*****
Wilson "Ironbar" Tuckey is a straight talking man. He is a fearless crusader for the rights of the underprivileged, such as his son.
Ironbar Junior got caught having to obey the law like everyone else and obviously, if you're a Howard minister's son, this simply will not do.
Fresh from his wonderful insight that a lot of bushfires are caused by trees burning Wilson strode to the dispatch box in parliament this week to assure the house that his latest crusade was sparked by his concern for children. Especially his own.
Tuckey the younger had been caught by the highway patrol and so his dad used his ministerial letterhead, as you do, to castigate the South Australian police minister and seek a more appropriate penalty, such as getting off.
Its not the first time that the Federal Minister for His Own Son has come out swinging for family values. A while back he tried to get some tax concessions up for a business that owed his son a few quid.
The slack jawed yokel from Western Australia tapped into the general consensus when he suggested that the ALP's campaign against him was driven by the fact that they hate children.
How long Wilson has been off his medication remains unknown.
Of course, because he hasn't bashed a pensioner or urinated all over the war memorial, Tuckey has not breached either the Howard Government's Ministerial Code of Conduct as enshrined in the Not Nailed Down Act.
In his correspondence Tuckey implied that the South Australian Ministers of the Crown presided over a marijuana crazed administration. The fact that he bothered to make this enlightening allegation on ministerial letterhead would indicate that Tuckey is, in fact, the one who could very well be in an unstable frame of mind.
The question for the Howard government now is not, as some churlish commentators have suggested, whether or not Tuckey should resign. Rather, the question is how does someone as obviously off his rocker as Wilson manage to avoid being incarcerated as a lunatic.
Obviously Tuckey needs help. The Federal government knows that the man could cause untold damage unless trained professionals closely monitor him. What more appropriate institution could their be for Tuckey to receive the co-counselling he so sorely needs that in the company of the other tragic victims of their own delusional psychoses that he will find in the Federal cabinet.
Our Tool Of The Week's shameful wringing of hands in parliament this week shows that he knows he has done a very bad thing. Not that Wilson has a problem with using his bully boy letterhead tactics, it was getting caught that upset Tuckey
Mayor Genia McCaffrey attended a meeting of building worker delegates this week to thank them for blocking a challenge to community levies flagged by upmarket developer, Platino Properties.
"The developer has withdrawn the Section 94 case and is paying the levy, thanks to the support of the CFMEU," McCaffrey reported.
"This was not just the action of an individual developer. It was to have been a test case for the property industry which wants to get rid of Section 94 levies.
"If it wasn't for the intervention of the union our council would have found itself in court, and, unfortunately, court cases can be a lottery.
"The CFMEU met the developer and put him on notice that if he didn't pay up he would face strike action."
Platino Properties went public, two weeks ago, with its intention to challenge the legality of community levies, struck by councils around NSW to finance such things as parks, childcare centres, libraries and, in the case of North Sydney, low-cost rental housing.
Section 94 levies are advertised and publicly exhibited before being voted on as part of council procedure. Once adopted, funds have to be directed to earmarked projects.
The charges are levied on commerical developments, on the basis of the number of rooms, or sites, being constructed.
The North Sydney mayor said Platino's objection to the $815,000 levy on its multi-unit development at Milson's Pt was a threat to local government services, across the state.
"Without a significant increase in rates, councils could not cope with delivering the services we are required to without them," she said.
CFMEU members struck for 24 hours on the Platino Properties site before giving the company seven days to pay the levy. Seven days later, Platino confirmed it was withdrawing its action in the Land and Environment court.
Workers Online understands NSW Local Government Association president, Sara Murray, is writing to both the CFMEU and Labor Council, thanking them for supporting the levy.
CFMEU secretary, Andrew Ferguson, said his organisation was pleased to be able to assist the community.
"It's a continuation of the Green Ban tradition of the 1970s," he said. "In this case, using union strength to help big developers face up to some of their social reponsibilities."
A guest at last week's CFMEU delegates meeting was former BLF secretary, Jack Mundey, the man who led the famous Green Bans credited with saving much of NSW's urban heritage.
Mundey was on hand to receive a Gold Badge for service to building workers.
The company has put a six-month hold on its multi-million dollar development at Coward St, Botany, as it embarks on another round of cuts, marked by job losses, casualisation and the use of US-trained scabs.
Construction industry sources confirm that foundations have been laid at Coward St but that, in a highly unusual move, Quantas has put a halt to building work that might draw attention the development.
The move came just days before the airline backed a $352 million first half profit announcement with plans to slash jobs and employee security.
TWU baggage handlers struck this week when the company brought in labour hire employees from Blue Collar but were forced back to work by an AIRC order.
Qantas has announced that if will hire no further permanent baggage handlers and the ACTU says it has been notified that it wants up to 45 percent of its workforce on casual terms.
Next the airline announced a new, no-frills domestic carrier, opening the way to slash wages and use contract, part-time or casual staff.
Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon, has confirmed his intention to increase non-permanent labour to 25 percent of the company's workforce over the next two years.
Dixon would not deny his new IR regime would be underpinned by the use of strike breakers the company had trained in Los Angeles.
There have also been rumours of wage cuts backed by a strategy that would see Qantas play unions off against one another by offering a rails run to the one prepared to settle on lowest pay rates.
Unions see the baggage handlers' issue as the first step in Qantas moves to spread casual, insecure employment across a workforce that currently stands at 34,000 people.
ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, said increase casualisation would inflict lower living standards and deny staff a range of entitlements, including holiday pay and sick leave.
As the Howard administration tries to undermine industry super funds by the back door, the latest performance analysis shows trade union-backed industry funds wiping the floor with with private enterprise competitors.
New figures from Super Ratings reveal that, in the five years to June 30, every one of Australia's 10 top-performing super schemes was an industry fund.
The average industry fund returned 5.5 percent a year, nearly double the 3 percent margin for retail funds and master trusts.
Leading business commentator, Alan Kohler, summed up the implications, this week, in a column headed "Socialists beat capitalists - by about $100bn".
"There's an awkward secret at the centre of Australia's superannuation system: the socialists are winning," Kohler wrote.
"Looked at another way, the failure of Australia's banks and private master trusts to beat the union-linked industry funds on investment performance is close to being a national scandal. Those people being herded into retail funds by their employers are losing a fortune because their trustees are not making the decisions that count."
Yet Federal Government, paranoid about the size and success of industry funds, has moved again to open them to contestability.
After repeated failure to get enabling legislation through the Senate, Canberra is now moving to change the rules by regulation, something the Labor Party has pledged to fight.
Industry funds not only offer better returns but significantly cheaper entry and administration fees.
Union industry funds representatives fear those facts will be drowned, if Government has its way, as banks and other financial institutions pour millions of dollars into glossy advertising campaigns.
"It's rather ironic," Kohler writes "when you consider the main concern in the late 1980s and early 1990s when (Paul) Keating and (Bill) Kelty were extending the nanny state to savings was that the union-dominated funds would either by hopeless or waste our money on socialist causes."
Meanwhile, the ACTU has flagged a campaign to eventually lift employer super contributions to 15 percent.
The "superannuation safety net" policy will kick off with job-by-job demands for contributions to be raised from nine to 10 percent in the next round of enterprise bargaining.
ACTU delegates endorsed the campaign at last week's triennial conference in Melbourne.
Delegates endorsed a platform that recognises portability of entitlements as an objective of all enterprise agreements, meaning workers could pool leave over a number of different jobs.
The policy is seen as a key way that casual and short term workers can acquire the right to long-term leave and career breaks, a right full-time workers automatically accrue after ten years.
Under the ACTU proposal workers who change jobs within ten years would be able to take the accrued leave with them, keeping it a trust fund. After ten years in the workforce, they would be able too draw on the leave.
In a rare show of unity the AMWU and AWU co-sponsored a series of Amendments to the Wages and Collective Bargaining Policy and the Employee Entitlements Policy.
Congress heard a variety of reports highlighting the growing proportion of workers with no access to any paid sick or holiday leave. The extension of portability schemes to various industry sectors is now part of the broader push by unions to establish new family friendly employment standards that assist workers in a deregulated environment.
Service to an industry rather than an individual employer is now being seen as a necessary response to the flexibility of employment that is now an unwanted but inherent part of today's labour market.
CEO of the National Entitlements Security Trust Andrew Whiley applauded the new direction.
"NEST has the capacity to administer diverse sector and industry based portability schemes," Whiley says. "We have a state of the art platform for unions and employers to use in developing such schemes."
"As a non-profit national Trust Fund we are well placed to advise and assist industrial parties in negotiating the introduction of such schemes."
"Portability schemes are well suited for industries with seasonal or cyclical work patterns, high use of labour hire, and service industries with regular turnover of contracts or high labour mobility." Mr Whiley said.
Whiley says the construction industry provides a good example of how well run portability schemes with joint employer and employee participation and governance can benefit all parties"
Barton MP, Robert McClelland, told the House of a complex web of asset protection schemes put in place by Sydney businessmen Paul, Craig and Jason Caughlan before they claimed their companies could not pay $9 million owed to 300 employees.
Included in that figure was $800,000 in superannuation which they had sat on for at least a year.
"In the months before the administration, Paul Caughlan and his sons, Craig and Jason, transferred their employees to subsidiaries that had no assets," McClelland said.
"In the weeks before the administration, Paul Caughlan and his sons presented a financial report which said the subsidiaries had promised not to call on the holding company should they themselves collapse.
"In the hours before Metro Group collapsed, Paul, Craig and Jason Caughlan spirited their luxury cars away from the family's million-dollar waterside mansion at Burraneer Bay."
With that scheme in place, he revealed, they sat down and negotiated an enterprise agreement with the AMWU, without mentioning imminent administration.
In an aggressive public campaign that union has been demanding significant changes to corporate governance so directors of failed companies who act improperly are made responsible for their losses, and prevented from operating other businesses unless they can prove they were not culpable.
Workers Online understands the majority of workers who lost employment at Metro Shelf were Vietnamese Australians.
The company had a history of industrial disputes, with the CFMEU, AWU and the AMWU.
"Australians are entitled to ask why, after nearly eight years of John Howard's government, so many hard-working battlers can go to work one morning to find that, without warning, they have lost everything - their income, accrued entitlements, superannuation even payroll deductions to health funds and the Child Support Agency," McClelland said.
"Why is it that these honest Australians worry about how to pay the mortgage, support the family and put the kids through school while those they trusted to run the company appear to have amassed a fortune and placed it beyond the reach of the law?"
The AMWU is investigating claims that another company associated with the Coughlans is importing low-cost supermarket equipment from China.
State Rail, in contravention of its EBA, failed to consult with workers before making the decision. Management also thumbed their noses at a proposal by rail workers that would have seen the service continue.
Brendan Sears, a State Rail employee and On Board Services Secretary of the RTBU, was at the platform at Sydney's Central Station when services were suspended last week. He was doing everything he could, in his own time, to get the services running.
"We are committed to this service,' says Sears. "It's frustrating that State Rail management don't share the same enthusiasm."
"It's a classic case of mismanagement," says the RTBU's Jamie Clements. "We've been pointing out for eight months the problems with onboard services and we've been ignored."
State Rail employees now face being placed on standby pay rates and many other inconveniences through no fault of their own. Workers had offered a solution of adding cars to the Melbourne service but this was rejected by State Rail management.
Morrie Mifsud, President of the NSW Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA) slammed the management decision as "harebrained". He pointed to the problems this decision would create for the many elderly patrons of the Canberra service as well as the bad effect the decision would have for the environment.
"That the national capital should not have a rail service to its major economic capital is cloud cuckoo land," says Mifsud. "We utterly and completely support any campaign to restore the service."
"We thoroughly condemn the closure of the service," says his colleague Bill Wiley.
RTBU members are considering stop work action over the decision.
The NSW Labor Council has recommended that State Rail adopt the proposals raised by the RTBU.
The country comes in at 38 on a list of 186 countries assessed by the World Markets Research Centre, London-based analysts whose clients include governments and multinational corporations.
Neighbour and longtime ally, New Zealand, was ranked "low risk" and filled 125th place on the Centre's list of nations vulnerable to terrorist attack.
"Australia has no history of domestic terrorism, but gains a medium-high rating because of the potential threat of a large scale attack prompted by its high-profile involvement in the war on terror," research director, Guy Dunn, told Workers Online from London.
Although the possibility could never be discounted, he said, "New Zealand is unlikely to be at risk from a terrorist attack, despite its close affiliation with Australia".
Authors of the study say the US is "highly likely" to face another terrorist assault within the coming 12 months.
They ranked Washington's highest-profile ally in the war against Iraq, Britain, the world's 10th most vulnerable target.
Similar-sized European powers, France and Germany, both of which opposed the Iraq war, are ranked 23rd and 41st.
Each country was scored out of 10 over five criteria - the motivation, capacity and presence of terrorist groups; potential damage which could be inflicted; and the effectiveness of counter-terrorism forces.
Colombia, Israel and Pakistan filled the first three positions on the ladder with the US occupying the fourth rung.
Colombia earned its pre-eminence as home to extremely active right wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerilla groups.
"Military solutions and attempts at peace negotiations have had, and will continue to have, little effect in the short term," the report warns.
The full Global Terror Index 2003/4 study can be purchased from World Markets Research Centre for $2300, the principal reason Workers Online chose, instead, to interview one or the researchers.
Workplace Relations Shadow, Craig Emerson, gave that assurance to ACTU congress delegates in an address which argued the $60 million Cole Royal Commission was a political witch-hunt.
"Labor will oppose Tony Abbott's provocative, one-sided legislation scheduled for parliament next month, because we see no fairness in singling out workers in one industry for a harsh and oppressive set of rules that go well beyond what applies to the rest of the workforce," Emerson said.
"Australians have every reason to fear that the Howard Government has in mind not a watch dog but an attack dog - a coercive regulator, programmed with this Government's ideological values, intruding on the scene to inflame disputes."
Emerson argued that the only passage to change in the building industry was "co-operative reforms" that involved state governments, employers, relevant unions and the ACTU.
The Prime Minister, Emerson said, drew on embarrassing experiences of 25 years ago, with the Costigan Royal Commission, when, as Treasurer, he had to be dragged "kicking and screaming" before Parliament to legislate against rampant tax evasion, involving prominent Liberal Party supporters.
"Answer: a Royal Commission into unions, but one that is heavily biased - a Royal Commission into the building industry with skewed terms of reference, a skewed commission with skewed inquiry processes.
"He didn't want a Royal Commission delving deeply into tax scams in the building industry.
"And the Government did not want to alarm employers, so Tony Abbott wrote a letter of comfort, providing an assurance that the Commission was not enquiring into any particular company, and that the focus of the inquiry would be on the unions," Emerson said.
He described the Workplace Relations Minister as a "zealot" for handing over taxpayer money to anti-CFMEU witnesses convicted of dishonesty and described by a judge as "reprehensible" and "deceitful".
Labor, he pledged, would not allow Abbott to use construction industry legislation as a beach head for a second wave of industrial changes aimed at stripping away remaining protections for all Australian workers.
The move was welcomed by NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson, who believes that teaching about the history and role of unions will help people understand what unions have done for Australian society.
"It's also about telling young people about their rights,' says Robertson.
The change to the syllabus comes after a 15 year campaign by the NSW Labor Council to include unions as part of a curriculum that supports Vocational Education in Schools in the Work Education Syllabus in NSW.
"In a democratic society like ours its hard to read anything about the history of commerce without mentioning trade unions,' says NSW Teachers Federation industrial officer Peter Walsh.
Apart from the academic side the education will also have a practical effect with Walsh pointing to the number of existing school aged workers.
"We already have instances where kids are doing shifts where they should be studying for important exams," says Walsh. "The kids don't really know their rights are and how to stand up for them.'
The situation was brought home for Walsh with his own son employed as a supermarket casual. He was able to exercise his OHS rights but saw other instances where people were pressured to perform activities that were clearly outside the award.
By Year 10 many students are about to enter the workforce and education about the Industrial relations system takes a practical dimension. Young workers and those entering the workforce will now be able to learn where and how they can access information and assistance if they have problems in the workplace.
The education will be able to show that unions play a role not only in the workplace but in the broader community.
Teachers have been involved in the process and they have evaluated this project as something that has not only been useful for all teachers who are teaching these subjects but as great professional development.
The Labor Council, and the education unions have also committed their own money into the project.
Yumaro Industries' has "gone from strength to strength" as a result of a deal that delivered substantial pay rises and improvements to conditions, even for non-disabled staff. It was the third EBA at the Yumaro enterprise.
The business, which provides employment for intellectually handicapped people on the south coast of NSW, had been struggling before a cooperative effort from staff, union and management delivered an EBA that is now seen as a model for other similar enterprises.
"Because they've cooperated with the union we're all pulling in the same direction," says TCFUA organiser Kathy Price "Yumara was doing really badly. Now they're looking at expanding. Because of the EBA they've been able to access all sorts of funding. A lot of sheltered workshops are now asking about getting EBAs."
The TCFUA, by putting the interests of disabled people first, saved the business rather than letting it close its doors. With its expansion Yumaro is now able to help an increasing number of intellectually handicapped people and their families.
The EBA has also established a collective environment amongst the employees, including passionate and committed delegates. The skills that they have are now being recognised.
Frustrated AMWU officials say the "pattern tactic" is used by all large companies represented by the Australian Industry Group (AiG).
Rheem this week announced the lockout of 330 Sydney workers agitating for security of entitlements in the wake of fellow workers being dudded millions of dollars by recent collapses, including HIH, Ansett and Metro Shelf.
The company is refusing to provide security of entitlements, and won't discuss a range of other issues including paid maternity leave.
Rheem workers responded by picketing the Rydalmere site, and holding rolling stoppages.
The pattern resistance being encountered by the AMWU is being encouraged by Government policies that remove independent arbitration from the industrial repertoire.
Encouraged to slug it out on the job, several companies have opted to work thousands of workers out for lengthy periods.
Sydney's Morris McMahon picket hit the headlines after the company locked union members out for 14 weeks and Victorian workers are still resisting lengthy stand-downs at Melbourne and Geelong.
Some TCFUA members at Geelong Wool Combing have had to put their homes up for sale after going without pay for 14 weeks, while ACI, at Box Hill, has had its agenda resisted for 16 weeks.
Esso has rejected written and verbal requests to return the workers, rostered to return to the mainland on August 21, to helicopter them back to shore.
"Our members are being held offshore against their wishes and that is unacceptable," AWU national secretary Bill Shorten said.
"Esso is seeking to cut air fuel costs at the expense of our members' safety and family lives."
Enterprise bargaining negotiation broke down after contractors sought to extend the roster pattern from seven day on and seven off, to 14 days on and off. Shorten said they were "encouraged" in that stand by Esso.
Direct employers of rig construction workers involved in industrial action include Worley ABB and Kellogg Brown and Root.
An Esso spokesperson said workers on the Bass Strait rigs were not being replaced because industrial action, over EBA claims, meant the platforms would have to be closed down.
Until now the contract call centre workers have been among the worst paid and worst treated of any employees working in Australia's fastest growing industry (call centres now employ around 350,000 people.)
Under the award, contract workers will receive penalty rates for work performed between 7pm and 7am Monday to Friday. In one company, workers estimate they will be about $1,000 per annum better off.
The new award also includes:
* casual loadings of 20% for the first 12 months of the award, then
* rising to 25%
* overtime rates and shift loadings
* safe travel home allowance
* notice of roster changes for employees
* recognition of trade union delegates and training
* a six level career structure
* improved minimum wage rates linked to skills and qualifications
To date, Australia's national contract call centre industry has been largely unregulated with contract workers receiving worse wages and conditions than their counterparts performing exactly the same work in-house.
This award will provide a consistent national safety net of wages and conditions for all contract call centre workers across Australia.
The new award is supported by the Australian Industry Group and will apply to three of seven major employers. The ACTU and unions will continue to negotiate with the remaining four employers over next few weeks.
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.
The annual award for Excellence in Sexism was announced in Sydney where Prime Minister, John Howard, picked up his fourth Clinton gong.
Broadcaster, Ron Casey, took out the Media Ernie for the following: "A second rate politician with a first rate publicity stunt. I mean, how else could a member of the Lower House of Victorian State Government get her name and boobies splashed all over the national press?"
Other general category winners were: Damir Docic (sport), Judge Roddy Meaher (judicial), and Neil Perry (culinary).
ABC host Sally Loane snaffled the Elaine for the remark least helpful to the sisterhood, while business consultant, Mark Holden, won the ANON, for boys behaving better.
TAMPA DAY CANDLELIGHT VIGIL
from 5:30pm, Friday 29th August
outside Gordon Library
Pacific Hwy Gordon
A vigil for those who can make it to Ku-ring-gai to express our opposition to the Government_s handling of refugee issues since the Tampa was refused entry into Australian waters in our country's darkest military operation two years ago. Contact Susie Gemmell: 0402 654 528 or [email protected]
south sydney speaks sunday 21st
South Sydney Speaks
A series of community forums discussing issues of importance.
At 2pm
Tudor Hotel
Corner of Redfern St and Pit St
21st of september
A Free Press in Australia what�s the future
Packer ,Murdoch and Alston
a Threat to Democracy ?
A panel discussion
Including Margo Kingston Sydney Morning Herald
A spokesperson from the Friends of the abc
And others have been approached
More info on 0416 347 501
South Sydney speaks is Supported by the South Sydney Herald Darlington / Chippendale Peace Group
Darlington ALP and South Sydney Uniting Church
Women and the Commission Exhibition opens in Sydney
Just to let you know, the Women and the Commission exhibition is now open in the Commission's Sydney premises at 80 William Street. It will continue for another three weeks.
This is the first time an exhibition of the Sir Richard Kirby Archives has travelled outside of Melbourne.
=====================================
Join the Labor Council's Activist Register to find out about labor movement and social movement events. Go to http://www.labor.org.au/activist
=====================================
Amanda Tattersall
Special Projects Officer
Labor Council of NSW
ph (02) 9264 1691
ph direct (02) 9286 1624
m 0409 32 11 33
f (02) 9261 3505
Lvl 10/377 Sussex St
Sydney 2000
I hear how the workers in Australia are so much better off then anyone else for work conditions etc . But the truth is some of them are not . Recently I realised this as my husband worked the same person for 25 yrs and because the *person* has less than 15 employees and is under no actual award ;the only thing the employer has to pay is holiday and long service leave , with 2 weeks notice .We also found out that he should have possibly been paid leave loading ; so that is also to sorted out , going 20 yrs will be hard .
Yes a lot of Australians do have rights but some just dont . We never realise this until something happens , then it's too late . Ignorance and trust was our problem , now we pay for it. Others may look into their rights before it's too late but for us it is too late .
Jenny
It's wonderful to see that Australians back the core trade union policy of devoting increased resources to health and education. Can somebody therefore tell me why the State Labor Governments through their Premiers and Treasurers are colluding to reduce the real wages of teachers in the public school systems of Australia. A public education system is not sustainable without a significant increase in the salary level and consequent status of teachers yet the states led by Carr and Egan in NSW won't even negotiate over salary increases, long deserved and essential for the future of teaching in each sate.
Since 1988 the salary of a senior teacher has risen 87% that of non commissioned senior police officer has risen 105%, a senior nurse 129%, a computer professional 163% and a legal professional 157%. What does it say of the self styled 'Education Premier' of NSW who actively works against raising the status of teachers.
Dick Mcdermott
The actions of "Max the Axe" at Sydney airport must be stopped, not only in the interest of the workers who have lost their jobs, but also in the interest of the safety & security of all the other workers at the airport (not to mention the general public).
Can I suggest we call this fight "Axe the Max".
Rob Bloor
As an American, it interested me very much to see your article about the effects on Australians of sending jobs to India. American companies, with the blessing of our government, scramble to do the same. I wonder that you make no mention of the oppressive social systems that make possible the low labor and living costs in the Asian countries that get our jobs.
India has cheaper living costs because many Indian agricultural laborers are held in debt bondage by the threat of physical violence from upper caste brahmins. Many other industries in India keep costs low through the use of child labor and bonded labor.
You may have heard of caste discrimination in India. One of every six Indians belongs to the out-castes, or untouchables, who prefer to be called Dalits. These people serve as bonded agricultural laborers, and in many other industries. By bonded I mean held in debt bondage, unable to leave the farms of upper-caste landlords. They are held in bondage by the threat of physical violence.
Much of India's food and domestic goods get produced by forced labor. These Indian workers do not get sufficient nutrition, health insurance, pensions, and cannot organize. But the lower costs for food and housing mean that
Indian technical workers, again brahmins, can work more cheaply than those in countries with universal rights.
The Indian news site rediff.com carried an interview with a representative of Human Rights Watch.
http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/aug/23inter.htm
--------- begin excerpt ------------------
Human Rights Watch is a monitoring and advocacy organisation that investigates human rights abuses in over 70 countries. We are the largest human rights organisation in the US and second largest in the world after Amnesty International.
Dalits are discriminated against, denied access to land, forced to work in slave-like conditions, and routinely abused, even killed, at the hands of the police and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the state's protection.
We've been asking for international assistance to help India with national programmes that are devised to combat caste discrimination. India fears scrutiny, but they also fear an international backlash. No one has suggested
an economic boycott. Not a single sanction. However, both internal and international pressure is still needed to generate the political will in the country to actually enforce its own laws.
------------- end excerpt ---------------
Here's an excerpt of Amnesty International's latest report on India.
http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/ind-summary-eng
Socially and economically marginalized sections of society, such as dalits, adivasis (tribal people), women and religious minorities, including Muslims, continued to be discriminated against by the police, the criminal justice
system and non-state actors, despite legislation aimed at protecting some of these groups. They continued to be particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment, which remained widespread across the country. The ongoing
international campaign against "terrorism", as well as the heightened tensions with Pakistan, contributed to the giving of undue legitimacy to various forms of discrimination against the Muslim minority, including
violence and the denial of access to justice.
Dalit human rights continued to receive international attention, particularly from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which held a thematic discussion on descent-based discrimination in August. However, dalit communities continued to be victims
of violent backlash when asserting their rights, and to have problems accessing the criminal justice system when seeking redress for abuses.
_________ end excerpt ___________
If you want to learn more about how educated, upper-caste Indianprofessionals can afford to work for so little, check the Human Rights Watch website
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/
BROKEN PEOPLE - Caste Violence Against India's Untouchables.
or this book
Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, by Kevin Bayles
These sites tell more about the plight of Dalits:
www.ambedkar.org
www.dalitusa.org
www.dalits.org
By the way, in India, upper-castes occupy 90% of the government and academic posts in the social sciences and 94% in the sciences. Anything generated by the Indian government or Indian academics likely carries a strong bias toward protecting the caste system.
Patrick Tibbits
Set-piece Congresses are difficult beasts to read - high-profile addresses, earnest resolutions, restless delegates whingeing about the fact that they were there at all. But beneath the surface there was a feeling that the time to act as a movement is fast approaching
Some of this is based on frustration, as the labour movement's political wing struggles on the national stage while holding power in the states with a brand of managerialism that doesn't always promote a union agenda.
It is also comes from the battle-hardened reality that modern industrial relations is often closer to hand to hand combat with well-resourced employers who use a system weighted in their favour to relentlessly drive down labour costs.
But beneath it all is the realisation that the modern world doesn't owe the trade union movement a future, and indeed, the trends of global capital are actively working against it by making the flow of capital so footloose and amoral.
None of the speeches or resolutions at the ACTU Congress will, in and of themselves, turn this situation around, but combined they form the building blocks of an agenda.
Minimum rights for call centre workers, new safeguards for casuals, portability of entitlements - these are all practical measures to address the stress and insecurity of modern employment.
Importantly, the recasting from the ACTU leadership has been to wrap these individual initiatives into a broader defence of public institutions like health care and education that articulates the core union vision of a fairer society
But it was events outside the Congress that provided the practical context for this agenda -our former national airline training strikebreakers offshore before announcing a target of 25 per cent casualisation to satisfy the market.
The response from Qantas workers was immediate; the challenge is now for the dozen unions with members in the airline to work together to resist the casual push in a sustained and strategic way.
If there was a lesson from that other contentious Congress debate over the Pilbara it is that all unions have to work together as a team - after all that is what we are asking our members to do.
Rank and file workers want a strong movement. Those officials at the Congress seem ready to step up a gear. The battleground appears to have been staked out by Geoff Dixon. It will be interesting to watch things unfold from here.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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