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Issue No. 174 11 April 2003  
E D I T O R I A L

Might Does Not Mean Right
So the Americans have removed the dictator Hussein, the right wing press are firing more pot-shots than the Republican Guard and George W. Bush can ride into the sunset having liberated the Middle East. Game over � or is it?

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Picking Up The Peaces
Walk Against the War Coalition convenor Bruce Childs outlines the challenge for the peace movement in the lead up to Palm Sunday.

Unions: The Royal Con
Jim Marr argues the Cole Commission can only be taken seriously by people kept ignorant of the way it actually operated.

National Focus: Around the Grounds
Unions maintain the pressure for peace as the upcoming organising conference takes on added significance, reports Noel Hester.

Economics: The Secret War on Trade
Overseas-based multi-nationals are coming after our film industry, electricity, water, pharmaceutical benefits and even childcare. Or are they? Nobody knows, as Jim Marr reports.

International: United Front
Workers and their unions around the world have possibly never been as united in their commitment to campaign together against the War in Iraq, writes Andrew Casey

History: Confessions of a Badge Collector
Bill Pirie has one of the largest collections of trade union badges in the world. After 20 years the collection now numbers some 6,000 badges.

Politics: Stalin�s Legacy
Fifty years ago last month Josef Stalin died. How could it be that a democratic and socialist revolution produced one of the monsters of the twentieth century, asks Leonie Bronstein.

Review: Such Was Not Ned�s Life
The life of Ned Kelly is what we in the world of journalism term a �ball tearing yarn� so why have writers of the movie adaptation felt so impelled to dress it up with fiction, asks Tara de Boehmler.

Poetry: Osama's Top Recruiter
Through our extensive intelligence networks, we have managed to track down the top recruiter for the global terror network of Osama bin Laden.

Satire: Woolworths CEO Denied Bonus After Company Posts Profit
Woolworths chief executive Roger Corbett was devastated today to report an 18.3% rise in profit under his management over the last year.

N E W S

 Carr: Workers Won It For Me

 Nursing Crisis Bites Elderly

 Judge Puts �Predator� Before Workers

 WA Court Undermines Cole

 Mexican Chain Gangs Win NSW Work

 Della Muscles Up to Abbott

 STOP PRESS - Brewery Goes Flat

 ACCC Urged to Consider Jobs

 Unions Stats Track Armageddon

 Cameron: Feds More Interested in Iraq

 SARS Lays Jobs Low

 Working Hours Benefit Millions

 Journos Urge War Crimes Prosecutions

 Unions Support Displaced in Iraq

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Factional Free-For-All
Chris Christodoulou looks at the fallout from the selection of the new Carr Ministry and what it means to the factional warlords.

The Locker Room
The Best Season Since Last Year
Phil Doyle goes trudging through the mud in search of the heart of the matter beneath the corporate biffo

Culture
Books on Bombs
In times like these, reading inevitably turns to America and war. Chris White wades through Pilger, Chomsky, Eco, Moore and Vidal.

Postcard
Postcard from Harvard
Labor Council's Michael Gadiel was elected to give the valedictory speech to this year's Harvard Trade Union Program.

L E T T E R S
 Taking Stalin's Crimes Seriously
 Unfair Dismissals
 More Angry Trots
 Tom's Tirade
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Mexican Chain Gangs Win NSW Work


The NSW Health Department has given work to inmates in privatised Victorian jails because they undercut wages paid to prisoners in the NSW system.

The new revelations compound concerns about a contract to supply textiles to NSW hospitals, with raw material to be sourced from China in a move that will put 35 union members out of work.

Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union state secretary Barry Tubner warns the contract to supply sheets and gowns undermines the NSW Government's own agreement to ensure prison labour does not come at the cost of full-time work.

That agreement, struck by the CSI Consultative Council of industry and union representatives, aims to 'load-up-' the price of prison work to have regard for other costs such as prison supervision. But with no such agreement in the privatised Victorian jails, prisons are able to quote a price that NSW cannot meet.

"In my view, the NSW Government needs to be clear about whether it supports Australian jobs and proper rehabilitation of prisoners in NSW or whether it is prepared to allow cheap overseas products and unregulated prison labour to undermine its own stated objectives," Tubner says.

Labor Council's Chris Christodoulou says the decision by bureaucrats in the NSW Departments of Health and Public Works makes a mockery of the hard work that's been put in to create a sustainable prison industry.

"Unions have supported this process because we want to ensure there is work to assist prisoner rehabilitation, without putting other workers' jobs at risk," Christodoulou said.

"By simply opting for the lowest price the Health Department has undone all this work and handed a contract to a system that the Carr Government claims to oppose."

Unions are seeking a meeting with new Health Minister Maurice Iemma to discuss the issue.


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