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Issue No. 158 25 October 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

The Sirens' Song
There is nothing for trade unionists to celebrate from Labor�s loss in the Cunningham by-election.

F E A T U R E S

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.

N E W S

 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

C O L U M N S

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.

L E T T E R S
 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
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Cuts Equals Profits for ANZ


Another major bank has clocked multi-billion profits on the back of customer fees, staff cuts and a refusal to negotiate a pay deal for its workforce.

The ANZ bank this week announced a record $2.3 billion profit, admitting shareholders were far happier with performance than the rest of the community.

ANZ Bank chief executive John McFarlane conceded the community has little trust in banks. "We've probably done a better job with our shareholders than we have done with our customers and with the community."

Finance Sector Union national secretary Tony Beck says the multi-billion profit speaks for itself - the customers and staff have paid for it. "The bank relies heavily on fees and charges despite claims to the contrary," Beck says.

Mr Beck slammed the bank on staffing issues saying that the ANZ had cut its workforce by 50% in ten years. "ANZ staff are forced to do more with less, day in day out. The result is higher stress and longer queues."

"The ANZ is now the only major bank without a new enterprise agreement. That leaves ANZ staff at the mercy of higher workloads, cutbacks and job losses."

Earlier this year, the FSU concluded enterprise agreements with Westpac, Commonwealth and National Banks that guaranteed better staffing.

The FSU wants the ANZ to live up to its rhetoric about caring for the community and to plough some of the profits back into the community by employing more staff. "The ANZ could start by employing enough staff to give customers the service they are paying for," Beck says.

HIH Execs Greed

In other news from the finance sector five former HIH executives, including chief executive Ray Williams and deputy George Sturesteps, have challenged the carve-up of a $10 million surplus in the failed insurer's superannuation fund in a move that will delay and erode the entitlements of up to 1000 former employees.

The executives have accused the fund trustee of "unjust, inequitable and discriminatory" conduct in calculating their payouts from the fund.

Staff-appointed fund trustee Michael Rook said he was "bitterly disappointed" with the challenge, saying the action will add to the cost of the court proceedings to wind up the fund, and delay payouts for other members until next March.

"What they [the executives] are saying is they want more from the fund and, as a consequence, everyone else will get less," says Rook.


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