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Issue No. 239 | 24 September 2004 |
Moral Victories
Interview: True Matilda Politics: State of Play Industrial: Capital Dilemmas Unions: Rhodes Scholars National Focus: Rennovating the Lodge International: People Power Economics: A Bit Rich History: Mine Shafts Safety: Sick Of Fighting Organising: Building a Wave Poetry: Anger In The Bush(es) Review: The Battle Of Algiers Culture: The Word On The Street
Delta Parties Like It�s 1994 Mind Game for the Discriminating Cultural Revolution Purges Howard Billions Hidden Behind the Veil Toolbox Gimmick Threatens Awards
The Soapbox Politics Postcard The Locker Room Postcard
I Say I Say I Say II Vote Early, And Often No Surplus Of Generosity
Labor Council of NSW |
News Corporates Vote for AWAs
State branches of the powerful Mines and Minerals, Motor Trades and Master Builders Associations have urged members to lodge non-union agreements before election day as the Federal Court examines whether one of their members broke the law in an effort to force mineworkers onto AWAs. Justice French, last week, postponed an expected decision on an AMWU claim that Henry Walker Eltin had illegally locked 130 workers out of a remote Pilbara mine owned by BHP Billiton. Henry Walker Eltin locked Yandi mineworkers out after 85 percent of them rejected financial inducements to sign AWAs. A key argument now between the company and workers is its unilateral decision to force new starters onto individual agreements which Labour has pledged to abolish. The AMWU is arguing that the contractor's lockout notice was deficient because it was posted on its Perth office door at 5am on a Sunday, barely 90 minutes the locked out was enforced, hundreds of kilometres to the north east. AWAs and Western Australia have moved into the spotlight of a federal election campaign in which industrial relations are seen as the most striking difference between the Coalition Government and Labor opposition. State AMWU secretary, Jock Ferguson, said employer-government justification for AWAs - freedom of choice and flexibility for small employers - were a lie. "Ask new starters at Yandi about freedom of choice," he said. "The fact is there is no choice for working people, it's an AWA or the dole queue, simple as that." "Employers in Western Australia have used AWAs to attack unions and reduce safety standards and they are not the battling family firms the federal government talks about. The companies exploiting AWAs most aggressively are billion dollar operations like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. "Our experience is that these companies will go to any lengths to get people on individual contracts. That's got nothing to do with freedom of choice, it's all about control and smashing any collective resistance."
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