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Flexing the Muscles
If there was an over-riding mood from this week�s ACTU Congress it was one of pent-up energy, as if the time was fast approaching where the sleeping giant that is the Australian workforce must wake from its slumber.
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.
 Kids Win From Building Stoush
Airline Bombs Staff
Socialists Give Banks a Kicking
Workers Bag Leave Entitlements
Bosses Keep the Merc
Canberra Off The Rails
Australia in Terrorists� Sights
Labor Pledges Taskforce Fight
Unions Go Back To School
Yumaro Shows The Way To Go
Rheem Taps into Lock Out Pattern
100 Stranded in Bass Strait
Call Centre Workers Cash In
If It Looks Like A Duck...
Stellar Dials an Ernie
Activists 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.
Misplaced Trust
A Harsh Lesson
Axe The Max
India On A Dollar A Day
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News
If It Looks Like A Duck...
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has handed down a decision that vindicates the stand taken by workers at Sunnybrand Chickens in an ongoing dispute that involves a management attempt to force workers into working as individual contractors.
The Commission has restored the conditions enjoyed by employees at the Byron Bay chicken boning plant prior to management's attempts to put the boning operators jobs out to independent contract as reported in Workers Online No. 190.
"These independent contractor arrangements are promoted in part to avoid payment of worker's compensation, payroll tax and other benefits of being an employee," says Justin Davis of the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union. "In truth, workers in a factory environment who work as a team under the direction of the company can never be true independent contractors. So let's stop pretending."
"You cannot turn a duck into a chicken by calling it one, and you can't turn an employee into an independent contractor just by changing what they are called."
The matter has been listed for further proceedings in Newcastle on August 26 to arrange arbitration of the dispute.
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Issue 192 contents
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