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Issue No. 187 18 July 2003  
 
F E A T U R E S

Interview: As They Say In The Bible ...
One the movement�s great characters, Public Service Association general secretary Maurie O�Sullivan, is calling it a day. He looks back on his career with Workers Online.

Industrial: Just Doing It
Sportswear giant, Nike, is the first company to sign off on an agreement that purports to protect Australian clothing workers, wherever they labour, writes Jim Marr.

Unions: Breaking Into the Boys Club
For a 23-year-old woman who has never worked in the trade, recruiting young construction apprentices into the union has its challenges, reports Carly Knowles.

Activists: Making the Hard Yards
Mal Cochrane came to the smoke as part of an Aboriginal avalanche that redefined the face of Rugby League. Today, he serves his community through the trade union movement.

Bad Boss: In the Pooh
What do you give a boss who makes his workers labour in raw sewage? A nomination for the Tonys.

Unions: National Focus
In the national wrap Noel Hester finds a Victorian Misso delo who is redistributing lucre from Eddie McGuire into workers� theatre, South Australian unions taking that Let�s Get Real stuff seriously, an American unionist fronts up at a distinguished �meeting of the brains� in Adelaide and a look at the line up for ACTU Congress.

Economics: Pop Will Eat Itself
Dick Bryan wonders if we can be insured against pop economists promising financial nirvana as well as financial market instability.

Technology: Dean for President
Paul Smith looks at how the internet is helping one Democrat candidate to the front of the primary pack

International: Rangoon Rumble
Union Aid Abroad's Marj O'Callaghan looks at Australia's weak response to developments in Burma.

Education: Blackboard Jungle
Lifelong learning shouldn�t mean cutting jobs, but that's exactly what the Carr Government is proposing, argues Tony Brown

Review: From Weakness to Strength
Labor Council crime-fighter Chris Christodoulou catches up with his boyhood hero, the Incredible Hulk

Poetry: Downsized
Resident bard David Peetz pens the song the Industrial Relations Commission needed to hear

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L A T E S T   N E W S

Authority Shafts Excessive Mine Hours
Tasmanian mine operators have been ordered to reduce working hours on safety grounds by the first legally-binding instruction of its kind in Australian history.

Workplace Standards Tamania has served notice on Barminco, contractor to Copper Mines of Australia, giving it until August 10 to replace 56-hour rosters with ones that don�t generate dangerous levels of fatigue. [full story]

Insurance Quiz: Money or the Baby?
New Dad Graeme Loaney wouldn�t swap the extra half hour a day he gets with baby Callum for quids � literally.

It�s one of the reasons he is sporting a FSU �I Have A Life� sticker and backing workmates� campaign to resist longer working hours Australia�s largest general insurer, IAG, is trying to force on them. [full story]

Monk Lined up with Jihad Masters
What do Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-il and Tony Abbott have in common? All have been fingered as clear and present dangers to Australia�s national security.

Shadow Workplace Relations Minister, Craig Emerson, joined Abbott to the list for the �ideological obsession� which has prevented construction of a new mail screening facility at Melbourne�s Tullamarine Airport, designed to protect national borders. [full story]

Rat in Ranks, Tubner Warns
NSW Treasurer Michael Egan has ratted on Labor Party policy in a shock submission to the Productivity Commission that threatens hundreds of NSW jobs, TCFUA secretary, Barry Tubner, says.

NSW broke ranks with Labor administrations in Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart to throw its weight behind a faster and more complete demolition of protections in the clothing, textile and footwear sector than even the Productivity Commission is suggesting. [full story]

Hard Drug Stance Stoned
A one-strike-and-you�re-out workplace drug and alcohol testing regime would be unfair and self-defeating, according to a pharmacologist recognised by Australian courts as an expert witness.

Dr Judith Perl will tell a transport industry forum in Sydney on Monday that punishment, based on random drug testing, will do nothing to make workplaces safer. [full story]

Vote Snooping Bosses Out of House
Unions are inviting workers to mark the final Big Brother eviction by calling on the Carr Government to ban electronic surveillance in the workplace.

The NSW Labor Council has established a special campaign website where workers can email Premier Bob Carr and Attorney General Bob Debus to act on undertakings made more than two years ago to end electronic monitoring at work. [full story]

ALSO MAKING NEWS

 Termination Battle Hots Up

 US Actors Back Aussie Comrades

 TAFE Students Called to Arms

 Teachers Caught in Family Feud

 Longer Strikes Spark Picket Code

 Max Sets Athens as Airport Standard

 Indigenous First for Construction

 Call Centre Jobs Diverted From Delhi

 Activist Notebook

email workers to a friend latest breaking news from labornet
�The Yanks bring product here that has already made its money in the States at the expense of our own stories,� MEAA member Tony Barry on the day actors took historic action

E D I T O R I A L
Where will it end? Workers drawing limits on how much of themselves they�ll give their boss? Refusing to trade away their lives for a few lousy dollars? Starting to act like social rather than purely economic beings?

Paddy-Whacked

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Cleaning Up
Rabbi Laurie Coskey from San Diego adds her voice to the global campaign for just for cleaners in Westfield malls.

The Locker Room
The Name In The Game
In an age of the sportsperson as celebrity it seems that names are overtaking the games, writes Phil Doyle.

Postcard
The Beach
Southern Thailand�s terrorist activities: facts or fiction asks HT Lee


LETTERS to the Editor
 Feedback on Feedback
 Sid Einfield Would be Proud
 Tom in the Manger
 Sermon on the Mount

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