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Border Protection
The High Court�s decision that Australian labour laws should apply to cargo ships plying our shores could be the first shot in the fight back against the excess of corporate globalisation.
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.
 Legal Missile Holes Ships of Shame
Labour Rights Threaten Trade Deal
Workers Sharpen Community Clause
"Puppet" Sparks Appeals
FiFo, FiFo � Out the Gate We Go
SRA Chief Off The Rails
Qantas: Long Lunches on Rocks
Water Crisis a Mist for Sell-Off
Aussies Enter Karoshi Zone
Combet Flies Ansett Plan
Westfield Workers Seek Clean Start
Rubber Workers Stretch Bridgestone
Workers Art in Broken Hill
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.
Workplace Bullying
Casual TAFE
Wage Rise
The Fifth Column
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News
Westfield Workers Seek Clean Start
Cleaners at Westfield shopping centres have joined a global campaign for justice for workers whose wages leave them struggling near the poverty line.
Twenty-five LHMU Cleaners Union members at the Airport West Westfield shopping centre this week presented the local shopping centre management with a letter demanding that poverty wage workers should be treated with more respect.
The LHMU delegation was part of a growing national union campaign demanding Justice for Westfield Cleaners.
LHMU cleaners at four other Westfield shopping centres in Victoria are doing exactly the same thing handing in letters of demand - at Westfield Doncaster, Westfield Fountain Gate, Westfield Southland and Westfield Bay City.
Among the delegation is Ofelia Beltran, who came to this country 15 years ago in the hope of finding a life better than the one she had known in Manila, in the Philippines.
But Ofelia, 43, and the mother of three teenage children aged 15 to 20, has found only hard work as a shopping centre cleaner at Airport West Westfield.
" Frank Lowy - the billionaire owner of the Westfield Mall chain across the globe - is this year celebrating his 50 year success story as a migrant to this country - the land of the fair-go, " Ofelia says.
" That's great - but my family also wants to make a success of Australia. Mr Lowy and his Westfield chain are not helping us to have an even chance in our fair go society.
Cleaners at Westfield have made a number of demands for the shopping mall operator to :
Adopt a protocol to be put in place for contract changes to preserve the rights of cleaners to keep their jobs with the incoming contractor.
Only engage the services of reputable cleaning contractors (i.e. those that pay Award rates, comply with State Government Legislation, etc.)
Address workload issues, production rates and O.H.& S. issues.
Nominate a contact person within each State from Westfield's who the LHMU can take up issues where cleaning contractors avoid their responsibilities
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Issue 190 contents
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