*****
The most dangerous US President in living memory is often portrayed as a homespun, simple fellow. The grin. The vacant gaze. The vacuous and inappropriate comment.
Let's face it. The leader of the free world is an idiot.
Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you the US Presidency. The humourist Michael Moore has documented the steps that were taken to stuff a ballot box in Florida in 2001 in order to elect the idiot son of a failed former Republican leader. Thanks to his criminally insane brother (not the one who defrauded millions of their savings, the other one) George was able to pick up the Electoral College in Florida and assume the presidency.
Thanks to George we are now in an arms salesman's wet dream - a state of permanent and total war. We must abandon the very freedoms that we are defending in order to defend them.
Irony, and a hell of a lot of innocent kids, are now dead.
This is the man who, in the face of mounting poverty, decided to give tax cuts to some of the world's wealthiest people. This is the man who put Osama Bin Laden in the too hard basket. This is the man who has torn up the rules of global diplomacy and replaced it with a wild free for all. This is the man who has unilaterally assumed the mantle of world leader. This is the man who has taken a bunch of people that even the CIA thought were crazies and has placed them at the centre of state policy. This is the man who has cut welfare and health care while presiding over the biggest national budget defecit in human history.
The only thing crazier than this demented loon are the dangerous fools blindly following him, such as the Vodaphone Prime Minister.
This year George W. Bush has fought terror at home by grinning like an idiot while slashing overtime conditions and health care for millions of America's working poor.
To solve the conflicting demands in any society, and between nations, requires the skill of patience, it requires thoughtfulness, diplomacy and wisdom. Luckily George W. Bush has none of these.
Reflect on these remarkable contributions to the human gene pool:
"[T]he best way to find these terrorists who hide in holes is to get people coming forth to describe the location of the hole."
Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
"Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace."
Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003
"I'm the master of low expectations."
Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."
Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003
"I think war is a dangerous place."
Washington, D.C., May 7, 2003
The Hapsburg Empire collapsed because an inherited aristocracy became hopelessly inbred to the point of mental fatigue. In one generation the Bush line has managed to replicate the Hapsburg's 1400 years of evolutionary determinism to produce a chinless wonder with the intellect of a houseplant, and none of its aesthetic qualities.
Bush would be an unbelievable satire in the hands of, say, Peter Sellers or Charlie Chaplin. Scarily though, he's very real. Just as the conservatives in this country supported Hitler in the thirties, now, in the early part of the twenty-first century, they support Bush unquestioningly. After all, they share the same intellectual rigour.
Our Tool Of The Year George W. Bush should enjoy his time in the Tool Shed, as this time next year there will be a Democrat president-elect and Bush should be facing the International War Crimes tribunal in The Hague, charged for his Crimes Against Humanity.
Well, he should if there's any justice in this world.
An eleventh hour ruling by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission delivered public and private sector teachers a 5.5 per cent interim rise, while nurses ended their workvalue case with a net 10 per cent increase.
The teachers ruling, while a stop-gap as the Commission considers the case for a 25 per cent increase, is well above the Carr Government's three per cent offer and sets the scene for a spirited round of publilc sector wage negotiations in 2003.
Teachers are the first group of workers to commence enterprise bargaining negotiations, followed by fire fighters, health workers, public servants and police, who will all go into wage battle in the next 18 months.
The full teachers ruling, expected early in 2004, comes against the back-drop of threatened industrial action at the beginning of the school year.
The NSW Teachers Federation has warned that the interim ruling cannot be the end of the wages story and increased pressure on the Carr Government to indicate where the increases would be funded.
"The interim increase will be funded by increases to the public education budget, but the NSW Government is yet to commit to fully-fund any final decision," Federation president Maree O'Hallorhan says.
She also fired a broadside at the government for opposing any increase beyond three per cent in the Commission hearings.
No such reservataions for the Independent Education Union who received the full backing of Catholic educators in their case.
IEU state secretary Dick Shearman said the 5.5 percent, payable from 1 January 2004, was a welcome down-payment for significant increases in productivity over recent years.
"The bottom line is the community deserves a teaching profession that has the respect and support of employers - this decision is clearly a step in that direction," Shearman says
Nurses In Pre-Chrissie Win
The decision was preceded by the final ruling in the Nurses Work Value Case, which delivered a 3.5 per cent rise, on top of the 6.5 per cent interim increase previously awarded by the IRC.
The win, after a sustained campaign by nurses, means the majority of general ward nurses will receive a $36.00 per week pay rise. A full-time new graduate nurse will receive a rise of $26.00 per week.
The decision also agreed to give nurses a new legal entitlement to fair and safe workloads.
Mean while, teachers are left wondering how a government so supportive of nurses claim for wage justice can be so dismissive of their profession
Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, did not respond to questions about whether his administration would again turn to Gillespie for the talents he brought to its 1998 showdown with the MUA (Maritime Union of Australia).
Gillespie was fingered as the public servant who provided advice relied on by former Workplace Relations Minister, Peter Reith, to endorse the wholesale sackings of unionised wharfies.
Federal Government lost control of that showdown when the public baulked at pictures of attack dogs on docks, and news that hand-picked scabs had been recruited from the Australian Defence Force and secretly trained in the Middle East.
After Gillespie was outed by journalists, Helen Trinca and Anne Davies in their book Waterfront: The Battle That Changed Australia, he was moved into what was officially described as an "administrative position" with Commissioner Terence Cole's Building Industry Royal Commission. That inquiry would be lashed by commentators as "flawed", "biased" and "anti-union".
Workers Online understands the Commission paid Gillespie a six-figure sum, and threw in a car, for his "administrative" talents.
Now, the Department of Workplace Relations website reveals, he has been handed a key position with the agency charged with implementing Royal Commission recommendations.
The vast majority of those recommendations go to attempting to break the strength of building industry unions, especially the CFMEU.
Key Liberal Party figures, including Andrews' Workplace Relations predecessor and Royal Commission architect, Tony Abbott, have spoken publicly of their intention to break the "power" of building unions.
Similar rhetoric was used before Reith green-lighted the assault on the MUA.
Andrews, last week, ducked direct questions about Gillespie's role with the Implementation Unit and whether or not his Government had considered mass dismissals in its bid to "tame" commercial construction.
Drivers have slammed "third world conditions� under which they work, saying the issue is an industry wide problem and that operators and government are failing to address a serious public hygiene problem.
The private bus industry services many expanding areas of Sydney and the Central coast where amenities for drivers are either inadequate or non-existent.
"We normally have to go out on shifts that are mostly five hours long," says Ron McGill, who works out of the Westbus depot at Northmead. "We all have bodily functions. The times we get to do these things are very tight. People are often forced to contain themselves."
McGill says that the time pressure issues are compounded by a lack of facilities.
"Under OH&S legislation employers are supposed to address these things, but the solution needs a global approach."
Drivers would like to see stakeholders - including local governments and chambers of commerce that benefit from bus services in their areas - recognise the problem and reach consensus on a common sense solution.
Former bus driver and Transport Workers Union organiser Mick Pieri echoed McGill's concerns.
"The drivers have to hang on for hours on end. A lot of time when you need to go to the loo you have to go through passengers just to get to the toilet. The passengers can be irate because the bus is running late," says Pieri, who says that the issue is more than just toilets. "We've been fighting thee issues for ten years. We need facilities with hot and cold running water, proper meal rooms, proper amenities."
Pieri told of one instance where drivers were issued with towels and soap, but nowhere to use them. Drivers are often forced to take their breaks by the side of the road.
As well as the public hygiene risks in not providing appropriate facilities for workers who come into contact with hundreds of members of the public on a daily basis, drivers are also concerned about the long term health effects.
"I have no doubt its got to have some effect on the bladder and the kidneys," says McGill.
Pieri also suspects that being forced to hold off going to the toilet on such a regular basis could be linked to high incidence of prostate problems among bus drivers.
In the meantime drivers across the private bus industry are frustrated at the slow progress in addressing their concerns and are seeking to highlight their situation to gain the support of the public.
There has been some agreement from state rail to incorporate bust driver facilities at redevelopments of major transport terminals, but this fails to address the problems at the end of runs that are often in recently developed subdivisions.
"The rate of progress is slow,' says McGill. "There is no privacy [in the new subdivisions]. It's not like you can go behind a tree."
"We have to press for these improvements. Unless [the stakeholders] are embarrassed and can be more objective."
Until then bus drivers remain frustrated that they can't enjoy the sort of facilities that other people take for granted.
Company fashion police sent a male worker home after he attended a CPSU stop work meeting, last week, and docked him for being off-site - but not until he had been on the job for two hours and 46 minutes and helped the centre over its morning peak.
The action came as CPSU members in Victoria joined USU counterparts in NSW agitating against the imposition of second generation AWAs.
The original, take-it or leave-it employment contracts sliced thousands of dollars off rates that had been negotiated with Telstra, Australia's largest company.
Now the US call centre giant is pushing staff in both states to sign-off on second generation AWAs but employees are demanding that the company negotiate with relevant unions, and sign-off on the newly-registered Contract Call Centres Award.
TeleTech has refused to sign the safety net document or enter negotiations with either union. Although the new award provides only minimal safeguards it would oblige TeleTech to pay loadings for Saturday and Sunday hours, something not required under the terms of Federal Government-supported AWAs that were imposed without negotiations.
Hundreds of union members have so far refused to put their names to the new TeleTech documents. CPSU members held a half hour stop work meeting outside the Moe call centre last week to urge the company to enter negotiations.
Organiser, Sue Brookes, described the new AWAs as worse, on conditions, than the originals.
"The pay increase is pathetic, especially given where these people are coming from. They are offering the CPI movement, plus one percent, but it is capped at 3 percent, irrespective of what happens with inflation."
Moe workers also say the company is dishonouring minimal sick leave obligations included in their AWAs, even after they present medical certificates.
The CPSU is handling the case of a former Moe employee who left TeleTech a mongh ago and still has received her final fortnight's wages and accrued annual leave.
Telstra Picks Up Union Signal
Independent electrical contractors are flocking to the union banner after striking Foxtel installers secured deals leaving them around $500 a week better off.
Two hundred Telstra/Foxtel sub-contractors called off a week-long strike after contractors, Siemens Theiss and ABB, withdrew demands for 20 percent cuts in job rates.
Telstra contracted out the work five years ago, then churned through one contractor after another in a bid to keep driving down pay tv and broadband installation costs.
The subbies banded together, under the CEPU banner, after Siemens-Thiess and ABB picked up the latest contracts and attempted to impose further cuts on earnings.
More than 90 percent of the 205 contractors employed in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth threw their lots in with the CEPU, precipitating industrial action that last for a week in NSW and 10 days in Victoria.
The sub-contractors picketed Telstra headquarters and used their vehicles to mount blockades on Australia's most profitable company.
The action finished when Telstra, Siemens-Theiss and ABB, ditched clawback demands and agreed to consider a log of alternative claims.
CEPU has set up a sub-contractors committee that will meet monthly, and filed a log of claims on another Telstra contractor, Comet, after 75 percent of its subbies joined the union at site meetings last week.
CEPU organiser, Shane Murphy, confirmed the campaign to unionise independent contractors would move to satellite cable tv installers and Optus sub-contractors in the New Year.
Amongst the immediate gains won by broadband and Foxtel installers, last week, were:
- restoration of the job rates being paid prior to Telstra re-letting the contract, saving workers from average $500 weekly cuts to their incomes
- bulk insurance discounts arranged through CEPU
- sub-contracts varied to include dispute resolution procedures
- workers will be allowed to paint over the Telstra or Foxtel livery they had been required to display on their vehicles
Murphy said workers still weren't "thrilled" about new contracts being offered by Siemens Theiss and ABB. They have given written notice of their intention to seek five percent increases each time the head contracts come up for annual review.
Two hundred Telstra/Foxtel sub-contractors called off a week-long strike after contractors, Siemens Theiss and ABB, withdrew demands for 20 percent cuts in job rates.
Telstra contracted out the work five years ago, then churned through one contractor after another in a bid to keep driving down pay tv and broadband installation costs.
The subbies banded together, under the CEPU banner, after Siemens-Thiess and ABB picked up the latest contracts and attempted to impose further cuts on earnings.
More than 90 percent of the 205 contractors employed in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth threw their lots in with the CEPU, precipitating industrial action that last for a week in NSW and 10 days in Victoria.
The sub-contractors picketed Telstra headquarters and used their vehicles to mount blockades on Australia's most profitable company.
The action finished when Telstra, Siemens-Theiss and ABB, ditched clawback demands and agreed to consider a log of alternative claims.
CEPU has set up a sub-contractors committee that will meet monthly, and filed a log of claims on another Telstra contractor, Comet, after 75 percent of its subbies joined the union at site meetings last week.
CEPU organiser, Shane Murphy, confirmed the campaign to unionise independent contractors would move to satellite cable tv installers and Optus sub-contractors in the New Year.
Amongst the immediate gains won by broadband and Foxtel installers, last week, were:
- restoration of the job rates being paid prior to Telstra re-letting the contract, saving workers from average $500 weekly cuts to their incomes
- bulk insurance discounts arranged through CEPU
- sub-contracts varied to include dispute resolution procedures
- workers will be allowed to paint over the Telstra or Foxtel livery they had been required to display on their vehicles
Murphy said workers still weren't "thrilled" about new contracts being offered by Siemens Theiss and ABB. They have given written notice of their intention to seek five percent increases each time the head contracts come up for annual review.
The email campaign is being co-ordinated by European trade unions in response to this month�s raid in which troops from 10 armoured cars smashed windows, seized documents and tore anti-terrorism posters from the walls of the Iraqi Free Trade Union�s temporary headquarters.
The IFTU is demanding a presidential investigation and assurances from George Bush that there will be no repeat of the attack by his troops.
"The United States must respect the right of workers, under international law, to have free and independent trade unions," the IFTU said in a statement.
The issue was was raised in the British Parliament by Labor MP, Harry Barnes.
British trade union sources said the White House received "several thousand messages" in the first week after the raid, and supporters had also registered protests with the US State Department, the US Central Command, and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.
Formal protests have also been lodge by major international unions, including South Africa's peak body COSATU; Britain's RMT, the Scottish TUC, and Italian metalworkers.
The largest union international, the ICFTU, has asked British and US affiliates to take up the Baghdad attack with their respective governments.
Meanwhile, ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) secretary, Guy Ryder, headed an international delegation that met with Iraqi union reps in Amman, Jordan, this week.
They discussed workers rights in Iraq, ongoing violence and the reconstruction effort.
Ryder said the meeting was an important step in assisting the establishment of a genuine Iraqi trade union movement.
"The country has serious problems and helping build a free and democratic trade union movement is a priority for the ICFTU," Ryder said.
To add your voice to the protest about the military attack on Iraqi workers click here
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/ show_campaign.cgi?c=22
While the figure was not enough to secure Mrs Buckland a position on the board, it was a terrific endorsement of her as a candidature, with support at least three industry super funds.
Finance Sector Union national secretary Tony Beck says the strong vote for Buckland signalled that many shareholders realised banks had to start listening to their workers.
"She missed out on a board position because of the proxy votes of the big institutional investors but the campaign has helped highlight the benefit of having staff representation on the boards of major banks," Beck says.
"The process has given Joy the chance to raise crucial issues about this bank's accountability to the community and next year Joy will be back bigger and stronger to again challenge the ANZ to listen to its employees.
"She is pleased and thankful to voters, and especially staff of the ANZ, for their support. There was a terrific turn-out by union members at the board meeting today and there has been overwhelming support along the way."
The Safe Concentration And Attention Test (SCAAT) has been used by State Rail as a part of a psychometric testing program, given to safety critical employees.
One of the reports authors, registered psychologist Winston Horne, has called for State Rail to conduct more research on how it conducts psychometric assessments of employees.
"As a test of vigilance it's not too wonderful," says Horne. "There is no published research available."
Horne pointed out that the test's publishers supplied the only research available on the test. State Rail has records of SCAAT results from new applicants over the last twelve months and Horne has suggested that State Rail use this database to research the efficiency of the SCAAT against existing drivers.
The report's authors set out to answer two questions about the tests, which also include the Rules Acquisition Aptitude Test (RAAT) and the Mackworth Clock test: Are the tests currently being used [by State Rail] psychometrically sound? And, are the tests being used appropriate for use in the evaluation of existing employees following a safe working incident?
They found that the SCAAT has poor psychometric properties and there is "a lack of evidence that it does predict driver vigilance, concentration and attention".
May discriminate against older Train Drivers: report.
The report also found that the Mackworth Clock test was open to question.
"There is no evidence that the test can predict, with any accuracy, driver propensity for train accidents and it would seem that the test may unfairly discriminate against older Train Drivers who, while still being capable of driving trains safely, may not react as quicly to ypounger perons on the Mackworth Clock test," says the report.
Psychometrics is a branch of psychology concerned with psychological measurements.
It sounds like a qualitative career leap but the USU mover and shaker can see some similarities.
"The thing about event management is that you have to keep a lot of balls in the air and organising can be like that too, especially around call centres," Morris says.
It was life in a Virgin Mobile call centre that alerted the 31-year-old to the collective route.
Morris was elected job delegate by workmates and spearheaded a campaign for union recognition and against take-them or leave-them AWAs.
His work convinced USU officials to bring him on board and he has concentrated on organising call centres, often greenfields sites.
Morris has been a key player in helping the USU move from zero to a significant presence in TeleTech, a multinational with an international reputation for anti-unionism.
His efforts have seen the emergence of on-site activists, including James Woodcock, currently spearheading the fight against second generation AWAs, and award-winning safety rep Jerry Gambacorta.
He has also helped establish a union presence in American Express call centres.
Morris hailed his recognition as proof that the trade union movement recognised it needed to penetrate the new economy.
Labor Council judges also recognised the work of up-and-coming CFMEU organiser, Joe Brcic, another new-generation activist bringing fresh methods to his work.
The 29-year-old father of five signed up nearly 500 new members during 2003 in the traditional low union density St George-Sutherland region of Sydney. He has also been successful in winning more than $150,000 in underpaid wages and entitlements for members in the area.
Brcic has also taken to the CFMEU's strategy of community organising. He and his receipt book are familiar sights at home games of both the Sydney United and Sydney Olympic soccer clubs and he is accepted as a supporter of both.
He has encouraged and supported CFMEU members at newly-unionised Hi-Trade to fundraise for community causes. This year they raised $38,000 and brought a ventilator for St George Hospital and donated another $15,000 to the Backstop programme for families in crisis.
The Confederation of East Timor Trade Unions (KSTU) said workers were sacked after protesting against Chubb's decision to cut their wages from $US133 to $US94 a month.
KSTU President Jose da Costa said that the 32 workers were maintaining a picket line at the Dili offices of the World Bank, where Chubb provides security and cleaning services. Chubb sacked the workers on December 4, a day after a strike and picket in protest against the wage cuts.
Mr da Costa said that the sackings were unconstitutional because the workers were involved in a lawful strike at the time. Chubb had also breached East Timor's Labour Code by failing to give the required 30 days' notice of termination.
The Confederation said that Chubb threatened workers that if they did not sign individual contracts cutting their wages, their employment would be terminated without compensation. Chubb forced the workers to sign the contracts without providing the opportunity to read them in their own language.
Chubb's hardline workplace policies have been an ongoing source of concern for East Timor's fledging union movement since 2000 when the company began operations in the country, where it employs around 800 people.
"There are other instances where Chubb has failed to abide by the national labour regulations over unpaid overtime, discrimination on salaries and recruitment without contract," Mr da Costa said.
This is not the first instance where Chubb has engaged hardline tactics overseas.
Industry sources report that in early 2003 Chubb sacked a 40-year-old security guard who had worked for Chubb for eight years on the basis that he was smoking marijuana on Nauru. The security guard, who had been working on Nauru for two years, was detained by local police and released. He was sacked because local police had charged him, yet those charges were dismissed in court the following day. The guard, with three young children to support, was forced to pay his own airfare home to Sydney from Nauru.
The state's 17,000 rail workers face an uncertain Christmas with up to 13,000 unsure of their status when the Carr Government merges the State Rail
Authority and the Rail Infrastructure Corporation to form RailCorp on January 1.
The issue came to a head when 200 injured workers - including drivers on sick leave after witnessing rail suicides - were told there would be no place for them in the new strucutre.
Rail Tram and Bus Union state secretary Nick Lewocki said the position of the government is immoral and possibly illegal.
Mr Lewocki said rail workers apologised for any inconvenience to the public but that they were determined to protect injured colleagues,
with the pre-Christmas four-hour stoppage the first salvo in battle battle that could extend into the New Year.
"Nothing we have heard to date gives us confidence that State Rail management will respect the rights of their long-term injured staff," Mr Lewocki said. "If this issue is not resolved in could be a long hot summer for NSW commuters."
The ferry workers voted Sydneysiders a free day out on the harbour when they met to consider the breakdown of enterprise agreement talks at a stopwork meeting on Friday, December 19.
Workers on Sydney Ferries have backed a decision at the stopwork meeting to take their claims through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
"Management have launched an aggressive attack on rosters," said MUA Branch Secretary Robert Coombs. "Sydney Ferries told our members that all rosters are up for grabs and they intend drastic cut backs on crew, especially gate hand and revenue staff. This would compromise passenger safety, customer service issues and employee welfare."
The union has called for Sydney Ferries to engage an independent facilitator to examine all the issues, but management has rejected this.
"It's galling that the union supported the recent corporatisation of Sydney Ferries so that the operation could be run on better corporate governance guidelines only to be met with cutbacks to employee procedures and working conditions," says Coombs. "It's totally unacceptable. It will only add to, not overcome the already massive problems of transport infrastructure in NSW."
As the year draws to an end Federal Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews has blundered into the Labor Council's Secure Employment Test Case, while deputy Prime minister John Anderson has threatened state funding of the building industry.
Andrews applied to formally oppose Labor Council's case, designed to establish basic rights for millions of Australians employed on casual or labour hire terms, at last week's directions hearing in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.
The Test Case is the first attempt to establish basic rights for the growing number of casual and labour hire workers.
The Case has three main objectives:
- Casual workers who receive regular work of six or more months should have the option to convert from casual to permanent.
- Companies using labour hire should ensure that workers are paid no less than the company's own employees.
- Employers should consult with their workers and unions before contracting out, ensuring employees and contractors receive the same pay and conditions for similar work.
NSW Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, said unions would present evidence that shows workers in the same job working regular shifts for five years were still being classified as casuals and denied the permanency benefits such as redundancy pay, paid holidays and sick pay.
"While there are workers who are suited to casual employment, there are many more who would take secure work if given the choice," Robertson says. "If you want to take out a loan for a car or home, for instance, you have no hope if you can't show you have secure work.
"In opposing our claim the Howard government is saying workers should have no say in their form of employment and are just cogs in the machine rather than human beings.
"Australia has one of the highest rates of casualisation in the developed world - and it is clear that the Howard Government wants to keep it that way. In contrast, unions believe workers deserve the real choice as to the form of their employment.
Meanwhile, the federal government has upped its assault on the state's, threatening to withhold federal funding to any construction project that doesn't comply with the draconian federal code.
Robertson says the NSW Government has held out from the pressure to date
But acknowledged that any new federal funding could become an industrial battleground.
"The crazy thing is that the Howard government is attempting to over-ride state laws that deliver better productivity outcomes than the federal system," Robertson says.
One of the AFL-CIO's top officials, general counsel Jon Hiatt, hosted the eventon behalf of the Farmworker Justice Fund (FJF) with more than 75 people attending the wine-tasting.
Washington Post wine columnist, Michael Franz, was the main speaker for the event. He is a big spruiker of Australian wines.
This influential wine writer starts off his interactive wine column Grapevine in the Washington Post almost always with the words: "G'day mates".
And that's not 'cause he was born here (he is actually from Chicago) it is just 'cause, he says, he admires our unstuffy attitudes to wine.
Farmworker Justice Fund
The Farmworker Justice Fund (FJF) is an advocacy group backing union organising efforts to empower US migrant and seasonal farm workers.
"The FJF works to improve farm workers' wages, working conditions, occupational safety and health and access to justice through litigation, advocacy, education and training and coalition building," Bruce Goldstein, the Co-Executive Director of the Farmworker Justice Fund said.
"The wine tasting was intended as a fundraising event but also to promote wines where workers are treated decently and have a voice at work through a labor union.
"That's why this year we contacted Australia's LHMU to get a list of good Aussie wines which are made by union workers."
Of a long list of LHMU-made Australian wines, provided for the US event, the one chosen for the wine-tasting was a Jacobs Creek wine from South Australia.
Kicking off the event Bruce Goldstein drew attention to a struggle that the United Farm Workers are now having in collective bargaining with Gallo of Sonoma (in California).
Gallo wines were tasted by the group at its 2002 event but were not served in 2003 because of a growing ugly dispute with this major company.
Here's where you can help find out more about the campaign and how you can help the Gallo wine workers struggle.
Eight of the wines eventually chosen came from wineries in California and Washington State, where the vineyard workers are employed under union contracts between the company and the United Farm Workers of America.
A list of the unionised US wineries is available at the website of the United Farm Workers union .
And the ninth wine tasted was the Jacob's Creek Reserve Shiraz (2000) from South Australia which is produced by around 350 LHMU members working in the Barossa Valley .
"The prices ranged from about $US 10 to $US 33 per bottle. Although tastes differ, as to preferences for different kinds of wines, the wines were all of high quality; everyone in the tasting seemed to find at least three or four wines they would gladly purchase," Bruce Goldstein said.
Harbour by Katherine Thomson
On the Wednesday before Easter, 1998, a few hundred metres away from the site of the new Sydney Theatre, one of the most dramatic events in recent Australian history took place. It was the culmination of a tightly planned scheme between the Federal Government and a stevedoring company. An attempt to smash the Maritime Union of Australia - the wharfies.
Katherine Thomson's gripping new drama is set against the backdrop of this explosive industrial dispute.
Sandy - a retired wharfie - comes home after a six year absence, to find his family divided. His kids have moved on - and up. They're on opposite sides of the political divide. His wife doesn't want to be in the same room as him. The world has changed, and it seems he no longer has a place in it. But he's a battler, with a burning desire to unite his family and set the past to rights. A past full of explosive secrets that threaten to blow them apart forever.
Harbour, directed by Robyn Nevin, is a passionate, moving Australian drama from one of our foremost playwrights. It will open the new Sydney Theatre at 2pm, Saturday 10 January, 2004.
To celebrate the opening of Sydney Theatre, we are presenting two bold new Australian works in repertory, with a brilliant ensemble cast performing in both. I encourage you to experience these productions as close to one another as you can. See the play and the musical on consecutive days or in the same week and enjoy a unique moment in Sydney's theatre history.
The Ensemble
Mitchell Butel, Peter Carroll, Tamsin Carroll, Helen Dallimore, Drew Forsythe, Simon Gleeson, Melissa Jaffer Genevieve Lemon, Christopher Pitman, William Zappa.
Director Robyn Nevin Set Designer Stephen Curtis Costume Designer Jennie Tate Lighting Designer Nigel Levings Composer Alan John
Venue Sydney Theatre
Address 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Previews 2 January, 2004
Opens January 10 2pm
To 12 February
Price $65 / $51 concession
Matinees $59 / $46 concession
Previews all tickets $38
Bookings 9250 1777 / 9266 4800 / www.sydneytheatre.com.au
Media For further information, interviews and images, please contact:
Karen Farrell on (02) 9250 1703 / [email protected]
Wesley Slattery (02) 9250 1705 / [email protected]
Labor For Refugees - Breakfast Briefing
All ALP National Conference Delegates and supporters are invited to join Labor for Refugees (with special guests to be announced) for a breakfast briefing on the campaign to reform Labor's policy towards asylum seekers and refugees.
Participants will discuss the need for a more compassionate approach and receive an up to the moment report on the status of Labor for Refugees' proposed amendment to the National Platform, which will be debated at Conference that afternoon. A light breakfast will be provided.
Fringe event details:
When: Friday, January 30 2004
7:30am - Light Breakfast
8:00am - Briefing and Discussion
9:00am - Close
9:30am - National Conference
Where: Grand Criterion Room, Radisson Hotel
72 Liverpool Street, Darling Harbour (5 mins walk to National Conference Venue)
RSVP: [email protected]
contact no.: 0405 188 256
I believe that the elevation of Mark Latham , that political epitome of the Australian vernacular, to ALP leadership could be described in these words :
'They say that leaders always emerge, no matter what the ideals or the systems of democracy that are put in place. Well, this may or may not be true, but what is true in this case, is that arseholes certainly do.'
Tom Collins
An Aboriginal group in Adelaide at the Otherway Centre are leading the way in Australia by working for refugees and asylum seekers. This year they have published an A2 size poster of an Afghan family in, as it were, a crib scene with the Christmas story on one side and the words: "Is there room in Australia for this Afghan family?" It is a very powerful statement!
It is so good to see our Aboriginal people taking such leadership and initiative that I want the whole world to know what they are doing. The father is actually employed by the Otherway Centre as part of their involvement with others. The site address is www.acc.asn.au and follow the links. Do have a look at the poster, please.
Another interesting snippet is also on the internet and that is the comparison between Santa Claus and St Nicholas. One is commercial and the other is compassion. This can be found at www.stnicholascenter.org and go to compare Santa Claus and St Nicholas.
Helen-Mary Langlands
If 2003 was a year when Australia mindlessly followed the US into a war of pre-emption which trashed the multilateral global consensus, it was also a year where millions took to the streets and said 'not in our name'.
If 2003 was a year when the corporate cowboys continued to rule the land, it was also a year when a unionist armed with a positive agenda campaigned for the seat on the board of a major bank.
And if 2003 was a year when the political climate was hostile to unions, it was also a year when the Howard Government failed to 'reform' the construction and higher education systems by writing unions out of the equation.
The list goes on - Howard's political ascendancy matched by Latham's rise; Rio Tinto's contracts agenda headed off by unions at the UN; the spread of casualisation addressed by a ground-breaking case that could shift the rules of tenuous employment forever.
If the storm clouds were gathering the silver lining was also evident, and it was a lining based on a new model of unionism - fighting smart with our backs to the wall, rather than expecting to exercise power as of a right.
And all the while, a union movement deep in its reform phase starting to do something more than just reacting - running its own positive agenda for a new set of rules for the workplace.
Key to this was the work at the NSW ALP State Conference where former factional foes laid out their common political agenda and surprised noone except themselves by triumphing. How this model translates to the national conference will say much about the type4 of government that replaces the Howard regime.
The wins this year should not be overlooked: world-leading protection from email surveillance at work, real movement in the push towards industrial manslaughter laws and the mainstreaming of the debate on maternity leave that can only lead to political action before the next election.
Meanwhile, we saw collective action delivering benefits across the workforce - nurses and teachers alongside building workers securing improvements in pay and conditions.
And new faces too, actors acting together, league players playing as a team, breaking the stereotype that unionists are bald, fat old men sitting around whingeing about the good old days.
From the peace marches, to the safety rally to every little workplace battle for justice, the message is that Working Together works - and if you don't win every single battle at least you have more fun than going through life on your own.
These are the themes the union movement needs to spread as it draws the line on 2003 and looks to a New Year: the triumph of the individual is really just a sentence of loneliness; we are a society and when we start acting like one wonderful things can happen.
Merry Christmas and a safe New Year to all of Workers Online's subscribers, thanks to all our 2003 contributors too many to mention and to the NSW Labor Council who continues to publish this journal fearlessly and independently.
We'll be back in mid-February for our sixth(!) year of frank and fearless union news, views and people.
Peter Lewis
Editor
The Safe Concentration And Attention Test (SCAAT) has been used by State Rail as a part of its psychometric testing program, which is given to safety critical employees.
One of the reports authors, registered psychologist Winston Horne, has called for State Rail to conduct more research on the methods by how it conducts psychometric assessment of safety critical employees.
"As a test of vigilance it's not too wonderful," says Horne. "There is no published research available."
Horne pointed out that the test's publishers supplied the only research available on the test. State Rail has records of SCAAT results from new applicants over the last twelve months and Horne has suggested that State Rail use this database to research the efficiency of the SCAAT against existing drivers.
The report's authors set out to answer two questions about the tests, which also include the Rules Acquisition Aptitude Test (RAAT) and the Mackworth Clock test: Are the tests currently being used [by State Rail] psychometrically sound? And, are the tests being used appropriate for use in the evaluation of existing employees following a safe working incident?
They found that the SCAAT has poor psychometric properties and there is "a lack of evidence that it does predict driver vigilance, concentration and attention".
May discriminate against older Train Drivers: report.
The report also found that the Mackworth Clock test was open to question.
"There is no evidence that the test can predict, with any accuracy, driver propensity for train accidents and it would seem that the test may unfairly discriminate against older Train Drivers who, while still being capable of driving trains safely, may not react as quicly to ypounger perons on the Mackworth Clock test," says the report.
Psychometrics is a branch of psychology concerned with psychological measurements.
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