
Gough's Plaza
Labor's living legend challenged NSW Labor to lift its game as he attended a renaming of 2KY House to Gough Whitlam Plaza.

The Locker Room
Support The System That Supports You
This system is a certainty, a moral, a good thing and a knocktaker; well, at least according to Phil Doyle

Bosswatch
RIP Chainsaw Al
One of the heroes of corporate downsizing has been cut down but his memory lives on with golden handshakes for leaders of failed businesses still thick on the ground.

Week in Review
Lest We Forget
You can�t help a sneaking suspicion, Jim Marr writes, that George Bush is conscripting the dead of September 11, 2001, to lead his push for another war in the Gulf�

Awards
The Importance of Being Ernie
It was the tenth annual �Ernie� Awards for sexist behaviour and Labor Council�s Alison Peters was amongst the noisy punters

Activists
Workers Out!
Gay and Lesbian trade unionists are organising an international conference to develop a global response to homophobia in the workplace, writes Ryan Heath

L E T T E R S
 The CFMEU Race Debate #1
 The CFMEU Race Debate #2
 Keeping it Clean
 Sue the Leaders?
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Mystery Windfall for Hilton Workers


A Hawaiian telco exec has invited sacked Hilton Hotel workers to a slap-up lunch in support of their campaign for a decent retrenchment settlement � and options on their jobs when the establishment reopens.

James Calazzo will kick-in $10,000 towards lunch for the 470 workers in recognition of the service he has received during his stays in the George St hotel.

Calazzo has sided with LHMU members in their battle with the hotel chain because, he says, the service they provide is the best he has experienced in a job that takes him around the world.

The American told today's Daily Telegraph Sydney Hilton workers were the "finest staff I have seen. They are warm and not snooty like in other countries.

"I think it's just a shocking decision. I will do whatever I can in my power to push the Hilton to get them to have them all back."

Calazzo's is one of hundreds of people, across the globe, who have opted to side with the workers.

The boss of the Hilton Hotel chain in Australia and New Zealand, Mr Oded Lifschitz, has received so many e-mails, from all over the world, protesting his action - that it has been characterised as a blockade of his computer.

Academics from US Ivy League universities have written to protest, along with rabbis, pastors, reverends and mullahs -as well as the International Young Christian Workers' movement.

Emails messages, so far, have come from Austria, Canada, Fiji, Germany Holland, Israel, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, USA, Zimbabwe.

The international support is a back up to a huge wave of support from Australian unionists and labour movement supporters.

Politicians have shown their colours, with a number of Labor MPs and their staffers e-mailing the Hilton Hotel - and there has been at least one US Democrat politician sending an e-mail from Chicago, Illinois.

" We've been overwhelmed by the massive wave of support we are getting for hotel union members," Mark Boyd the NSW LHMU Hotel Union's assistant secretary said.

In Canada a group of postal workers, who are about to hold a meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Bunbary, British Columbia, has organised a protest letter to be signed by all 135 delegates to be given to the local management - and asked to be passed on to the Sydney Hilton Hotel management

" We didn't request this - just a basic decent sense of solidarity among working people, which crosses international boundaries, has built this fantastic response," Boyd said.

Union meetings

The LHMU Hotel Union negotiating team is meeting with Hilton Hotel management and - depending on the results of the talks - could report to members on Monday.

The union team is demanding that the company:

- put a better retrenchment deal on the table

- give all its current workers the right to return to their Hilton jobs when the $400 million refurbishment and expansion is completed

- provide a better outplacement and re-training service to help people find alternative jobs

- sit down and negotiate a first ever union enterprise agreement

Mr Calozzo originally contacted the Hilton Hotel management with the lunch offer but, he says, management tried to talk him out of it. Instead, he will spend his money at the David Jones Family Restaurant.

The lunch offer to Hilton workers will be available until November 29 - the day the hotel is scheduled to close for refurbishments.


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