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Issue No. 185 | 04 July 2003 |
A Recipe for Conflict
Interview: As They Say In The Bible ... Industrial: Just Doing It Unions: Breaking Into the Boys Club Activists: Making the Hard Yards Bad Boss: In the Pooh Unions: National Focus Economics: Pop Will Eat Itself Technology: Dean for President International: Rangoon Rumble Education: Blackboard Jungle Review: From Weakness to Strength Poetry: Downsized
Aussie Workers Cradle-Snatched Morris McMahon Workers Say Thanks Violence: Emerson Fingers Abbott Coke Called on to Stop the Rot Bridgestone Drops Doughnut on Workers Maternity Breakthrough in Hotels Labour Rights: Even Bush is Better! Long Winter for Seasonal Workers
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard
Orange Peel After the Accident Cuba - the Debate Continues Old Ted Greetings from Japan
Labor Council of NSW |
News Violence: Emerson Fingers Abbott
In his first week as Labor�s Workplace Relations spokesman, Emerson lashed Abbott�s handling of the portfolio as partisan, out of touch, and ideologically-driven. "I don't condone violence but sometimes emotions boil over. We should be seeking to avoid conflict of that sort and a good way to do that is to offer a vehicle for resolution, rather than allowing emotions to get hotter and hotter," Emerson said. "That dispute lasted 15 weeks and Tony Abbott's went in and inflamed it. That seems to be his role in life. He rings up bosses where there is a dispute and either eggs them on, or urges them to continue the dispute. "Tony Abbott is the Minister for Conflict and Confrontation. I would be the Minister for Co-operation and that is a better option for workers and employers." Emerson gave the car industry as a "classic" example of the Abbott approach. He pointed out the Federal Government had urged employers to take a hard line against workers or lose millions of dollars in industry support. "They made the threat very, very clear," Emerson said. He argued that the confrontational approach was inevitable because the Federal Government had deliberately enterered Australian workers into a wages and conditions "race to the bottom' against South East Asian counterparts, that they could not win. That policy, he says, is entirely dependent on stripping workers of bargaining power. Hence, the downgrading of the IRC as an indendent umpire and reduction of collective bargaining rights. Abbott's Termination of Employment Bill, he said, had the same rationale, making it easier for employers to sack people and workers less secure. Labor, he pledged, would take the opposite tack, increasing funds for training and education so Australia could compete at the top end of the market as a high-skills, high-wage, player. He said unions should be dealt back into the main game as principal players in 21st Century Australia. Emerson expressed confidence in the leadership provided by ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, and president, Sharan Burrow, predicting he would work co-operatively, and productively, with both.
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