*****
Mudgee is a nice place. It deserves better than our serial free luncher, the Deputy PM and member for Gwydir John Anderson, who certainly ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
'Melba' Anderson made a mockery out of the saying 'you can take the boy out of the bush, but you can't take the bush out of the boy'. Long John has taken everything out of the bush - jobs, infrastructure, services, and a boy called John Anderson, who likes the comfy leather of Canberra so much he thought he'd keep on shining a seat in the House of Reps for a few more years yet.
In keeping with the tradition of the National Party under his leadership, that of not having an original idea, Anderson has followed Dear Leader Howard in a Canute-like attempt to delay the inevitable.
Rumours of his imminent plans to do the right thing by Australia and quit had them getting ready to crack out the Champagne in Coolah before Big John made his plans to stay on known earlier this week.
The National Party, which is neither, could barely hide its disappointment when the man who has made his mark in public life by running up some of the biggest travel expenses known to humanity decided to hang onto his ceremonial title of Deputy PM for a while yet.
Once dubbed "the Cowardly Lion:" the lugubrious Anderson has succeeded where it would previously have been thought impossible. He has made the likes of Ian Sinclair and Bob Katter appear to be intellectuals.
Anderson is the man who sided with shonky foreign shipping companies against his fellow Australians. He issued the permits to allow foreign vessels to work Australian routes, throwing Australian maritime workers out of a job.
As a nominal friend of the primary producer Anderson knows the importance of exports, unfortunately his greatest export has been Aussie jobs.
His disingenuous arguments supporting the rapacious demands of the big end of town were so successful with the National Party's heartland that they spawned the One Nation Party. It doesn't help that the National Party have the collective IQ of a house brick.
His handling of the Ansett collapse alone should have left his file marked "Never To Be Employed Again", but somehow this bumbling incompetent rose in favour with Howard cabinet. Why are we not surprised.
The fundamental problem with Anderson is that he's as boring as a potato, but with none of the brains. Luckily our Tool Of the Week went to the right school, so he's never had to work for a living; finding a nice situation in Howard's sheltered workshop.
A position he's unlikely to give up for a while yet - something that's bad for Mudgee, and a tragedy for all of us.
The action, which comes as teachers in NSW commence a case for a 25 per cent wage rise, was sparked by the recent meeting of state Treasurers where a plan to limit pay rises for all public sector workers was mapped out.
Teachers in NSW, Victorian and West Australia have coordinated the 24-hour stoppages for Wednesday, with colleagues taking protest action in other states, as part of the Australian Education Union's efforts to make education a top-level national priority.
In another national first, joint meetings will be held along the Victorian and NSW border.
AEU Federal President Pat Byrne says the action by state and territory governments is simply unacceptable, particularly when the Australian education system is currently in the midst of teacher shortage crisis.
"As a result of the lack of financial and professional incentives provided by state and territory governments, up to 50% of new teachers are on record as saying they do not intend to be teaching within 10 years," Byrne says.
"By 2005, Deans of Education estimate that there will be a shortage of 5,000 teachers in primary and secondary schools," she says. "By the end of the decade, the Education Ministers' research shows that this shortage will have increased to at least 20,000."
NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran says the national action is unprecedented - and is an important wake-up call to the en tire nation.
"It's totally irresponsible of the state governments to be meeting and colluding to hold down real wage growth of teachers at the very time when they should be working out ways to make the profession grow," O'Halloran says
"It is absolutely outrageous that we have been told that if we get more three per cent per year they are threatening to punish our students by cutting the public education budget.
TAFE Teachers Get In On Act
Meanwhile, TAFE teachers have voted unanimously for industrial action of at least 24 hours, early in Term 4, if the Carr government does not halt its attacks on TAFE.
NSW TAFE Teachers Association secretary Linda Simon says teachers are concerned about the effects that increased TAFE fees will have next year in pricing qualifications needed to enter the workforce beyond the reach of many young people.
The teachers also noted with increasing concern the results of the survey conducted by the NSW Council for Adult Literacy and Numeracy that showed that 37% of those currently in such courses would not be able to continue studies to improve basic skills levels.
"Council is angry that the Carr Labor government does not value the great TAFE system in this state, and continues to undermine TAFE by cutting budgets, and proposing a restructure that attacks the integrity of TAFE," Simon says.
"TAFE teachers are passionate about the education and training they provide for a wide variety of students, and will not allow this education to be undermined. If this means that we have to strike to highlight our determination, then we will do so."
Frustrated unions are now appealing over the head of NSW Transport Minister Michael Costa to senior Carr lieutenant Craig Knowles in a bid to end lockouts that are preventing workers undertaking vital braking and electronics checks.
Maintrain, owned by Gonninans, has locked more than 300 AMWU members out of their Auburn workshops 15 times since EBA negotiations stalled two months ago, compromising rolling stock maintenance.
Besides derailing the scheduled safety audits, the campaign has deferred key advances highlighted by the Waterfall Inquiry into the deaths of seven travelers last year.
Maintrain workers say the program to install Driver Vigilance Control Systems, designed as back-up to the dead man's brake, and black box software, has been put back.
AMWU assistant secretary, John Parkin, says Maintrain has reneged on Heads of Agreement, thrashed out two years ago under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, and that former Labor Council secretary, Costa, has refused to become involved - either as Minister in charge of the service or as a representative of the SRA, which was also party to the Hawke agreement.
Gonninans established Maintrain to cash in on Greiner Government plans to privatise NSW rail and its sole contract is with State Rail.
"They've gone back on the agreement not to make any forced redundancies," Parkin said.
"Every time we have a report back meeting, even with a small group, they lock out the entire shift. If we meet for an hour they lock everyone out for 24 hours.
"It's no wonder the maintanence program is behind schedule.
"We've been trying to get Costa to meet for months and he won't even talk to us about it. His Government is one of the signatories to the Heads of Agreement and the last time we looked, rail travel came under the heading of transport.
"It's ridiculous. Imagine if you or I didn't bother to register our car and said it was okay because we had last year's ticket. Trains are even more important because they put more people's lives at stake."
"Costa has to stop thinking like a boss and start thinking like someone who is responsible for public safety."
Labor Council assistant secretary, Mark Lennon, confirmed his organisation had also been brushed, on the issue, by its former top dog.
"We have been trying to organise a meeting with Minister Costa to no avail," Lennon admitted. "If we can't get the Minister of Transport to focus on it, let's see if we can get the Minister of Infrastructure."
Meanwhile, the AIG's pattern lockout tactic, is still being applied at Rheem where hundreds of workers trying to secure their entitlements are being locked out for 24 hours every time they meet to consider developments in negotiations.
The kids on the cast of Disney�s Lion King will have accredited chaperones to ensure that they are supervised at all times and are not exposed to inappropriate behaviour under a new agreement that looks set to become best practise for the entertainment industry.
Disney Theatrical and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance worked collaboratively on the Working With Children: Care Policy as part of the first collective agreement for theatre workers in commercial theatre in Australia.
"One of the major issues we were concerned about was the children - in particular the new younger performers - were very safe when they were on stage. The focus is on protecting them at work and protecting those around them," says Michel Hryce, Director, Live Performance and Theatre at the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
The kids loved being the centre of attention last week at the launch of the policy at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney on September 10. It was the first day in the theatre for the performers, crew and orchestra players who are now counting down 3 weeks to the opening of the Lion King.
Hryce told the child performers that whilst they were still dreaming of a part in the Lion King, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Disney USA and Disney Australia, were hard at work making sure that this production of the Lion King would be the best in the World.
Hryce on behalf of the MEAA welcomed the imported artists and child actors to Australian Theatre and to the ME&AA family.
"I feel great about launching this policy in the Capitol Theatre on your first day in the theatre. It is the 'Best Practice Care Policy' in Australia, yet another first for Disney and the MEAA," says Hryce. "It's a practical guide, which shall assist the whole company in thinking about how you should behave towards each other."
Already the new policy is attracting interest from other performing arts companies.
"The MEAA put out a bulletin saying we were finalising this and the Australian Ballet has already called for a copy of it to look at to look at things they could adopt for their use," says Hryce.
There are two casts of four performers for the child parts in the Lion King, working four shows a week. The new agreement allows the children to continue their school tutoring and addresses non-acceptable behaviour; with a process for reporting, investigating and resolving the issues surrounding such behaviour.
The care policy builds on the Juvenile Code of Practice from the Lion King performers enterprise agreement.
"It will ensure that the child actors on the production have the best experience whilst they are involved," says Hryce. "It will also ensure adult performers will enjoy working with their child peers."
Figures released by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for the three months to June, show the gap between union and non-union agreements continuing to widen.
Significantly, Australians on Minister Tony Abbott's preferred individual contracts getting increases averaging one percent less than those on collective agreements.
The Federal Government has poured millions of dollars into its Office of the Employment Advocate to promote lower-paying AWA individual contracts to employers.
ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, said statistical support for the core trade union claim to deliver on wages should surprise nobody.
"Unions work hard to achieve better deals for their members and wage outcomes are evidence of their success," Combet said.
"Individual contracts that people are forced onto are basically written by the employer. Centrelink's not a bad example - where the Howard Government tried to impose a non-union agreement on staff and there was a long campaign and in a ballot, the Government's non-union deal was voted down.
"Ultimately, the union agreement was concluded with a good increase. Where people are union members and they bargain together they get good outcomes."
Wage increases rose by 4.4 percent, across the board, in the three months to June with significant increases in the in the more highly unionised public sector leading the way.
Centrelink workers, after beating off the non-union proposal, settled on 5.2 percent.
The average annual increase in the latest figures jumped to 4.4 percent, up from 3.5 percent in the March quarter.
That average was held back, however, by workers on non-union agreements only being able to average 3.4 percent. Their average annual wage is now approximately $5200 a year behind that of union members.
The June quarter figures covered more than 1.5 million Australians employed under federal agreements.
Melbourne workers objected to the job exports at a rally outside Telstra�s corporate headquarters, only months after company spokespersons publicly denied any such intentions.
CPSU national secretary Adrian O'Connell accused the corporate giant of "blatant hypocrisy" after its announcement that hundreds of IBM GSA jobs would go as a result of contracting IT services to Indian firm, Infosys.
IBM GSA, part-owned by Telstra, was initially established to contract out IT work. Most of its employees work exclusively on Telstra projects.
In March, the CPSU alleged Telstra was negotiating the export of IT jobs but the company responded with adamant denials.
"No Telstra jobs have been lost or will be lost as a result of our IT sourcing arrangements with these Indian companies," a spokeswoman told ABC Television.
O'Connell called on politicians from all parties to level with the electorate on where they stood over Telstra's drive to deny Australians IT jobs.
"Do they think it is in Australia's national interest to have our IT industry moves overseas?" he asked.
"Let's not forget that Telstra is Australia's biggest and most profitable company and the Federal Government is Telstra's largest shareholder."
Doctoring Figures
Meanwhile, the Communications Electrical Plumbing Union (CEPU )is accusing the company of doctoring annual accounts to hide $281 million specifically used to sack another 2913 Australians.
It said Telstra had listed the figure under the seemingly-benign heading "operating expenses" in its annual account.
He predicted continuing cutbacks would leave the company without the skilled staff required to maintain services to the public.
CEPU NSW spokesman, Jim Metcher, said Telstra had axed more than 37,000 jobs since the Coalition came to power in 1996.
"Without a contingency staff plan, Telstra's phone network will soon be in disrepair," he warned.
The democratic values espoused by the WTO, and by the USA and Europe, are being twisted beyond recognition by the rich minority, reports Workers Online�s man on the ground, Peter Murphy.
That should bring some grim satisfaction to the many people's movements and non-government organisations that have been campaigning against the neo-liberal trade agenda for the last 20 years.
The Australian government's position as the 'champion' of free trade in agricultural products has been marginalised by the emergence of the Group of 21 developing countries, who have proposed a program for sharp reform of agricultural trading policies in the rich countries and more moderate and supportive reforms for developing countries.
While Australia's extreme reform proposals have had no success for over a decade, the G21 has introduced a new dynamic into the WTO that holds out hope of some fair trade measures emerging for agriculture. While publicly cheering on the G21, Australia's delegation is privately predicting that it will soon split. This is clearly the preference of the US and the Europeans. Already reports from the Indian delegation are that US President George Bush has been telephoning individual heads of government from the G21.
Opening day protests and violence
The opening day protests both inside and outside the Convention Centre at Cancun have so far been proven accurate - the WTO is unfair, undemocratic, obsolete and anti-small farmers. The self-sacrifice of former Korean farm leader Lee Kyang-hae at the top of the barricade at the opening protest was met with sadness but also incomprehension by WTO Director-General Supachai Pritchpakdi.
This protest marched through down-town Cancun toward the Zona Hoteleria, with rank on rank of Mexican, other Latin American, US, European, African, Korean, and Filipino farmers and indigenous people expressing the call of the global farmer organisation Via Campesina, for the WTO to remove agriculture from its agenda. When it hit the barricades, the marchers broke through, with 200 Korean farmers in the front line. The momentum was broken by a rock barrage by provocateurs against the huge police and paramilitary force behind the barricades. There were shocking scenes of violence and then the self-sacrifice protest by Mr Lee.
Back at the opening ceremony, the Our World Is Not For Sale network mounted a silent then noisy protest against WTO officials. As a counter-point, the written statement by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the opening speech by Mexican President Vincente Fox criticised the global trading system and the rich countries and challenged them to hear the voices of the poor, especially small farmers.
Since then protestors have challenged the terms of the August 30 WTO agreement on medicines for poor countries, the forcing of GM corn on Mexico, the huge US cotton subsidies that hurt African cotton growers, and to recognize Mr Lee's self-sacrifice death at the farmers' protest.
Rocks of power politics
September 11 is the first day of intense negotiations, and already the optimism of the WTO leaders and of the Group of 21 has hit the rocks of power politics and self-interest.
While the WTO immediately responded to the Group of 21 request of its proposal for agricultural reform to be given equal status to that of the Chairperson's draft, the European Union is adamantly opposing this view as a 'procedural mess'. The EU has now redefined the Doha commitment which states 'with a view to elimination of export subsidies' for agricultural products, to mean 'no elimination'. The WTO officials now say that 'informal meetings' are the way to get results - that is code for the now notorious 'Green Room' process of meetings by the riches countries, to which the developing countries have strongly objected.
The US failed to heed the call for help from the African cotton growers.
A group of 17 developing countries held a media conference to declare that there is no 'explicit consensus' to launch negotiations on the four 'Singapore issues' - investment, competition policy, government procurement, and trade facilitation - to indicate to the Negotiating Group that it is pointless to pursue this goal any further at Cancun. The 17 want these issues to be referred back to trade ambassadors based at the WTO Geneva office for further clarification.
Meanwhile the EU is adamant that these negotiations must be launched now. These issues are highly controversial, and really amount to a return of the notorious Multilateral Agreement on Investment of 1998 - a charter of rights for transnational corporations elevated above the rights of national governments.
Business response
Australia's Business Council has joined a Joint Business Charter of eleven countries launched at Cancun. The Charter calls of the Cancun meeting to move forward on agriculture and industrial trade liberalization, to start the 'Singapore issues' talks without prejudice on the eventual outcome, to make progress on special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries, and to renew commitment for more liberalisation in trade in services. The charter cuts across the North - South divide, and expresses the views of globalising capital.
The Wash-Up
Intense pressure will be placed on developing countries tonight and tomorrow to force an agreement that will boost global business confidence, and allow some kind of progress on agriculture, industrial and services trade.
However, this time the developing countries are more informed and united than ever before, and are challenging the established power of the US, Europe, Japan and Canada in the WTO. In turn, this is a real threat to the neo-liberal hegemony of the big transnational corporations from these countries.
The US and EU capacity to offer direct trade deals, and aid, and of the International Monetary Fund to deny credit, will be used to try to kick-start the flagging neo-liberal momentum. Big capital is seriously concerned at the low levels of growth in world trade of the last two years.
Whatever happens, the grassroots campaigns against the global corporate agenda are getting stronger and more capable of impacting governments. If an agreement is openly coerced at Cancun, it will seriously damage what legitimacy remains for the corporate claim that it is best place to order the global economy, and therefore global social relations and environmental conditions.
Cleary is looking forward to the annual Workers Day at the Footy at Port Melbourne on Saturday September 13 when the Box Hill Hawks and Sandringham Zebras do battle in the VFL Preliminary Final
Admission is free to Union members and their families on presentation of financial Union membership card.
VFL football is real grassroots footy. You can take the kids out to the coach's huddle and hear all the instructions, kick the footy with the family and enjoy a sausage from the BBQ.
The event is sponsored by unions and organisations including the MUA, ETU, ASU, ANF, AMWU, CEPU (ETU/CUW/Plumbers), CFMEU (FFTS), NUW, TWU, VTHC and Members Equity.
"It's the people's game and who better than the people, also known as the unions, to support it and to give it life," says Cleary, a commentator on the ABC TV's popular Saturday afternoon VFL coverage.
It is a great opportunity for workers and their families to enjoy a relaxing day on the grass at Port Melbourne. It's a chance to fly the union flag in a non-traditional setting and counter the myths created by Tony Abbott and his "big-end of town" mates.
The game promises to be a ripper, pitting two of this years form teams together in a do or die struggle to make this year's grand final.
Gates open from 11:00 am
The motorists' organisation, with CEO Tony Stewart in his first week at the wheel, spat the dummy on the eve of the stoppage disconnecting the phones of all seven workplace representatives.
"The last thing our members wanted to do was stop work but the NRMA left us with no alternative," AMWU assistant secretary, John Parkin, said.
"They've been disaggregated and now they want to disaggregate our super. It's not that we're opposed to them splitting it off, it's just that we don't know what it will mean.
"We have asked them for expert advice, we have asked for all the figures. It might be a good thing and it might not be. We don't know and they won't tell us."
The NRMA, having swallowed up a number of companies since demutualisation, is trying to split the super scheme of patrol officers and vehicle inspectors away from that of other group employees.
When it refused to allow AMWU members a paid meeting to discuss the issue, they responded by getting together at the Auburn RLS and voting to stop work for only the second time in the past decade.
Even so, AMWU officials say, right up to the last minute they thought they could thrash out a settlement that would have left NSW motorists with inspection services and roadside help.
But the company's decision to take members of the negotiating committee off the air put paid to that.
Parkin says the negotiators are still trying to get information from management, and independent advice, and can't rule out the possibility of future stoppages.
"Unfortunately, the NRMA still won't give us the accurate information we need to understand the implications. They won't come clean," Parkin said.
"They'd be better off at McDonalds," says CEPU state secretary Len Cooper, of members dealing with traumatic situations on shifts of up to 12 hours that attract no penalty rates.
Their employer Emergency Communications Victoria is crying poor - leaving emergency call centre staff angry that conditions at ECV, formerly known as Integraph, have not improved significantly since the days of Jeff Kennett.
Integraph, one of Jeff Kennett's privatisation disasters, was a controversial operator of the 000 service. When the Bracks' government was elected the operator was brought back into the public sector and re-named amidst promises that working conditions would be brought up to community standards.
"They're often beaten around emotionally," says Cooper. "They are so short staffed on weekends and nights that there is a problem in their capacity to serve the emergency services."
Workers often have to undergo counselling because of the traumatic nature of the work and the long hours are having a big toll on the call centre workers, with short staffing leading to extended periods of overtime. This overtime attracts no penalty rates on top of what is already a low wage.
An interim EBA offered some increase in wages with a promise of shift penalties.
The call centre workers have received support from the Victorian Emergency Services and Industrial Relations Ministers but the Victorian treasury has demanded that any increases in workers pay and conditions be met out of existing budgets. ECV are now claiming an incapacity to pay for any improvements.
With ECV offering penalty rates of $1.50 an hour the call centre workers are looking to take industrial action in support of a better penalty rate regime and a whole new set of working conditions.
ECV has flagged job cuts at the already understaffed operation - threatening to wipe out 70 positions in a workforce of 280 - a situation that Cooper says would "cripple" the 000 service.
"With everyone crying crocodile tears over terrorism there is a real question mark over the capacity of this service to deliver," says Cooper.
ABC Centres, whose board includes $146 million man, Eddie Groves, and former Liberal Party leader, Andrew Peacock, this week failed to stump up with the wages of Victorian child care workers, earning as little as $11.99 an hour.
At the time of writing, one Melbourne-based child care worker had already been slugged with $100 in bank charges, prompting threats of legal action from the LHMU.
"Our phones have been running hot. We've placed more than a dozen calls to the ABC Child Care Centre chain's head office in Brisbane but we've had no joy," LHMU industrial officer, Ruth Frenzel said.
"Our people often depend on wages coming through on time to put food on the table over the weekend.
"We are planning legal action to ensure those empty pay packets are filled up straight away."
ABC is a leading player in the Australian child care industry, running more than 50 sites in Victoria alone. Groves crashed onto the BRW's rich list in fourth place this year.
Labor Council secretary John Robertson made the comments to the PSA Women's Conference while launching a new website dedicated to working women's issues.
'Union Women@Work', to be housed on the popular LaborNet portal, will contain up-to-date information on women's rights at work including information on violence and bullying in the workplace, sexual harassment, discrimination and conditions of employment.
Labor Council of NSW secretary John Robertson said there was a growing recognition that women represented the trade union heartland.
"Today's trade union heartland - areas with 40 per cent union density - are the schools, hospitals, supermarkets and the public sector. These are areas where women dominate the workforce," Mr Robertson says.
"Women are also dominating the growing areas of the workforce - casual and part-time workers, where unions must gain a foothold to grow."
"And they have the added burden of juggling work and family responsibilities and this site will give them advice on how to achieve this balancing act," he says.
The website can be accessed via the LaborNet portal at http://www.labor.net.au
LHMU South Australian state secretary, Chris Field, said Bridgestone's big mistake had been threatening a two-week lockout to back its demand for cuts in wages and conditions.
"Locally, the mayor came out in support of us and we were offered free meals by local pubs if the lockout went ahead," Field said.
"We got support from across the globe. In Pakistan, for example, Bridgestone workers threatened to demonstrate in front of facilities in that country if the Adelaide lockout went ahead."
Smith was speaking after the 500-strong Adelaide workforce gave the thumbs-up to a deal recommended by AIRC Di Foggo.
The will vote formally in a fortnight on a proposed three-year deal that includes a guaranteed nine percent wage increase
"We haven't just won a pay increase but our members have kept all their major conditions of employment," Field said.
"Bridgestone tried to use the enterprise bargaining process to force reductions in real wages and working conditions."
The campaign was a grass roots success story after hundreds of thousands of phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails from ordinary working people forced Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans to stand up to President Bush.
"America's working men and women have won a tremendous victory," says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
The Bush Administration was moving forward with rules that would gut overtime protection for millions of American workers.
Sweeney singled out for praise those Republican Senators who "broke ranks with their leaders and the White House to vote for protecting American workers and their families instead of boosting corporate profits".
Legislators recognised that overtime pay protection ensured that workers are not be forced to work excessive hours, and that they receive fair pay for any overtime they work.
"Bush's proposal would also rob our economy of yet another incentive for employers to create jobs, as it encourages employers to work existing employees longer hours rather than hiring new workers,' says Sweeney.
The Democrat senator Tom Harkin led opposition to Bush's plan,
Now the campaign to block President Bush's overtime pay cuts turns to the U.S. House of Representatives. Representatives will be asked to vote on a similar measure -- preventing the Bush administration from taking away workers' overtime pay protection.
The news comes amidst Bush's continued slide in the polls as he heads into re-election year. US Unions campaigned strongly over the US Labor Day weekend (September 6-8), being courted by the leading Democrat contenders for the Presidency. Many candidates supported the AFL-CIO position of fair trade in opposition to Free Trade deals that have seen a decline in global labour standards.
The election of a pro-labour Democrat to the White House would have serious ramifications for the Howard government's hopes for a US-Australia Free Trade deal.
Further Overtime Pay News from the AFL-CIO is available online at http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/Opabci7147a6/
The U.S. Senate Vote Tally by State from Sept. 10
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/W1abci7147aO/
Mayor John Clarence today signed the Labor Council of NSW's Memorandum of Understanding for Procurement of Goods and Services.
Under the agreement, the Council undertakes to only purchase goods and services from firms that pay workers award wages, work cooperatively with trade unions and ensure high standards of health and safety.
Cessnock City Council is the first council in the Hunter region and just the third council in the entire state to sign the MOU. The agreement was negotiated with assistance from the United Services Union, representing workers within the Cessnock City Council.
Labor Council deputy assistant secretary Michael Gadiel said the agreement was great news for workers in the Cessnock area.
"What this agreement means is that firms that do not treat their workers decently will not get contracts from the Council," Mr Gadiel said. "Labor Council regards the MOU as important because it harnesses the purchasing power of local government to ensure that only employers with 'clean hands' are rewarded with contracts.
"Congratulations to Cessnock City Council and Mayor Clarence for showing leadership, not just for the Hunter, but the entire state.
USU organiser Peter Collins said the workers at the Council would be monitoring the agreement to ensure all contractors comply with established safety and award standards.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union's (RTBU) call for a campaign to protect train services in the bush has been supported by the NSW Labor Council.
"CountryLink provide a cost effective rail service to families and pensioners of regional New South wales,' says Nick Lewocki, secretary of the RTBU. "It's the right of the people of regional NSW to have a reliable train service."
The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association will be looking to support the campaign after condemning any proposal to replace rail services by coach or bus services.
"They are considered to be less friendly, more uncomfortable and inconvenient to users," says Morrie Mifsud of the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association, who hoped the government does not proceed with the option of replacing rail transport with "polluting and, in many cases, less comfortable road transport."
The RTBU believes that regional rail passenger services are essential to the quality of life and provide a vital link for the people living in rural NSW.
The move comes after the Canberra rail service was axed recently by State Rail management and comments by the Transport Minister on the cost of running rural rail services.
Everybody's getting ready for the Union Aid Abroad
APHEDA Spring Feast
Wednesday October 1
6.30 for 7pm
Marigold Restaurant 5th Floor , 683 George Street Sydney
$50 each or $450 per table of ten
For bookings please contact Sally on 02 9264 9343 [email protected]
Debbie Spillane is MC and there will be live music, raffles with fabulous prizes, a seven-course banquet, an auction, wine, lucky door prizes, games & free parking!
The night will be a testimonial dinner for Tas Bull with proceeds to the Cuban Children's Fund and Union Aid Abroad APHEDA
Friends of the ABC
Concert and Picnic in the Park to support the ABC
Sunday 14 Sept
12.00 noon
The Domain - Crescent Precinct
(on the southern side of the Art Gallery)
Meet ABC personalities, film and TV performers & enjoy school chairs and performers; leading Acapella singers, and picnic on the lawn
It's also a CALL TO ACTION!
Once again the ABC is under siege, the target of a hostile Federal Government.
The ABC is obliged to shed programs. The Government's impact costs the community Behind the News and erodes the ABC's educational stream of programs; youth and children bear the brunt of the cuts; current affairs programs are trimmed; other programs suffer or disappear ... and the Minister, Senator Alston, is at war with the corporation.
IT'S TIME TO MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD
JOIN THE RALLY AND THE DAY
Sponsored also by -
Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Public Schools Principals Forum, NSW Teachers' Federation, Federation of P&C Associations and NSW Primary
Principals Association
FABC NSW Web site http://www.fabcnsw.org.au
From A Just Australia
Former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell's activism on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers was triggered by his anger over the Tampa crisis in August 2001. Ian's involvement with A Just Australia and the refugee cause was the subject of a recent episode of Australian Story broadcast on July 14th.
Following on from this television program Ian Chappell will be joined by award winning author Hanifa Deen, and Howard Glenn, National Director of A Just Australia at a public meeting to be held on the 18th September at the Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. This forum will provide the opportunity for members of the public to meet and discuss with Ian and the other speakers the issues arising from current policies towards refugees and asylum seekers.
Please join us and bring along your friends and family for a stimulating evening of discussion and entertainment. The evening is free, but we will be seeking a donation and explaining how to support our work on a long-term basis.
The details of the evening are as follows:
18th September 2003, 7.30-9.00pm Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, cnr Church and Market St.
Speakers:
Ian Chappell
Hanifa Deen
Howard Glenn
and special guests
If you require any further information contact mail@justrefugeeprograms or 02 9310 3900.
FAIR TRADE TO A PEACEFUL WORLD How the WTO undermines peace
A public meeting making the connection between unjust trade and war
Saturday, 13th September, 2003
Pitt St Uniting Church, 264 Pitt St, Sydney
Chaired by Elizabeth Evatt AC
Speakers: Father Brian Gore, Jubilee - Developing country debt and unfair trade: a peace issue
Sally McManus, Australian Services Union - Workers, trade and peace
Rev, Dr Ann Wansbrough, Uniting Care - Trade in services and peace
Cr Gillian Deakin, Medical Association for the Prevention of War - Peace means fair access to medicines
Then 1.00pm assemble on Town Hall steps for a short public statement.
Admission by donation
For more information contact Louise Southalan at AFTINET on (02)9299 7833 or email: [email protected]
FIESTA FOR FREEDOM
Saturday 13th September. Rally at 2.00pm, Town Hall steps, Sydney. Bring pots and pans, puppets, banners and costumes for Mexican "Day of the Dead' inspired march
FUNDRAISER FOR IRAQ
Home Bar Cockle Bay is holding a fundraising event for Iraq. Money raised will be used for continuing relief operations as well as providing clean water, sanitation and food to Iraqi people in need.,
Where: Home Bar, Cockle Bay (right next to Imax Theatre)
When: Sunday 7th September, 2003
Time: 7.00pm til late
Donation at the door.
NEW Melbourne On Screen
A celebration of Melbourne writers, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Australian Writers' Guild.
September 15 - 19 Australian Centre for the Moving Image Federation Square
Remember when Grace Sullivan was killed? When Scott and Charlene walked down the aisle? When Mrs H was sacked from Channel 12? When Lizzie died in the Wentworth Detention Centre? When Tommy Carson was shot dead?
Homicide, Stingers, The Games, Fast Forward, The Sullivans, Halifax fp, And The Big Men Fly, Phoenix, The Box, The Secret Life Of Us, Moving Out, Death In Brunswick, Spotswood, Prisoner, Music Jamboree and Kath and Kim.
These are just a few of the productions that were born in Melbourne. It's a retrospective look at the enormous impact Melbourne writers have had on the industry, a trip down memory lane, looking at the productions that were conceived and produced in Melbourne.
The event includes FREE public screenings of classic Melbourne film and television productions in the form of:
Lunchtime Screenings - Daytime TV for Melbourne Workers.
Each session will be feature a discussion with the program's writer.
After Work - Acclaimed Melbourne Writers (Everett de Roche and Jan Sardi) and their work under the spotlight.
September 15 - 19 Australian Centre for the Moving Image Federation Square
Daytime TV 12 - 2pm Monday to Friday
After Work 7 - 10pm Monday and Wednesday
Free admission. Information and session details: 03 8663 2200 www.acmi .
breakfast briefing - fixed term contracts or ongoing employment? choices and pitfalls
Presented by ACIRRT, University of Sydney and law firm Cutler Hughes & Harris
These briefings aim to give participants a focussed and detailed analysis of latest trends combined with an assessment of the current legal issues relating to topics.
Date: Thursday 2 October 2003
Time: 8.30 - 11.00am
Venue: Quality Hotel SC Sydney (formerly the Southern Cross Hotel), cnr Castlereagh & Goulburn Streets, Sydney
Cost: $155 inc gst, continental breakfast and notes
Alternatives to the traditional model of the permanent or ongoing employee have become increasingly popular over recent years. Casual employment has been growing, but so has the use of fixed-term contracts. However, the number of fixed-term employees in Australia remains relatively low by some international standards. This situation may change dramatically if proposed limitations on casual employment proceed. This briefing is designed to explore issues including:
What will happen if restrictions on casual employment are introduced?
What are the pros and cons of various forms of employment, permanent, casual and fixed term?
What are the key legal issues with fixed term contracts?
What do workers think?
Why is the fixed term contract model of employment most popular and why?
What are the legal remedies for employees dismissed during the course of a fixed term contract?
Cross Media Laws
Is a Free Press under threat? Packer and Murdoch a threat to democracy? Does The ABC have a future?
All these questions will be discussed on Sunday the 21st of September at 2pm at the Tudor Hotel Redfern St. Redfern
The panel will be Margo Kingston Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Manning former head of ABC news and current affairs and channel 7 witness program now an adjunct professor of media studies at UTS. A spokesperson from friends of the ABC has been approached.
South Sydney speaks - A series of community forum on issues of
importance
Sunday the 19th of October
Tudor Hotel Redfern St Redfern at 2pm
Ethics values and integrity and principals 3 areas in public life that some say have very little are Politics, Business community and the Church community
3 guest speakers
Bill Moss - Macquarie Bank
President of the nsw upper house Meridith Burgman
And the Rev Bill Crews Uniting Church
Chair Alex Mitchell Sun Herald Journalist
Australia's Pacific Solution
In conjunction with ChilOut, the NSW Nurses' Association is proud to host a free screening of this important documentary.
What drove well-known Melbourne artist, Kate Durham, to Nauru in June 2002 in the company of an English journalist and an illicit video camera? Find out on Wednesday 1st October, when the NSW Nurses' Association hosts a free screening of the end product, the (never screened on Australian TV) BBC documentary, "Australia's Pacific Solution." At 43 Australia Street, Camperdown
Kate, the founder of Spare Rooms for Refugees, will give an address on the conditions in which she found asylum seekers detained on Nauru. 1,228 asylum seekers were originally ensconced there, many transferred after the infamous Tampa episode 2 years ago. Now their numbers are down to 400. They include 5 unaccompanied minors, and 9 women and 14 children whose husbands or fathers are living in Australia on Temporary Protection Visas. These women and children have to prove their own case for asylum. They are not automatically allowed to be reunited with their menfolk. Instead, they are languishing at a cost of millions of our taxpayers dollars in camps on Nauru where conditions are hard and mental health problems rife.
Kate, together with her well-known barrister and human rights advocate, Julian Burnside, will field questions before the 45-minute film is screened.
This event is being hosted in conjunction with ChilOut, Children Out of Detention, a mums and dads and caring citizens' group which has been campaigning for the release of Children -and their families - from immigration detention. ChilOut came into being in August two years ago after the screening of a 4 Corners Program on the psychological breakdown of 6-year-old, Shayan Badrai, then detained in Villawood. They are aghast that two years later children, including ones with mental and physical disabilities, are still treated in this way.
I know I'll be showing my age here but in Tara's wonderful review of the Night We Called It a Day, "Frankie's Way" Worker Sep 2003, she mentioned, "the prime minister of the day said at that time...'Life wasn't meant to be easy'."
Well cranky Franky toured Oz and called one of our journo's a $2 hooker in 1974, when Whitlam was still holding office as PM and the same year that a no-name Canterbury side went down to the Eastern Suburb Roosters in the Grand Final at the SCG (with a young Chris Anderson on the wing for the Berries and Henry Tatana the goal kicking Kiwi in the front row - but I digress).
Yet it was Fraser who said, "Life wasn't meant to be easy", although Gough may well have agreed with this sentiment after November 1975.
Keep the reviews coming Tara...but remember the journo's golden rule of always checking your facts (and for Pete - the spelling).
Cheers,
Mark Mcgrath
On it surface the Cancun talks have little to do with the shocking loss of life sustained two years ago, but that the stalemate over market access has prompted a farmer to stab himself to death must give some pause for thought.
As the liberal West struggles to understand why Islamic fundamentalists continue to turn themselves into human missiles, even the most fervent anti-globalist would be looking at the sacrifice of Korean farm leader Lee Kyaung-have and asking themselves 'why?'. I know I am.
Way too much has been written about 9/11. The events that have unfolded since show how little this chatter has led us to anything approaching comprehension.
But what can be stated is that gross inequities in power and wealth create the climate where extremism flourishes; throw in a fundamentalist doctrine and you have a potent brew.
The same heady mix can be found at Cancun, the latest round of the World Trade Organisation talks where the ringleaders may preach free trade but do so in the knowledge that their masters are not really serious about pulling down the barriers.
As our man on the ground in Cancun, Peter Murphy, points out, while 21 developing nations representing half the world's farmers may have created an alliance to create a fairer trade in agriculture, their chances of getting support from the West are slim.
On the issue of attacking Iraq the US and Europe may have been at loggerheads, but on the far more enduring issue of trade they are as one.
Protection for wealthy farmers - and the right of their governments to dump subsidised produce on to world markets - is regarded as a right that won't be bargained away.
Unlike the Coalition of the Willing, John Howard and Australian farmers are locked out of this club. Australia's problem is that - unlike the group of 21 - while we argue for market access for our farmers, we don't really want to upset the applecart.
As our pursuit of bilateral agreements show - for us its about getting in on the racket not about rewriting the rules for admission.
For all we care farmers in developing nations, like Mr Kim's South Korean colleagues, can continue to at best struggle and in some cases starve, unable to compete with the First World beneficiaries of protection.
And if the Cancun meeting is futile and the dumping and protectionism continues and the WTO remains a joke and if more people see death as the only form of protest left, then we should not cry foul.
Peter Lewis
Editor
Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
© 1999-2002 Workers Online |
|