Issue No 23 | 23 July 1999 | |
NewsScully Off the Rails Over Contract Security
Rail workers have been ordered to accept an edict by State Transport Minister Carl Scully to employ private security guards to do work that existing employees believe should be their's.
Describing the Minister's actions as "provocative," Deputy President Lea Drake ordered the rail worker to accept the additional security staff as an "interim measure". But she strongly recommended that both State Rail and Scully seriously consider a proposal by the union on redepolying staff who they claim could do the extra work. The workers this week refused to run trains that carried railway security guards after Scully unilaterally announced an extension of the patrols this week. Rail, Bus and Tram Union state secretary Nick Lewocki is fuming that Scully made the decision as the union was developing a plan to redeploy 500 railway jobs earmarked for redundancy. Lewocki believes the rail workers could fulfil the security functions as well as dealing with fare evaders, which the security guards are not authorised to do. He says Scully was rushed into the decision to expand the use of security guards because he feared the reaction to an imminent release of statistics on passenger safety, Lewocki, who described the Commission decision as a "bitter sweet outcome" has called on the Premier to intervene to prevent the rail system coming to a stand still.
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Interview: An Economic Wet Dr Christopher Sheil on economic rationalism and the 1997-98 water failures in Adelaide and Sydney. Unions: The Stench from the South In 1997 the entire Adelaide metropolitan area was drenched in foul, sulphorous, sewerage odours, emanating from the Bolivar waste water treatment plant. Environment: Trading into Trouble Seattle, USA, is shaping up as demonstrator mecca in the lead up to World Trade Organisation talks. History: Eveliegh Rail Reunion Former workers and their families from the historic Eveleigh Railway Workshops in inner-Sydney are holding a picnic reunion and folk music festival on the site on Sunday, August 29. International: Bosses Use Armed Gangs to Break Russian Picket On 9 July 1999, eighty masked, uniformed gunmen accompanied by the local prosecutor and other officials tried to storm the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill, under occupation by workers for the past eighteen months. Satire: New Refugee Crisis: Journalists Flee Peace Zone The camps are once again full in the Albanian border town of Gruntiez. Review: 10 Reasonably Interesting Moments in Film Cultural theorist Snag Cleaver flies off the handle again..
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