E D I T O R I A L

Hearts, Minds and Other Body Parts
Thanks to advances in technology, workers are being asked to expose more and more of themselves to their employer: their emails, their genes, even their urine.

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

N E W S

Authority Shafts Excessive Mine Hours

Insurance Quiz: Money or the Baby?

Monk Lined up with Jihad Masters

Rat in Ranks, Tubner Warns

Hard Drug Stance Stoned

Vote Snooping Bosses Out of House

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

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

L E T T E R S

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Sid Einfield Would be Proud

On the evening of Monday 31st June, 2003, I was invited by an Energy Company to attend the 6th Birthday celebration of the NSW Electricity and Water Ombudsman. The function comprised participants from the Industry, to the Chair of E.W.O.N. an Ombudsman and more.

Joined by Ministers of the NSW Government, journalists and the CEO's of our Energy Companies, along with past members of the Ombudsman's office, members of Parliament and more, they spoke of the honour and the right of citizens to make complaints against their Utility Companies and have them looked into and have them respected. A short video was shown of migrants and the Aussie battler outlining their concern on the Big Brother attitudes and a Couple of difficulties they had. These people spoke confidently of the way EWON assisted them and how their complaints as consumers had been listened to carefully.

As I sat and watched I remembered as a younger Labor activist in the late 70's and early 80's that I sat on a Labor Party Policy Committee called "Consumer Affairs" that we met regularly with one of the great men of the Labor Party, Sid Einfield, a man that had battled for the working class and also middle class, to ensure they had rights as consumers and those rights respected. Sid to me is one of the great men of Labor. Opposition Leaders and more shook in their boots when Sid walked into the Parliament with his files underneath his arms not knowing what issues could be raised and what scurrilous deeds could be exposed in Parliament. Our Tory mates did not see this as an important role. As I watched and saw the videos I remembered that great man of Labor and thought of how proud he would be I also thought back to my grandfather who was President of the Waverley Branch when a couple of young activists sat in the room called the Einfield. The world's a small place but the rights of the small people are upheld because of the actions of Labor and these great men that walked before us.

When we think of consumer rights and we think of what we now take for granted we spend a thought for the time, effort and issues placed before us in the old Branches of the ALP the struggles that have taken place and those great advocates that were not interested in grand standing for themselves but standing up and saying "it's right to complain" it's right to stand up for those that cannot stand up it's right to create a system where those people's voices will be heard and the little person has a chance to be listened to, be very proud of the issues that we have brought up in the Labor Movement, be very proud of those people that have walked before us, be very proud of Sid Einefield and those that have been part of out great movement - we need them all, for our memory's we need them all, for the future, we need more great Labor men and women.

Greg Mclean

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005