Issue No 17 | 11 June 1999 | |
NewsWorkers Choose: Key Ballot in Finance Sector
A ballot for a non-union deal in a finance company could be the trigger for an assault on wages across the banking sector.
The Finance Sector Union is promoting a "no" vote within AGC, the finance company wholly owned by Westpac, in a deal which it believes will have implications for the whole industry. All banks have a finance company offshoot -- but Westpac is the only one which doesn't offer finance company employees the same pay and conditions as their own workers. When the FSU approached the bank to bring conditions into line for AGC staff --some of whom wear Westpac uniforms and deal with the public as Westpac employees -- the bank came back with its own non-union deal. It locks in lower conditions for three years and would create a new bottom line for all wage negotiations within the bank. The FSU is campaigning during the ballot -- which runs from June 9 to June 28 -- with pamphlets and polling, and is quietly confident of success, with a recent poll showing majority opposition to the deal. More importantly, membership within AGC is growing from the mere handful who were employees at the start of the negotiations.
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Interview: Class Consciousness Long-time ALP member Michael Thomson has thrown a few grenades with a new book arguing that middle class trendies have taken over the ALP. Legal: Reith�s AWAs Dealt a Blow ASU v Electrix rules that AWAs can't be a take it or leave it proposition. Unions: Survey Misses the Point Last week's attempt by the Australian newspaper to rank trade unions contained some fundamental flaws. History: The Light on the Hill Fifty years after his seminal address, Ben Chifley's words still ring true -- and still challenges Labor. International: Child Labour: Kerala�s Recipe Of India�s 55 million slave children, not one is to be found in the state of Kerala, in the south of the sub-continent. Review: Bazza Mckenzie Holds His Own Tony Moore on perhaps the greatest Australian movie ever made. Women: Equal Pay - We've Come A Long Way Thirty years have passed since women around Australia raised their fists in victory at the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission's historic equal pay for equal work decision. Activists: Throwing Off the Chains Thirty years ago, Zelda D'Aprano was so incensed by the lack of progress in achieving pay parity that she twice chained herself to public buildings in Melbourne. Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre View the latest issue of Labour Review, a summary of industrial news for trade unions.
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