E D I T O R I A L

War On The Collective
While Saddam Hussein is the primary target of George W Bush�s ham-fisted crusade to destroy a noun, the United Nations is also under its heaviest attack in its 57 years.

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

Unions Join Anti-War Chorus

ACM Fails Port Hedland Report

Abbott Adds Fuel to Bias Case

Murray�s Millions Dwarfs Workers Wages

Rogue MP Faces Grassroots Backlash

Harry Bridges Speaks from the Grave

Councils Deny Multi-Lingual Workers

US Rabbi Fights Lowy Malls

Ansett Ticket Levy Not Reaching Workers

Something Stinks at the Zoo

Virgin in Delegate Situation

Pampas Workers Baste Boss

International Shame for Aussie IR

Sydney Trade Talks Face Backlash

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.

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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Harry Bridges Speaks from the Grave

LA-based actor Ian Ruskin briefed delegates in the guise of Harry Bridges, the founder of the International Longshoremen Workers Union, whose members are currently involved in a protracted strike on the West Coast.

In town to perform the one-man play 'Bringing Harry Home' as part of the Waterfront Workers Federation centenary celebrations, Ruskin-Bridges outlined how President Bush was threatening to send in the troops to break the strike.

Recalling Bridges' own career, he warned Bush that attempts to break the unions in the past with troops had failed. In 1934, 6000 national guard attempted to break a strike and failed when violence against workers sparked widespread community support.

"They attacked workers in the name of fighting Communism, now they are using the War on Terror for the same purpose," he warned.

Employer group Pacific Maritime Association representatives have threatened to lockout workers along the entire West Coast and the worlds maritime workers have retaliated with the calls for worldwide port protests.

PMA is made up of 80 shipping and port companies - including Wilhemsen Lines, Hapag Lloyd, K'Line, Maersk, OOCL, P&O Nedloyd, Zim Lines, COSCO and CSX, - all of which also operate in Australia.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin has pledged full backing to the US dockers, as have Japanese dockworkers and other waterside workers of the world affiliated with the powerful International Transport Workers' Federation.

Meanwhile, the push to have foreign ship trading on our coast covered by the Australian award is gathering steam.

In a long awaited decision the full bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission today ruled in favour of an application by the maritime unions to rope in CSL Pacific Shipping Inc under the Maritime Industry Seagoing Award.

During the initial hearings CSL lawyers, with the backing of the Federal Government, argued that the Commission did not have jurisdiction to hear the union application.

The maritime unions (MUA, AIMPE and AMOU) and the ACTU are pushing to have the crew of the CSL Pacific (a former Australian flag vessel now trading on the coast under the Bahamas flag of convenience) receive Australian pay rates and conditions. FOC ships currently pay crew about half the Australian wages forcing Australian ships out of business and Australian seafarers out of work. They also avoid Australian taxations and other regulations applying to Australian ships and crews.

The CSL Pacific is the sister ship of the CSL Yarra which was the centre of the major dispute in Port Pirie this May. Both bulk carriers are trading almost exclusively in Australian waters carrying domestic cargo under the Bahamas flag.

Not only does this use of guest labour have the blessing of the Federal Government, the Minister for Workplace Relations Tony Abbott intervened in the AIRC hearings on the side of the foreign ship owner.

"In effect the Commission has found that CSL employ foreign guest

labour in an Australian industry," Crumlin say. "This foreign workforce has replaced Australian taxpayers and residents and put them on the dole to watch on as their ship continues to ply the same domestic trade it has been for over 15 years."

The Commission has now given the parties 15 working days "to show cause as to why the Award should not be varied to include CSL Pacific Shipping Inc "while trading in Australian waters under a permit or license granted under the Navigation Act or on a voyage to or from a port in Australia".

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