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Issue No. 187 | 18 July 2003 |
Hearts, Minds and Other Body Parts
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
Authority Shafts Excessive Mine Hours Insurance Quiz: Money or the Baby? Monk Lined up with Jihad Masters Vote Snooping Bosses Out of House US Actors Back Aussie Comrades 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
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard
Sid Einfield Would be Proud Tom in the Manger Sermon on the Mount
Labor Council of NSW |
News US Actors Back Aussie Comrades
The news broke as Australia film and television actors gave producers a July 23 deadline to meet their demands or face escalation in a campaign that saw members walk off the sets of McLeod's Daughters, Blue Heelers, Stingers, All Saints, Home and Away, MDA and Neighbours, as well as feature film Strange Bedfellows, this week. Tony Barry, a veteran of 48 feature films and 60 television leads, hailed the spirit and courage of younger performers who backed industrial action. "It is not easy to find it within themselves, the courage to walk out on strike," Barry told NSW Labor Council. "It's a big ask of people who haven't had any work in months." Barry said the vast majority of striking actors were paid well below the average Australian wage and most, whilst commited to their craft, had to find other jobs to survive. He urged Australians to prize their artists, actors, poets and writers, arguing that if producers and networks were allowed to replace genuine culture with "product" everyone would be poorer. "The Yanks bring product here that has already made its money in the States at the expense of our own stories," Barry said. "Don't tell me our work can't make a difference. I understand the power of film and television." Barry played in Scales of Justice a docu-drama that led to the fall of Queensland's Bjelke Petersen Government, and Beyond Reasonable Doubt, a New Zealand movie that preceded the release from prison of Arthur Allan Thomas, wrongly convicted of double murder. Key claims behind this week's 24-hour stoppage include better pay for guest actors, often required for weeks but only paid $162, and improved deals on residuals and repeats. Kevin Harrington, star of The Dish, Sea Change and Neighbours, said his Sea Change girlfriend, Georgina Naidu, was paid only $100 a week for the four weeks her part required, under the current regime.
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