Workers Online : Issue No. 188, 25 July 2003

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Issue No. 188

25 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

Gloves Off Over Workers� Rights
Federal Labor has identified Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott as a Coalition weak link and will accommodate his desire to lift trade union relevance up the national agenda.

Shadow Workplace Relations spokesman, Craig Emerson, labeled Abbott a "mad right wing lunatic" and "obsessive ideologue" in a stirring address to NSW Labor Council this week. [full story]

Win for Victims of Rio Tinto "Blood Sport"
Australia�s longest-running industrial dispute has ended in success for 16 Queensland miners who stood firm against multi-national giant, Rio Tinto, for five years and four days.

The full bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission today ordered Rio Tinto to give "preference of employment" to the former Blair Athol men at its neighbouring Hail Creek operation. [full story]

League Players Join Union Team
Rugby league players have signalled their determination to secure industrial rights with the National Rugby League, and clubs by officially joining the NSW Labor Council.

Their affiliation as a trade union will give them access to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission as well as assistance from the man who represented the huge workforce for the Sydney Olympics, Labor Council�s Chris Christodoulou. [full story]

The Stack Goes On
Anti-worker activist Colin Thatcher has been appointed to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, sparking charges of partisanship against Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott.

Thatcher cut his IR teeth as a mandarin ushering in controversial changes in NSW, West Australia and Queensland. He was given credit for the WA regime, described in the Murdoch press as the country�s "most draconian". [full story]

Trolley Rort Gathers Pace
Directors of a supermarket supplier that went bust, owing workers $9 million in super and entitlements, are understood to be importing trolleys from China under a different guise.

The Metro Group of Companies went into administration earlier this month, tipping 300 production workers and trades people out of jobs, after a Patrick-style corporate reshuffle that leaves workers and debtors trying to recover money from a range of shelf companies, devoid of assets. [full story]

Allende Comes to Fairfield
The original September 11 terror will be commemorated when Australians mark the 30th anniversary of the military coup in Chile by erecting a statue of murdered president Salvador Allende in Sydney�s Fairfield.

The memorial, organised by Chilean refugees, will highlight US involvement in the violent overthrow of the elected Government and honour those killed, tortured and raped over following years.

[full story]