*****
Liberal MP Peter Lindsay's idea of fun is dressing up in Klu Klux Clan gear and targeting aboriginal Australians.
Welcome to the Liberal party's new Australia, where burning crosses and offering indigenous Australians a rope to hang themselves with is "just a fun thing".
Our redneck friend believes the problem isn't troops dressing up as Klansmen, just that a photo was taken of the event.
Lindsay sprang to the defence of the Klan, saying that allegations that the organisation was racist were "outrageous" and "should just be treated with the contempt they deserve".
Maybe Peter thinks it's a benevolent reading circle or some co-counselling group for people with six fingers?
Given that his local Army barracks has already thrown up the big brave Aussie "kitten killers" and allegations that the grunts are more often than not off their faces, you'd think that Lindsay may be a bit wary of shooting off at the mouth.
But the man who is fast making Pauline Hanson look like Martin Luther King goes on the record to say: "I'm the federal member in Townsville, and I would be the first person to know if there was any unsettling racism appearing up here, and I am very close to the Defence Force, and there is absolutely zero reports to me of anything of that nature, and as I say, I would know if there were."
But given that Lindsay doesn't even think that dressing up as Klansmen is racist it would be hard to say what he considered was racist.
Either way, no one is disputing that he is the Federal member in Townsville, but after that the general consensus is that he would struggle to know which direction his posterior is pointing in.
Around at Pointy Caped Peter's place apparently no one would "even turn a hair" at someone doffing the Klansman's cape.
According to Peter it's the done thing at bucks parties in the deep dark north.
The Klan, or a local variety promoted by people as wealthy in imagination as intelligence, is active in Townsville.
Leaflets bearing the letters KKK and a swastika were stuffed into the letterboxes of local Aborigines.
No wonder Lindsay had no shortage of people to hand out for him on Election Day.
Homeless Aborigines have also complained of being attacked with rocks and petrol bombs.
No doubt this is more of what our Tool Of The Week considers "a little fun".
The AMWU has warned Wavemaster creditors that no work will be done on the $2 million catamaran until union members get their money.
The ultimatum came at a creditors meeting, last week, at which banks and the union rolled the company's bid to appoint its own auditor, William Buck, as administrator.
Employees were terminated, last week, after accepting repeated assurances that owed wages and entitlements would be paid "next Monday".
It has since been discovered that Wavemaster's owner, Malaysia-based Penang Shipping Company, engaged in a corporate reshuffle that saw its Western Australian operation transferred through Body Focus to an entity called JR Marine.
Union representatives are trying to trace directors of the company.
AMWU organiser, Steve McCartney, said even the factory manager had been taken in by company assurances that the missing money would eventually appear.
"It's hard to believe that people would keep turning up to work when they weren't being paid," McCartney said. "But he told me late payments had been happening for at least six months. It hadn't been unusual for the staff to wait four weeks for their money.
"This time, every Friday, there were assurances that the money would be paid on Monday.
"My personal belief is they stripped the company of its intellectual property then collapsed it but we are trying to follow the paper trail to see who has been taking the money out."
The company told creditors that ongoing operations in Victoria and NSW were now completely separate from the Perth concern.
AMWU lawyer, Luke Edmonds, was voted onto the creditors' committee at last week's meeting.
Wavemaster occupied Henderson premises about five doors along from Eagle Air, another company bought out and collapsed by Malaysian interests, leaving employees stranded.
The AMWU was successful in retrieving money owed to 13 members employed by Eagle Air.
The IRC heard the disability centre manager abused and swore at staff, made them work over 18 consecutive hours, and forced a sick worker out of the toilet to attend a meeting.
The Australian Services Union told the commission the manager pressured staff to alter legal documents and forged a signature.
Seven staff at the centre, all on workers compensation, were last week at home recovering from workplace stress.
Deputy President Grayson of the IRC stressed the paramount importance of OHS issues at the workplace and directed WorkCover to do a safety audit of the centre.
Grayson also directed parties to confer in relation to the manager's continued presence in the workplace.
Most of the seven board members who oversee the centre have so far stuck by the manager but Workers Online understands one has quit, citing philosophical differences.
The manager, who was on honeymoon with a board member, did not attend last week's IRC hearing.
ASU organiser, Jim Piotrowski, says the bullying case is the worst he has ever heard of.
"What we want is a safe workplace, we will be making representations to the state government which ultimately funds the service," he said.
Meanwhile, the manager of a Fairfield disability service is standing his ground after accusations of bulllying and harrassment led to a two-day strike, last week.
Work bans are continuing and more strike action is possible unless the manager stands down while an independent inquiry probes workers' concerns.
Nearly 20 staff at the Fairfield Community Resouce Centre have sworn stat decs alleging a pattern of bullying and overbearing management practices.
The ASU alleges experienced workers are leaving the centre because they can no longer tolerate the manager's behaviour.
On one day, last week, NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca said the state would not cop Federal Industrial relations laws, while Premier Bob Carr threatened to use them against rail workers.
"What Bob Carr needs is a reality check," AMWU secretary Paul Bastian said. "He needs to realise he's there to represent workers.
"For too long the government has tried to shift the blame onto workers. It's not on."
Bastian, whose union represents maintenance workers at RailCorp, lambasted the government for failing to maintain adequate investment in rail infrastructure.
Industrial action by united rail unions is looming as RailCorp management refuse to shift from a 'take it or leave it' approach to EBA negotiations.
Bosses Get Rise
This comes as RailCorp senior management trousers pay rises of up to $15,000 a year for presiding over the chaotic system.
Since government and one media outlet target rail staff for the system's shambles frontline workers have been bearing the brunt of a 'trainrage' empidemic.
Union leaders have called for the public to not blame frontline staff for the systems failings.
Meanwhile, commuter anger has coalesced into a refuse-to-pay-day scheduled for Monday, November 22.
The campaign has been organised by Rebecca Turner from the Sydney suburb of Carlingford.
Turner is appealing to disgruntled commuters to refuse to buy a ticked on the 22nd to protest against the state of Sydney's train system.
"We support the public campaign over poor service and understand their difficulties," Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, says.
"Public inquiries at stations tells us there will be thousands of people turning up without tickets on Monday 22nd November 2004. This will result in commuters arriving without tickets creating potentially unsafe situations on the stations, which may require station staff to open automatic barriers to facilitate the safe movement of passengers.
"It would be impossible for Transit Officers to issue fines for thousands of commuters.
"We would expect them to assist in safely moving people."
Turner has set up an email address for frustrated commuters to get in touch with her campaign. The address is [email protected]
The revelation comes as Australian screen producers seek to tear up a negotiated agreement in a bid to slash earnings for Aussie actors.
Mark Cuffe, who has appeared in a number of commercials, also works as a storeman, musician and accountant, to make ends meet.
The credit card company rejected the one time drummer for Australian band Spy v Spy for a card because of his financial position, despite appearing in their ads at the time.
"There is no guarantee of work," says Cuffe of his acting career. "Even now it is a part time job."
"It is good hard work if you can get it, but it's hard to get."
"At my level I don't know anyone who is making a living out of it."
"For aspiring young actors it can be soul destroying, similar to the music industry."
Cuffe successfully re-applied for a card but only after his financial situation improved.
Cuffe spoke as the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) confirmed it would terminate an agreement for actors in Australian-made commercials broadcast in North America.
"It's a dastardly act," said MEAA national director, Simon Whipp.
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance rep said it was ironic that an American performer, covered by a Screen Actors Guild agreement, could expect up to US $30,000 for a 12 month campaign, with similar agreements in Canada.
The Australian agreement, he said, provided 33 percent of that payment for an ad that ran for the same period.
"We object to bully-boy tactics better suited to outfits like Patricks or Rio Tinto. Just how exactly do we negotiate a new agreement in good faith with a big black cloud hanging over our heads?" asks Whipp. "The average yearly wage for an Australian performer is $10,500, so producers arguments that performers are paid too much ring hollow."
"Unless SPAA can show a little more respect for Australia's performers, industrial action, including a strike, is certainly looking more and more likely as the SPAA 12 December deadline draws nearer."
Newcrest sparked the showdown by refusing productivity payments to workers who took a day off out of respect for a supervisor who died at the camp, 300km inland from Australia�s hottest settlement, Marble Bar.
Earlier in the mine expansion project, Newcrest acceded to workers' demands for full payments when they stopped to mark the passing of another colleague.
On that occasion, workers pitched the $150 a head weekly productivity payment into a fund for the dead man's family.
AMWU organiser, Tony Lovett, says Telfer workers have taken up a collection for the dead Sydney man's wife and two daughters, despite the company's stand, but are insisting Newcrest honour the agreement struck earlier.
"A meeting at Telfer today resolved that unless Newcrest pays PIPs they will be seeking planes," Lovett said. "That mean mass resignations.
Lovett said Newcrest's reaction to last week's death brought simmering frustrations to a head.
Telfer is located just inside the Rabbit Proof Fence on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. Construction workers are flown in from around Australia and do four consecutive 74-hour weeks, before getting one week off.
The site has been plagued by problems. Four months ago, the three largest sub-contractors threatened to walk out, claiming they hadn't been paid.
Cyclone Fay wrecked havoc with the rebuilding program and project costs have nearly doubled from the original $1 billion estimate.
Lovett says, without question, though, the biggest problems are isolation, accommodation and health and safety.
"We have won good rates but these guys deserve every cent," he says. "It's hard to imagine anywhere more isolated. They work 74 hours, over six days, and its not unusual for temperatures to hit 45, and sometimes, 50 degrees."
Lovett and a CEPU representative will fly to Telfer on Wednesday to try to broker a settlement.
Mining Companies Reject Safety Moves
The stand-off comes as mining companies prepare to fight Western Australian government moves to limit working hours on health and safety grounds.
An experts' report to WA's Worksafe Commission recommends limits on the hours and consecutive shifts at around-the-clock operations.
Fly-in, fly-out operations, like Newcrest, are specifically mentioned in recommendations that seek to introduce 72-hour weekly maximums.
Many WA mines require fly-in, fly-out staff to work nine consecutive 12-hour days.
The mining industry has slammed the health and safety proposals on the grounds of increased costs.
But ACTU organiser, Will Treacey, said limitations were a priority.
"The mining industry wants self-regulation but whenever industry is left to regulate itself, it doesn't work," Tracey said. "Production requirements over-ride safety, every time."
He said, only recently, a Henry Walker Eltin employee at the isolated Yandi mine filed an incident report after being required to complete a 24-hour shift, driving heavy machinery.
Tracey said the pit supervisor had defended that requirement on the grounds that the worker had had a one and a half hour break during the shift.
"At BHP sites, we get regular reports of people working in excess of 14 and 15 hour days," Tracey said. "These are dangerous environments in the first place and, the fact is, that fatigue kills."
Responding to a request from a group of the Canadian United Church ministers and their families, CAW president Buzz Hargrove, said "although the workplace is different the concerns raised by the ministers are similar to those of other workplaces including health and safety, privacy, harassment and compensation".
Hargrove, who was in Sydney this year as a guest of the AMWU, went on to stress that the "drive isn't an attack on the United Church, which is a very progressive organisation. Overall, by correcting a lot of the problems raised, unionisation will create a better work environment".
The CAW initiative is probably the first clergy organising drive in North America.
According to one of the first ministers to become a member, clergy in Canada face slander, stalking, harassment, public humiliation, withheld payments and reneging on employment contracts.
The Rev David Galston said "there was a pressing need to speak up and name the problem of clergy abuse and bring the issue forward in a serious manner. Joining the union is a way of raising issues openly and fairly and could be a catalyst for change in the church".
Unionisation is being hotly disputed.
The official church position is that," it would not stand in the way of ministers exploring that kind of action". The church has more than 4000 ministers and thousands more other church-based staff.
Others are not convinced. One participant in the Church's online discussion believes the clergy has never had it so good.
In the UK pastors and priests as well as other church-based workers have been organised for more than a decade.The Clergy and Church Workers Union is a member of the community sector of AMICUS,one of Britains largest unions.
It reports a growing membership from different denominational backgrounds and other faith communities.
The whole issue of contracts and fundamental workers rights for church based workers has become such an issue that the Government has set up a Clergy Working Group with the active participation of the union.
The issues driving unionising efforts on both sides of the Atlantic are the same. In Canada it is suggested that nearly one in five clergy is on stress leave at any time.
Only two churches in Australia - UCA and the Catholic- have a detailed statement on their particular role as church employers,and both include strong statements on encouraging workers to become members of unions.
Neither makes a case for the unionisation of their ministers or priests.
Unions liken his strategy to the infamous '98 waterfront dispute, "minus the dogs and balaclavas".
Patrick's Autocare has locked out workers because they refused to accept savage cuts to conditions, including what unions have labelled as "casualisation by stealth".
"This isn't about money," says Dave Smith, assistant national secretary of the vehicle division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). "It is about principles and maintaining current conditions.
"We're talking about people that can be worked in 50 to 60 degree heat. For that they're on about $450 a week and less, processing cars imported from overseas.
"A lot of these people need every cent they can get."
Patricks are seeking to remove conditions ranging from current redundancy provisions to access to union run OH&S training for safety reps.
As well they are seeking the right to stand down workers at the company's whim.
Workers at the site have indicated that they are willing to take a principled stand over Patrick's push and are calling for support from the community and fellow trade unionists.
"Patricks won't even agree to the continued use of existing consultation clauses, instead rewriting their obligations to consult stating 'the union will not interfere with the running of their business and they are moving forward in the new deregulated industrial environment'," says Smith. "Patricks has stated: 'This was what the '98 dispute was all about, management prerogative'.
"They want the sole right to mandate whether or not a person even has access to the disputes procedure.
"This is about people having some dignity and respect in the workplace and conditions that meet industry and community standards.
"This is the reality of the Howard industrial relations 'reforms'," said Smith. "Workers being stripped of their conditions."
The AMWU has asked for workers to support their Ingleburn based members.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has iced a negotiated pay rise that would have given them average increases of four percent a year.
The department, acting of government policy, rejected the agreed settlement between workers, based in Tasmania and Antarctica, and the Australian Antarctic Division.
CPSU spokesman, Simon Cocker, said third-party intervention in their bargaining had left staff "angered and bewildered".
They have responded with a blizzard of emails to Antarctic Division bosses, demanding that they reject the interference and honour their agreement.
DEWR's action followed similar interferences with CPSU-negotiated agreements for workers employed by the Australian Electoral Commission and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, earlier in the year.
Both those groups of workers eventually rolled the federal government's pay rise watchdog.
Crocker said the basis of DEWR's rejection of the Antarctic Division agreement was "technical" and "ridiculous".
It's bleat centres on the date on which the increase is measured from. It argues, with a December kick-off, workers will effectively receive 5.3 percent for one year, while the CPSU contends the figure must measured from the October expiry date of the old agreement.
That methodology would give two four percent increases, around the public service average.
DEWR's argument appears to fly in face of its own figures. In publishing annual average wage movement, its calculations are based on what it calls a Nominal Expiry Date. Effectively, it measures movements from the date of the previous agreement's expiry.
"DEWR uses this measure for its published calculations," Cocker said. "What our people are asking is why doesn't four percent equal four percent when it comes to the Antarctic Division."
BHP Billiton marked the fifth anniversary of its introduction of individual non-union agreements, this week, by announcing the mothballing of its Boodarie iron plant, putting hundreds of local families on the line.
ACTU organiser, Will Tracey, is urging the multinational to level with the workforce and a dependent community.
"BHP management knows what is going to do but it is keeping Port Hedland and the workers in limbo," Tracey said. "There are jobs available inside the BHP operation and those positions should be embargoed for Boodarie employees.
"Financial advisers and employment consultants should be here to help families whose futures have been thrown into jeopardy. It's the absolute least a company of BHP's size and capacity should provide.
"This company extracts $2 million in profit out of the Pilbara every day."
Boodarie has been idle since 32-year-old fitter, James Wadley, was killed in a horrific explosion in May. He was one of three men killed that month at BHP Pilbara operations, sparking a government inquiry into health and safety standards.
Unions say BHP's OH&S record has fallen victim to AWAs based on unrealistic productivity requirements.
After an AMWU delegate was killed at another Port Hedland site, in May, posters exhorting workers to greater tonnage figures were quickly removed from the workplace.
Tracey says the Port Hedland community is now paying for BHP's profit drive. It commissioned the massive $2.5 billion Boodarie operation without a pilot plan, standard for such developments around the world.
The project has been plagued by production and safety issues, ever since.
Last week, with the state government safety audit continuing, BHP announced Boodarie would go into "care and maintenance" mode.
That requires barely 50 maintenance workers and is being viewed by WA media outlets and townspeople as a step on the road to closure.
"BHP rushed Boodarie on line and it has been a disaster from day one," Tracey said. "It needn't be because these types of operation run properly in other parts of the world.
"Right now people don't know where they stand. Port Hedland is an isolated community without many of the facilities and support mechanisms people can fall back on in the cities.
"BHP owes this community a lot more than it provides. The truth about these jobs would be a start."
The AWA's "Fair Treatment Procedure", states the worker can be "represented by another person at any time during the process", but when miner, Brett Tamatea, chose the CFMEU the company choked.
Unions claim Tamatea, who works at the Cadia Hill Gold Mine near Orange, has been singled out for a written warning because of his active membership of the CFMEU Mining Division.
Now, in a groundbreaking move, the CFMEU is asking the state IRC to conciliate a dispute concerning a worker covered by a federal AWA.
Newcrest has moved to have the proceedings dumped, claiming the NSW Commission does not have jurisdiction.
AWAs are supposed to be monitored by the Office of the Employment Advocate but the credibility of that organisation has been questioned by workers and unions.
The office was repeatedly referred to as the "Office of the Employers Advocate" by employer witnesses appearing before the Cole Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry.
"This just shows how useless the Office of the Employment Advocate really are and that they don't protect workers," says a spokesperson for the CFMEU Mining Division.
"This is a company that is totally anti-union," says Russ Collison, NSW secretary of the Australian Workers Union, who also have members at the Cadia Hill mine. "This issue is about state jurisdiction and what the commission can do."
Unions claim that if the move in the state jurisdiction is successful it will be of benefit to all workers.
Nat Plays With Miners Lives
Meanwhile the Miners Union accused the NSW Shadow Minister for Mineral Resources, Adrian Piccoli, of "playing with miners lives" after he called for a rejection of new legislation that would make mine management more accountable for health and safety.
CFMEU Mining and Energy General President Tony Maher said that the Shadow Minister, a member of the National Party, would have "blood on his hands" if he succeeded in blocking the new OH&S Legislation (Workplace Fatalities) Bill 2004.
"This Bill provides for negligent mine management who are responsible for death and serious injuries to be held to account," says Maher. "Piccoli claims that this will result in a crisis for the NSW mining industry as no one will want to work as a mine manager if they are accountable for negligent actions.
"This is absolute rubbish. Calling negligent managers to account can only make for a safer mining industry and as a consequence a more productive industry.
"In the history of the NSW mining industry more than 3,000 workers have lost their lives and we had to wait until this year before individuals were convicted for the first time for negligence. This case involved the deaths of four coal miners killed in the Gretley mine eight years ago this month.
"Adrian Piccoli would do better to be concerned about the lives and welfare of the thousands of miners who work the State's mines and not the handful of irresponsible managers who for years have been literally getting away with murder."
The workers were cutting a fire door at the Liddell power station when the deadly fibres were released and blown around the workspace by a fan.
The door was marked asbestos free prompting worker fears Asbestos registers at the facility were out of date.
The Liddell and Bayswater power stations have been temporarily shut down for crucial long-term maintenance.
The owners, Macquarie Generation, has refused AMWU calls to do through asbestos audits of the plants.
The company has also moved to stop contractors paying workers who refused to enter workspaces until safety inspectors had completed a sweep of affected areas.
State president, Tim Ayres, says there have been other examples at the stations of asbestos not shown on the Asbestos Register and believes the company is displaying a cavalier approach to the health and safety of workers.
"Macquarie Generation has...caused a number of our members to be exposed to the most frightening and devastating diseases associated with asbestos poisoning," says Ayres.
"Given the current heightened public awareness of asbestos related issues it is unimaginable that the potential risks of exposure to asbestos were not considered by management at Macquarie Generation.
"They are trying to send a message to workers they shouldn't stick their hand up when there is a safety problem."
Hardie At The Gates
Meanwhile Unions, asbestos victims and community members will launch an ongoing protest at the James Hardie Manufacturing Plant in Rosehill to increase pressure on the company.
Hardie's called police in an unsuccessful attempt to remove the communityprotest, which included demountable sheds and portable toilets.
"James Hardie had the audacity to say that the shed had been placed in anarea that created an unsafe practice," says Andrew Ferguson of theConstruction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
The action will continue on weekdays from 8am to 4pm at Colquhoun Road,Rosehill until a resolution has been reached with James Hardie.
The six-foot teddy bear, mascot for a staff and student campaign for more child care places, spoke at a rally demanding the University reverse its reputation as the "least family friendly higher education institution in the country".
Over 150 staff, students, children and supporters ate fairy bread, painted faces, munched sausages at the rally.
NTEU activist Susan Price says there are700 parents on waiting lists for existing childcare facilities at the University.
"Three quarters of student parents on the list told us a lack of childcare services had effected their ability to study effectively," says Price.
"UNSW have said that child care is the priority, and to address this made a commitment to spending $500,000 in 2004 and $500,000 in 2005 on new childcare facilities."
"It is now November 2004, and nothing's happened."
Price is also concerned about parental leave provisions at the University which she says are close to the worst in the country.
The ultimatum was delivered by group manager, Steven Lambert, who told managers workers were to be "directed" to take annual leave between December 20 and January 7 and, if this couldn't be achieved, "I may have to look at redundancies."
Yet five enterprise bargaining agreements, covering around 15,000 Telstra workers state entitlements "may be taken by you at your initiative ... subject to the agreement of your manager".
CPSU spokesman, Paul Ingwersen, says union telephone lines have run hot since Australia's largest company issued its holiday edict.
"We have agreements in place that recognise people choose to take leave for a variety of reasons, including their family situations," Ingwersen said.
"It's unreasonable for a billion dollar company to threaten people that if they don't use their entitlements to suit its purposes there will be redundancies."
Telstra, majority owned by the federal government, has been a leader in shedding staff and cutting costs. It axed thousands of Australian jobs on its way to a record $4.1 billion profit, last year.
Ingwersen said his union had written to the telco seeking that the threat implicit in Lambert's letter be withdrawn.
He said he was "reasonably confident" Telstra would address the issue without the need for further action.
"We are seeking that the company educate its managers on the contents of its agreements and the importance of honouring agreements," he said.
Boycott and Picket the Safari Restaurant
SUPPORT UNPAID SUBCONTRACT BUILDING COMPANIES IN THEIR CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE how can you help? Boycott the Safari Restaurant, Sign our Supporters Petition, Make a donation to the campaign and Picket nightly from 6.15pm - 28 King Street, Newtown.
James Hardie Community Protest
James Hardie gates
Colquhoun Street Rosehill
Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm
Children in immigration detention:
Latest stats, rally next week: 16th November, lunch time
We have 101 children in immigration detention as at 3 November.
This is a disgrace - there are 41 children in Villawood alone, including an unaccompanied girl.
The Iraqi and Afghan children in Nauru have entered their 4th year of incarceration there.
Please come to Canberra on the first sitting day of the new Parliament to lodge your protest.
Details here: http://www.chilout.org/activities/canberra_convergence.html
To see some facts and to compare us with the world, check the link:
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/html/facts_and_stats/stats.html#stat5
Our Home - Iraq� fundraising cocktail party!
When: 7pm, Thursday November 18
Where: The Roxbury Hotel, 182 St Johns Rd, Glebe
Cost: $30
What: Great live music, delicious cocktail food, drink on arrival, raffles, games, great prizes, project info, farewell Donna before she leaves, and the chance to help a good cause!
RSVP: Christian 02-9818 8422 Payment by cheque/money order including contact details to:
Our Home - Iraq C/- Senator Aiden Ridgeway P.O Box 278 Rozelle, NSW, 2039
Our Home - Iraq is a grassroots aid group working on the ground in Iraq alongside Iraqi people. Its aim is to improve conditions for disadvantaged children in Iraq and provide opportunities for them to heal from trauma and reach their full potential. Australian woman, Donna Mulhearn, will return to Iraq in November to continue this work.
COMMUNITY ORGANISING SKILLSHARE
Sydney 20/11 & Brisbane 23/11
Community organising methods aim to build power in communities by facilitating effective grassroots democratic participation. The method has been hugely successful in the USA and the UK, building massive networks of active and informed communities. Building strong and effective networks within and across our communities is crucial to respond to an increasingly conservative political situation. Following recent changes to the Senate and opportunities for electoral influence, community organising offers strategies to revitalise participatory democracy. Wenonah Hauter is visiting Australia from the US this November. Wenonah is Director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project and has extensive experience as an activist, community organiser and movement builder, campaigning on issues including food irradiation, sustainable energy and the privatisation of water. Join Wenonah for a half-day skillshare to gain inspiration, build networks and exchange ideas and resources. The day is a great opportunity to hear about Public Citizen's advocacy work and relate US experiences to community organising opportunities and strategies in Australia. The skillshare will be highly informal and interactive.
Sydney @ UTS Tower Building, Rm 2.4.29
Saturday November 20th, 9.30am-12noon
[online map http://www.utsunion.uts.edu.au/facilities/functions/location/]
details & rsvp - [email protected]
Facilitators (Sydney) Glen Klatovsky: Campaign Director, Worldwide Fund for Nature and Carolin Wenzel: Communications Officer, Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Brisbane @ Brisbane Powerhouse, Mezzamine Rm, Level 1
Tuesday November 23rd, 9.30am-12noon
details & rsvp - [email protected]
Public Meeting: Food Irradiation/b>
You need to know what is happening to the food you eat!
The European Union has imposed a moratorium of further food irradiation approvals, but the Australian Government is content to ignore the growing body of evidence pointing to the severe health and environmental impacts. Herbs, spices, herbal teas and tropical fruits can now be irradiated under Australian and NZ food guidelines. Irradiated foods may also be entering our food chain indirectly from irradiated grain fed to animals grown for meat and beehives.
The labelling laws are weak, with many escaping classification.
Come and find out about the problems with food irradiation and support the growing campaign.
When: 2pm-4pm, Saturday 20th November 2004
]Where: Room 2.4.29, Tower Building, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Broadway (diagonally opposite Central Station).
Speaker: Wenonah Hauter Consumer Advocate, food irradiation expert, and organic farmerDirector, Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program Public Citizen, Washington D.C., USA http://www.citizen.org
Women in International Security Department of Defence Briefing
Monday 22nd November, 5.30-6.30pm including question time, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, NSW Office Level 10 Angel Place 123 Pitt Street, Sydney, 'Women in International Security (Australia)' invite you to a Department of Defence Briefing Two senior women within the Australian Department of Defence will share their experiences from recent assignments in East Timor and Iraq. Speakers: Jacinta Carroll - Director Europe, Middle East and Rest of the World Major Powers and Global Interests Branch, International Policy Division Sari Sutton - Acting Director, South-West Pacific, International Policy Division Guests arrive - 5.15pm.
WIISA event - RSVP - Free Admission.
Politics In The Pub
Friday Nov 26th 6-8pm, Politics in the Pub, Gaelic Club, Surry Hills,
"Aceh & West Papua" with Dr Nurdin Rahman and John Martinkus.
150th Anniversary of Eureka Rebellion 2004
On Sunday 28th November Sydney will celebrate Eureka Stockade with a forum and concert at the NSW Writers' Centre in Rozelle.
The day will start with a morning forum on the significance of Eureka with two guest speakers. One will be Dr Anne Beggs Sunter, Ballarat authority on the history of the Victorian goldfields and the Eureka Stockade. The other is Sydney historian Bob Walshe. Bob was secretary of the 1954 Sydney centenary celebration of Eureka and has been promoting the importance of Eureka in Australian history since that time.
In the afternoon there will be a Eureka150 concert based on historical and contemporary themes of Eureka. It will feature well-known artists including Lyn Collingwood, Alex Hood, Carole Skinner and John Dengate They will be backed by New Theatre and the voices of the Sydney Trade Union Choir.
www.eureka150.net
The $10 charge for the day includes morning tea and a sausage sizzle lunch.
For further information contact
Bob Walshe - 9528 0444; fax 9528 4445
Paula Bloch - 9665 0559; Email [email protected]
In Victoria The VTHC are organising celebrations. They are as follows:
Saturday 27th November: State Government major event in Federation Square:
Afternoon Family Day
Monday 29th November: Union Commemoration Event Flag raising - Federation Square or Lygon Street at 2.00pm. Simultaneous flag raising at Bakery Hill Ballarat and Latrobe Valley. Win TV to broadcast. VTHC Choir
Thursday 2nd December: 6.00pm: Unions have a presence in Eureka Compound
7.30pm VTHC, NSW & QLD Trade Union Choirs 8.30pm 'A Night Under the Southern Cross'. Story Telling and songs with Richard Franklin, Shayne Howard, Dennis Court
Friday 3rd December (Eureka Day): Dawn Ceremony at Eureka Compound
(Community and unions), followed by Community Breakfast. 9.00am Union Train from Melbourne. 10.30am Ballarat Building Unions Picnic. 8.00pm Danny Spooner
- History of Eureka at Ballarat Trades Hall.
Saturday 4th December: 2.00pm Eureka Diggers March. It is proposed that a bus will leave Carlton at aprox 10.00am, and leaving Ballarat at 4.00pm.
Sunday 5th December: 12 noon: Eureka Memorial Committee Dinner at Ballarat.
For more information: http://www.eurekaballarat.com/index.php
Aceh
Sat Dec 4th, 9am-1pm, UTS Broadway,Achehnese Community of Australia (ACA) seminar on human rights abuses in Aceh. Speakers include Ed Aspinall,
Justice John Dowd, etc. Contact Vacy (02)9949-3553. .
Films, Politics and Learning Conference
Organization: OVAL Research, Faculty of Education, University of Technology 6 & 7 Dec These nights aim:
- To bring together radical film-makers, radical film buffs, and radical educators.
- To inspire educators about ways they can use film in their work.
- To inspire film-makers about ways they might facilitate learning about politics.
- To foster discussion and advocacy about this field of practice.
We are seeking videos and films under 2 categories:
1. Agitprop: protest, guerrilla, activist, political, subversive short films /videos.
2. Participatory film-making: community films/videos as social intervention. The only format accepted is DVD.
Send copies with entry form to Celina McEwen, The Centre for Popular Education, UTS, PO Box 123, BROADWAY NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA. Deadline for entries is September 30, 2004. Entry forms can be downloaded from www.cpe.uts.edu.au/pdfs/FPLentry.pdf
For further information email Celina on (02) 9514 3847 or [email protected]
The mainstream press makes such a fuss over David Tweed - the man who "tricks" elderly Australian's to sell there shares in companies way below market value.
The capitalist press is disgusted at Tweeds most recent exploitation of a "loophole in the Corporations law".
He wrote letters to 6200 elderly shareholders who held shares in aged care company Aevum proposing to buy their stares at 35c a share - 55c below the prospectus offer price of 90c.
He has used the same modus operandi on other companies, like the NRMA.
The companies are usually ones where inexperienced punters become shareholders by accident when the institutions are demutualised.
He then takes the punters to court when they smell a rat and try to back out of the deal.
The Federal court last week was told the punters were at fault and may have to pay up.
So what?
What about the systemic exploitation we all suffer under capitalism, by Porsche driving wankers who conspicuously display their own selfishness when cruising the Northern CBD of Sydney.
They stoop to more insidious and large scale scams and cons than any mildly pathetic shonk who is obviously, from TV footage, an oddball.
I'm talking about the foreign exchange dealers, bankers and insurance brokers who produce NOTHING for our society and yet have all the money and power, while the teachers, police, nurses and clerks of the world struggle to pay their mortgage on a house on the very edge of the metropolis.
It is a disgrace and it is getting worse. Why hasn't Adler or Williams et al from HIH or the James Hardie criminals been subject to the same treatment.
When is the government going to get a backbone and ensure all Australians have a fair go.
It is a disgrace.
Give me Tweed any day.
Timothy Rennie
Over the past 12 months, the rail workforce has seen a fundamental shift as their organisation has been transformed from a public service into a State Owned Corporation, run with the express purpose of delivering a financial dividend to the government.
This major shift occurred with little public debate, no staff consultation, just an edict from on high.
Any regular reader of Workers On line could not help but conclude that RailCorp management has been on an express mission: to end the union culture in RailCorp and let 'the managers manage' - this is a sort of Year Zero approach to a railway system that has run on the goodwill of the workforce for decades.
Under the cloak of the Waterfall Inquiry, Rail Corp management has been on a mission to show the workforce who is the boss.
In the past 12 months, they've been poked and prodded, forced to undergo urine samples, heart tests, and even discredited mind games under the name of psychometric testing.
Drivers have been scapegoated, guards and station staff abused and maintenance workers blamed for the effects of poor management.
After holding the rail system together for decades, they have been told they are now the problem.
At the same time, the workforce has borne the brunt of public anger as the new Minister has unilaterally cut rail services, scrapped new railway lines, ditched timetables and stopped production of a new fleet of trains.
A new low occurred last week when RailCorp management got caught out for failing to employ enough electricians. A sub-station blew up, there was no one to fix it and drivers sat at base waiting for a train to drive.
Instead of copping the wrap, RailCorp CEO Vince Graham shifted the blame to the workers - cooking the sick books to conjure up the furphy of an orchestrated industrial campaign; a lie that seemed designed to derail negotiations for a new EBA and undermine the rail union leadership.
It got worse this week when the government released false statistics to class workers as greedy - the front pages had them being paid more than police and nurses, false numbers comparing overtime rate s to base rates of pay.
It also began a whispering campaign about drivers refusing to work more than four and a half hours in the cab in; creative accounting that ignores the time spent conducting safety checks, in shunting yards and turning trains around; as well as the fact that drivers are bound to the timetable management draws up.
It was as if RailCorp were following the script from the 'Waterfront' - make them look lazy, make them look greedy, and then roll out the rorts.
This rail dispute is not just about pay and conditions - it is about the way an employer has treated its 15,000 workers over a sustained period time.
The current restructure is designed to divide workers - offering some jobs in the newly formed RailCorp, leaving others to wither without meaningful employment in the old SRA.
The negotiations are expressly manoeuvred by RailCorp to split the workforce, 'segmenting different sections' and giving management a blank cheque for further reform over the next three years,
It is almost like the whole process has been destined to end in industrial confrontation. Indeed, senior managers have been quite open in admitting their objective is to goad the workers into strike action so as to allow them to shift the blame for the railways' failings onto the workforce.
Yes, strikes disrupt the public, they cost the strikers money and they give the Tories a free kick.
But sometimes the withholding of labour is the only weapon left; the only piece of dignity a worker has. Let's hope a strike can be avoided, but if it is not, let us all, as a movement, support the rail workers in their battle for a little bit of respect.
After all, that's why unions were created, it's why unions remain relevant today and, as a last resort, why striking is still a valid from of protest.
Peter Lewis
Editor
Unions liken his strategy to the infamous '98 waterfront dispute, "minus the dogs and balaclavas".
Patrick's Autocare has locked out workers because they refused to accept savage cuts to conditions, including what unions have labelled as "casualisation by stealth".
"This isn't about money," says Dave Smith, assistant national secretary of the vehicle division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). "It is about principles and maintaining current conditions.
"We're talking about people that can be worked in 50 to 60 degree heat. For that they're on about $450 a week and less, processing cars imported from overseas.
"A lot of these people need every cent they can get."
Patricks are seeking to remove conditions ranging from current redundancy provisions to access to union run OH&S training for safety reps.
As well they are seeking the right to stand down workers at the company's whim.
Workers at the site have indicated that they are willing to take a principled stand over Patrick's push and are calling for support from the community and fellow trade unionists.
"Patricks won't even agree to the continued use of existing consultation clauses, instead rewriting their obligations to consult stating 'the union will not interfere with the running of their business and they are moving forward in the new deregulated industrial environment'," says Smith. "Patricks has stated: 'This was what the '98 dispute was all about, management prerogative'.
"They want the sole right to mandate whether or not a person even has access to the disputes procedure.
"This is about people having some dignity and respect in the workplace and conditions that meet industry and community standards.
"This is the reality of the Howard industrial relations 'reforms'," said Smith. "Workers being stripped of their conditions."
The AMWU has asked for workers to support their Ingleburn based members.
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