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Issue No. 188 | 25 July 2003 |
Solidarity Gets Sexy
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
Gloves Off Over Workers’ Rights Win for Victims of Rio Tinto "Blood Sport" League Players Join Union Team Kodak Chops Workers from Picture Nurses Seek Work-Based Elder Care High Tech Pokies Threaten Jobs
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard
Does This Make Me a Raving Trot? More on Bullies And More …
Labor Council of NSW |
News Gloves Off Over Workers’ Rights
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. Emerson pledged Labor would go toe-to-toe with Abbott over every piece of workplace legislation introduced to Federal Parliament. "Our approach will be if it (legislation) comes from Tony Abbott it will be bad and it will be anti-worker," Emerson said. "He is the high priest of the new right. Every word he utters and every breath he breathes is anti-worker." Emerson said a Federal Labor administration would reject Abbott's campaign to strip workers rights by modeling a national workplace regime on the co-operative system operating in NSW. He said NSW offered a climate, fairer to both workers and employers. "We don't see employers rushing down to Melbourne or Adelaide to set up businesses because the system here works well for everybody," Emerson said. Labor would, he promised, build on the NSW legislative base by adding family friendly regulations and legislating to restore the rights of casuals, already stripped away by Abbott or his predecessor Peter Reith. Other Emerson priorities included fighting the Termination of Employment Bill, currently before legislators, and restoring powers to the Industrial Relations Commission. He likened the current industrial relations landscape to a footy match in which administrators had loaded the dice against one team. "This Federal Government has openly sided with one team," Emerson said. "One side has to stand back 10m but the other only has to stand back 5m, one team is allowed to get away with stiff arm tackles and the other isn't. "Worse still, one side has to follow the rules and the rules, themselves, are set down by the other side." Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, welcomed the new approach. He said Abbott's ideological fervour made him a potential political embarrassment. "On the Morris McMahon picketline he was exposed for not even understanding his own legislation," Robertson said. "Someone prepared to take it up to Abbott will expose him, not just as a fraud but as an incompetent Minister."
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