E D I T O R I A L

Terror Australis
When the historians get down to chronicling 2002 their analysis will read simply: the Bali bombing brought the new era of terror home to Australians and heightened our feelings of insecurity and fear at our ill-defined place in the world.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Taking Stock
Labor Council secretary John Robertson reflects on 2002 and outlines the challenges for the year to come.

Bad Boss: Pushing the Envelope
Ongoing and resolute commitment to principles advanced by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott have seen Australia Post make history as the first recipient of the Tony Award, recognising Australia's worst employer.

Unions: The Year That Was
From Cole�s witch-hunt to funky union tunes, Peter Lewis reviews the biggest stories from the world of work in 2002.

Republic: Still Fighting
Three years since the constitutional referendum, and despite constant reports of its impending demise, the Australian Republican Movement is still around and active

International: Global Ties, Global Binds
Labourstart's Eric Lee files his annual wrap-up of the year from an international perspective.

Politics: Turning Green
Union support for the ALP is no longer a given, with trade unionists turning to the Greens, as Jim Marr reports.

Technology: Unions Online 2002
Social Change Online's Mark McGrath looks at what worked best for unions online in 2002.

Industrial: The Past Is Before Us
Neale Towart argues that 2003 will be a year where traditional industrial campaigns come back into fashion.

Economics: Market Insecurity
Sydney University�s Frank Stilwell looks back at 2002 from a political economist�s perspective.

Review: Shooting for Sanity
Michael Moore's new movie Bowling for Columbine looks at America's love affair with guns, writes Mark Hebblewhite

Poetry: The PM's Christmas Message
Workers Online has secretly obtained an advance copy of the text of the Address to the Nation that the Prime Minister plans to make. We reproduce the text below.

Culture: Zanger's Sounds of Summer
If 2001-02 was the summer of political and musical terror then this summer 2002-03 is where irreverent Aussie music runs rife.

N E W S

Abbott Gears For Grocon Stoush

Delo Brushes Taubmans Pay Off

Restaurateur Takes Knife to Wages Protection

Legal Double Whammy to End Year

We�re Dreaming of a Sweat-Free Christmas

Star Organiser Takes Off

Abbott's Xmas Message: Go To Jail

Nurses Perform Wage Surgery

Woolies Discount Spirit of Christmas

New Collapses Prove Entitlements Farce

Suncorp Ballot Draws Fire

Unions On Big Day Out

UN Migrant Worker Charter Welcomed

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Tread Carefully - Very Carefully
Nick Housten argues that structural weaknesses could keep federal Labor in Opposition for many years to come.

The Locker Room
A Year Of Two Halves
It was one of those years. It started with a lot of sport and it ended with a lot of sport. Noel Hester and Peter Moss check the runes and dish out the gongs in this year�s Workers Online Sports Awards.

Bosswatch
Footloose Capital
It was a year where the corporate world finally came close to consuming itself with bloated salaries, off the wall options and a string of mega-collapses

Predictions
Into the Beyond
Every year we ask our readers to gaze into the crystal ball. While history shows the view is mirky, we�ve don it again.

L E T T E R S

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Delo Brushes Taubmans Pay Off

Stackpoole and his nurse aide wife, Joyce, are being hailed �working class heroes� for their resistance to buy-off offers made by the company in a bid to have them take the money and run.

Labor Council secretary John Robertson delivered the accolade in urging state government to change the law so more victimised activists are able to follow in Stackpoole's footsteps.

Labor Council is promoting change in a bid to make buying off victimised workers less attractive to aggressive employers - lobbying government to sign off on a charter of delegates rights, and make reinstatement, rather than compensation, the priority remedy for unjustified dismissals.

"Under the current system an employer can discrimate and get away with it. Compensation is a cost, more often than not, anti-worker employers are prepared to pay," Robertson said.

"The meaningful remedy is to have the vindicated person back on the job."

Robertson pointed out Stackpoole had been working for the company for 10 years prior to his dismissal.

Rings of Deceit

Stackpoole returned to Villawood on December 4, six months after he and five other union activists were sacked on charges of being involved in a "major crime ring". Taubmans, run by South African-based Barlow World Coatings, refused requests to back its allegations with evidence.

The delegate had been a key player in a seven-week strike in support of enterprise bargaining claims a year earlier.

Stackpoole said his six months without income had been "tough". He said the solidarity of 130 LHMU workmates who took up collections, dropped around with the occassional carton of beer, or just turned up for a chat, had been a "huge help".

But it was the unflagging support of his nurse aide wife that took most pressure off his shoulders.

"It was never about the money. It was about being vindicated and going back to work with my head in the air," he told Workers Online.

"If I ever wavered Joyce would remind me we were fighting for our good name.

"We didn't believe it was right that a big company could just make ridiculous allegations against people and cost them their jobs."

As the case dragged on, Taubmans dangled substantial sums in front of him, on the basis that he dropped his reinstatement claim. Neither Stackpoole, nor the LHMU, would divulge exact amounts but people close to the family insist they turned their backs on more than a year's salary, understood to be in excess of $50,000.

Unfortunately, as the case dragged on, his five former workmates accepted financial inducements to drop their claims. Stackpoole bares no ill will, saying their decisions, turned on individual circumstances.

On December 4, the IRC ordered Taubmans to reinstate Stackpoole and reimburse wages lost since his June dismissal.

"It was great to go back. In all honesty, it was like I had never been away," he said.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005