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

WHAT YOU CAN DO

	About Workers Online
	Latest Issue
	Print Latest Issue
	Previous Issues
	Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation

Is Cole Bad For Your Health?

CFMEU assistant secretary, Brian Parker, will make the request of Industrial Relations Minster John Della Bosca when the parties meet later this month.

"We don't have comparative figures but there has been a spate of serious injuries since the Cole Commission arrived," Parker told Workers Online.

"It seems dodgey employers are taking comfort from the Commission's anti-union stance and trying to resist efforts to have them comply with health and safety requirements."

Parker was commenting less than 24 hours after a 33-year-old Newcastle man lost his life in the third serious accident at the former BHP steelworks.

Greg Rees died in the accident and two workmates were taken to hospital.

Just days earlier, on the strength of a CFMEU tip-off, Della Bosca had ordered a WorkCover inquiry into a previous demolition incident at the old steelworks.

In the wake of yesterday's incident BHP tried to stop CFMEU officials entering the site. They went onto the job this morning, after WorkCover intervention.

Worker Online understands that the state safety authority has suspended work and imposed fines, prohibition and improvement notices against a contractor and sub-contractor.

Parker said he believed the contractor had hived the work off to a sub-contractor who didn't have a demolition license.

Commissioner Cole has publicly questioned any union involvement in the enforcement of workplace safety.

Even a temporary surge in building industry figures would contrast with steady across the board improvement in NSW since Della Bosca instituted a regime based on co-operation between unions, employers and state authorities.

Latest figures, for the year to June 12, reveal that 139 NSW workers lost their lives, down 42 on the previous 12 months.

The Newcastle incident occurred as the CFMEU turned its back on a "sham" safety conference staged by the Commission in Melbourne.

National secretary John Sutton said the CFMEU, ACTU and all other building unions were boycotting the summit because of the "gross bias" displayed by Cole in public hearings.

More than 300 CFMEU occupational health and safety representative joined medical practitioners, employers and others in an alternative conference which called on Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott to restore funding to the national tripartite industry OHS forum.

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 153 contents

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/153/news2_cole.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005