E D I T O R I A L

Less Is More
Sometimes working in the union movement, weeks flow into each other and what should be a series of discreet campaigns begins to feel like one long struggle.

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.

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

Satire: Iraq Pre-empts Pre-emptive Strike
Saddam Hussein has launched a pre-emptive strike on the United States to prevent it from pre-emptively striking Iraq first.

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

Retailers Lift Veil on Outworkers

Is Cole Bad For Your Health?

Super Fund Leads Options Assault

Libs Flag Forced Job Cuts

Pressure Grows for Refugee Debate

Vale: Jack Ferguson

Cyber Campaigns Byte Bosses

Abbott�s Mates Apply the Hilton Slipper

Sydney Airport Wins On Casuals

Bushfire Recovery Rights Recognised

Millionaire Pleads Poverty

Combet Talks Up Global Ties

Premier Oil Pulls Out of Burma

Harry Bridges Comes to Town

Pub Trivia With YUM

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.

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

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�

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

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Less Is More

The challenge for Workers Online over the past four years has been to signpost every week by reporting the battles, the debates and the sideshows from the world of trade unionism.

Over that time our readership has increased to the now respectable figure of 10,000 - strong by web standards; although in the context of the broader movement, still less than one per cent of total membership.

We think we've done a reasonable job and managed to portray the dynamism of the union movement week in week out. If at times we've had to flick the switch to vaudeville to fill our journal, we've been happy to oblige.

But there is a point where the continuous reporting of issues becomes the sole purpose of the exercise - and it is at that point that a re-evaluation of our mission is required.

That's why this week's email edition may look a little skinny. We've decided to change the way we publish Workers Online, with weekly news, editorial and Tool Shed updates, but features and columns updated monthly.

You'll still get a weekly email of these news updates, but the comprehensive Workers Online packages will only be sent out on a monthly basis. If there is a big issue breaking we'll still have the facility to publish a special full issue, but only if the content demands it.

We have done this for a number of reasons. Principally, we feel that the features are coming and going too quickly, with our stats showing they are not being widely as read as they could. We hope by keeping these excellent pieces of union writing on our home page longer, more people will have the chance to digest them.

Secondly, we've got to admit that the weekly production invariably forces a rush job. Our feature writers can't spend the time they'd like to getting behind stories and working with unions to develop themes that could be the basis of broader campaigns.

Finally, to be candid, we have been facing a constant battle to get individual unions to share their stories with us, meaning we need to spend more time and energy actually going and digging up content.

So we are really employing the adage less is more - we hope that the new format will give our subscribers more time to check out better-researched articles; and maybe recognise that we need your help in keeping this site going over the longer term.

Peter Lewis

Editor

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URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/153/editorial_editorial.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005