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Issue No. 168 28 February 2003  
E D I T O R I A L

Abbott�s Rules
Tony Abbott is at it again, with a wicked plan to cut research funding to universities that do not put their workers onto individual contracts.

F E A T U R E S

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.

N E W S

 Report Derails Freight Plans

 Journo Embarrasses Cole

 CASA a Safety Threat

 Howard Shafts Battlers

 Sparks Fly at Sydney Uni

 Unions Target March 14 For Peace

 Tongans Play Shame Game

 Palestinians Question ICFTU

 Neanderthals Roll Back Safeguards

 Keep Vultures out of Culture

 Bloody Noses for Sticky Beaks

 Warning As Barrier Council Turns 80

 Faint Praise for Labor Education Stand

 Staff Bogged Down

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

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.

L E T T E R S
 Johnny Goes Marching Off
 Misled Artist
 Penalty Shoot-Out
 More Talk Needed on War
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Staff Bogged Down


Workers are wearing adult nappies because of pressure from shitty bosses, according to the UK-based Hazards magazine.

Urban myth or fact, the Brits have launched a campaign which aims to enshrine the rights of workers to take toilet breaks without facing victimisation - pay docking, surveillance, warnings or other forms of employer pressure.

Hazards has revealed that workers in many industries are facing health risks because employers are determined to punish workers for any productivity lost while on the loo.

According to Hazards, stingy bosses at a Brown Brothers' factory in Scotland docked their workers' wages for the time they spend in the loo.

"The workers' union TGWU objected after the 200 staff were issued with smart cards that deducted their pay for the time they're away from the factory floor," Hazards says.

It says one worker lost an entire day's pay for time spent on the toilet.

Australian employers also get a mention thanks to Mount Isa Mines' installation last year of permanent cameras in the toilets of a drug testing facility. The cameras were capable of close-up filming of both men and women urinating. At the time it was condemned as a gross invasion of privacy and "an example of drug testing policy gone mad" by the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union.

Hazards says there is a range of negative health impacts from not being able to go to the toilet when nature calls, including: urinary tract infections; renal damage ; constipation; abdominal pain; diverticuli; haemorrhoids; bowel distension; and incontinence.


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