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Motherhood Statements
There is a term for political statements that are so bland they have lost their meaning – terms that no one could disagree with, designed to win the support of all people at all times.
Interview: Machine Man
It’s regarded as the most powerful job in the Party, but new NSW ALP general secretary Mark Arbib wants to build a bridge with the union movement.
Unions: Testing Times
Unions are not opposed to drug and alcohol testing, but they do want to see real safety issues addressed, writes Phil Doyle.
Bad Boss: Freespirit Haunts Internet
FreeSpirit forked out a motza for a whiz bang internet presence then disappeared right off the radar – once it was nominated as our Bad Boss for May.
Unions: Badge of Honour
Surry Hills is home to one of the world’s finest displays of union badges thanks to Bill "The Bear" Pirie and a supporting cast headed by Joe Strummer, Mark Knopfler, George Benson, Annie Lennox and other seriously big noises.
National Focus: Noel's World
Shrill bosses bleat over minimum wage rise, union spinmeisters congregate in Melbourne and Tassie’s nurses take the baton from their mob in Victoria reports Noel Hester in this national round up.
Economics: Safe Refuge
A humanitarian approach to refugees and an economically rational one?? I’d like to see that. Frank Stilwell did, when he went to Young in NSW to look into the impact of the Afghan refugees on temporary protection visas who came to work for the local abattoir
International: Global Abuse
Amnesty International have joined the chorus against the violation of trade union rights in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.
History: The Honeypot
To the Honeypot come those individuals anxious to get their hands on instant wealth. So it was in the early days of Broken Hill, wrties Grace Hawes in this homage to the mining town.
Review: Death And The Barbarians
This new take on coming of age films focuses on the coming of death and the dignity and maturity it can inspire among those touched by it - though not always easily in the overcrowded Canadian public health system, writes Tara de Boehmler.
Poetry: Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Resident Bard David Peetz uncovers some of the unfolding mysteries of talk back radio.
 Big Bribe Misses Battlers
West in Great Leap Backwards
Cheques in the Mail
Bullets Foul Childcare
Thanks Bob - Lawyers Tuck In
Watchdog Barks for Workers
Budget Brushes Elderly Blueprint
John Sutton’s Fine Idea
Teachers Unified in Out(r)age
Qantas Hits Panic Button
Lights Out At MCG
Richs to Rags Warning
Activists What’s On!
The Soapbox
Rethinking Left and Right Part 1
Dr David McKnight, from the University of Technology, Sydney presents a new frame for looking at the competing ideas within Social Democracy. The Soapbox
Rethinking Left and Right Part 2
David McKnight concludes the paper he presented to the ‘Rethinking Social Democracy’ conference, in London, April 15-17, 2004. Sport
Out On A Limb
Phil Doyle becomes the first Australian journalist to state that the Olympics will be called off.
Politics
The Westie Wing
In the latest episode, Ian West explores what Disraeli called "Lies, damn lies and statistics". Postcard
Message from America
Searing snapshots from a landscape of uncertainty have plunged the Bush Administration into deeper crisis, writes WorkingForChange's Bill Berkowitz.
Railroaded
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Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation
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News
John Sutton’s Fine Idea
Fining employers who won’t train apprentices is being flagged as part of the answer to Australia’s skills crisis.
CFMEU secretary, John Sutton, is urging federal and state governments to pick up on a German "carrot and stick" approach to re-skilling industry.
Sutton said construction workers were sick of employers ducking training responsibilities by demanding increased access to skilled immigrants.
Workers Online has broken a number of stories involving the use of Federal Government-authorised Section 457 Visas to slash existing Australian wages and conditions.
Three South African chefs were deported last year after claiming a Manly restaurant had rorted them of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Just last month 25 qualified boilermakers, welders and pipe fitters walked off jobs around Western Australia claiming they were being paid less than a third the rates earned by workmates on union-negotiated agreements.
The South Africans, imported on four-year visas by labour hire-cum-immigration agency Freespirit said they had ignored warnings against joining trade unions to throw in their lots with the AMWU.
Spokesmen said they were told they would be deported if they joined Australian unions.
One man who went public with his predicament was sacked from a Perth engineering shop the following day.
Sutton said Australia must invest in the skills of its own people.
"German Chancellor Gerhard Schoreder's Government has adopted a policy of fining companies who fail to employ apprentices and rewarding those who train young workers from the fines collected," Sutton said.
"If that strategy is good for Germany, it would be good for Australia too."
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Issue 220 contents
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