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
Call Centre Jobs Diverted From Delhi
Public outrage over the export of Australian jobs has led to GE Capital withdrawing a Myer call centre contract from India.
The company's decision to move Myer operations offshore brought howls of protest and featured in a television documentary - Diverted to Delhi. That out-sourcing expose featured Indian workers learning Australian terms and even giving themselves Australian names so they could dupe Melbourne-based customers.
The documentary, which featured both union and customer opposition to the outsourcing of Australian work, brought a strong reaction from Myer customers, leading to the cancellation of the Indian call centre contract.
ACTU call centre campaigner, Belinda Tkalcevic, said the GE Capital move was "particularly disturbing" in the light of the number of call centres pocketing tax-payer funded incentives.
The ACTU call centres union group is seeking support from key politicians for two Bills that would help protect Australian call centre and IT jobs. One would prevent government departments from out-sourcing call centre or IT work overseas and the other would require call centre agents to identify their locations to customers.
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Issue 187 contents
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