*****
Sydney airport boss, Max Moore-Wilton, is living up to his nickname Max the Axe. This time - in yet another shining example of how privatisation works - Max has put 160 livelihoods on the line in order to appease the fatcats at Macquarie Airports.
Macquarie has promised its shareholders a $380 million profit in year one of airport privatisation, when the current operation isn't even breaking even. Max the Axe is obviously under a pay deal to achieve the target, and bugger the human consequences along the way. Unfortunately we don't know exactly what this greedy bludger is getting out of his campaign of misery as his salary from the Bermuda-registered organisation has never been revealed.
Max has never been a friend of his fellow human beings, unless they were members of the Liberal Party. With such a history of strong and impartial contribution to public life one can only estimate the quality of his advice during his reign as head of the Department of Prime Miniature and Drinks Cabinet. In a ringing endorsement of the independence of the public sector Max the Axe appeared rather tired and emotional at the Liberals last Federal election celebrations. He was so loyal to the Howard camp he drummed up the energy to throw the Chaser team out of the Libs' post election knees up.
Of course only a genius such as Max or a market analyst would think that the best thing to do during the greatest crisis that has ever faced the airline industry is to demoralise and decimate the workforce.
During the week Max pulled the baby entrails from out of his mouth for long enough to declare that his plan was the best way to get the planes running on time as most jobs at Sydney airport had been outsourced anyway.
Those staff that are to remain are expected to go cap in hand to Max and sign on for AWA's rather than receive the protection of their current EBA, recently negotiated by the CPSU and other unions. The smartest thing to do would be to keep the 160 jobs and sack Max.
Max has form. During his reign in Canberra this grubby little operator was famous for removing a bus shelter outside his office - thus forcing lesser beings to wait in the freezing Canberra weather rather than have his aesthetics disturbed.
This bottom-feeder is one of the chief architects of Howard's way. He is a man who, when he was pillaging for the Federal government, reduced the term Public Service to an oxymoron. Now he has been pulled in by the corporate sector to paper over the cracks in what was always going to be a dodgy deal - the privatisation of Sydney Airport. Any idiot can raise the share price of an organisation and increase its profits in the short term by throwing fellow Australians out of work, but managing infrastructure is not about keeping shareholders wealthy - it's about making sure that the infrastructure works and can be safely used by the general public.
Our Tool Of The Week is a dinosaur that belongs to a different age and. His unique way of getting the planes to run on time, calls Mussolini's Italy to mind.
Metro Shelf, the most public face of the Metro Group of Companies who manufacture supermarket supplies for the likes of Coles and Woolworths, went into administration yesterday, owing around $30 million to banks alone.
Down the gurgler with Metro went around $1.6 million in owed entitlements and at least $700,000 in super contributions, unpaid for the past year in contravention of existing law.
Metro had been negotiating a new EBA with unions, including the AMWU, AWU and CFMEU for the past three months, without tipping off anyone to its true financial position.
The company predominantly manufacutures supermarket trolleys with a workforce of around 90 people, the majority of whom are Vietnamese Australians. It has kept on 20 people in an effort to trade its way out of administration which unions label "optimistic".
AMWU secretary, Paul Bastian, said the time had come for Federal Government to "get serious" about protecting workers' money.
His union is insisting on a three-pronged approach to protect super and entitlements, whilst ensuring that directors of bust companies don't continue to run other businesses into the ground.
The AMWU recipe calls for:
- workers' money to be put beyond the reach of employers through industry funds such as NEST
- reverse onus on directors of companies in administration or receivership, requiring them to prove their "hands are clean" before they can act as directors of other businesses
- the ability to extract money owed from related companies, based on shared directorships
"The law has to change because ASIC isn't interested in chasing these bastards, even when there is evidence in creditors' reports of illegal activities. ATSIC only follows through on the cases it considers sexy," Bastian says.
"Metro Shelf is not a one-off case. It is happening all the time and our people are losing out."
Meanwhile, he says, time and again, directors get to keep big houses, flash cars and continue operating other businesses.
Between December, 2001, and December, 2002, 6000 Australian businesses failed, costing 55,000 workers their jobs and many of them their entitlements.
Metro Shelf is one of a number of companies operated by Hommous Khoshaba, and Paul and Craig Coughlan. They have set up an intricate web of business relationships which can see workers at the same site, doing the same job, employed by different legal entities in a reminder of the notorious Patrick arrangement, green-lighted by the Howard Government.
Metro companies were involved in a spectacular dispute with the CFMEU four years ago. Workers and students picketed Woolworths stores to prevent the company dumping regular employees in favour of labour hire casuals.
Two years ago, sacked AMWU members struck and picketed for months before winning reinstatement and significant financial compensation.
The workers will consider whether they will be able to meet the demands from the upcoming Rugby World Cup and call for details on how Moore-Wilton will gain personally from cutting 160 of the 400 jobs at the airport.
The job cuts will impact on airport maintenance, including those responsible for lighting runways, administration and general security.
The Airport was privatised 12 months ago, with new owners Macquarie Bank head-hunting Moore-Wilton from the Prime Minister's Department to help meet a promised $380 million first year profit.
CPSU spokeswoman Larissa Andelman says workers deserve to know the terms of Moore-Wilton's deal with the Sydney Airport Corporation.
"If our members are losing their jobs so that Max the Axe gets a pay bonus it is totally unacceptable," Andelman says.
"Airport management has been open about the fact that the profit targets are driving the cuts, rather than any problem with the existing workforce.
"The public should be concerned that jobs cuts, with the potential to impact on public safety, are being proposed purely to satisfy shareholders."
AMWU state president Tim Ayers says the timing of the cuts could not be worse, at a time when the performance of Sydney's tourist gateway is under the microscope.
"We find it amazing that at a time when Sydney Airport will be asked to cater for the biggest influx of tourists since the 2000 Olympics, wholesale job cuts are on the table," Ayers says.
"The airport only functioned during the Olympics thanks to the goodwill of the workforce, who worked through breaks and agreed to overtime to deal with the huge passenger load.
"If Max the Axe is not going to treat his workers with respect, they may not be prepared to go the extra mile for him."
That claim is one of a number of Channel Seven demands behind the breakdown of EBA negotiations with the MEAA and CPSU, representing more than 1000 workers.
Channel Seven wants employees' rights to put grievances before the IRC written out of the document. Instead, it argues, they should pay for an independent mediator and, if that fails, the final decision should rest with the company's own Human Resources Department.
Unions have had the network in front of the Commission on a number of issues in the last 18 months, including its application of holiday and redundancy entitlements.
It also bowled up a three percent pay offer, on basics rather than paid rates, which it can unilaterally revise down during the life of the agreement.
Channel Seven contracted an outside lawyer to work up a draft agreement and has refused to negotiate on anything falling outside its scope.
The last two-year agreement expired in July, 2002, and employees are still waiting for any improvement on wages or conditions.
Seven has wrapped its proposal into a non-union agreement and, last week, upped the stakes in its bid to prevent unions having meaningful contact with their members on the issue.
Seven took the MEAA before the Federal Court, alleging a telephone survey of its members attitudes to the proposal amounted to "unlawful coercion". The case was adjourned after the company told the judge it wanted to call an "expert witness" who could give evidence on the effect of such questioning on a "timid man".
MEAA assistant national secretary, Mark Ryan, called Seven's court action "an absolute try-on".
"I haven't found too many timid people in the world of commercial television," he said.
"We asked exactly the same question that is asked in Newspoll surveys. We had quite a good relationship with Seven up until last year. This bargaining round has marked a real change of approach by the company."
Voting on the non-union proposal closes on Monday and the result should be known on Wednesday.
As Morris McMahon workers celebrate their victory, unions are questioning the timing of the release of damaging video evidence from the picket line.
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Johnson took strong exception to a series of Sydney Morning Herald attacks on unionists' behaviour at the Morris McMahon picket line, not least because the paper wrote nothing while workers picketed for 17 weeks to resist attempts to force them onto AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements).
In the second of an ongoing series of articles on Sydney unionists who supported the low-paid strikers, the paper fingered Johnson as having been present when Sutton spat at and rocked a company vehicle, during a picketline confrontation.
"I am sure it has not escaped anyone's attention that the article was published at the time when the dispute had been resolved in favour of the workers," Johnson said.
"It was no coincidence that it made no reference to the outcome of the dispute after some four months of struggle, nor to the defeat of the Howard Government's agenda to force workers into signing Australian Workplace Agreements when they were seeking a collective, union negotiated agreement."
"My union does not support violence but it does support me backing the rights of low-paid workers to negotiate a collective agreement."
Johnson said that after being "exposed", along with several other prominent trade unionists, he took heart from the headline - Who's Who of the Union Mob.
"Actually, I was quite chuffed," he said, "I thought, at last I've made it."
While Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott, whose office distributed picket line footage to media outlets, concentrated his fire on Sutton, other Cabinet Ministers used Herald articles to spread the attack around the movement.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson singled out Johnson and called on the Labor opposition to denounce the Teachers Federation for its presence on the picketline.
The Teachers Federation secretary finished with a jibe at Government-supported mercenaries who had been trained in the Middle East to scab on unionised workers.
"I will tell you why we were named in that newspaper," Johnson said, "because we never tried to hide our identities. We don't wear balaclavas and we don't have Alsatian dogs."
Members of the AWU and AMWU slammed the gates behind EDI Rail CEO, Danny Board, in a bid to convince him he should stick around and deal with their grievances.
Several hours later the meeting between the company contracted to build undercarriages for State Rail's controversial Millenium Trains, and its 90-strong workforce, was still in progress.
AWU state secretary, Russ Collison, hailed the development as "positive".
"The workers aren't being aggressive," he said. They won't force him to stay if he really doesn't want to address the issues but we think he has come to understand how important these matters are.
"More than anything, these workers want to go back to the job and we hope the company wants that to happen as well.'
NSW Labor Council, state Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca, unions and company representatives were scheduled to get together again in Sydney this afternoon.
Bathurst workers have been striking for a fortnight in a bid to force EDI to give some guarantee on the future of their jobs, and protect entitlements.
Critical Government comments about EDI's performance have raised serious questions about the contract and whether or not owed entitlements are safe.
Collison said any loss of work for EDI would have a "potentially disastrous" effect on the state's drought-ravaged central west.
Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, said Government, given its relationship with EDI, had "at the very least, a moral obligation" to ensure the company bargained in good faith.
by Carly Knowles
The producers have indicated they will break ranks with a regime that sees actors receive as little as the daily rate of $164.23 even though they often need to be on call for weeks at a time.
They are not told the exact shoot dates and times in advance, which means they cannot seek additional paid work.
This means some actors earn as little as $11,000 per annum, even though the job is stressful when all of their scenes are crammed into one day.
Both RB Films and Go Big Films & TV have "agreed in principal" to the union's claim for a $700 a week minimum, says MEAA spokesperson Simon Whipp, but finer details are still to be finalised.
They have also agreed to allow actors to share in the net profits of successful sales after five years, instead of seven.
Whipp says he is "delighted" at the recent success for the eight-month-old campaign, which continues to fight for a better deal for actors across the whole industry.
Reg Bartley, the lawyer who exposed immigration rorts at Manly eatery Ribs and Rumps, has written to Ruddock urging him to write meaningful sanctions into regulations that allow companies to import guest labour.
Bartley tells the Minister his three Ribs and Rumps clients were paid $150 each from the till, despite their employer having told Immigration, in writing, that they had skills unavailable in Australia and would each receive annual salaries of $49,700. When they sought wages they had been promised, Bartley says, they had to resign and were subsequently sent home because that situation put them in breach of visa conditions.
"It was a dreadful ending for three people who had worked hard in Australia for four years, been excellent citizens and done nothing wrong," Bartley says.
Bartley says that while Government has established minimum wages in regulation, neither it nor any department does anything to enforce it.
If lawyers or trade unions act to try and ensure immigrants on controversial 456 (short term) or 457 visas are paid correctly, they are invariably sacked or forced to resign. Bartley says the only sanction enforced by Government officials is revocation of the visa which effectively penalises the ripped-off worker, rather than the errant employer.
His concern relects that repeatedly raised by CFMEU secretary, Andrew Ferguson, who argues that Government is turning a deliberate blind eye to illegal workers as part of its campaign to undermine Australian wages and conditions.
The CFMEU has taken to muscling employers into back-paying arrears to guest workers around Sydney, rather than going through official channels because of the danger of double jeopardy.
While dozens of documented cases in the hospitality and construction industries have failed to move the Minister, Workers Online understands a couple of extraordinary cases, raising allegations of rorting by religious employers, are being prepared for the courts.
One involves a Hindu a priest and the other, a Jewish rabbi, both brought to Sydney under guest labour conditions.
Bartley suggests the increasing and systematic exploitation of guest labour evident under the current system, could be addressed relatively simply if Government had the will. The following administrative changes are reccommended in his letter to Ruddock ...
- that provision be made to enforce payment of the salary provided for by Ministerial Notice
- that action be taken to enforce salaries provide for by regulation
- that all workers on 456 or 457 visas be personally notified by the Department of their salary entitlements
- that DIMIA inspectors, checking the operation of guest labour visas, do more than just inspect the passports of employees
- that methods of compliance be revamped to actually check the remuneration of guest workers
- that sponsoring employers be required to lodge a "substantial" bond or deposit to ensure their compliance
In a breakthrough that sets the scene for NSW unions' push on state government purchasing policy, the South Bay Labour Council is redefining the way public spending decisions are made.
Amy Dean, in Australia to promote her Council's Union Cities program, highlighted the political achievements as key to a new and broader union agenda aimed at linking workers with the broader community.
"In San Jose, which is the sort of capital city of Silicon Valley we've been able to win a seven seat majority. Now that we have a strong majority on the city council," Dean says.
"We're moving forward a public policy initiative that is very innovative. It calls for a series of social standards to be met anytime local government makes public investments."
Under the initiative any time government uses its public resources on a development there are criteria that call for the jobs that get created to be union jobs with healthcare attached to them. If its a mixed use land project that must be affordable housing components to the job.
"We aren't just looking to get good people elected to say OK we've got labour friends here; but we really are using that portable base to advance our social agenda," Dean says.
Dean addressed a range of forums in Sydney, including a meeting of affiliated unions and a forum of community groups.
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson says the experience of workers in the Silicon Valley will provide valuable lessons in the lead up to the ALP State Conference, where unions will push the government to ensure all firms with government contracts allow their workforce to organize.
by Carly Knowles
NSW Labor Council Secretary, John Robertson, says a quality public transport system might need fare increases but they should not be "significantly higher" than CPI movements.
In addition to general increases, a proposed 'congestion tax' would see peak-hour travelers charged higher rates.
"Most people who commute during peak hour are workers. It is absurd to suggest that workers have the choice about when they start and finish work," Robertson says.
President of the United Services Union, Michael Want, says the increases would "force workers and their families onto already overcrowded roads and put pressure on the public transport system through a drop in patronage."
"This council will seriously consider taking a case before the state industrial relations commission for a wage increase for people who are required to travel to work for those increases above the CPI," Robertson said.
This week's arson attack on a Brisbane Centrelink office followed hard on the heels of an incident in Adelaide where police used capsicum spray to restrain a man.
During the attack at Inala, near Brisbane, a man doused a number of desks in flammable liquid and set them alight. The office was evacuated but three people were injured and furniture and carpets were damaged.
CPSU national president Mark Gepp said the incident highlighted growing problems with Centrelink security.
"People who were there said it was a miracle that there were not more serious injuries or even a fatality," Gepp said.
"Not a week goes by without some sort of potentially dangerous incident occurring. Centrelink staff have been assaulted and spat on. Office equipment and computers have been hurled around the workplace.
In the Adelaide attack, one Centrelink worker was taken to hospital for treatment and another was treated on-site by ambulance officers.
Yesterday a Wollongong child support worker was threatened in the street, prompting management to advise staff not to wear their Centrelink ID off site.
Dozens of Save Medicare activists from PHHAMAQ, the Queensland umbrella group uniting consumers, unions, health care workers and community organisations, will rally outside the refurbished Lang Park, asking footy fans to sign petitions.
PHHAMAQ spokesperson, Beth Mohle, confirmed supporters bearing petitions would be outside and inside the ground.
The move follows overwhelming support from Brisbane rugby league supporters for last year's nurse's wage claim. Prior to 2002's first State of Origin encounter, more than 5000 people added their names to a nurse's petition with, at one point, the state premier's car being held up by people queueing to sign.
PHHAMAQ has identified inadequate public hospital funding, the undermining of bulk billing, co-payments, and increasing out-of-pockets expenses as key planks in the Prime Minister's campaign to undermine Medicare. There is also widespread concern amongst public health supporters about the billions of dollars being sucked out of the system each year by Federal Government's private healthcare rebates.
Mohle called on Queenslanders opposed to US-style health care to contact PHHAMAQ with personal accounts of how they have been disadvantaged by the drive towards user-pays.
The organisation wants Australians to tell their stories to the Senate Inquiry which will be examining the issue in Brisbane next month.
Kylie Gordon was given the sack ten days after suffering a back injury while stacking shelves in a supermarket
Her union, the SDA, took action in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission claiming it was in breach of the legal requirement that an injured workers can not be terminated within six months. The employer, Kandos Traders, was convicted of a criminal offence and fined $1,300 over the issue.
During the hearing the employer attempted to argue it should be excused from its legal obligations because it was a small business and had no experience in employee relations.
SDA assistant secretary Gerard Dwyer says the case highlights the dangers of the Howard Government's plans to weaken unfair dismissal laws.
The SDA also wants the NSW Government to look at protections for injured workers who require more than six months to recover from their injuries.
The Senate Committee that is considering the Howard Government's Medicare legislation will commence its hearings on Tuesday morning 22nd July in the Jubilee Room Parliament House Macquarie Street.
The SAVE MEDICARE ALLIANCE will hold a rally between 12:30pm and 1:30pm to support universal health care and stop the Howard Government's attacks on Medicare outside Parliament House.
WHEN: Tuesday 22nd July
WHERE: Parliament House, Macquarie St Sydney
TIME: 12:30 - 1:30pm
The Senate Committee is chaired by Sen Jan McLucas (ALP Qld), in addition to our speakers Sen McLucas will be invited to speak.
As signs and banners cannot be taken into the Parliament, the Save Medicare Alliance will arrange to mind and signs or banners during the morning session.
For further information, please contact Bruce Childs , Shane O'Brien 0418 227 997 or the Combined Pensioners and Superannuates (02) 02 9281 3588. Copies of the Leaflet are available at the Labor Council Office Lvl 10/377 Sussex St Sydney.
***************
"The Power - Unionism in Broken Hill
The Broken Hill City Library and the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery are exhibiting artwork from eleven local artists and the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery's Collection from 1 August to 7 September 2003. The exhibition will be held at Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Corner of Blende & Chloride Street, Broken Hill.
The President of the Barrier Industrial Council, Brett Campbell will open the exhibition at 6.30pm followed by Readings by Geoff Goodfellow, renowned Poet and Public Speaker.
Artists featured in 'The Power' are
Wayne Robbie
Deidre Edwards
Howard Steer
Julie Watkins
Robert Groves
Bushy White
Angela Fitzpatrick-Wren
Thalia Robertson
John Lindsay Gregory
Jim Paterson
Siobhan Bailey
'The Power' is an exhibition which celebrates the power and achievement of the Union movement. Particular reference is made to the role of unions in Broken Hill and the influence on labour rights across Australia. The exhibition features works by Roy Dalgamo and the celebrated mural by Noel Counihan on the triumph of the worker. Prints by Mandy Martin, historical na�ve paintings by Sam Byrne and other contemporary images that portray the times, issues and leading individuals that sought the power to change employer's attitudes to the worker. The exhibition explores several major themes, including ...
� � Daughters of the Union
� � The Tom Mann Train -
� � The Outsiders
� � Inequality and Danger."
**************
Rally against loss of freedom
=============================
The Australian and US governments are currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement for completion by the end of the year. The US is targeting Australian social policies, which it views as 'barriers to trade'.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
These include:
Price controls of essential medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Labelling of genetically modified food
Local content levels in Australian film and television
Control over levels of foreign investment in strategic industries
The Senate is holding an inquiry into the Australia-US Free Trade
Agreement and the WTO Agreement on Trade in Services. There will be
public hearings in Sydney on 23 July at Parliament House.
Come to a lunchtime rally in support of the inquiry and to demand
public debate and parliamentary vote on these negotiations.
Where: Macquarie St. Sydney, outside Parliament House
When: Wednesday 23 July at 1pm
Speakers:
Colin Friels, actor;
Doug Cameron, National Secretary AMWU;
Senators on the Committee:
Senator Kerry Nettle, Greens;
Senator Gavin Marshall, ALP; and
Senator Aden Ridgeway, Democrats,
Dr. Patricia Ranald, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
(AFTINET)
For more information contact Louise Southalan, Australian Fair Trade
and Investment Network (02) 9299 7833 or email [email protected]
www.aftinet.org.au
I just got a copy of "British Trade Union Posters," as reviewed by Neale Towart in the April 19, 2002 Workers Online. Excellent book. I'm taking on a similar prohect with US labor graphics - see our collection-level survey at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/~lcushing/LaborGraphicsProject.html
as well as other vestiges of labor culture, like siderwalk stamps
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/~lcushing/Stamps/SidewalkStampHome.html
I'm interested in hearing from any other similar-minded activists and scholars out there. I'd also like to reach author Rodney Mace if anyone knows how.
: Lincoln Cushing
After attempting to resist offering an uneducated and maladroit response to the article '*Blackboard Jungle' in issue 185 of Workers Online, be it a tug of the forelock to my betters or a the usual vernacular spray of the common man, person, I ignored the fear of ridicule and now claim my right to free expression, be it vulgar, uneducated, uninformed, or perhaps only different from the self perpetuating minority of Bull shit artists who generation after generation convince our politicians that they actually know the composition of what emanates from their orifices.
The very first statement presented as if fact by Tony Brown, is that Andrew Refshauges' blueprint for the future is a cynical document.
Now that may be true, but I doubt Tony Brown has discussed this with 'Andrew', so in that case we must regard
� The label given by Tony, is his own perception and reflective of his mind set rather than the Ministers
� Cynicism is a negative and not an attribute such as contempt of ease and pleasure such as disseminated by Antisthenes, this personal antithesis by Tony being understandable; as a cynic is also inherently an anti-intellectual and this is the pedestal of elitism on which Tony stands.
I agree that 'Lifelong Learning' is essentially an organizational restructure , but not aimed at cutting 1000 jobs but using the 'Human Resources ' more effectively and with an outcome rather that a seat warming exercise for the next incumbent and yes of course , as recipients of public largesse ,PSA and Teachers Federation members will be affected.
This is nothing unusual, it is the churning of the workplace that the PSA and Teachers Federation has as an affiliate to other labor organizations stood by and watched while this Socialist Workplace Inquisition and its retributive consequences were applied to other areas under the erroneous premise that education is sacrosanct and teachers/educators no matter how incompetent could continue to suckle on the public teat.
This I must assume is also based on the ancient but also flawed premise that all teachers are competent, with unquestionable integrity and incorruptible. This from 50 years experience of 'Lifetime Learning and two families, I cannot accept, and my own personal experiences belie this premise of a pristine education system or the nature of all those that have a pecuniary gain from it.
Tony , by stating the obvious ; 'Education is a Labor issue' is only valid because it is a national issue , and he then proceeds to push his own wheel barrow in manifesting the arrogance of elitist intellectualism thereby diluting his argument on the issues of TAFE , which is/has been promoted as a Competency Based Training system.
A promotion which I would dispute and could be evidenced through the examination of those pronounced competent through allegedly accredited assessments, within one month of receiving their documentation proclaiming this competence.
To assuage any concerns about this response being an education system bashing exercise, I have with a few personal exceptions, nothing, but praise for the primary and High School component of our education system, and I feel no embarrassment in naming Cambridge Park High as a school that has featured all its priorities in the interests of the students. Sadly when one attempts to access the 'sheltered workshop' of education - "TAFE"- , then alas, if not all, then many of the educators employed by TAFE, that I have encountered, may have a hidden potential or unsurpassed hidden knowledge, but without either the ability, willingness or both to impart this knowledge, they, being those paid to educate, are as useless as a eunuchs testicles, and are for all intents and purposes parasites on the public purse. This abomination is maintained only by politicising their positions; this will eventuate in the unthinkable fruition of education as a 'Public - Private Partnership'.
Society would be better off; if all the paralysis ticks in the education system were hived off with the many productive Australians made redundant in the Socialist Economic Rationalism Campaign of Hawke/Keating/Carr , while the elite , those middle class welfare bludgers , safely ensconced in their Ivory Towers kept their drawbridge up and their portcullis down, painted blood on the lintels and their vivid imaginations giving a false sense of security that 'this too shall pass' and they, the chosen people shall be spared the ravages of The Hawke/Keating initiated economic rationalism policies , policies perpetuated by the Carr/Egan partnership.
These pseudo educators could then gain real life experience on the imparting of knowledge a quantifiable measurement, rather than play with the unquantifiable and obfuscations of 'Pseudo Problem Solving Skills', skills which cannot be measured as they are abilities which only are only truly called upon in times of tribulation not during some role playing exercise with a group of paroxysmal dough whackers attempting to perform mutual obligation upon each other, 'Consenting of Course.
These over paid incompetents would be more effective on a Commonwealth funded Unemployment benefit participating in a 'Work for the Dole' scheme educating or being educated by the unemployed and the unemployable in employment skills or perhaps on how to manipulate the Education system through plagiarised proforma assessments.
This would also be a budget saving for the already overflowing state treasury coffers, as the funding would be derived from the Commonwealth and an abundance of saved revenue which could be put to better use actually producing something, perhaps a new Water storage system which could be privatised prior to the next election to fund the Pork Barrelling exercises which are now expected at every election.
As for education being seen as a way of broadening ones outlook, under the current system, I think not, how could a child educated in "the sheltered workshops of TAFE' have obtained anything but a myopic "counterfeit" outlook of the world, and if it takes a Howard government to stand up to the intimidation of the PSA or the Teachers Federation, then 'So Mote it be'!
Further into his discourse Tony references several non specific sources eg: "all qualitative focus groups", "wealth of documentation" ,"The on lifelong learning from Europe, the UK, and Asia and from supranational bodies such as the EU, OECD, and UNESCO conceive of a new ecology of educational arrangements" , but deliberately and negligently for an academic , fails to provide a bibliography from which he sources it , now that may be acceptable for an intellectual derelict such a shadow as myself being cast in , but not one with such credentials as Tony.
The Lifelong Learning that postulates a broad and deep commitment to education and learning can only be personal and familial and what relationship this bears on the distrust of politicians is still vague and opaque to me.
I am open to new thought on education, not only the issues I have raised but specifically, as to an explanation ; as to how children over board and weapons of mass destruction are related to a Lifetime of Learning or support for Labor on Education , this connection has me baffled and I support Labor, or am I not important?
Tony states "Only that education contributing directly to economic productivity has been prioritized and learning for pleasure, social, civic or aesthetic purposes has been dismissed or downplayed. "
There are certain realities in this Universe which are immutable and competition which was embraced by Socialist politicians and the Union Movement is the new reality and currently immutable, so education must be focussed on how this will evolve and how to use this tool of commerce.
Tony while advocating a holistic embrace of society in the learning process restricts his own terms of reference to "learning pedagogies", a restrictive definition which by its very meaning excludes those other than the"child" or "child like" and while I personally find this learning easy and simple most adults do not, therefore is exclusive to children and by definition cannot be a process of 'Lifetime of Learning', that is useless future generations will be clones of Peter Pan.
On the other hand "Andragogy " or adult learning would embrace, a well developed sense of ego addressing the prefer to learn if they perceive they are active in the learning process , and to accommodate this the , the knowledge must be either corrupted or perverted to suit the biggest ego in the collective. If not, then this student / learner / educator / teacher becomes disruptive to the process, the consequences being anarchism in the education system. His is a circumstance in which Unions can thrive as they usually attract the pessimist, who is not only quick to expose a difficulty, but create one and at times even turn to religion in prayer for a catastrophe to justify their stand, this was manifest recently during the Excision of Terrorism in the Iraq conflict, where alleged representatives of the people even condemned their own to justify their perversions.
But still refuse as promised to eat their hat! Eh! Tanya..
Tony decries the meagre budget for Adult and Community Education , from the dealings I have had with Adult Education , and they are quite extensive , it is a case of the blind leading the myopic , with the students usually the myopic , as they at least , have the benefit of life experience , and the allegedly educated sponger never having worked , and in fact , this would be part of the new aristocracy where either the youngest children of the powerful were placed in well paid government positions , in the case of TAFE and ACE , is it the placement of the incompetents being placed in these in these positions , and perplex or fudge the assessments to continue justifying their positions?
This creates the perception of a generational acceptance of fraud, which while the nation's borders are closed is successful, but when exposed to a genuine competition, collapses in a heap.
In his last paragraph, Tony questions the integrity of the Minister and the department, and with this I have no disagreement, but I would also question the consistency of Tonys' postulation who has from my perspective written an article not as an objective critique, but to appease his gallery, this being the special interests groups at UTS and it would be much more honest of Tony if he admitted to this political bias.
The recent extravagant claims for a 25% pay rise , being justified only by comparing a teachers salary some years ago as 156% of the average wage , to currently 102% of the average in existing values is a furphy? To quote a recent article in Workers Online issue 182 "The Dead Couple" which mourned the seduction of the 'Harvester Judgement' by -'TINA'-?
It was this Judgement which was based on the facts that a loaf of bread or a pint of milk, in fact all the necessities of life cost all Australians the same, so the claims for more of the bread by many Teachers is 'Plain Greed' and 'Elitism'with the assumption that they are special, when in fact as all current Teachers have been educated in the free system they are double and treble dipping into the public purse.
The whole purpose of society educating its citizens is not, to increase personal wealth or feed the egos of spoilt brats who have always got their way through tantrums, but rather to serve the community, of which the greater number is the Nation.
In short the education budget should focus on; not the funding of personal ambition and or empire building, but education outcomes for those who pay the cost , and if those who have chosen a career in education are dissatisfied with their rewards then they are like all citizens free to pursue their dreams elsewhere .
Those who are currently paying for their education will of course, and with a clear conscience demand from a society, which has begrudgingly gave meagre assistance in their education, their due reward as will undoubtedly be commensurate with their skills and marketing ability.
But it would appear a few selfish free loading bastards in the education system are, to suit their own agenda forcing a fact track of CBT, and by this I refer to not Competency Based Training, but Computer Based Training, which even today could effectively replace face to face teaching in 75% of the education system, this has been tested in several areas, and it works.
This is an area where the Federal and State governments should act as one in the interests of the Nation by redirecting funding to removing all costs from students and or potential students rather than the payment of the dollars screwed from the ever increasing load on the shrinking base of taxpayer to the rapidly increasing education administration.
While I believe Australian egalitarianism is now a myth, and has been since the Whitlam years, the union movement and the Teachers Federation have used it as a tool in gleaning support from an increasingly cynical electorate, and if these teachers and their ilk are permitted to extract more from the public purse at the expense of the rest of society they can never again claim the high this moral ground of being the vanguard or even part of the community.
Call their bluff, and target educators for next years immigration quotas, with some new ideas in our education system, Australia's' fame may no longer lay on the Keating's prophesy of being;
"The Arse end of the World"
Australian unions are bruised and battle weary after spending the best part of a decade slugging it out in the face of a hostile federal government promoting a deregulated labour market where union-busting becomes sound business practice.
But if we reckon life is tough here, try organising in the Silicon Valley, the engine room of the information economy where gold rush capitalism has thrived with massive bounty for the winners and no protection for the rest.
At least it did until South Bay Labor Council president Amy Dean, along with a group of other labor council leaders, embarked on a program to rejuvenate the role of peak union bodies in their communities. They called it Union Cities.
The Union Cities agenda is based on a simple home truth: it is no longer enough to operate industrially. If you organise a workplace, an employer can simply contract out the jobs; if you win a pay rise they'll close the factory; and even you do, what can you offer apart from a meagre leg-up in the constant grind that is modern working life.
Yes, you can organise a single workplace, but until you change the broader context of work in a community you are never really going to improve your members' lives.
So Union Cities began with the simple idea of casting their minds forward a decade and imagining the sort of world they wanted for their members. Having imagined this they then went about mobilising their base to realise their vision.
Unionised workers take action against anti-union employers, recognising they are the greatest threat to their own jobs. They enter the broader political debate, forming alliances with community groups over issues such as transport, housing and planning.
And they hold individual politicians accountable for their decisions, placing real benchmarks on the candidates they support that go beyond the traditional industrial agenda.
Pulling all these threads together, unions create a momentum that transcends any individual workplace.
And the results? In Silicon Valley it's still no workers' utopia, but you have a local council, responsible for most of the service delivery that state governments control here, run by union-endorsed candidates.
Some of the policies they have delivered include: laws that demand the provision of union jobs on council-funded projects; transport policies that focus around the needs of workers; and the highest minimum wage laws in the country.
But they've gone further; because they have a broader social agenda, they have been able to argue for public space and childcare centres to be requirements of all new projects in the Bay area.
And it doesn't stop with government. Building workers are now refusing to work on projects where the development has not guaranteed that service workers on the completed project will have the right to organise. That's solidarity at its most constructive.
As Dean says, these are still the first steps. But if the workers of Silicon Valley can make a biased legal system, disinterested political establishment and hostile employers work for them, there has to be hope for workers in Australian that we too can develop a broader agenda.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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