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Last Year’s Model
Economists keep telling us things have never been better, all the economic indicators say so. Which sparks the obvious question: why are so many of us feeling so low?
Interview: The New Democrat
Canadian activist Judy Rebick explains how she's using lessons from Brazil to rebuild the labour movement.
Bad Boss: The Ugly Australian
Prime Minister John Howard is in California spruiking the "merits" of this month’s Bad Boss nomination …
Unions: Free Spirits and Slaves
International capital demands guest labour – legal or illegal – as a way of beating down wages and conditions and, as Jim Marr discovers, the Australian Government seems happy to oblige.
Industrial: National Focus
Noel Hester reports on another workplace death (we-will-not-RIP NOHSC), heartburn for the Canberra consensus and all the action from around the states in our national wrap.
History: A Class Act
The problem of forgetting the primacy of class in favour of other ideas of community is highlighted in a new book, writes Neale Towart
International: Across the Ditch
NZ Nurses Union leader, Laila Harré, is in Sydney this week, comparing notes with the Australian Nurses Federation and seeking transTasman support for New Zealand’s highest profile industrial campaign.
Economics: Home Truths
Sydney University's Frank Stilwell argues that tax policy is driving the housing boom.
Review: No Time Like Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow is one part Grim Reaper of the environmental movement and two parts fictitious fable dramatically window dressed with extreme special effects, writes Tara de Boehmler.
Poetry: Silent Note
Resident Bard David Peetz uncovers the current public service motto – "Don't tell the Minister!".
 Trade Deal a $47 Billion Dud
Ground Staff Spread Fashion Wings
Ghan Raises Trans-Continental Stink
Union Busters Bank on Labor
Witnesses Face Casual Duress
Rail Workers Cop ‘Beer Nannies’
Sun Shines on Green Bans
Big Business Plan to Cripple Compo
Money Can’t Buy Me Love
Federal Election in Doubt
Safety Defects Plague Adelaide
Police Investigate Assault Claim
Activists What’s On!
The Soapbox
The Pursuit of Happiness Part I
The Australia Institute's Clive Hamilton questions the assumptions underlying a society that defines happiness in dollar terms. The Soapbox
The Pursuit of Happiness Part II
Clive Hamilton concludes his analysis, looking at how more and more Australians are pulling back from a marketplace that is no longer providing the goods. The Locker Room
Sack ‘Em All!
Phil Doyle puts his job on the line, but doesn’t everyone these days? Politics
The Westie Wing
The NSW Government has an agenda on the table but the test is finding innovative ways to finance it, writes Ian West
Liberal Laugh
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Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation
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News
Ground Staff Spread Fashion Wings
Style-starved ASU airlines members have won the right to glamour at Qantas check-in counters in Sydney.
After a spirited campaign, the customer service staff will be supplied with up-market Morrissey designer coats after rejecting Qantas’ attempts to make them turn up in cheap imitations.
Qantas, which recently posted a half year after tax profit of $358 million, claimed it had found an extra three million dollars in airport costs and couldn't afford to supply coats - despite having made a high profile
announcement last year.
The company argued that Sydney was not cold enough to justify coats but supplied them to workers at Cairns, Bangkok, Darwin and Fiji. Qantas also
supplied the controversial clobber to domestic terminal staff, 2km away.
Worker Anna Romanov-Ruff, who took time off sick last week due to a cold, says over 200 staff signed a petition and called stop work meetings on the
issue every week for a month.
"Qantas tell us which hairstyles we can have, what make-up and jewellery we can wear, but wouldn't give us the coats we were measured for a year ago,"
she said.
But on May 20 they finally coat-hangered anagement when, Melinda Kapp, customer service manager at Sydney International Airport announced staff would receive the coats.
As we go to print, the ASU Service staff are trying on their new winter
coats.
 View entire issue - print all of the articles!
Issue 223 contents
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