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A Call To Arms
Workers Online returns from our summer break to face a world on the brink, the structures of global cooperation being crushed by the iron will of the earth�s last remaining superpower.
Interview: Agenda 2003
ACTU secretary Greg Combet looks at the year ahead and how a union movement can keep the focus on the workplace at a time of global crisis.
Peace: The Colour Purple
Local communities across Australia are taking stands against war by displaying purple banners. Jim Marr visits one.
Industrial: Long, Hot Summer
As Workers Online took its annual break, the world kept turning � at an increasingly alarming velocity.
Solidarity: Workers Against War
Joann Wypijewski reports on how union locals in the USA are fighting the hounds of war at home.
Security: Howard And The Hoodlums
With all the talk of terror, the Howard Government�s Achilles heel is its tolerance of Flags of Convenience shipping , writes Rowan Cahill
International: Industrial Warfare
Scottish freight train drivers have already acted to disrupt the war effort in the UK with crews of four freight trains carrying war supplies to ports walking off the job, writes Andrew Casey
History: Unions and the Vietnam War
The Vietnam experience steered some unions towards social activism for the first time. Unions are today key players in the anti-war movement, writes Tony Duras.
Review: Eight Miles to Mowtown
Mark Hebblewhites looks at two summer movies that tap into different sounds of American culture - white boy rap and motown blues.
Poetry: Return To Sender
Resident bard Divd Peetz discovers that Elvis has become the latest shock recruit to the peace cause.
Satire: CIA Recruits New Intake of Future Enemies
CIA Director George Tenet announced today that the agency has begun recruiting future enemies for the year 2014.
The Cuffe Link � Taxpayers Cough Up
Carr: Secret Lib Plan to Slash Public Sector
Abbott Comes Out Swinging
Thanks a Million: Cole�s Lawyers Clean-up
Corrigan Dogs On Jobs Promise
Gnomes Fess Up � Unionism Best For All
Owens Survives 30-Year Ban
Ribs and Rumps Something for Government to Chew On
Badges of Honour
Guards Rail Against Assaults
Workers Online Scoops Global Prize
Currawong Must Pay It�s Way
Let�s Get Real! 2nd Australasian Organising Conference
Guard Knocked Out in Villawood Escape
Activists Notebook
The Soapbox
Getting On with The Job
Premier Bob Carr chose Trades Hall as the venue to launch Labor's IR policy for the upcoming state election. Postcard
Justice in Bogota
Sydney lawyer Ian Latham knows how to pick them. He�s gone straight from the Cole Royal Commission to justice Colombian-style. The Locker Room
Heart Of Darkness
There is a school of thought that there is, in fact, only one World Cup - and it doesn�t involve cricket, writes Phil Doyle. Politics
Danger Mouse
John Howard's politics have trapped him into supporting an unpopular war. He is in political trouble, Leonie Bronstein argues.
Bouquets and Brickbats
War Talk
A Tale of Two Malls
Talk Back Tom
On The Beach
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Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
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News
Carr: Secret Lib Plan to Slash Public Sector
A Coalition State Government would slash 5,000 public sector jobs and allow the NSW industrial system to become a plaything in Tony Abbott�s leadership ambitions, NSW Premier Bob Carr has warned.
Announcing the ALP Industrial Relations policy to the Labor Council Annual General Meeting, Carr also made commitments to improve regulation of labour hire, reduce asbestos-related diseases and increase industrial protection for taxi drivers.
While failing to renew his 'no forced redundancy' commitment of previous election campaigns, Carr hammered home the record of the Coalition in slashing public sector jobs.
Carr claimed the word around 'the top end of town' was that the Opposition would slash 5,000 jobs from health, education and other public sector agencies if it won the March 22 poll.
He also contrasted the Sydney Liberal's ideological hostility to unions with his governments "open, realistic and ungrudging acceptance of the role of unions".
And he warned that Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott would exert greater influence on a Brogden Government as he pushed his federal leadership ambitions.
Working For The Future
Becoming the first NSW Premier ever to unveil his IR agenda directly to the Labor Council, Carr set out a range of initiatives including:
- establishing a Labour Hire Industry Council, involving government, employers and trade unions to oversee the industry. While falling short of the Carr Government's 2000 Labour Hire Inquiry's recommendation that the industry be regulated, the Council would also consider self-regulation arrangements.
- providing the state's 3,800 taxi drivers with access to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission for the first time.
- $2.4 million to establish an Asbestos Research Institute to be based at the Central Sydney Area Health Service
- creating a model set of conditions for all call centres providing services to the NSW Government - both in-house and contracted out.
- improving access to leave entitlements for parents who adopt children
Carr also committed to work safety initiatives arising from the 2002 Safety Summit including more active return to work programs and special case management of 100 companies with poor safety records.
Read the full text of Carr's speech
View entire issue - print all of the articles!
Issue 166 contents
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