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Work and the Meaning of Life
The high-profile case of Kamal El-Masiri takes the debate over the intersection of work and family onto an altogether higher plane.
Interview: The Wet One
NSW Opposition industrial relations spokesman Michael Gallacher stakes out his relationship with the union movement.
Bad Boss: Like A Bastard
Virgin Mobile is sexy and funky, right? Well, only if those terms have become synonyms for dictatorial or downright mean.
Unions: Demolition Derby
Tony Abbott likens industrial relations to warfare and, like a good general should, he is about to shift his point of attack � from building sites to car plants, reports Jim Marr.
Corporate: The Bush Doctrine
For the powerful, consumerism equals freedom, and is all the freedom we need, writes James Goodman
Politics: American Jihad
Let�s get real. The origins of modern Islamic terrorist groups are in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Langley, Virginia not Baghdad, argues Noel Hester.
Health: Secret Country
Oral history recordings are an inadequate tool in trying to find out what happened to Aboriginal stockmen and their communities on cattle stations in Northern Australia, writes Neale Towart
Review: Walking On Water
On the 20th anniversary of the first AIDS-related death, Tara de Boehmler witnesses the aftermath of losing a loved one to the illness in Walking On Water.
Culture: TCF
Novelist Anthony Macris captures life on the shop floor in this extract from his upcoming novel, Capital Volume II
Poetry: The UQ Stonewall
The University of Queensland has sought to join the ranks of union-busting companies like Rio Tinto in trying to sack the president of the local union - and made the mistake of thinking they were dealing with an array of acquiescent academics.
 Muslims Snubbed in Discrimination Laws
Workplace Racism Rife Post S11
Mad Monk�s World In Turmoil
Qantas Directors Bust Wages Freeze
Deregistration on Cole Agenda
Aussie Wharfies Save Farmers
Victorian Libs Block Pay Rise
Dad�s the Word For Steelworkers
Funeral Workers Dig in Their Heels
Unions Expose Truth Of McDonalds� People Promise
Gay and Lesbians Workers To Meet
VTHC Urges Compassion For Colombian Refugees
New Zealand Workers Win Paid Parental Leave
WorkCover Inspectors Off the Road
Mine Guards Shoot Own Workers
Unions On Call For Working Young
Activists Notebook
The Soapbox
I Walk The Line
American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has weighed into the Hilton Hotel dispute with this special message to the workforce. Postcard
Mekong Daze
Union Aid Abroad's Phil Hazelton fires off a missive from Laos where he is spending a year working with the community. Month In Review
Bush Whackers
It was a month where the world teetered on the brink of peace, no thanks to the leader of the free world, writes Jim Marr The Locker Room
The Laws Of Gravity
Phil Doyle goes looking for the fine line that separates sport from an exercise in time-wasting Bosswatch
Snouts in the Trough
It�s AGM season in the corporate world, and deal after shady deal is being exposed as highfliers treat company accounts like the proverbial honey-pot. Wobbly
Songs of Solidarity
There has been a proud history of pro-worker tunes dating back to the early days of the 20th century, which will be continued in a new CD, writes Dan Buhagiar.
Who Is Farmhand?
Direct Voting Rights
Iraq is a Gobalisation Issue Too
Letter to George Dubya
WTO and Schools
Casual Thought
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News
Deregistration on Cole Agenda
The head of the CFMEU has foreshadowed that the Cole Royal Commission into the building industry is angling to deregister all or part of his union.
Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra this week, CFMEU national secretary John Sutton predicted that the Howard Government would use the Royal Commission to directly attack the union.
"I'm no futurist, but I will make the following predictions," Sutton says.
- Commissioner Cole will hand down a report scathing of my union;
- Tony Abbott will seize on it as proof of crisis in the construction industry; and
- the Howard Government will seek to introduce legislative changes, including a national taskforce, laws to ban pattern bargaining, laws to restrict union rights on safety in the workplace, a special building industry tribunal, and lastly the possible deregistration of some or all of the CFMEU."
But Sutton warned his 120,000 construction members will not meekly accept this round of fresh attacks on their union.
And he says even if Abbott could follow through on a deregistration agenda this wouldn't necessarily achieve the suggested objective.
"After all, the key building unions making up today's CFMEU, namely BWIU, BLF and FEDFA, have all been subject to periods of deregistration and it hardly killed off the spirit of strong unionism that thrives among our rank and file."
In his speech, Sutton outlined the CFMEU's legal challenge against the Royal Commission's bias and vowed to take the matter all the way to High Court.
He also foreshadowed the CFMEU would also establish its own Code of Conduct covering its more than 200 organisers nationally.
 Read the full speech
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Issue 156 contents
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