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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.
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
 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
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
Feedback on Feedback
Sid Einfield Would be Proud
Tom in the Manger
Sermon on the Mount
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News
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.
The move shocked TCFUA officials who had spent months lobbying Egan to support them and other Labor Governments with submissions aimed at protecting jobs.
The reasons for being fobbed off became clear when NSW presented submissions contrary to ALP policy which calls for a tariff freeze unless reductions can be proved to be in the national interest.
"This Productivity Commission has been put in place by the Federal Government to throw out the jobs of Australians. In my view, the bastards shouldn't exist and Michael Egan is not much better," Tubner said.
Labor Council will go over Egan's head to seek an urgent meeting with Premier Bob Carr on NSW's decision. The Productivity Commission is scheduled to make a final report to Federal Government on the future of Textile, Clothing and Footwear tariffs by July 31, based on the submissions it has received.
Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian Labor Governments all presented submission that reflected party policy.
Tubner lashed the NSW stand on tariffs as an "extreme ideological one" that, he said, would cost jobs around the state.
"The position to the Productivity Commission on behalf of the NSW Government in fact argues for a faster and more complete dismantling of tariffs and industry assistance than advocated by the Commission itself," Tubner said.
"Even worse, it is completely and totally in contravention of national and state ALP policy.
"The threat to these working Australians demands nothing less than the premier's direct intervention to ensure ALP policy is honoured and NSW jobs preserved."
Tubner pointed out the debate on industry tariffs took place against the backdrop of a Japanese announcement that it would increase tarrifs on Australian goods.
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Issue 187 contents
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