This week Zygmunt Edward Switkowski showed that his true priorities are not to the real stakeholders of Telstra - its employees and customers - but to the big end of town and, of course, himself.
Fresh from putting the Estens' inquiry into regional telecommunications into a file marked 'never to be opened' Ziggy the Pinhead has shrugged off revelations that another 3000 jobs will disappear from the national telco over the next financial year.
One in five job cuts will come from country areas which hardly upholds Estens' recommendation 8.2 that Telstra should maintain an ongoing local presence in regional, rural and remote Australia.
The job cuts are rather disingeniously described by Telstra as part of an ongoing drive to lift productivity. How getting fewer people to do more with less in an organisation that has already been pared to the bone is supposed to work invokes a subtle genius.
Telstra, showing a cavalier attitude to what a reasonable person may deem to be something approximating the truth, had previously denied plans to throw fellow Australians out of work. Telstra has already disposed of 11,423 people in the last three years. About one in five of the positions lost this year were in country areas, demonstrating the extent of Telstra's ongoing commitment to rural and regional Australia.
While Telstra moves to divest itself of inconvenient payroll obligations Ziggy will, no doubt, be passing on the benefits of his own redundancy package - a year's salary - to each employee made redundant.
It was revealed at a Senate committee hearing that Mr. Switkowski would receive a year's salary if he too was to be down-sized.
Telstra has joined the ranks of corporate Australia in designing lavish parachutes, worth millions for failed bosses, while cutting thousands of jobs, reducing services to Australians and hiking line rentals.
The cost cutting does not, of course, extend to the corporate lifestyle enjoyed by the monkeys at the top of the tree. Telstra will maintain its lavish hospitality budget - seeking "value for money" with from entertainment activities. No doubt most average Australians would regard a lunch to the value of a four figure sum being picked up by someone else as being excellent value indeed.
If Ziggy the Pinhead was fair dinkum about the market he would address the needs of the majority shareholders of Telstra, the Australian people.
Switkowski was paid $2.4 million last year, including a $1.25 million base salary as well as a $1.15 million incentive payment. Despite this the Telstra share price has dropped and service standards continue to be indifferent.
Then again, considering we can get rid of John Howard for $10 000 a night, paying Ziggy the S to crawl back under whatever rock he came out from under could represent good value.
The attempt to totally privatise Telstra is an admission by the Howard government that they can't run it, without admitting that the private sector can't run it either.
Australians won't be fooled or blackmailed by this or any other government and know their only guarantee of service is continued public ownership.
Our tool of the week is just another greedy grub masquerading as a brains trust. It's high time he was accountable to the people who foot his lavish bills - you and I.
The employer, who we are not allowed to name, locked the 56-year-old Meat Workers Union member out when he refused to join hundreds of colleagues on AWAs that stripped them of award minimums, including penal rates, long service and holiday entitlements.
The company wouldn't allow Mallard back on the job until AIRC senior vice president O'Callaghan ruled enough was enough.
O'Callaghan forbade publication of either party's name for fear of breaching Workplace Relations Act provisions which prevent the identification of parties to AWAs.
Workers Online understands that the AWA between them expired in January.
Mallard gave permission for his name to be published but the company, understandably, has not followed suit.
Meat Workers Union South Australian branch secretary, Graham Smith, said Mallard would be better off on the safety net award although it was three years old.
He praised Mallard's determination in resisting 10 weeks of company pressure.
"One of the problems we have is that although people might oppose their AWAs they have real problems in sticking these things out so they can be challenged," Smith said.
"What he has done will be helpful to others who find themselves in similar lockout predicaments."
Central to the farce is the Federal Government's Workplace Relations Act. It talks "freedom of choice" but denies this to new empoyees offered unilateral AWAs, on the basis that they are not employees until they accept.
Once the documents expire, however, workers have a theoretical right to opt for award coverage. When Mallard tried to exercise this right he was locked out indefinitely.
"Where a company can effectively say - go away until you sign on our terms - there is no freedom of choice," Smith said.
"In this situation, the company operates as usual and faces no downside to its industrial action. The individual has no ability to fight back and our argument is that this is plainly unfair."
Senior vice president O'Callaghan said it was clear the employee was waiting for "hell to freeze over" and the ingredients existed for an "interminable wait".
O'Callaghan said that unless he granted the union an order under Section 127 of the Workplace Relations Act, the lockout would effectively end Mallard's employment.
The extraordinary piece of industrial advice was offered after Abbott was badgered into talking to Morris McMahon delegate, James Bridge, by radio shock jock, Stan Zemanek.
Bridge, who has been on the picketline since Morris McMahon refused to negotiate with the AMWU 11 weeks ago, told Workers Online he would ignore the Ministerial recommendation.
He confirmed Abbott had told him - forget about this dispute - go and get another job.
Abbott's advice came within a week of appearing to have backed key worker demands after a picket line meeting. Last Friday, he supported workers' rights to union representation and to negotiate a collective agreement.
The Minister distanced himself from both those undertakings during the Zemanek interview.
"The company is, as I understand it, operating successfully enough with those workers who aren't on strike. Now, given that the company is apparently operating more or less successfully, why should it be forced to do a deal with a union, which it for some reason, I think some understandable reasons, has some animosity towards," Abbott said.
Can manufacturer Morris McMahon is owned by central city lawyer, Judith Beswick. Its employees voted for a union- agreement but Beswick refused to negotiate with the AMWU. She has offered staff $1000 lures to return on individual AWAs, championed by Abbott, and for weeks has bussed labor hire scabs past picketers.
The IRC, which under Abbott's regime has no right to mediate an agreement, has accused her of failing to bargain in good faith.
This week, Beswick again upped the ante, hiring PR consultants to spin her side of the story.
Profesional Public Relations obliged with a "Myth Sheet", listing 12 apparent "myths" about the dispute.
A couple of its myths, complete with spin, were
- "Myth 9: Morris McMahon is unfairly suing the unions for $700,000. Fact: We have been legally advised and believe it was proper to commence proceedings for damages as soon as possible."
- "Myth 10: The company has breached award conditions. Fact. Morris McMahon has never knowingly breached award conditions."
While Professional Public Relations were casting their spell, wharfies at Port Botany organised a collection that raised $10,000 to lessen the chance of strikers being starved back on Beswick's conditions.
Della Champions IRC
State IR Minister John Della Bosca has weighed into the wrangle, calling on Abbott to restore the powers of the AIRC.
Responding to a question in State Parliament, he said the Federal Commission was "powerless" to intervene in the Morris McMahon dispute.
"For 11 weeks, workers at Morris McMahon have been on strike due to the failure of the employer to negotiate with their union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union," Della Bosca said.
"This is despite the AMWU being a bona fide negotiating party under the federal Workplace Relations Act 1996."
Mr Della Bosca said it wouldn't happen under the NSW system which had retained an active role for the state IRC. He said he wasn't surprisde the dispute was "floundering" under federal provisions.
"I urge Mr Abbott to restore a true role for the independent umpire and unshackle the power of the Federal Commission," Della Bosca said..
He cited Morris McMahon as the "perfect example" of why NSW didn't want to have its industrial relations governed by a federal system based on conflict.
The coast-to-coast state system would ensure access to, and safety for, billions of dollars in workers money at risk from business failures.
The radical proposal, involving similar protections regimes across the nation's states and territories, will be given substance at August's ACTU national congress.
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson said he would meet with counterparts from around the country, during congress, to finalise proposals to be recommended to Labor administrations in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, South Australia, the ACT and Northern Territory.
Entitlements have become a key issue since a raft of companies folded leaving workers without accrued holiday pay, long service leave, redundancy and other owed monies, sometimes including super contributions.
Federal Government made promises, especially in the build-up to elections, but delivered little. When Ansett crashed last year it began slugging travellers $10 on every ticket to supplement its safety net program but, even so, jobless workers are being short-changed millions of dollars.
Robertson told this week's Labor Council meeting workers were "sick and tired" of being left in the lurch when companies hit the wall and intended doing something about it.
"This is our money we are talking about, money we have earned over the years. It's alright arguing about where we stand on the creditors' list but when there is nothing left in the kitty it doesn't really matter," he said.
"One of the answers is trust funds but Federal Government is not going to do it.
"We will push state governments to make the running. If we can convince them all to do it, I think we can move forward."
Initial approaches to the NSW Government were rebuffed on the grounds it could make the state uncompetitive. A joint approach, coast-to-coast, would allay that concern.
Robertson was responding to a challenge laid down by National Entitlements Security Trust (NEST) CEO, Andrew Wyllie, in a speech to mark the first anniversary of the revamped union-backed protection fund.
Wyllie asked unions to consider employment statistics that revealed
- 20 percent of workers were now in "atypical" employment relationships, labour-hire or the like
- one third of private sector workers had no access to paid sick or holiday entitlements
He said various funds, including his own, had been successful in protecting billions of dollars worth of entitlements but there were billions more exposed to uncertainty.
Portability, he said, had become a critical issue in an uncertain environment.
"It is time to ask that every worker has a universal leave entitlement irrespective of where they work," Wyllie said. "Then we need to protect those entitlements as they accrue. The issue is not who but whether or not we can build more portability into the system."
Strong, having been found to have owed the money to five drivers by the IRC last November, tried unsuccessfully to have those orders overturned mid-May. This week he was back in Local Court attempting to have proceedings stayed.
Frustrated TWU South Coast official Richard Olsen said Strong's "stone walling" threatened the viability of some of the independent operators involved.
"Two of these guys are owed $6000 and $8600 for work they did for his company. Take amounts like that out of a small business and you get problems," Olsen said.
Strong's company, S&B Industries, contracted the drivers to do work on several Sydney building sites. They have been trying to recover their money since last year.
It was around that time that Strong and wife, Barbara, were holding Cole Commission observers spellbound with lurid claims of union standover tactics, including attempts at bribery and threats of violence.
The targets of these allegations, covered in detail by the mass media, were officials of the CFMEU's NSW branch.
But when Counsel Assisting the Commission were finally convinced they should check the Strongs' claims against available telephone and police records, they started to crumble.
No records could be found of telephone conversations sworn to and police records, far from endorsing evidence of an official complaint about union behaviour, revealed Mrs Strong complaining about a sub-contractor hassling her for overdue payments.
In denying all the Strongs' allegations, CFMEU witnesses said S&B Industries had attracted attention because it habitually ran unsafe sites and ducked employment and statutory obligations.
In his final report, Building Industry Royal Commissioner Terence Cole, returned a number of adverse findings against the CFMEU and its officials based on the contested evidence of the Strongs.
Mrs Strong gave sworn evidence to the Royal Commission that S&B Industries had been forced out of business by the CFMEU. Since the Commission completed its Sydney hearings last September, however, S&B Industries has
- had a site in Glebe shut down by health and safety authority Workcover because of unsafe practices
- operated a demolition site without required council approval
- faced a variety of creditors - employees and sub-countractors - in court
- faced CFMEU claims in court for more than $10,000 in alleged underpayments to four employees
- had the IRC find it owed more than $26,000 to five self-employed drivers
- seen the IRC reject a subsequent attempt to have those orders stayed
- taken civil court action to try and prevent assets being sold to meet its debts
It's part of a push by Oxfam-Community Aid Abroad to promote consumption of 'Fair Trade' coffee sourced from worker cooperatives that ensure a decent return to the farmer, rather than the mass-produced poor-quality coffee that appears on most supermarket shelves.
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In Sydney this weekend to promote the Oxfam campaign, Ethiopian coffee farmer Tadesse Meskela said the situation for more than a million coffee farmers in his country is desperate.
"The current drought has had an awful effect on the coffee trade in Ethiopia with production down 30 per cent," Tadesse says. "On top of this, the downturn in world prices has reduced the price by 72 per cent, meaning most farmers in my country are now losing money to produce coffee beans. Children are being pulled out of schools, health care is no longer affordable and hunger is a reality for many."
Tadesse is the general manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative, representing farmers and giving them a stake in the production chain of fair trade coffee.
More than 38,000 farmers are members of 35 cooperatives that make up the union, which aims to plough profits back into the farming communities. On average, members of the cooperatives receive two and half times the price
that the 1.2 million small holder farmers who do not belong to co-ops receive for their produce.
"Our values are the right to work, the right to participate in democratic structures, and invest profits back in the community through higher prices for farmers and designated development funds."
Oxfam Australia has been campaigning for retail outlets beyond Oxfam CAA shops to stock fairly traded coffee as well as working towards a transparent and accepted accreditation process.
"Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and coffee is a part of our culture and day to day life," Tadesse says. "We want people in first world nations to look at their cup and understand the story behind it and choose fair trade."
APHEDA-Union Aid Abroad is to liaise with Oxfam to look at how unions can get behind the campaign.
For more details go to: http://www.maketradefair.com/
A seafarer, waterside worker, socialist and union activist, Bull was elected a WWF official in 1967, becoming general secretary in 1984, a position he held until his retirement in December, 1992.
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He was also appointed vice president of the ACTU in 1987 and senior vice president in 1991 as well as representing the Asia Pacific region on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation for 10 years.
While retiring from the union, Bull did not retire from the struggle, distinguishing himself as chairperson of the ACTU organising works program, the ACTU overseas aid agency, Apheda, and as president of Cuban Children's Fund. He celebrated his 70th birthday in Havana, Cuba, with friends and comrades last year.
Bull wrote two books - "On the Waterfront" released during the Patrick dispute, and "Politics in the Union" on the 1950s Hursey dispute.
Born in Tasmania, he went to sea the age of 14 on British and Scandinavian ships joining the Seamen's Union in 1954 after his return to Australia four years later.
His first industrial battles were fought during the waterfront strikes of 1954 and 1956 when, as a seafarer, he assisted local WWF strike activity in Port Pirie and Hobart. He then joined the waterfront and the WWF in 1956.
Bull was influential in the decision to amalgamate the WWF and the Seamen's Union of Australia into the Maritime Union of Australia.
Bull is survived by wife Carmen and his two sons Peder and Anders.
Maritime workers, family, comrades and friends will gather at 8 Darling Harbour, Hickson Rd, Sydney at 10.30am next Tuesday. The procession will march behind the funeral car down the Hungry Mile, joining buses to the funeral at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Delhi Rd, North Ryde, at noon.
Bull and his family have requested no flowers, asking that donations in lieu be made to Apheda's Cuban Children's project.
The delegate, John Draper, is seeking reinstatement and his union, the AMWU, wants orders against Sanitarium for breaching freedom of association provisions of the Workplace Relations Act.
Justice Gyles has reserved judgement after hearing the case in the Federal Court at Sydney.
AMWU food division secretary, Michelle Burgess, said "basic democratic rights" were at issue at Sanitarium.
"It is a 100-year-old company that has always been anti-union. John Draper's work there is an organising success story and the company doesn't like it," she said.
"In the space of 18 months more than half the workforce elected to join the union and voted down a company-sponsored agreement.
"They have voted to be union members and for the union to negotiate their agreement. Sanitarium won't accept that they have those rights."
The Seventh Day Adventist-controlled food company has used extraordinary tactics to try and dissuade people from joining the AMWU.
Last year a manager distributed leaflets in which a church founder described unions as "satanic".
"The trades unions will be agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been seen since the world began," it read.
So strong is the company's anti-unionism that it has repeatedly offered staff representation by any person or agency that is not a union.
Three separate documents were presented to the Federal Court in which Sanitarium said staff could be represented by any outside agency that was not a trade union.
Just one week after shareholders delivered Glaxo SmithKline a historic slap in the face, reported in Workers Online 179, Kingfisher has agreed to ditch two-year contracts for directors and to review a share option scheme for CEO, Gerry Murphy.
Kingfisher, which runs the Comet and B&Q retail chains, perfomed the policy flip two weeks out from its annual meeting. Key lobby groups, including pension funds, had served notice of their intention to derail the pay arrangements.
Executive pay will be the basis for other fiery AGMs with the Trades Union Congress calling for investor action to prevent banking group HSBC offering American boss, William Aldinger lll, a $75 million package.
The TUC was rallying its network of pension funds to lead the fight against Alldinger's package.
The union peak body wants AGM voting records made public so small investors can examine the records of pension funds. Several large funds abstained and at least was one was reported to have voted in favour of the Glaxo deal.
"It may seem like the tide has turned against rewarding failure in Britain's boardrooms but the large number of abstentions in the Glaxo SmithKline vote vote show that some big investors are still reluctant to take a firm line on greed," TUC spokesman Brendan Barber said.
Kingfisher this week bowed to the trend by cutting the two-year contracts of three executives back to a single year. All three gave up the original contracts without claims for compensation.
With almost one in four workers saying they feel in danger at work due to a lack of proper safety, the Health Services Union says Australia now has a crisis on its hands.
The HSUA has released the survey of 3,000 members to launch the first national campaign to improve conditions in aged care facilities.
HSUA national secretary Craig Thomson says the survey showed the quality of care provided to elderly Australians was being compromised by understaffing and dangerous conditions.
''People in aged care facilities deserve the best possible care,'' he says. ''But the way the industry operates at the moment too many of them are not getting it.
''Under the Federal Government's cost-cutting regime there are not even minimum staffing levels required to ensure a basic standard of care and safety."
'The union's campaign will include a call for all employers and state governments to introduce minimum staffing levels in all areas to give a guarantee of care for residents and their families.
''Our members have told us they don't have the time to properly care for the residents to the standard they would like to," Thompson says. ''We have had examples highlighted to us where there is only a single staff member in a facility with 50 beds or more.
''Too many staff are working in facilities where there are serious safety concerns connected to staffing levels. When there are not enough staff the risk to the health and safety of residents increases dramatically.''
72Strathfield Joins War on Shonks
Strathfield will give bodgey bosses the flick under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the NSW Labor Council.
The Labor dominated council, joins nearby Holroyd, in committing itself to only doing business with employers who meet industrial relations responsibilities and statutory requirements such as payroll tax and workers comp premiums.
The philosophy behind the MoUs is to drive shonks out of local government, particularly in an environment were the contracting out of services is increasing.
Labor Council assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou says "unscrupulous operators" can drive straight competitors to the wall by undercutting wages, conditions and statutory standards.
"We expect councils with Labor-dominated caucuses to lead the way on this," Christodoulou says. "We will be moving on to the conservative councils but they might require a more aggressive approach."
Labor Council, and the MEU, have already initiated discussions with the South Sydney and Wollongong City Councils and Christodoulou is "confident" both will sign MoUs by the end of June.
Attention is then likely to turn to Marrickville and Blacktown, two big Sydney municipalities where Labor is strongly represented around the council table.
The Labor dominated council, joins nearby Holroyd, in committing itself to only doing business with employers who meet industrial relations responsibilities and statutory requirements such as payroll tax and workers comp premiums.
The philosophy behind the MoUs is to drive shonks out of local government, particularly in an environment were the contracting out of services is increasing.
Labor Council assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou says "unscrupulous operators" can drive straight competitors to the wall by undercutting wages, conditions and statutory standards.
"We expect councils with Labor-dominated caucuses to lead the way on this," Christodoulou says. "We will be moving on to the conservative councils but they might require a more aggressive approach."
Labor Council, and the MEU, have already initiated discussions with the South Sydney and Wollongong City Councils and Christodoulou is "confident" both will sign MoUs by the end of June.
Attention is then likely to turn to Marrickville and Blacktown, two big Sydney municipalities where Labor is strongly represented around the council table.
The Council this week voted to invite the AMWU's metalworker and technical and service divisions to rejoin the organisation. The AMWU's printing and vehicles division are already affiliated
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robinson welcomed the decision, saying it would allow NSW unions to speak with a unified voice.
"This is another positive sign that the movement is putting aside its old factional divisions and recognises that in difficult times we need to be working together," Robertson says.
AMWU state secretary Paul Bastian said the AMWU State Council made this decision as it believes that the AMWU can make a positive contribution to the direction of the Labor Council.
"Under the current leadership of the Labor Council it appears that there is a real attempt being made to reflect the views of all of its affiliates, not just the dominant faction," Bastian says.
"The AMWU looks forward to a constructive partnership with Labor Council, but will continue to campaign and express its own views with the same robust independence that it has always done."
Low Paid Get Wage Flow On
Meanwhile, NSW Labor Council has welcomed the State Wage Case decision to award lowly paid workers a $17 per week wage increase.
A full bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission this week agreed to a flow on of the National Minimum Wage case, delivering a $17 per week pay rise for low paid workers and $15 for workers earning above $731.80 per week.
The decision applies to the 1.2 million workers employed under state awards in industries including hospitality, retail and the public sector.
Labor Council deputy assistant secretary Michael Gadiel welcomed the speedy flow on.
"This is good news for workers employed on minimum rate state awards," Gadiel says. "Compared to the Treasurer's piddling $4 tax cut, it is an increase that will ease some of the pain for workers who are struggling."
That's the message from a ground breaking report by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) to uncover the benefits to the NSW economy of embracing new forms of energy production.
Last year the Labor Council, together with the NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority, and a steering group of other forward thinking industry representatives engaged The Allen Consulting Group to model the potential impact of the sustainable energy industry on the NSW economy and jobs.
The resulting Sustainable Energy Jobs Report has found that increasing energy efficiency and growing the share of renewable energy has huge potential to grow the economy and jobs while also mitigating the negative environmental impacts of conventional energy supply and use.
The report also provides an instruction book of diverse, industry-development measures that will, based on the economic model, boost NSW gross state product by more than $500m annually, with up to 4,000 new jobs created (around one quarter of these in the sustainable energy industry and the remainder in the broader economy).
These benefits depend critically on adopting a multi-pronged approach - rather than individual measures in isolation - so that the cost savings from improved energy efficiency can offset the cost of increasing our share of renewable energy, like solar and wind.
SEDA and the Labor Council are now pursuing new opportunities for ensuring that this emerging industry has the capacity and capability to meet inevitable demand as NSW starts the transition to a low carbon economy.
To read the report's executive summary visit the SEDA website http://www.seda.nsw.gov.au/pdf/PDF_GH_DIS_PAGE8_182.pdf
The Register was established established to alert union members of important labor movement and community events. It had its first outing last week when supporters were notified of the need to support picketing workers at Morrish McMahon, Arncliffe.
Those who register will receive a fortnightly email about coming events. There will be occassional alerts for urgent actions that need cross-union backing.
Labor Council officer Amanda Tattersall said the register will be important in building solidarity and activism.
"We hope to invigorate solidarity between unions by ensuring the widest number of unionists are informed about different aspects of our collective struggle," she said.
Internationally, activist registers have been a useful tool for enlivening campaigns.
The Jobs with Justice network in America uses an activist register, with the Washington Labor Council having 10 000 people pledged to support union and social justice concerns. Similarly, the Solidarity Network in Canada alerts unionists to community justice campaigns.
To join the activist register go to http://www.labor.net.au/activist and fill in the online form. To make inquiries about the register or have leaflets advertising the register sent to your workplace, email [email protected].
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN ACTION 2003
Public Conference, 9.30am-4.00pm, June 7. Room 430, UTS Tower, Broadway, Entry by donation, Disabled Access
Keynote Speaker: Verity Burgmann
Writer on Australian social movements, from the University of Melbourne: Power, profit and protest: Australian social movements and globalization, Allen and Unwin, 2003; Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation, with Meredith Burgmann, University of NSW Press, 1998; Power and Protest: movements for change in Australian society, Allen and Unwin, 1993,
Program:
9.30-10.00am, Registration /
10.00-11.00am Keynote lecture /
11.30-1.30 Parallel presentations /
2.00-3.30 Parallel presentations /
3.30-4.00 Wrapping up/
More Information:
UTS Research Initiative in Intrernational Activism, James Goodman 9514 2714
For papers from Social Movements in Action 2002, see: www.international.activism.hss.uts.edu.au
Cameron Oxley Debate
Address for the first exchange is
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=372 and the questionnaire is at
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/2003/May03/Havachat_questionnaire.htm
Subject: Should Australia have a Free Trade Agreement with the US? What do you think?
Hoping to organise one of these around executive pay.
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Labor for Refugees
World Refugee Day is about 4 weeks away. The colour posters are now available from Labor Council and help would be appreciated in getting the leaflets and posters out and about. Posters can be picked up from Labor Council between 9-5 on weekdays (a few can be mailed out if you live far away from the CBD).
If you can organise members of your branch or union to do some train station leafleting that would be excellent. You could also organise for your union and branch to meet together on the day and march with Labor for Refugees. Labor for Refugees will be meeting at the south side of the Archibald Fountain next to the row of trees. A leaflet is also attached in case you have access to photocopying facilities.
2003 National Conference on Unemployment
This year marks CofFEE's 5th Path to Full Employment Conference and the 10th National Conference on Unemployment.
The anniversary conference will be held concurrently on the 10-12 December 2003 at the University of Newcastle.
A number of themes have been identified for the conference including: welfare to work issues; macroeconomic policy;
regional and environmental issues; the future of work; and globalisation.
We are pleased to already announce two of the keynote speakers:
Professor Barry Bluestone, the Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts; and
The Rev Tim Costello, a leading voice on issues such as urban poverty, homelessness, problem gambling, unemployment and reconciliation, Minister at Collins St Baptist Church Melbourne and the Director of Urban Seed.
Please note that the call for papers is underway until 15 June. Abstracts should be submitted to [email protected]
Further details are available at the Conference homepage: http://e1.newcastle.edu.au/coffee/conferences/2003/index.cfm
Even though I am an uneducated person , I agree with P Kennedy in relation to the foul language , that is why I have chosen not to respond any of the opinions expressed in that manner.
Tom
NSW
The complaints by P Kennedy "Bad Language" issue 179 brought back many unhappy memories of my childhood in the 1950's and 60's and the beatings for speaking in a tongue incomprehensible to the pakeha thieves of our land who lived in large homes built on our land while we lived in tree fern huts living on mutton flaps , puha , dandelion leaves and rewena pararoa.
I and my Brothers and Sisters who were raised by our Grandmother who only spoke Maori, were beaten for speaking our own language and then beaten for using the words we learned from the children of the riff raff European thieves of our land.
Words are nothing more than a learned code, devised to communicate.
Sadly like every thing else the racist Anglo Celt touches language has also become a weapon with which to self righteously intimidate or used to steal through the ambiguity of the words in their language , and this pompous claim to offence is nothing more than another attempt at claiming the high moral ground while committing an act of bastardry . In this case, the condemnation of others, because of an obvious lack of language skills.
Did P Kennedy condemn the suggestions of violence?
It was this very manipulation , restriction , misinterpretation and deliberate deception in 1840 , that tricked some New Zealand iwi into agreeing to the Treaty of Waitangi , an agreement which the invader had no intention keeping , and has until this day abrogated their responsibilities through a manipulation of the language.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 19 enshrines the right to freedom of expression, P Kennedy appears to desire to restrict this right, only to those that use phraseology that complies with their personal values, it is censorship such as this that creates disharmony and War.
If in a world full of disposed people a few harsh words causes such grief, then you certainly have a satisfying life, and in all probability at the expense of the indigenous Australians whom you have dispossessed of their land, language and self esteem without even the integrity to educate them to enable a full and satisfying interaction with the invader.
I have only one thing to say to about the clumsy attempts at blackmail by P. Kennedy who is either an invader, a Descendant of an invader or kupapa ...
�ngutu taku k�ihe te koretake teke
Te Kooti
Aotearoa
Here is a copy of a letter that I sent to the herald sun today.
The unions deserve the reputaton that they are gaining as being more aligned with the ideologies of special interest groups and big business -like developers. All about there are people being grossly underpaid and ripped off.
You are who you bedfellow and too many of you are looking real bad.
To the Herald Sun
The Telecommunications Minister Richard Alston thinks the Telstra CEO is "deserving" of 12 months pay in the case of redundancy - much much more then hisfellow Australians.
"He has more responsibilities then the average Australian" said this selectively compassionate minister.
Yes dear Minister, Telstra with Mr Switkowski at the helm, is pretty good at being cold and ruthless - putting profits before people. In the 3 years to March this year over 11 000 Telstra workers have been sacked. There's only 5000 more to go?
Would the people who organised the gas chambers to exterminate millions of people in Nazi Germany been considered highly productive, with more responsibilities than the average German?
Where is the match for Senator Alston in the Opposition? This overly confident Minister deserves to confronted by people who still have souls.
Kathryn Pollard
NSW
The clamour over the G-G has been driven by the media fascination with sex scandals, the justifiable desire by child protection advocates to expose past cover-ups and Dr Hollingworth own ham-fisted attempts to deal with the controversy.
But what strikes me is how little impact this very public debate has had on the lives of the Australian public he serves.
The Yarralumla crisis has dominated news at a time when significant changes to our way of life are being proposed by a Prime Minister intent on imposing his conservative blueprint on the nation before he leaves the job.
They have pushed the assault on universal health care and accessible higher education off the front pages and nightly news bulletin in a manner so effective, it could not have been calculated.
Yes, the Prime Minister has been exposed yet again as a leader who can not take responsibility for his decisions; but this is mere collateral damage for a leader who is unlikely to face the polls again.
The irony is that the man who saved the constitutional monarchy from the Republicans has now profoundly weakened it through his ill-advised decision to appoint a conservative member of the clergy.
And having ballsed up once, he now refuses to take counsel on the replacement; again exposing the absolute rort that his effusive support for the monarchists cynical campaign against the 'politicians Republic' always was.
While some are spinning the Hollingworth resignation as the fillip to the Republican cause it has needed since the 1999 referendum, I'm not so sure.
The affair has clearly identified again the need to develop a workable mechanism of appointment and removal of our Head of State from office.
But it will take more than a sex scandal to convince Australians that the constitutional status of their Head of State has any impact on their quality of life.
Republicans need to use this event as a catalyst to write a broader story about our national identity, our integrity both diplomatic and economic. All the things that Howard would have us defer elsewhere, along with our sovereignty.
We need to tell a story about how a nation which stands on its own feet would not bow to a Bush or a Blair, make peace with our indigenous population and comes to terms with our unique environment.
Until we are prepared to do so, let's be honest about our constitutional status, stick with the British Royal family and continue to defer to America on everything else.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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