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Issue No. 206 05 December 2003  
 
F E A T U R E S

Interview: Muscling Up
Labor�s Craig Emerson discusses how the changes to his party�s leadership will impact on the industrial relations agenda.

Unions: Thinking Pink
What�s the difference between a Nursing Home and an Aged Care Facility? More than semantics, according to nurses worried Australia is woefully unprepared for the crash at the end of the baby-boom cycle, writes Jim Marr.

Bad Boss: Global Bully
If nothing else, US-based call centre giant TeleTech is consistent. After being nosed out of last year�s Bad Boss gong it is back, bigger and badder than ever in its search for Tony honours.

Unions: National Focus
In this national round up by Noel Hester, Hugh McKay tells us how the young are sticking together in a bewildered society, the gongs get handed out at the ACTU awards and there is a chance to win as a worthy wordsmith.

Economics: Friend or Flunkey?
On New Years Day as you look at the wine stains and tread on a soggy puddle on the carpet, will you look for the phone and call a cleaner? Gabrielle Meagher gives a few ethical dilemmas to confront before you make that call.

History: Young Blood
Youth is no barrier to political leadership, as the 37-year-old John Watson proved 100 years ago, writes Neale Towart.

Industrial: Living For Work?
Mark Hearn reports from a recent conference addressing the dilemma of work, citizenship and community.

International: Fighting Together
The international trade union movement is launching a Global Unions HIV/AIDS campaign to combat the spread of the virus.

Poetry: Medicare Plus Blues
Is the Government's new health plan a plus for Medicare? Asks resident bard David Peetz

Review: Human Racing
Seabiscuit is a great horse movie but more than that it serves as a powerful metaphor for the importance of living for the future while maintaining passion and compassion in the present, writes Tara de Boehmler.

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L A T E S T   N E W S

Peeking Dicks in Pickle
Nine hospital workers were trailed around Sydney by private eyes, and illegally photographed and videotaped before being sacked for buying takeaways during 12-hour shifts.

NSW Labor Council made the extraordinary claims to the IRC this week, submitting the actions of both Western Sydney Health Services and Websters Security should be referred to authorities for prosecution under the Workplace Video Surveillance Act. [full story]

Lights Out on Cheap Labour
Electrical workers have pulled the fuse on bosses across NSW who use cheap labour to undermine wages and condition.

In a landmark decision, the IRC full bench has rejected an employer bid to strike down a clause in the ETU�s building industry pattern agreement that binds sub-contractors to wages and conditions in the principal agreement. [full story]

Blackout Hangs Over Sydney
A $200 million project to back-up central Sydney�s power supply is threatened by Transgrid�s proposed relocation to a site on the city�s western outskirts.

A key engineer on the project, who lives on the Northern Beaches, is questioning whether or not he can make the move to Wallgrove, near Eastern Creek, which lacks public transport and is hours away from most workers � some of whom commute from the Central Coast and Wollongong. [full story]

Contractors Hang Up on Telstra
Individual contractors are picketing, striking and blockading Telstra�s corporate headquarters in a bid to stop Australia�s largest company slashing their incomes by nearly 50 percent.

Hundreds of Foxtel and broadband installation technicians have flocked to join the CEPU (Communications, Elecrical and Plumbing Union) since Telstra signed cut-rate installation deals with contractors, Siemens-Theiss and ABB. [full story]

Uni Workers Too Smart For Minister
Radical Federal Government industrial relations proposals have been rejected by Senate independents following a campaign by Australia�s university workers.

The Federal Government had proposed tying over $400 million in funding for higher education to forcing universities to offer individual contracts. Academics feared the move would weaken working conditions at Australia�s universities.  [full story]

Employer Bullies Vie For �Tony�
Tony Abbott may have left industrial relations to operate on the health system, but his memory lives on with the announcement of finalists for the second annual �Tony Award� for Australia�s worst boss.

The winner will be announced at the Labor Council�s executive dinner on Friday December 12 and will join last year�s winner Australia Post on a perpetual trophy depicting the former Minister for Workplace Relations in his traditional cassock. [full story]

ALSO MAKING NEWS

 South Coast Deal to Build Movement

 TeleTech Safety Rep Vows to Fight On

 Corporates Urged to Come Clean

 MP Too Busy For Teachers

 Bosses Block Good Shops Code

 Engineers Ground Safety System

 Workers Win At Safety Meet

 Merger Threats

 Activists Notebook

email workers to a friend latest breaking news from labornet
Moo-ving to a Safer Workplace. The meatworkers campaign to put safety first in abbatoirs.

E D I T O R I A L
Latham is committed to an ongoing role for unions, one of the few working examples of the mutuality that he sees as the engine room of a functioning society.

DARTH VADER

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Dear John
In his 500th piece of activist journalism, long-term Workers Online contributor Rowan Cahill sends a personal message to our prime Minister.

The Locker Room
Retired Hurt
Every innings comes to an end, some too soon, and others not soon enough, writes Phil Doyle.

Politics
Wedge Watch
Labor's Craig Emerson puts the spotlight on the Howard Government's politics of division.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Workers Friend Ian West MLC is back with his monthly round-up from Macquarie Street.


LETTERS to the Editor
 Feds Ignore Building Deaths
 Bob Gould On Kicking The Liberals Out

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