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The Secret Life of Us
The fact that casual workers are too scared to come forward and testify about the need for job security seems to prove their basic point – no matter how long or how well you work, you can never feel safe in your job.
Interview: The New Deal
US union leader Amy Dean expands on her agenda to give unions a real political voice
Unions: In the Line of Hire
Unions have lobbied and negotiated in a bid to stem casualisation and insecurity. Now, Jim Marr, writes they are seeking protection through a formal Test Case.
Culture: Too Cool for the Collective?
Young people are amongst the most vulnerable in the workforce. So why aren't they joining the union, asks Carly Knowles
International: The Domino Effect
An internal struggle in the biggest and strongest industrial union in Germany IG Metall has had a devastating wave effect across not just that country, but also the rest of Europe, writes Andrew Casey.
Industrial: A Spanner in the Works
Max Ogden looks at the vexed issue of Works Councils and the differing views within the union movement to them.
National Focus: Gathering of the Tribes
Achieving a fairer society and a better working life for employees from across Australia will be key themes at the ACTU's triennial Congress meeting later this month reports Noel Hester.
History: The Welcome Nazi Tourist
Rowan Cahill looks at the role Australia's conservatives played in supporting facism in the days before World War II.
Bad Boss: Domm, Domm Turn Around
Frank Sartor might have shot through but Robert Domm still calls the IR shots at Sydney City which pretty much explains why the council is this month’s Bad Boss nominee.
Poetry: Just Move On.
Visiting bard Maurie Fairfield brightens up our page with a ditty about little white lies.
Review: Reality Bites
The workers, united, may never be defeated but if recent episodes of Channel 10 drama The Secret Life Of Us are to be believed, this is not necessarily a good thing, writes Tara de Boehmler.
 Tough Women Draw Line at Sacking
Witness Protection Urged on IRC
Max Swings Axe at Safety
Sick Twist in Drug Testing
Sacked Mum Goes to the Top
Cuts Sour ADB Birthday Bash
Howard Enlists Russians for Military
Vic Workcover Invests in Worker Misery
Public Hole in Power Shortage
Whistleblower Sacking Sparks Zoo Walkout
Truckie With Conscience Wins Back Job
Indigenous Labour honours Tobler
Asbestos Blocks Liverpool Road Works
Activist Notebook
The Soapbox
Fighting Words
Craig Emerson gave what could be the most spirited Labor spray in a decade to the NSW Labor Council this month. Here it is in all its venom. Education
Out of Their Class
Phil Bradley argues that Australia's education system should not be up for negotiation in the global trade talks. The Locker Room
The ABC of Sport
Phil Doyle argues that the only way to end the corporate madness that is sport, is to give it all back to the ABC. Postcard
Locks, Stocks and Barrels
Union Aid Abroad's Peter Jennings updates on the situation in Burma, where the repression of democracy is going from bad to worse.
Bullies in the Ranks
It Is Still About The Members Isn't It
Tom's Purpose
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IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
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Evatt Foundation
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Letters to the Editor
It Is Still About The Members Isn't It
Like lots of other unionists I have been scratching my head trying to figure out why it is that people arent joining unions any more when real wages have gone backwards compared to inflation, the average working week has risen from 38 to 44 hours and Australia has the highest rate of casualisation in the western world.
A quick scan through Greg Mclean's letter to Workers OnLine 18/7/03 made it all pretty clear to me.
Gregs letter is a cracker in singing the praises of the ALP for establishing consumer protection legislation 20 years ago the letter neglects the fact that it is the workers in Ombudsmans offices not the politicians that have to confront the insatiable appetite for profit from these newly privatised and corporatised water, electricity and gas suppliers.
The reality is that private companies and corporatised government agencies either continue to make bigger and bigger profits or they go bust.
Every single state and national government in Australia over the last twenty years has been complicite in allowing these cowboy capititalist to squeeze profit out of tax breaks for industry, workplace productivity at the workers expense and now finally through cost shifting onto consumers.
Indeed it was the Hawke/Keating government that let the genie out of the bottle by trashing what little control the government had over capital markets and throwing open the doors to foreign investment and American corporate culture.
Magazines like Workers Online are one of the very few places that people with jobs can establish a sense of identity as unionists outside an individual work place. It is selling us all short to praise the very same political party responsible for allowing the corporate excess that has seen workers go backwards while the bosses and politicians have never been doing better.
Simon Flynn
FBEU
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Issue 189 contents
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