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Issue No. 179 23 May 2003  
E D I T O R I A L

The Game�s Up
Research into executive pay commissioned by the NSW Labor Council makes explicit what most of us have suspected for some time: the multi-million packages are a rolled gold rort.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Staying Alive
CPSU national secretary Adrian O'Connell talks about the fight to keep the public service - and the union movement - alive.

Bad Boss: The Ultimate Piss Off
Wollongong workers on poverty-level wages are losing up to $5000 for taking toilet breaks, according to the union representing staff at a Stellar call centre.

Industrial: Last Drinks
Jim Marr looks at the human cost of the decision to close Sydney�s Carlton United Brewery

National Focus: Around the States
If Tampa told us that John Howard circa 2003 is the same spotted rabid dog from 1987, this week�s assault on Medicare confirms it reports Noel Hester in this national round up.

Politics: Radical Surgery
Workers are vitally interested in Medicare, not least because they traded away wage rises to get it. Now, Jim Marr writes, the Coalition Government is tearing apart the 20-year-old social contract on which it was founded.

Education: The Price of Missing Out
University students and their families will pay more for their education following the May Budget, writes Tony Brown.

Legal: If At First You Don't Succeed
Love is wonderful the second time around, goes the famous torch song. But is the same true for legislation? Asks Ashley Crossland

History: Massive Attack
Labour historian Dr Lucy Taksa remembers the general strike of 1917 to put the recent anti-war marches into perspective

Culture: What's Right
Neale Towart looks at a new book that looks at the failings of the Left, while reasserting the liberal project

Review: If He Should Fall
Jim Marr caught Irish folk-rock-punk legend Shane MacGowan at Sydney�s Metro Theatre. He was surprised but not disappointed.

Poetry: If I Were a Rich Man
Through a distortion in the time-space continuum, we have found a recording showing how people a few years into the future will deal with health care.

Satire: IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to monitor the Iraqi economy to ensure that the reintroduction of looting into the economy conforms with free-market theory.

N E W S

 War Declared on Mega Salaries

 Poms Prick Golden Parachute

 Picket Breaks Abbott

 Abbott: Unions are Winning

 Hotel Silences Poverty Witness

 We�ve Lost A Lion

 Nurses Refuse to be Shelved

 Boss Picks Porters� Pockets

 Left, Right Meet at Sea

 ACTU Prescribes Pan Medicine

 Tycoon Tuned Out

 MUA Clout in Wollongong Punch-Up

 Pusey Roams Dark Side

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
What May Day Means to Me
Reader Marlene McAlear penned this tribue to May Day and worker solidarity.

Solidarity
The Toast
Labor Council secretary John Robertson's toast to the annual May Day dinner in Sydney.

The Locker Room
The Numbers Game
In life there is lies, damned lies and sporting statistics, says Phil Doyle - but who�s counting.

Postcard
Brukman Evicted
ZNet's Marie Trigona reports from the streets of Argentina in the rundown to last week's presidential election.

Bosswatch
The Costs of Excess
Some tall business poppies had their heads lopped this week as the laws of economic gravity applied their always chaotic theory.

L E T T E R S
 Hard Copy
 Bad Language
 Modern Management Theory
 Tom's Revival
 Off the Rails
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Hotel Silences Poverty Witness


A prominent Sydney Hotel is using economic blackmail to stop a low wage worker from taking part in a Senate Poverty inquiry.

The 445 room Avillion Hotel has threatened the worker and his union, for wanting to take the time to appear on Monday before the Senate Inquiry hearings.

The LHMU member was to have appeared before the Senate Inquiry into Poverty in Sydney at 10.30am on Monday at the Sydney Masonic Centre.

"This shows an extraordinary contempt towards the democratic life of Australia,", LHMU Hotel Union, NSW assistant secretary, Mark Boyd says.

"There is much community disquiet and debate about excessive wages paid to top managers and executives. This hotel has effectively denied a low-waged worker the right to give an alternative view in this debate."

Boyd says the LHMU will raise this extraordinary intervention with Senators during the Inquiry hearings, and will ask the Senate whether this can be considered a contempt of parliament and our democratic processes.

LHMU national secretary, Jeff Lawrence, will speak to the union's submission at the Senate Inquiry and will be accompanied by several members who will give personal testimonies.

"Our members will challenge the Senate Inquiry to act now to help our nation return to its traditions as a fair-go society," Boyd says. " e must bring a halt to the trend of growing wage disparities."


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