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The Sirens' Song
There is nothing for trade unionists to celebrate from Labor�s loss in the Cunningham by-election.
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.
 Email Use Sparks Pay Claim
Melbourne Cup Strike Threat
10,000 Rally in Support of Kingham
Negligent Bosses Labelled �Serial Killers�
Ambulance Officers Win $6 Million Back-Pay
Strike Pay to Bali Appeal
Boral Bosses Bag Bulk Bucks
Bid to Block New ACCC Chief
Cuts Equals Profits for ANZ
First Takers for 36-Hour Week
IT Outsourcing Agencies Called To Account
Pay to Work Spreads to Hornsby
Howard Opens Waters to Rogue Ship
Work a Suicide Factor
Unis Drop RDO Assault
Boxes of Books for Good Causes
Activist 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.
Heaps of Bali Feedback
Brooklyn Phil Says ...
Here Comes the WTO
From Little Finks ...
The Mouth From the South!
Ushering the Rusted Shield
Echoes of DLP
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News
Bid to Block New ACCC Chief
Unions are calling on state Labor governments to block the appointment of businessman Graeme Samuel to head the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Samuel, a former treasurer of the Liberal party, is being promoted by Treasurer Peter Costello to take over from Professor Alan Fels as head of the consumer watchdog.
The NSW Labor Council has written to Premier Bob Carr to voice its concerns. Samuel's appointment must be approved by the states.
NSW Treasurer Michael Egan said that that the NSW Government would not be railroaded on approving the appointment of Samuel to the ACCC position.
Samuel identified as a free marketeer who has been described by one business observer as having "a fetish for mergers", something he has even taken into his involvement with Opera Australia and in his role as an AFL commissioner. He was also a key player in Jeff Kennett's hospital mergers in Victoria, which were subsequently de-merged by the Bracks government.
Samuel is also close to Peter Scanlon from Patrick Stevedores, who was greatly assisted by the ACCC's intervention during the docks dispute, and also has close connections to players in the oil industry.
Samuel's "two best friends in life" (as one business commentator describes them), David Goldberger and David Wieland, were former owners of the Solo Petrol Chain, which was established by the ACTU in the Seventies, who sold it to Ampol, before establishing Liberty Oil in 1985. Last year they leased 69 Liberty service stations to Woolworths. Samuels also owns a property development business Austexx, with Goldberger and Wieland.
"Samuel is a hardline, dry, economic rationalist who has a track record of preaching deregulation," says Greg Donnelly from the SDA. "Deregulation in its many guises has often made life worse, not better, for ordinary workers and their families."
The NSW Labor Council has expressed its concern at the proposal being pushed by federal treasurer Peter Costello.
"The ACCC can make a difference to the way businesses operate,' says NSW Labor Council Secretary John Robertson, who is wary that the appointment signals a move by the coalition government to wind back the powers of the ACCC in a manner similar to the way it has would back the powers of the Industrial relations Commission.
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Issue 158 contents
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