The self styled crusader against everything that makes Sydney worthwhile, Lucy Turnbull, put on a world class tanty this week - boycotting the Sydney Peace Prize.
Turnbull was obviously not in the running for the gong - as her recent performance showed - as she joined the shrill band of right wing paranoiacs who still long for a Palestinian homeland to be located somewhere in Greenland.
The Sydney Peace Prize had been awarded to Dr Hanan Ashrawi. Dr Ashrawi is a woman who had the temerity to suggest that the state of Israel using state of the art military technology to bomb the living crap out of a people whose defence extends to sticks and stones was not necessarily a good thing.
What was Lucy's problem with Dr Ashrawi? Had Dr Ashrawi slighted the people of Sydney? Or did it have something to do with her husband, Malcolm "Napoleon" Turnbull and his plan for global domination?
So where does Ms Turnbull's sudden interest in the affairs of the Middle East spring from? Could it be that she's shoring up support for hubby Napoleon amongst the good citizens of Woollahra? Malcolm's great battle to lead the forces of style over the forces of substance could be sullied by any association with anyone to the left of Attilla the Hun.
Of course Turnbull is more than just an accessory for Malcolm's tilt at the throne, she's a fully-fledged tool in her own right.
Lucy, readers may recall, is the brains behind the idea to stamp out the sex industry in the Cross, and other futile initiatives. Of course Lucy would like to keep the Cross as a nice little KaffeeKlatch for her friends in the Potts Point squattocracy. Democracy is too precious a thing to be entrusted to the great unwashed. How much better things would be for Ms Turnbull if she could just round up the homeless and put them in camps.
When she's not trying to paste over the differences in society with some nice pastel wallpaper and zero tolerance policing, Lucy has a good eye for where the trough is. She's been on more boards than the Beach Boys and those free lunches certainly give life a zing, don't they darling?
Of course we should be grateful to have someone with the business acumen of Ms Turnbull running the city. After all she is the genius who, as the former chairman of FTR Holdings, recommended they buy $1.3m shares in Chaos Music at $1.40. The share price, after a name change, is now 34c.
Turnbull is typical of the A-List technocrats that believe they are genetically pre-disposed to lead the country. It's hardly surprising that she'd fall into line with her husband's interests given that he has an ego so big that it has its own gravitational pull.
Her reign at St Andrew's Place cannot be said to be overwhelmingly inclusive.
The Sydney City Council has on two occasions told the CFMEU that they couldn't have access to Town Hall Square. The latest being for the remembrance march for Joel Exner. Of course Lucy hasn't done an honest days work in her life so we can't expect her to have much in the way of understanding about the needs of mere mortals.
It would be nice to think that Lucy Turnbull could crawl back underneath whatever unprincipled rock she crawled out from under, and that once again Sydney could exist as a city for all its residents, not just those on six figure incomes.
Professional opportunist Lucy Turnbull can use her time in the Tool Shed to have a good hard look at herself, and consider that her pathetic petulant display is just the sort of mindless ratbaggery that conservatives seem incapable of avoiding.
Our Tool of the Week is more than just her usual out-to-lunch - she's also out of her depth and, with any more brain explosions on her part, it won't be long before she's out of office as well.
Thousands are expected to rally across the state on Monday, October 27. The Sydney protest will be addressed by Sue Exner, mother of Joel Exner, who was tragically killed on October 15.
His death has galvanised organisations calling for changes to the law to protect worker's lives and hold to account those employers who place profits before safety.
"Joel was killed as a result of his boss cutting corners to maximise profits," says Andrew Ferguson, state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). "This is not an accident - it is most clearly manslaughter; a young worker unnecessarily killed."
Building workers across the state are set to walk off the job on Monday to join rallies calling for greater penalties against those responsible for workplace deaths. Families of workers killed on the job will be leading the Sydney rally.
On average one worker a week is killed in the workplace in NSW.
The CFMEU has condemned the Federal Government for spending $60 million on a royal commission into the building industry and failing to look at safety standards - standards that if ignored can lead to death.
Joel died as a result of a 12-metre fall that could have been avoided had the employer, Garry Denson Metal Roofing Pty Ltd, taken adequate safety measures. Joel's employer was subcontracting at the site to principal contractor Australand, who had repeatedly been asked by the site's safety committee to address safety concerns at their site.
The concerns were so strong that the safety committee had put its concerns in writing.
The death of Joel has lead to calls from the CEPU Plumbing Division for an extensive safety induction-training course for any worker under 18 commencing work in the building industry. Joel Exner had been at work just three days prior to his death and received no safety induction.
Hundreds of mourners attended last Thursday's funeral for Joel Exner, while members of the Rail Tram and Bus Union stopped work for a minute in memory of the popular Blacktown teenager.
"This will impact not only on the family, but on the whole community," said Andrew Ferguson after attending the funeral. "Joel had a right to live."
The NSW Labor Council has endorsed the rallies set down for Monday October 27 that will call for industrial manslaughter legislation to be introduced in NSW.
"We need stronger laws to send out a powerful message to employers that if you do breach your obligations, and that does result in death, then the full force of the law will be trained on you," says NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson. "Once the boss knows they might be thrown in the slammer it is more likely there going to be focussed on ensuring that incidents like this don't occur."
"These sorts of laws are not about throwing employers in gaol, they are about changing behaviour patterns of shonky, negligent employers. My preference is that no one goes to gaol because the fact that the law's introduced is sufficient to change the behaviour of employers."
The call for changes to the law has received support from legislators.
"If you can be sent to gaol for fraud then how can you not be subject to gaol for killing someone in the workplace?" Asks NSW ALP upper house MP Ian West. "The labour market cannot be compared to the meat market. These are real people. We are not going to the abattoirs to get a leg of lamb here."
Building unions are intent on ensuring justice for Joel and his friends and family.
Justice For Joel - Safety Rallies
In Sydney workers will be rallying at Town Hall Square from 11am on Monday, October 27. There will also be rallies held at the same time on the Central Coast at Gosford on the corner of Baker Street and Georgiana Terrace; in the Wollongong, at the amphitheatre in the City Mall; and in the ground floor meeting room at the Newcastle Trades Hall.
The families of workers killed in the workplace will be meeting prior to the rallies at 10am on Monday October 27 at the CFMEU Office, 15 Wentworth Avenue in the city. These families will be leading the Sydney rally.
According to the Crown Advocate, the state government�s senior criminal law barrister, 75 per cent of workplace deaths have attracted penalties of less than 20 per cent of the statutory minimum.
"The overwhelming majority of penalties imposed have been one fifth or less of the maximum," the Crown Advocate says. "There is quantitative evidence of a pattern of excessive leniency."
The analysis, included in advice to the NSW Labor Council by Commerce Minister John Della Bosca adds fuel to the push for industrial manslaughter laws.
The comments are based on statistics provided by the NSW Judicial Commission to WorkCover regarding prosecutions for fatalities, finding that:
- 23 per cent of cases led to fines of five per cent of the maximum penalty
- 48 per cent of cases led to fines 10 per cent of the maximum
- 75 per cent of cases led t fines of 20 per cent of the maximum.
- only nine per cent of fines attracted 50 per cent of the maximum
- and there were no cases which attracted 80 per cent or above the maximum.
Labor Council secretary John Robertson says the statistics show that the tough penalties under the OHS Act - $55,000 for individuals and $550,000 for companies are not being recognised by the courts.
"There is a clear intention from the Parliament for tough penalties, but it seems that employers who are responsible for workplace deaths are getting soft treatment," Robertson says.
Existing Laws Fall Short
The Della Bosca advice also details how existing manslaughter laws have failed to lead to any prosecutions for workplace deaths.
In recent times, three cases have seen manslaughter charges laid: two were rejected by the DPP on the basis that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction by a jury; the third matter went to trial but the Judge directed the jury to find the defendant not guilty.
In light of the statistics Della Bosca has established a Ministerial Taskforce to be chaired by George Thompson, with representatives of Workplace, the Police Service, the DPP and the Coroner to develop a protocol too apply to the investigations of all workplace fatalities. Labor Council will have input into the review.
Robertson welcomed the establishment of the task force as a positive interim measure but stressed that this does not reduce the need for a new criminal offence.
Della Bosca has also undertaken to review the current legislation and introduce amendment to Parliament in early 2004.
Martin Loosemore, professor of construction management at the University of NSW, warned Tony Abbott�s reform package could create more problems for the construction industry than it solved.
Loosemore, contracted by Cole to analyse industry productivity, was disappointed by Federal Government's response to the $60 million commission.
"The narrowness of the reforms is disappointing," Loosemore said. "The fact that they just concentrated on IR when there were a huge number of problems faced by the industry.
"A lot of very useful information was collected but most of it has been ignored. From an outside perspective, you could be forgiven for thinking there was some sort of agenda."
Professors Loosemore and Denny McGeorge told the Commission, in discussion papers, that on international indicators Australian building and construction shaped up well, finishing first or second on most indicators.
However, they argued, it was not as productive as other sectors of the domestic economy.
"We are doing quite well, very well in many ways," Loosemore told Workers Online, "but there is a case for reform and IR is one element of that. What's missing is any leadership on all the other reforms the industry needs."
Loosemore said construction needed to lift its game on training practices, contractual reform, human resource management, procurement practices and the fact that price, rather than quality, drove investment. None of these issues, he said, had been addressed by proposed legislation.
His comments come as legislation introduced by Tony Abbott runs into a storm of controversy.
Abbott's Bill seeks to severely restrict the ability of building workers to take industrial action over safety, wages or conditions. It would introduce massive fines and prison terms for union members who breach its provisions, allow union officials to be barred from the industry, even for technical breaches, and would be policed by a special taxpayer-funded taskforce.
Trade unionists' description of the Cole Commission as a "witch-hunt" have won unlikely endorsement from a leading Perth builder with a history of run-ins with the CFMEU.
Daren Deen, general manager of Perth-based Sizer Builders, echoed union criticisms at an industry seminar in Melbourne.
"I share the union's view that the royal commission was a political witch-hunt," Deen said.
"My view that the royal commission was a political witch-hunt is also shaped by the inflammatory rhetoric pumped out during the hearings and the Government's behaviour afterwards."
Stunned CFMEU WA secretary, Kevin Reynolds, said Deen's comments reflected opinions other builders were only prepared to express in private.
"Deen is no friend of the CFMEU's, so it's interesting that that is his view," Reynolds told the West Australian this week.
Another hurdle for Abbott's contentious legislation is expected to come from a full Senate Inquiry to begin hearings in December. The Inquiry is likely to give voice to dozens of industry players denied a say by the Cole Commission.
Union figures hope the Senate hearings will become an inquiry into an inquiry, testing their views that the Cole Commission was unbalanced and partisan.
Pensioner Gets New House
Meanwhile, a Bendigo pensioner whose home was destroyed by a May tornado, is due to move into a brand new home, courtesy of community support spearheaded by the Victorian branch of the CFMEU.
The Bendigo Advertiser reported this week that Albert Alcock (67) shed a tear at the first sight of the nearly completed home at Eaglehawk.
The paper quoted his daughter, Jenny Borserio, as saying the donation of the house, built by CFMEU members, had come as a "huge surprise".
Her father has been constantly in and out of hospital with a heart condition since his home was destroyed.
CFMEU national vice-president, Albert Littler, said the union would hand over the keys to Alcock at an open day that the community was welcome to attend.
ITF co-ordinator, Dean Summers, is pointing the finger directly at Faymon Shipping Pty Ltd, of Chatswood, after more than a year of trying to get someone to accept responsibility for 33 officers and crew who worked the ill-fated Pacific Emerald.
"Faymon Shipping has bought a Post Box in Vanuata and used it to evade its basic responsibilities," Summers said. "It's a racist thing. If our guys were Australians they would at least pay them but because these workers are Fijians and Vanuatuans they think they can get away with it."
Faymon managing director, Patrick Wong, failed to return calls from Workers Online today.
But his company isn't the only Australian business in ITF sites. Summers is also ropeable that Sydney-administrators, Hall Chadwick, still haven't paid seamen wages outstanding for more than a year.
He said the ITF had a written agreement with Hall Chadwick that outstanding monies would be remitted in three installments, finishing in August. First installments were paid but the workers are still waiting for the rest of their money.
"We can only assume they have the money because they have promised to pay it in writing," Summers said. "This case shows that some of the worst FoC abusers are right here in Sydney.
"In the leafy suburbs of North Sydney and the glass towers of the CBD we have wealthy men using the FoC system to abuse workers from developing countries."
The ITF was alerted to the plight of 33 seafarers aboard the Pacific Emerald after they had been left in Chittagong without food or water in August of last year.
After months of negotiations they agreed to unload their cargo of copra and the ship owners promised they would be paid in full and repatriated to their homelands.
The crew took the Pacific Emerald for wrecking but the second part of the settlement was never honoured. They survived months in Chittagong, without owed wages or regular food, on the generosity of local trade unionists.
Eventually, 13 of their number were repatriated, leaving 20 to be returned home at the expense of the Fiji and Vanuatu Governments. Most of the men returned to their homelands by last Christmas.
Since then the ITF has been trying to extract owed monies, first from Pacific Jewel, then the company's Sydney administrators.
"The Pacific Emerald is razor blades now," Summers said, "all it was good was scrap which goes to show the standard of ship these guys were on in the first place."
Alex Dampier of Hall Chadwick refused to answer any of the issues raised by the ITF promising to refer enquiries to administrator Jeffrey McDonald. McDonald, like Wong, did not return our calls.
Seven trade unions covering university staff throughout Australia struck last week as part of an ongoing protest against proposals to tie $404 million in education funding to hard-line industrial requirements.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said that the unions yesterday referred the requirements to the ILO's Committee of Experts as a breach of Article 4 of ILO Convention 98 on freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively.
"The Government's requirements would take away the basic rights of university workers and undermine their wages and conditions," says Burrow.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) President Dr Carolyn Allport said that universities and unions should be allowed to get on with the job of enterprise bargaining without interference from the Government.
"Stripping back standards on redundancy, termination and workplace consultation will do nothing to improve the quality of education provided by our universities," says Dr Allport.
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) Federal Secretary David Carey said that the requirements, on top of declining amounts of funding, would make it more difficult for universities to operate.
"Increased fees and other policy decisions such as making higher education increasingly inaccessible for a growing number of Australian families - especially those on middle to low incomes," says Carey.
Last week's strike, supported by seven higher education unions, was hailed as a success, virtually closing down the entire public university system across the country.
"The success of the strike sends a clear message to the Senate that the vast majority of university staff are opposed to the Government's proposed workplace requirements," says NTEU President Allport.
At least 10,000 general and academic staff, students and members of the public attended rallies and public meetings that were held in all major capital cities to protest the Government's plan.
Only one arrest was reported, a Liberal student who tried to disrupt the rally in Melbourne.
Victory at ANU
At the Australian National University over 800 staff attended a meeting at which Vice Chancellor Ian Chubb signed a three-year enterprise bargaining agreement with the NTEU, which did not incorporate any of the Government's proposed workplace requirements.
"This agreement is a victory for patient, cooperative negotiation between unions and management over the bullying, interventionist tactics being championed by the Federal Government," says Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary.
"It is a rejection by both ANU management and the NTEU, of the Government's unwarranted and highly prescriptive interference in the internal affairs of universities and the Government's attempts to substitute its own industrial policies for those of universities."
The agreement repudiates the main points of the Government's proposed workplace relations requirements for universities, including:
No provision for AWAs.
Limitations on casual and fixed term employment.
26.4 weeks paid parental leave and a 17.5% salary increase.
A strong recognition of the constructive role played by the NTEU in the life of the institution and union rights more generally.
The Agreement also contains an explicit endorsement of the independence of the University.
"Forcing universities to place staff on AWAs, weakening consultative arrangements and encouraging casual employment, will deliver lower pay and conditions and industrial confrontation," said McCulloch.
Labor�s Stephen Conroy who is preparing the changes to company law, was at the meeting as big investors backed Boral boss Ken Moss�s motion to deprive shareholders of a voice if they didn�t hold five per cent of the company.
That resolution ended a campaign by TWU members who formed an organisation called Boral Ethical Shareholders to have work safety and executive pay issues addressed at the AGM.
The motions, attracted nearly 20 per cent support, but were never considered after the Moss resolution was passed.
Senator Conroy - the ALP Financial Services spokesman - warned Moss on the floor of the meeting that if he changed the rule allowing 100 shareholders to have a say on the order paper he would respond by moving to change legislation.
Conroy, TWU members and other independent shareholders were supported at the AGM by a truck driver, David Lupton, dressed as a yellow rat. Even
business writers called the Boral response "provocative".
Conroy today charged some of Australia's major institutional investors with turning "a blind eye" as the resources giant "directly attacked" shareholder rights.
He has written to the Investment and Financial Services Association asking it, in the light of recent pronouncements on corporate governance, to clarify their position on Boral's decision to deny 100 shareholders the right to propose resolutions for AGM debate.
"In my view, this is a direct attack on shareholders' rights and runs counter to the spirit of the Corporations Act 2001," Conroy said.
"Accordingly, I plan to move an amendment to the Corporations Act to ensure Boral does not set a precedent for other companies to circumvent the spirit of the Act."
TWU representatives promised they would return for next year's AGM with safety and corporate governance at the top of their agenda. Meanwhile, Workers Online understands more than 100 additional have taken out Boral shares for next year's AGM.
The results, contradicting claims by former Health Minister Kaye Paterson, come in a national poll of 1200 people, aged 18 year and over, published this week.
Nine percent of respondents said they would be "most likely" to attend public hospitals if their local GPs increased consultation fees or stopped bulk billing.
Another 21 percent said, wherever possible, they would put off going to the doctor.
The polling comes amidst claim and counter claim over escalating attendances at public hospital A&E departments.
State Governments argued in their case for greater public hospital funding that falling bulk billing rates had seen thousands of extra people attending public hospitals where consultations are free.
The Howard Government argued that cost does not influence the number of people seeking first-port-of-call treatment at hospitals.
Health Service Union secretary, Craig Thomson, said the nine percent increase pin-pointed by the polling would "swamp already over-crowded emergency departments".
Meanwhile, the ACTU says the importance of Medicare is best illustrated by the privately-driven system in the world's richest country, the USA.
Latest figures show that 44 million American, 80 percent from working families, have no health cover at all.
This figure was up 2.4 million on the number in that situation in 2002, according to the US Census Bureau. Approximately, 15.2 percent of population was without any health cover for the duration of 2002, the Bureau said.
America's AFL-CIO president, John J. Sweeney said the statistics represented a health care, economic and moral "crisis".
"Since President Bush took office, the ranks of the uninsured have rised by more than 3.7 million, from 39.8 million in 2000 to 43.6 million in 2002," Sweeney said.
""All the gains the nation had made since 1998 in closing the health care gap and expanding coverage have been erased."
Families USA executive director, Ron Pollack, said the problem would be worsened by tightening state budgets. Traditionally, he said, state programmes such Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance had cushioned some of the disadvantaged.
"Now that the states are experiencing fiscal crises, they are hard-pressed to retain coverage in those public programmes," Pollack said.
Holden currently receives $130 million in Federal Government funding to develop the domestic auto car parts industry. The Australian Workers Union (AWU) suspects those funds may have been used to engineer and develop a competitive axle overseas.
"This is the thin edge of the wedge," says an AWU spokesperson. "This could affect thousands of jobs."
ION Limited has announced that it would be providing differentials for new Holden vehicles with production set to commence in 2006.
Spicer Axle, a company with a pedigree in the Australian Automotive industry that stretches back nearly 100 years, is currently the only manufacturer of Differentials in Australia; employing seven hundred workers in Sydney's west.
ION hailed the awarding of the contract as a successful partnership between itself and German manufacturer ZF.
ION claims that 50 new jobs will be created following an investment of $20 million.
"We fail to understand how it would be possible to fully manufacture the differentials with only 50 employees when most plants require at least 700 employees to do the job," says Russ Collison, NSW state secretary of the AWU. "We are concerned that if Holden and other vehicle manufacturers begin sourcing their components from companies who will be importing products from overseas that we could see the end of the vehicle component industry in Australia."
A spokesperson for ION had not returned calls at the time of publishing.
The two leaders led mass worker rights protests which took place in Liaoyang, China last year, have again been transferred to a new prison, this time to the site of a mass forced labour complex notorious for its brutal regime. The two were sentenced in June to prison terms of 7 and 4 years, respectively for their role in the mass protests.
The notorious Lingyuan Prison was built in 1958 and was developed over subsequent decades into one of China's largest automotive manufacturing bases - "staffed" entirely by unpaid prison labourers. As well as its production facility it also has a power plant and an asbestos mine.
Both men are in extremely poor medical condition as a result of their previous confinement. The transfer to Lingyuan Prison, if not intended as further punishment for their action in support of worker rights, is certain to worsen their already severe medical problems.
"they're so called subversive activity is no more or less than any trade union official would do in their ordinary lives in this country,' says Annie Owens, NSW Secretary of the Australian Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU).
The NSW Labor Council has called on the Chinese authorities now visiting Australia to release the two men and has also called on the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition to raise the matter in meetings with the Chinese president.
Click here to sign the China Labour Bulletin and LabourStart online petition to free Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang
The battle between Timor Air Services and its Timorese workforce turned nasty when the Australian-owned company sacked two workplace representatives then refused repeated Labour Department orders for their reinstatement.
One of the sacked workers, Sabino Adonia, signed this week's agreement on behalf of workers. The deal also commits Timor Air Services to abide by Timorese labour codes and for the cases of Sabino and his colleague, Clemintino Pereira, to be determined by arbitration.
Their cases are expected to be the first formal arbitrations under the country's recently adopted Labour Code.
Besides the immediate pay rise, and the future of Adonia and Pereira, the interim agreement introduces penalty payments and a transport allowance. It commits the parties to finalising a collective agreement within three weeks.
During the course of the strike an Australian trade unionist, Mick Killick, was arrested on a picket line and locked up in Dili gaol.
UN police have since laid charges which Killick will defend in court.
The East Timorese Transport and Maritime Workers Union were assisted in the dispute by the ACTU and IUF.
The union will formally oppose an NFF application to have the Industrial Relations Commission deprive employees of farmers and landowners of movements in the National Safety Net Adjustment.
Currently, these movement are applied to the earnings of all working Australians but the NFF wants to avoid that by having a new clause written into the Pastoral Industry.
AWU national secretary, Bill Shorten, warned the Federation that if it got its way there would be a mass exodus of people from occupations like shearing.
"Shearers were the first victims of this drought," Shorten said. "Many are now travelling vast distances to earn enough money to stay afloat, they don't earn large amounts and their workloads vary dramatically from month to month."
Shorten said the Federal Government had already brought in Exceptional Circumstances payments to aid farmers.
He suggested that if farmers couldn't meet the extra $8.96 per 100 sheep, provided in the latest movement, the NFF should direct its attention to the size of the Exceptional Circumstances payment.
It is running a national advertising campaign asking Bank shareholders to nominate it to hold their proxies in response to the company's intention to slash another 3700 jobs.
"The CBA must be held accountable for the loss of more than 20,000 jobs since privatisation, some of the most excessive executive remuneration in Australia's history, and a disgracefully low score on the index of corporate social responsibility," FSU assistant national secretary Sharron Caddie said.
"According to CEO David Murray, staff morale and improved customer service are the Bank's priority. Yet job insecurity is endemic and morale rock bottom after the CEO was awarded a $174,000 salary rise just days after announcing 10 percent of staff would go."
Caddie said Commonwealth Bank staff were under-resourced and struggling to maintain current service levels to customers.
She said the union would raise the concerns of non-institutional investors, as well as customers and staff, at the AGM.
The Bank's AGM will be held on October 31.
The Labor Council of NSW has developed UnionTeach, a new resource to assist teachers educate students about the achievements, role and ongoing relevance of trade unions.
The UnionTeach site has been designed by teachers to assist in implementing the new Work Education and Commerce syllabus, about to be piloted in NSW
schools next year.
Labor Council of NSW secretary John Robertson said the website would be an important resource in ensuring young people left school with an
understanding of where their rights at work come from.
"It is an alarming fact that most young people enter the workforce without any understanding of where their basic rights come from.
"Basic rights like the weekend, annual leave, sick leave, safety laws and equal pay did not come out of thin air. They were won by workers acting
together to improve their conditions.
"The NSW Government is to be congratulated for adding this important component to the curriculum and UnionTeach is the movement's contribution to
ensuring the materials are accurate and relevant.
The UnionTeach site will be launched at this evening's Labor Council meeting in the Trades Hall auditorium, Goulburn Street, Sydney.
UnionTeach can be accessed at http://www.labor.net.au/teach/
"This is the first popular vote for president and was expressly promoted to compensate unions for the reduction of their institutional voting rights," Mr Robertson says.
"In this context it is vital that the popularly elected president is supportive of unions, union members and union values."
A recent survey of presidential candidates by the LHMU received the following responses from the candidates:
Robbo's Rundown
Mary Easson: Member of the United Services Union and has been a union member all her working life. Mary has also been a union organiser. She believes that unions, working in partnership with the ALP can change our society: to rebuild the public realm, to discover amongst all the modern pressures, the virtues of community, of tolerance, of decency, of respect. "Through solidarity we build a society in which collective strength compensates for individual weaknesses," Easson says. Mary was the member for Lowe from 1993 to 1996.
Warren Mundine: Member of the Australian Workers Union and has been a
union member since he was 18. Warren believes unions are the foundation rock
of the Labor Party and has vowed to fight to make sure our elected politicians never forget what the union movement has achieved for working Australians. "We need a partnership with the union movement to the future to make sure working men and women are never left behind by any government." If elected, Watte4n would be the first indigenous President of the Party.
Monica Gould: Member of the National Union of Workers and has been a unionist all her working life. She was also the first female president of the Millers and Grocers Union and was Minister for Industrial Relations in the first Bracks Government. Monica supported the move by Simon Crean to create an equal partnership between the industrial wing and the party's membership.
Barry Jones: Member of Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Barry
has been a union member since 1950, included an elected executive member of the Victorian Secondary Teachers' Association. He believes the ALP must build a firm alliance between unionists and on-unionists. "I would encourage public debate on making unions more responsive to the needs of workers," Jones says. Barry was National President from 1992 to 2003.
Duncan Kerr -Not a union member. He has a long history of working with unions including the LHMU. His vision is for unions to empower ALP members with the relevant knowledge to assist in industrial campaigns. "Unions should be able to rely on the ALP, which they founded, to support the mission of the union movement," Kerr says
Sarah Burke - Not a member of the union. Previously employed as a casual organiser for the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association. "As a lawyer, I practice mainly in the areas of employment law and enjoy achieving successful results for my clients, most of whom are employees." Burke says.
Grace Grace - Currently member of NUW, ASU Clerical and CPSU and has been a full-time union official for 23 years. Grace was an industrial officer for 10 years with FSU, elected industrial officer to Queensland Council of Union in 1989 and elected QCU general secretary in October 2000. Says she will encourage the ALP to strengthen its ties with unions. "It is crucial that the ALP reverses the legislative changes adopted by the Howard Government that restrict the rights of workers and unions to organise collectively," Grace says.
Michael Samaras - Member of MEAA and previously a member of the PSA, CPSU and the SDA. Michael believes that unions are central to the ALP and have a central role to play in reminding Labor Governments and Oppositions of the needs and priorities of people who otherwise would not be properly represented. He also proposes the 'radical' option of 'closed primaries' which would allow affiliated unionists to participate in ALP preselections.
Susan Ryan Not a union member.- Was inspired to join the Party and seek to represent itin Federal Parliament. Since retiring from Parliament in 1988, Susan has worked in the superannuation sector. She has retained her Party allegiance but until now has not sought any position beyond rank and file member. "In my role, I would take every chance to advocate the Party's principles, internally and to the world at large, supportive always of the parliamentary party in its efforts to win government," Ryan says.
Shelley Archer - Member and former workplace delegate for the CPSU/CSA and former senior industrial officer Australian Nurses Federation. She believes the union movement and the ALP could look at taking a more constructive role in encouraging union members to join their respective ALP branches. "The union movement founded the Australian Labor Party and as such must still remain integral to its functioning," Archer says.
Carmen Lawrence - Says union membership for MPs is not required under the WA rules, but before entering Parliament in 1986. She was a member of the University of Western Australia Staff Association and has had honorary membership of the MUA. She was prominent among MPs in WA supporting the MUA during the waterfront dispute. "Because of my involvement in the women's movement, I believe I could be particularly effective in urging more young women to join unions to improve their conditions." Lawrence says. Carmen Lawrence has however been a strong supporter of a reduced role for unions in the ALP for many years. Carmen Lawrence has been a long time advocate for a reduced role for unions in the Party.
He has also been elected assistant secretary of the Newcastle Trades Hall Council.
Mr McPherson has worked as an organiser for the Electrical Trades Union for 13 years, where he has negotiated numerous agreements for the power,
construction and manufacturing industries.
Mr McPherson, who grew up in the region and has spent most of his working life here, said he looked forward to playing a broader role in promoting
employment opportunities in the Hunter and NSW North Coast.
"The Hunter is an area that needs economic activity to create jobs and ensure we have a viable long-term community," Mr McPherson said.
"Through the Labor Council and the Trades Hall, I look forward to coordinating activities between unions, promoting job opportunities and highlighting the value of trade union membership."
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson said the Council would look to Mr McPherson to help build union density in northern NSW.
"This is one of the growth areas of the labour market and unions need effective organisers and advocates on the ground, like Peter, is we are to grow as a movement," Mr Robertson said.
Mr McPherson takes the position after the sudden death of Ernie Razborsek, who passed away in July.
Urgent Event on Monday 27th October
SAFETY MEETING and MARCH 11AM MONDAY 27 OCTOBER 2003.
Meet: Sydney Town Hall Square 11am.
Regional Centres:
Wollongong: Amphitheatre, Wollongong City Mall.
Newcastle: Newcastle Trades Hall, Ground Floor meeting room.
Joel Exner was 16 years of age. He was killed on Wednesday October 15. Joel was killed when he fell 15 metres through the roof of a storage shed under construction at Eastern Creek.
The Building Unions intend to ensure justice for Joel and his family and friends. Joel had the right to live. He was a keen footy player for Blacktown City Rugby Club.
Joel was killed on his third day on the job. He left school to help his mum out with finances. Now he is dead.
Unions have been fighting for a long time for the implementation of a crime of industrial manslaughter. It was passed at ALP State Conference but this is not enough. It is a crime. We want laws that ensure that if workers are killed due to negligence, bosses can be and WILL be jailed. In NSW one worker dies every
TWO days from accidents and workplace diseases. Enough is Enough.
Please come and show your support for this important cause and remeber Joel
and every other worker who has been killed whilst at work.
BREAKFAST SEMINAR TUESDAY, 28 OCTOBER
commencing at 8.15am to meet DAVID BARSAMIAN, US journalist and media critic. A FREE breakfast will be provided (sponsored by JUST Super).
A brief CV for David is provided below. He is a well respected commentator on mainstream and alternative media. This is an opportunity for people working in the media to discuss and debate the role and function of the mainstream media, propaganda, corporate policy and US foreign policy.
Where: Alliance office, 4/221 Queen St, Melbourne.
When: 8.15am (until 9.30am), Tuesday 28 October.
RSVP: essential for catering purposes to email:
[email protected] or tel: 03 9691 7125 (by 3pm Monday 27 October).
Who is David Barsamian?
David Barsamian is the founder and producer of Alternative Radio, the award
winning independent public affairs program syndicated to over 125 radio
stations and millions of listeners across the United States.
He is the author of ten books including "Propaganda and the Public Mind"
with Noam Chomsky, "Confronting Empire" with Eqbal Ahmad, "Culture and
Resistance" with Edward Said, "The Future of History" with Howard Zinn and
"The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting".
David is the winner of the ACLU's 2003 Upton Sinclair Award for independent
journalism and the Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its
'Top Ten Media Heroes.'
David lectures widely on the role and function of the mainstream media,
propaganda, corporate power and US foreign policy.
From railways to information superhighways at Sydney's Eveleigh
railway workshops
linking history, heritage and business partnerships through time and space
Associate Professor Lucy Taksa
School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour
Date: Monday, 27 October 2003
Time: 12.00pm - 1.20pm
Venue: Room 2093, 2nd Floor
West wing, Quadrangle Building, UNSW
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Patterns of Union Joining in New Zealand: Causes, Characteristics
and Consequences.
Results of the NZ Worker Representation & Participation Survey
Professor Peter Boxall
University of Auckland Business School
Do New Zealand workers join unions for ideological or instrumental reasons?
Is there an unsatisfied demand for union representation in New Zealand?
What are the consequences for NZ unions as they strive to increase
membership levels?
This seminar reports findings from the New Zealand Worker Representation
and Participation Survey conducted in January and February this year by
Peter Haynes, Peter Boxall and Keith Macky. One thousand New Zealand
workers were surveyed about their experience of work, including their felt
and desired levels of influence over a range of issues and their attitudes
to union representation.
Peter Boxall is Professor of Human Resource Management and Head of the
Department of Management and Employment Relations at the University of
Auckland. From 1990 to 1991, he was a Research Fellow in the National Key
Centre in Industrial Relations at Monash University and in 1998 was
Visiting Professor in the Work and Employment Research Centre at the
University of Bath. His work on HR strategy has appeared in such journals
as the Journal of Management Studies, the Human Resource Management
Journal, and Human Resource Management Review. His recent book with John
Purcell, Strategy and Human Resource Management (Basingstoke and New York:
Palgrave Macmillan), brings together much of his work in this field. His
work on union strategies and on the reform of the New Zealand labour market
has appeared in such journals as the British Journal of Industrial
Relations and the Journal of Industrial Relations.
Date: Monday, 3 November 2003
Time: 12.00pm - 1.20pm
Venue: JG Seminar Room 119, 1st Floor,
John Goodsell Building, UNSW
For more information contact Marie Kwok on 9385 7156 or [email protected]
Volunteering in Palestine: an Information Evening
Two Western Australians - a union Organiser and an International Solidarity Movement activist - will share their recent experiences volunteering in Palestine.
Internationals perform an important role in bringing people's attention to the tragic suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
� We listen.
� watch in horror.
� be the media.
� write about and tell people back home what we see and feel.
� By simply being there, provide protection for civilians against violent settler attacks and Israeli Occupation Force war crimes.
� reduce the risk factor for Palestinian farmers, women, workers, students and men to revitalise their history of nonviolent resistance against Israeli's policies of ethnic cleansing.
� participate in Palestinian-led direct actions.
� meet and work with amazing people from throughout the world.
� We learn and change before returning home, not seeing the world in exactly the same way as before we left.
We learn about love, community, a culture of serving, and of making others feel welcome because we are so welcome in the homes of the Palestinian people. We learn the amazing conditions to which human beings can adapt and still show dignity. We learn of the power of patient resistance.
Come and let us share with you our stories of solidarity work in Palestine.
For any who feel moved to consider coming to Palestine - out of a deeper sense of commitment than solely to consume excitement and dangerous experiences - we will answer any questions the best we can, especially concerning the International Solidarity Movement (www.palsolidarity.org), which is one of the main vehicles for volunteering.
We hope that out of this gathering will arise enough interest for a Perth-based Palestinian solidarity group, to raise funds to provide moderate subsidies for those wishing to do ISM work, and to send to ISM itself.
Please direct any questions to Rodney at [email protected] or (08) 9322 1384. or to Pat at 93610186 and at [email protected]
Fairwear!
Is your organisation involved in merchandising? Do You Buy clothing to sell with your message? Do You Know if the workers making those clothes are receiving their legal wages? If you want to Be Sure that the clothing you sell is being made for fair wages, under fair conditions then this is the training for you.
Fair Wear is providing a free training day on how to get your clothing supplier accredited to the Homeworkers Code of Practice. This code was developed by the Textile/Clothing Union together with representatives of the retail and manufacturing industries. The code is a self regulatory system that monitors the production chain from retailer to outworker to ensure legal wages and conditions. Some outworkers have been paid their Award entitlements for the first time as a result of the accreditation process.
Once accredited, suppliers can display the No Sweatshop label: a sign of sweatshop free production. As organisations you have the power to demand companies you source from commit to sweatshop free conditions, and through demanding accreditation you can be directly involved in improving the conditions of outworkers in the Australian clothing industry.
Fair Wear is calling on all NGO�s, charitable organisations and community groups to get behind the No Sweatshop Label and get their suppliers of T-shirts, windcheaters or any other garments, accredited to the Homeworkers Code of Practice.
Where:
Labor Council 377-383 Sussex St Sydney.
Executive Board Room, Lvl 9
When:
Wednesday 5th November. 9am - 12.30
Contact:
Dez Karlsson;
ph: 9380 9091
fax: 9380 8159
mob: 0403 128 013
www.fairwear.org.au
NSW Labor Film Night - 'The Contender'
A presidential political thriller. After the Vice-President dies in office, the President decides it's time for a woman to take the job. Senator Laine Hanson gets the nod, but Republican leaks and disinformation threaten to derail her campaign.
'The Contender' (rated M) stars Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen and Gary Oldman.
Come and enjoy this Oscar nominated film & then enjoy some refreshments with other Party members.
6:00pm for 6:30pm start on Tuesday 11 November
Theatrette, State Parliament, Macquarie Street, Sydney
$20 / $15 concession (bookings essential)
Light refreshments will be served after the movie.
For more information please contact Paul Sekhon on (02) 9207 2000 or email [email protected]
*You must be a Party member to make a booking
Trading Australia Away?
Anthony Albanese MP and Grayndler ALP presents "Trading Australia Away?" - a
public forum to debate the important issues of free trade and globalisation.
7.30pm to 9pm Thursday 13th November, 2003
Marrickville Town Hall, 303 Marrickville Road, Marrickville,2204
Guest Speakers are Senator Stephen Conroy (Shadow Minister for Trade,
Corporate Governance, Financial Services and Small Business), Pat Ranald
(Convenor AFTINET) and Doug Cameron (National Secretary AMWU).
Contact Shane McArdle on 02 9564 3588 or [email protected]
Child labour is a global phenomenon and exists in both developed and developing countries. Therefore the effective abolition of childhood is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.
The child labour in all its manifestations like bonded and house working is extremely repugnant as per ILO estimation there are more than 200 million child labourers worldwide. These child labourers are highly visible such as street children working in the urban informal economy. Others such as child domestic workers are effectively invisible from public view.
Child labour is clearly detrimental to individual children preventing then from enjoying their child hood, hampering their development and sometimes causing lifelong physical or psychological damage; it is also detrimental to families, to communities and to society as a whole. It undermines national development by keeping children out of school, preventing them gaining the education and skills that would enable them ad adults to contribute to economic growth and prosperity
It is universally agreed that denying children's their child hood and sending them to work is not only inhuman but also hampers the development of human resources of the country by retarding the physical and mental development of the large section of its future generations. So the children should be seen in the school instead of work place.
To make the Elimination of all forms of child labour a reality the Government has taken several steps to increase the primary school enrolment. Tuition and books have been provided free, even though enrolment rate has increased drop out rate is no less insignificant.
There is no doubt that the child labour situation is at a precarious level and worse resulting dire consequences. These children are thus particularly vulnerable, including to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Despite working in formal sector establishment that produce for experts the majority of child labourers in manufacturing toys in supply chains producing for the domestic market for example in the production of fire works and matches.
Childhood is not an isolated phenomenon. It is an extreme of multitude of socio-ecnomic factors and has roots in poverty, growing un-employment, uneven distribution of wealth and resources.
Well comprehensive and well intregrated approach to eliminate this curse badly seek active cooperation from the families, communities, trade unions, NGO's, and employers bodies. All segments of society including media to cause awareness can play an important role in this regard the parents and teachers will have also to join hands to work for sustainable and systematic elimination of boded and child labour.
Habib Malik
My young friend who is now in his third year behind wire in one of Australia�s detention camps on Nauru writes to me most eloquently of 'freedom'. Maybe we cannot imagine what it is like to ask for protection and find yourself locked up without hope.
Walk For Me
Walk for me
Out of your house
Through big cities
Cross busy streets
Walk for me
To any big restaurant
Feel people talking happily
Order something out of routine
�What should I send you?"
My pen friend wrote to me
Can you send me the feeling of a bird?
When it flies in the vast open sky
But when he does take that fateful flight back to Afghanistan, he will be facing the same terrors that compelled him to run in the first place. There will be no chance to pursue his love of physics and language. There will be no chance to find a wife, marry and feed his children. The Taliban are back. The country is in ruins.
What verbs will this young man use to characterise his actions then? Hide? Scurry? Freeze? Starve? Tremble?
He longs to have his intellect, hopes and happiness soar� like the bird.
Australia, Australia, what are we doing?
Elaine Smith
John Howard's push for unprecedented personal power and his dedication to the Monarchy seem to on converging paths. Can we soon expect the opening of a local branch headed by a self-crowned King John? The time may be coming for a new national anthem based on realities and forsaking the fairy-tales of equality, universal opportunity, and shared prosperity in Advance Australia fair. What could be better than the old one that everybody knows, suitably modified?
Proposed anthem.
God save ungracious John
Long live ignoble John
God save our John
Unmeritoreous mean and inglorious
Long to reign over us
God save our John.
Farewell the A.B.C.
Goodbye democracy
God help us all
Castrate the Senate soon
If they won't sing his tune
Sedated let us croon
God save our John.
Maurice Fairfield.
I am a Union Activist in the States. Our employer East Bay Municipal Utility District has been sending representatives to the Yarra Valley Water District. We view these visits as threatening to our Union jobs. I am looking for any information from Australian Unions on this company.
John Morra
Building workers can only dream of the power of this militant union "the A.M.A". Pussy Cat ABBOTT withdraws LEVY and rolls over with a 100 million dollar BAILOUT --- WHY DOESN'T HE SHAFT HIS LAWYER MATES and LOONY JUDGES -- Answer: because upwardly mobile class SNOB -ABBOTT (LL.B.) is one of them
Quote
Taxpayers will outlay $100million a year to keep doctors in practice, with a further bailout to be considered before Christmas.
The Howard Government yesterday offered doctors extra concessions worth $25million a year -- on top of an existing annual bailout of $75million.
Health Minister Tony Abbott also agreed to withdraw a controversial levy on doctors and to chair a taskforce overseeing a two-month review of the medical indemnity system.
The offer, an attempt to avert mass resignations by public hospital specialists, may still not be enough to satisfy doctors. But it has secured a temporary truce with the national doctors' union, the Australian Medical Association.
The Government is still resisting two key demands by doctors' advocates -- that taxpayers cover long-term medical costs, plus any negligence claims that arise six years or more after a medical mistake.
Unquote
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7523851%255E2702,00.html
unquote
Strange isn't it that this prick Abbott can go after workers who build hospitals like a rotweiller yet behaves like a pussycat in the face of the militant union like the AMA. And why are we being fooled by plaintiff lawyers and their scams -- Lawyers act as wolves for the insurance industry using fear to drive folks into the pockets of insurance sharks.
Dan
Troy Bramston perception of the Hawke government makes me want to spew.
As a blue collar worker that has had to battle through the Hawk then Keating miserable days of the wages accord, multiskilling and privatisation I firmly believe that workers were worse off under their government than any other government in my lifetime. Unions during this period sat in the Labour Governments back pocket and passively watched as workers real take home pay plummeted with wage increases under the accord of 2-3% PA whilst inflation ran at double figures. Workers paid home interest rates at up to 17% PA.
If the Labour Party is going to win back the hearts of blue collar workers they are going to have to unashamedly swing back to the Left. Don't knock Whitlam!
Alan Tyrer
Troy Bramston's attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Bob Hawke is at best questionable. Bramston appears to equate progress for the labour movement with electoral success. In retrospect the Hawke Government's many failings continue to dog the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party today.
Perhaps most worrying is Bramston's assertion that Hawke helped create a more efficient economy, decisions described by Bramston as 'pragmatic'. These are the same reforms that have dismantled collective bargaining, fuelled speculative investment, commodified labour, exposed underprivileged communities to global finance markets, privatised infrastructure and unleashed competition policy. The 1980's economic revolution stripped away decades worth of rights and entitlements that the Labor movement spent decades building.
At the risk of sounding like an old fashioned Social Democrat; perhaps a Labor agenda that swallows whole the fallacious assumptions of neo-liberal orthodoxy is not so 'reformist'.
The market has never been a neutral governor of the laws of supply and demand, and especially not during an epoch of wildly distorted terms of trade, in which multi-national corporations coerce nations states into a deadly scramble for investment crumbs.
Industry Policy, solidaristic wages, pricing controls, progressive taxation, universal welfare rights and a strong, growing public sector need to be woven together into a coherent story of what can be achieved. The traditional social democratic project needs to be revisited.
Nick Lucchinelli
Ian West's comment that we should be in partnership with Bob Carr's slogans is a bit rich. Bob Carr hates working people. The current Labor government cannot point to the implementation of a single progressive public policy initiative that would directly benefit working people.
This labor government does not advocate higher wages for working people, it would rather fund private schools than the state school system which are becoming little more than welfare schools, labor ministers are grinding down and forcing the lowest of the lowest paid workers (cleaners) to accept the smallest wage rise possible while allowing cleaning companies to dock their wages for unfinished work.
All the while labor politicians granted themselves a payrise at twice the rate of inflation plus perks.
Ian don't let me see you crossing the street in down town Bargo, I will not brake.
Paul Palmer
Since our first issue was published in February 1999, Workers Online has attempted to give unions and their members a voice; not through worthy diatribe but through tabloid, in your face news, people-based features and fearless opinion.
From where we sit, this is the language of work and the only dialogue likely to cut through the white noise that is the mass media and resonate with our membership.
Through elections, pickets, peace marches and war, we have given an alternative, progressive story of the world to counter the increasingly dour prognosis served up to us by the paid pundits of the fourth estate.
Over the 200 issues we have broken stories week after week, many of which have ended up in the mainstream papers and TV shows that dominate our public conversation.
We have raised issues that would otherwise be ignored; giving space to debates as important as water privatisation, job security and international labour rights.
And we have tried to create an online union culture where films, music and sport are viewed through a political framework that is as irreverent as it is dialectic, but never scared of taking a stand.
We have done so because we believe that a workers press must explore all aspects of working life, not just a narrow industrial agenda; and that until unions take this wider view, we'll be consigned to fringe players in our members' lives.
*********
Have we succeeded? There is no doubt that Workers Online fills a gap in the movement and that many of us would miss it if it were not there. When you lob into someone's inbox every week, you get under their skin.
Our readership, now averaging 15,000 per week is substantial in online terms - at the very least a sign that the key network of union organisers, officials and delegates, as well as those with political and industrial links, use our service.
But we should not overstate this. Even with 15,000 readers we are talking about less than half of one per cent of the entire union movement's membership. If the aim of Workers Online was to create a new workers press, then we have only scratched the surface.
In retrospect there is no doubt that my dreams of a workers' online press, where the rank and file would log on each week and get their news, were premature.
It seems obvious now, but in 1999 the momentum was such that a wired and connected world appeared to be just around the corner.
Now with the tech wreck and the War on Terror, these seem like pipe dreams and we should be prepared to wait at least another five years for this great leap forward.
***********
So this commemoration edition, printed also in hard copy for the first time, is not just a souvenir - it is a cry for help to those who run the trade union movement.
The stories in these pages are only read by the few, our challenge is to turn this into a product for the many. And to do so we need to look at trade union journals, the hard copy editions sent to the homes of all trade union members.
These journals that are read in their hundreds of thousands are narrow in their scope, preaching in their tone and, with a few notable exceptions, largely unread.
If we need to create a new unionism to survive, it must be based on common values and a common voice - and the first step is for us to share our stories across the movement
Our 200th edition plea is for union leaders of vision to adopt the Workers Online model in their own journal and share it with their membership.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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