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Issue No. 179 | 23 May 2003 |
The Game�s Up
Interview: Staying Alive Bad Boss: The Ultimate Piss Off Industrial: Last Drinks National Focus: Around the States Politics: Radical Surgery Education: The Price of Missing Out Legal: If At First You Don't Succeed History: Massive Attack Culture: What's Right Review: If He Should Fall Poetry: If I Were a Rich Man Satire: IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
Hotel Silences Poverty Witness MUA Clout in Wollongong Punch-Up
The Soapbox Solidarity The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch
Bad Language Modern Management Theory Tom's Revival Off the Rails
Labor Council of NSW |
News Tycoon Tuned Out
Sources close to Gordon insist the decision had more to do with his "location" than support for the CPSU's campaign to push WIN into negotiating an agreement for staff around regional Australia. Fact is that despite his corporate philosophy "... your community is very important to us. That's because your community is our community too," Gordon chooses to reside in the Bahamas, a notorious tax haven. Hundreds of pledges to back the community switch-off had, however, been received from more relevant locations, including Woollongong, Hobart and Thuringowa. CPSU officials reported the rattled company had finally started talking to the union, albeit via threats from its lawyers. WIN staff are seeking a basic agreement with claims to recognise industry standard wages and multi-skilling and to agree to redundancy and on-call provisions. The union highlights the example of news camera operators, also required to oversee lighting, sound, shooting and editing. These people are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are paid a gross of $585 by the company. "When an employer who has refused to negotiate with the union starts communicating through lawyers you know they are rattled," CPSU secretary Adrian O'Connell said after last week's Boycott WIN day. "There is a simple solution - come to the negotiating table. They have our number." Big city unionists threw their weight behind the regional turn-off with both ACTU president, Sharan Burrow, and NSW Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, declaring public support. Robertson said community involvement in the WIN campaign was a pointer to other unions. "Usually the interests of workers and the general community are the same," Robertson said. "It's true of banks, schools and hospitals and its also true of regional television. "WIN's tactics are a big turn-off so why shouldn't people return the favour." WIN runs branches in Wollongong, Dubbo, Orange, Griffith, Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Cairns, Townsville, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Ballarat, Albury, Muldura, Shepparton, Gippsland, Launceston and Mt Gambier.
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