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Issue No. 248 | 26 November 2004 |
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Issue No. 248 | 26 November 2004 |
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Australians are rightly cynical when someone knocking off $4 million dollars a year without ever having to raise a sweat starts lecturing them about the workplace.
This week Kirby Adams, managing director of BlueScope Steel, spat the dummy about how there was a "season off strikes" when EBAs come up for negotiation.
In a mantra that has sounded like a broken record since the late nineteenth century this, apparently, is all the fault of big bad union bosses.
The employees, according to our man of steel, wouldn't have a bar of it if they weren't being led by the nose.
The outburst by our Tool Of The week raises two questions.
Why would anybody take anyone with a name like Kirby Adams seriously in the first place?
And what is wrong with workers trying to defend their standard of living?
According to Adams, who is another in a long line of septic tanks imported into the senior executive echelons of this country, workers should bend over and cop whatever he wants to dish up to them.
No doubt he has been lifting his human resources policies direct from his compatriot Donald Trump, who has shown us the American Way on Channel packer's program the Apprentice.
Of course Adams has a package at BlueScope that guarantees a two year payout should his open-ended contract be terminated.
This is in marked divergence from the sort of flexible, let-me-treat-my-employees-like-a-shovel mentality that Kirby wants his own workforce to accept.
Another corporate example of do as I say, not as I do.
While this sort of rank hypocrisy comes as no surprise, the fact that Tools like Kirby can dribble this fertiliser with a straight face is.
Kirby has gone on the record saying his first priority is to deliver double-digit returns for shareholders. Obviously the best way to do that is to pay your workers peanuts, sack them, shift your operations offshore, pay no tax and generally carry on with all the social responsibility of Attila the Hun.
His evangelical style may have gone down a treat in America's Jim Crow south, but he is now operating it hat is allegedly a civilised society.
The fact that this chinless wonder doesn't even understand something as basic as the social contract - and the fair go that goes along with it - shows that far from being a man of the future (as these New Right bomb throwers like to paint themselves), but rather, he is a tired ideologue stuck firmly in the nineteenth century.
If he is worried about people who are needlessly throwing their weight around to disrupt the workforce he might want to have a word to the bloke he looks at when he has a shave in the morning.
Its about time these social nobodies grew up and started treating people as real human beings, instead of jibbering on about something they know four fifths of stuff all about.
It announced, this week, that it would reward disgraced former CEO, Peter Macdonald, with a $77,000 a month consultancy.
A special commission of inquiry found evidence Macdonald had broken trade practices and corporations laws during James Hardie's three-year campaign to rid itself of liabilities to asbestos disease sufferers.
In the wake of those findings, James Hardie softened Macdonald's resignation with a $10 million severance package.
Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, labelled this week's announcement by company chair, Meredith Helicar, "appalling and insulting".
"Only James Hardie could do this in Asbestos Awareness Week," Robertson said. "Everything they do reflects how far out of touch their directors are with the expectations of the Australian community."
Macdonald and chief financial officer, Peter Shafron, were key architects of a scheme that saw James Hardie relocate to the Netherlands..
To facilitate its 2001 corporate restructure, the company told the NSW Supreme Court it would leave partly-paid shares worth more than a billion dollars in Australia for the benefit of creditors.
That arrangement was cancelled at a secret meeting of directors, leaving thousands of asbestos disease sufferers without access to compensation.
As a consultant, Macdonald will make in a months the average amount sufferers are awarded in compensation for their lifetimes.
Whether or not victims of Hardies' products ever see that compensation is now subject to negotiations between the company and the ACTU.
Secretary Greg Combet said, last week, negotiations were "heading for crisis" unless the company removed "unfair and unreasonable conditions" and immediately bailed out MRCF, the foundation it created to compensate victims.
MRCF directors are considering liquidation because James Hardie is playing hardball over promised funding. The foundation needs an immediate injection of $85 million to meet existing claims but says James Hardie directors are making that conditional on receiving indemnities against legal action.
The Hardie situation was exposed, and brought to a head by a relentless union campaign, spearheaded by the AMWU's NSW branch.
Secretary, Paul Bastian, said no amount of Helicar spin-doctoring could alter the fact that James Hardie had set out to "rob" victims and their families.
He pointed that at the time of the restructure, Macdonald had given assurances the company would "fully fund" victims but that when MRCF's $2 billion shortfall had been made public, the California-based CEO had denied "legal or moral" responsibility.
Bastian said there was only one option open to the company. It must deliver on its original promise by putting sufficient money into MRCF, and it must do it now.
"Australians have to ask themselves, how low can a company go?" Bastian said. "Is it possible to sink any lower than Meredith Helicar's James Hardie?
"I don't think so."
AMWU Spreads Pinkies
Meanwhile, NSW is on the brink of becoming the first state to institute a "pink slip" that would alert householders to the presence of asbestos.
Following the lead of councils, including Holdroyd and Ashfield, the state ALP caucus has adopted a policy that means dwellings will have to be subjected to asbestos audits before being sold. It is expected to become law next year.
The plan was devised by the AMWU to try and stop home owners and renovators being added to the thousands of Australians contracting asbestos-related lung diseases every year.
It requires vendors to undertake asbestos audits and have properties containing the killer fibres added to a register that would alert buyers, and future occupiers, to the whereabouts and condition of the product.
MP Paul Lynch estimates the audits could be done for as little as $150 by qualified assessors.
More than half the homes built in Sydney since the 1940s are believed to contain asbestos products. Entire suburbs, especially in the west, sprung up when asbestos was a standard construction product.
Asbestos is understood to be safe while it remains intact but becomes a health risk when it breaks or starts to crumble. Medical experts say that inhaling one asbestos fibre can lead to asbestosis or incurable mesothelioma in later life.
The union, this week, flagged a ban on work at Redfern Oval unless Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, improves consultation with the community.
State assistant secretary, Brian Parker, said the ban was "more likely than ever" after a mid-week meeting at which football club members and indigenous people felt they were given the brush.
Moore has tabled three proposals for the Rabbitohs spiritual home, including turning their oval into parkland, and opposes a move to redevelop the facility to a standard where it can again host first grade football.
Observers believe the future of the historic club swings on returning to its birthplace. Since being readmitted to the NRL, after massive public support for its battle with News Ltd, South Sydney has struggled to draw crowds to the Sydney Football Stadium base it shares with the Roosters.
Popular former player, coach and chairman, George Piggins, is the driving force behind redeveloping Redfern Oval as a focal point for the community.
The Piggins plan would see the Rabbitohs share the redevelopment with a 24-hour medical centre, and a range of community groups.
"South Sydney Leagues Club has offered a privately-funded redevelopment that would not cost ratepayers a cent," Parker said. "We are talking about a sporting and community facility that would be shared by indigenous and other groups, and boost local jobs.
"We want a fair hearing but Clover Moore is backing a minority that want to see Redfern Oval destroyed."
Parker told last week's community meeting that US statistics showed investment in sporting facilities slashed inner-city crime rates.
Moore options for the ground that hosted numerous rugby league championships include parkland, a 7000-seater stadium that would fall well short of NRL requirements, and
Commonwealth Bank CEO David Murray launched a blistering attack on NSW’s OH&S regime, describing proposed gaol sentences for killer bosses as "absolutely abominable".
He described the existing system that allows successful prosecutors to recoup costs as "corrupt".
Research done by Unions NSW reveals over the last 20 years the 'moiety' paid to all unions combined for successful OH&S actions amounted to less than Murray's salary for one year.
Under state law, unions have been able to charge employers with health and safety offences since the 1940's.
In recent year, the Finance Sector Union has launched a number of successful actions against banks.
Last year the ANZ pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety of workers after an armed robbery at its Brookvale branch. The court heard the company had ignored repeated warnings about the risks posed to staff and customers.
Murray's Commonwealth Bank recently pleaded guilty to an OH&S offence and faces at least three other counts.
The NSW government agreed to make employers criminally liable for deaths at their workplaces when it could be proved they were personally culpable.
The proposed law change came in response to widespread agitation over the building industry deaths of teenagers Dean McGoldrick and Joel Exner.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson says Murray's aggressive attack
on workplace fatality laws only underlines how useful they will be in changing executive behaviour.
"The issue for banks is that there have been several successful prosecutions under safety laws against banks whose failure to invest in security has allowed bank robberies to occur, causing injury to staff," Robertson said.
"In every instance, the union has shown the bank had been warned about security failures but refused to act to make the bank's safer."
"Those fines have been absorbed by banks with little public comment, it is only now that senior executives and directors face criminal charges, that they are kicking up a fuss."
He described Murray's opposition to laws intended to make banks safer for employees and customers as "predictable".
Robertson said he was unaware of a single complaint about any union having abused the right to launch OH&S prosecutions.
Research just published by the Australian Institute shows the average Australian is working longer than counterparts in any other developed country.
"While Australians consider they live in the land of the long weekend, the reality is that they now work the longest hours in the developed world," the Institute says.
The average Australian spends 1855 hours a year on the job - 212 hours more than the figure across all 23 OECD countries.
The research shows that Americans run us second by racking up 1835 working hours a year while Norweigans are at the other end of the scale on just 1376, nearly 10 standard weeks less than Australians.
The paper also highlights an ILO study showing Australia had the fourth highest level of people working more than 50 hours a week.
It acknowledges some people work long hours as a matter of choice, but questions the view that Australians need to work long hours to maintain economic competitiveness.
It says economic growth might be slower if more people chose to spend time with family rather than purchase extra appliances, but "a lower rate of growth shouldn't be confused with a lower standard of living".
The position of many wealthy countries on the working hours table, the institute argues, suggest long hours are an indicator of low labour productivity rather than increased competitiveness.
Following Australia and the US on the workaholic scale are Japan (1821 hours per week), New Zealand (1817) and Canada (1767).
Workers in Norway, the Netherlands and Germany all average less than 1500 hours at work a year.
For more information visit:
http://www.tai.org.au/WhatsNew_Files/WhatsNew/Overwork%20day%2020th%20November.pdf
Billionaire Richard Pratt was flying strikebreakers into Visy, Dandenong, and bussing them into, Warwick Farm, as the Federal Court rejected his application to have employee resistance declared illegal.
The Federal Court, in Melbourne, rejected Visy's move to use a technicality to force employees in Queensland, WA, Victoria and NSW back to work.
Six hundred workers at 12 sites struck after a national agreement collapsed over company demands to slash the entitlements of workers who fall victim to long-term illness or injury.
The impasse brought negotiations down after AMWU members cleared a number of obstacles, including getting Visy to drop insistence on single-site, non-union agreements.
Print division secretary, Steve Walsh, called the breakdown "very disappointing".
"We thought we had a framework agreement but when we got into the details there were major problems over income protection," he said.
"Under Visy's proposal some people could be seriously disadvantaged."
Negotiators had settled on 14.75 percent wage movements over three years and agreed to establish the first national Visy agreement.
"We got very close," Walsh said, "frustratingly close. This action is an indication of how seriously our members view income protection."
Walsh said the union was ready and willing to negotiate at any time.
The dispute effects Visyboard, Visypaper and Visy Recycling operations in Queensland, WA, Victoria and NSW.
Last week, AMWU members were near unanimous in their support for a three-year agreement hammered out with leading Visy competitor Amcor. It contained 14.75 percent wage movements and maintained income protection.
Top of their list is Representative Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III – only son of former Prisident Cory Aquino – whose family has owned the massive Hacienda Luisita sugar complex for generations.
"We, who are your constituents, no longer want you back in Tarlac," union leaders, Ricardo Ramos and Rene Galang, said in a joint statement after the first funerals.
Thirty five strikers or supporters received gunshot wounds when they were attacked by troops.
Inquiries into the slayings have been opened in both houses of the Phillipines Parliament.
Police chief De la Torre sparked outrage when he told the Senate Inquiry his men had reacted to shots from the picketers.
"Do you mean to tell me that the dead workers were shot by their own colleagues?" Senator Enrile replied, noting autoposy evidence that most of the dead had been shot in the back.
De la Torre said that matter was being investigated by a task force created by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Edgar Aglipay.
De la Torre's claim flew in the face of findings made by police forensic experts who said nine policemen involved in the dispersal had tested positive for gunpowder burns.
The trade unions in the Philippines are calling for a strong international protest, demanding a full investigation of what happened, the rehiring of dismissed workers, and withdrawal of criminal charges brought against the strikers.
More than 17,000 people have already registered their protests with authorities in the Phillipines through British-based Labourstart. You can join them at:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=39
The lack of toilet facilities for electricians working in remote and rural sites is not only cutting women out of the employment picture but a major hygeine risk for existing staff, according to the ETU.
"Over time there are going to be more women in these crews," says ETU organiser Steve Robinson. "Will they then say 'Oh, we can't put them on the crew because we don't have the appropriate facilities'.
"Many ETU members at Country Energy find themselves out in the field for extended periods, and when nature calls they can have nothing more private than a tree to go behind.
"Our workers do a lot of work out in the country where they are not provided with proper amenities. They want to be doing more than just fertilising the countryside.
"Country Energy needs to provide these facilities so that workers can maintain their dignity. A number two gets a bit sticky out in the bush."
The current NSW OHS Act and Regulation says that proper amenities must be provided to all employees, even in remote and temporary situations.
Linda Schofield-Olsen, who worked at Westpac, will fight for her job in the AIRC this week, after an argument with a team leader led to her sacking.
The workplace delegate has since been diagnosed with depression. The sacking followed the death, through cancer, of her father and during the prolonged illness of her mother. She has nursed both parents for five years.
Having been denied immediate leave, Schofield-Olsen was four weeks away from taking up an annual leave entitlement when the incident occurred during a fire drill.
She has offered both a written and verbal apology over the incident, but Westpac has refused to budge. It told the union her apologies had not been "contrite" enough.
Schofield-Olsen believes she is being victimised due to her union involvement.
"I can be a thorn in the side of management and have a long memory," she said. "I know where the bodies are buried.
"They are having another restructure and it will be a little bit easier if I'm not there."
Schofield-Olsen has been a member elected trustee of the staff super scheme, holding the record for the largest number of votes ever gained by any candidate for the position.
She is the lead union delegate for the bank's NSW Service Centre at Concord where over 1000 employees are based.
In a 24 hour period over 300 of her colleagues signed a petition calling for her reinstatement.
FSU secretary Geoff Derrick says management claims Schofield-Olsen is aggressive are nonsense.
"Her sacking has everything to do with the fact she has been a strong vocal advocate for workers rights against absolute management prerogative in that workplace," says Derrick.
"Unfortunately management does not understand the difference between someone who is prepared to stand up for themselves and someone who is aggressive."
Construction company Hoch-Teif ordered staff to use equipment the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) had already fingered as faulty.
A subsequent audit by CFMEU and WorkCover exposed a number of safety breaches, including unlicensed formwork and faulty cranes, with WorkCover issuing seven rectification notices.
"This company has shown complete disregard for the safety of its workers,' says CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson. "The attitude to safety on this job created an environment that was a recipe for someone to get killed.
"Does a worker have to die before employers will take safety seriously?"
Other safety issues that emerged during the audit included scaffolding at tunnel entrances that created risks of falls and a faulty electrical system.
CFMEU safety expert Dick Whitehead said safety on the job had "gone out the window". He called the Hoch-Teif cranes "death traps".
Hoch-Teif brought in safety expert, John Nankara from CraneSafe Australia, to examine the cranes at the centre of the near fatality.
Nankara, one of 6 accredited crane safety inspectors in NSW, slammed the defective cranes.
The cranes are now undergoing major repairs and workers will be left hanging for up to two weeks until the work is complete.
The women will be represented by the USU in an Administrative Review, normally the preserve of corporate high flyers.
The family day care operators are seeking judgements that Bathurst exploited them through "harsh and unconscionable" contracts.
USU official, Greg McLean, said the review was the only avenue available to women who had been removed from IR processes by being classified as independent contractors.
"Their businesses have been closed by the council without any explanation. Under existing regulations, they aren't even entitled to ask why," McLean said.
"The Carr Government has just changed that situation in NSW because the Premier understood there was no natural justice available to battlers who perform an important social service. Unfortunately, the Bathurst women have been caught under the terms of the old regime."
The Administrative Review Tribunal is an expensive jurisdiction, not least because it can level costs against unsuccessful litigants but, McLean says, the cases are of "fundamental importance".
The USU, led by organiser Julie Griffiths, has run a long campaign to have governments extends rights to operators of family day care centres.
It began after the federal government successfully challenged an award for the sector in 1995, leaving people who cared for toddlers in their homes devoid of any rights or avenues of appeal.
The position was reinforced when Dubbo Council refused point-blank to justify closing a local centre. It claimed to have been defrauded out of an amount of less than $3 after a worker inaccurately completed a time sheet.
The union organised workers and used its political and industrial contacts to convince the NSW Government workers needed an appeal mechanism when authorities removed their rights to operate.
McLean said Carr needed little convincing and pin-pointed the NSW model as one that should be taken up around the country.
"The situation that still exists in other states is ridiculous," he says. "It flies in the faces of any concept of a fair go."
AMWU members at McPherson's Printing held up the distribution of Telstra phone books after management announced plans to slash jobs and cut casual rates by up to $5 an hour.
When FOC, Mark Aubrey, put his signature on the enterprise agreement, last week, it not only preserved wages and entitlements but included a breakthrough clause extending redundancy to casuals.
Aubrey admitted his workmates had had to concede four jobs but said that was "much better" than the wholesale cuts McPherson's had originally been chasing.
The company had hit them with claims to eliminate half the casual positions and do away with agreed staffing levels and consultative mechanisms, altogether.
"I wouldn't say it was a complete victory but it wasn't far from it," Aubrey said.
"The preservation of jobs was the most important thing we achieved, followed by keeping our terms and conditions.
"Our people were strong but we had to be. The clawbacks the company wanted were unacceptable. I wouldn't have wanted to have stayed under their conditions
The 55-year-old administrative worker says she was belittled and victimised by her female boss, who tried to force her to produce 30-year-old police records on minor offences. The checks breeched privacy laws.
The boss also introduced a random drug testing regime, forcing the LHMU member to hand a beaker of urine over to one of her colleagues.
The drug testing incident ended up before the IRC.
Industrial Liason officer Ally Richmond of the NT Working Women's Centre says people who are victims of bullying behaviour need to seek help from a union, community group or crisis line.
"Look for support outside the workplace, don't expect your colleagues to be sympathetic, if you a re a member of a union contact them," says Richmond.
"If you are being bullied in the workplace, keep detailed notes of what's going on."
"Bullying is often about patterns of behaviour so it is important to keep records if you want to demonstrate you are being bullied."
The defining moment that shaped Australian working class politics will be celebrated with a series of events that are expected to draw large crowds.
The trade union movement has been heavily involved with commemorating the historic occasion when Australians first rallied under the banner of the Southern Cross with a number of activities scheduled over a week of celebrations.
The Eureka stockade was a "significant event in the history of both the trade union movement and the movement for democracy," says Andrea Maksimovic from the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC). "Nearly 150 years ago, a defining moment in Australia's working class history occurred: the Eureka Rebellion.
"Today, the Eureka spirit lives on, inspiring a sense of a 'fair go' in all Australian workers.
"The Eureka Rebellion goes to the core of what trade unionism is about: - the right to be heard; the right to oppose tyranny and oppression; to put all on the line and stand together for what you believe in.
"All members of the community are invited to participate in a range of events to be held between the 22nd of November and the 5th of December."
The lasting symbol from the Eureka rebellion is the distinctive "southern cross" flag the miners fought under.
"The Eureka flag is a potent symbol for such struggles and the reason many unions identify so closely with it," says Maksimovic. "The union movement has no monopoly ownership of the Eureka flag. It is the people's flag, but unionists closely identify with its history and what it represents."
Highlights of events scheduled for the week include:
Monday 29 November 11.00am Haymarket Roundabout (top end of Elizabeth St) Melbourne City Council/ Trade Union hoisting of giant Eureka Flag. 2.00pm Union Commemoration Event Flag raising Federation Square. Simultaneous flag raising at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, Latrobe Valley at 2pm.
Thursday 2nd December - evening 'A Night Under the Southern Cross' at the Eureka Compound, Ballarat.
Friday 3rd December -- Dawn ceremony at Eureka Compound 10.30am Ballarat Building Unions Picnic (brought forward from Monday 6 December) at compound. Band, Jump Castle, BYO.
Sat 4th December - - 2.00pm March the route of the Diggers at Ballarat.
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]
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]
Eureka Stockade 150th Anniversary
Sydney Event. December 5, 2 PM. Gaelic Club, Devonshire St, Surry Hills.
"Still Fighting for Democratic Rights"
For the 150th anniversary of Eureka Stockade the Communist Party of Australia is launching two important publications on Eureka. The first is booklet written by Bob Walshe on the political meaning of Eureka for today and a folio of lino cuts about the rebellion.
Warren Smith of the MUA will chair the event and main speaker will be Dr Drew Cottle historian from University of Western Sydney. The significance of Eureka for Australian unionists is immense. All welcome and entry is by donation.
James Hardie Community Protest
Support shafted dying victims of Hardie's toxic legacy at the community protest outside the Australian HQ of the disgraced building products maker. We protest 'til they pay!
Where: James Hardie gates, 10 Colquhoun Street Rosehill
When: Everday, Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm
This protest is supported by ADFA, CFMEU, AMWU and the MUA.
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 Motorcycle Diaries
* Sunday, 12th December, 3:45pm
Film preview and fundraiser
Based on the books "The Motorcycle Diaries" by Ernesto Guevara and "Travelling with Che Guevara" by Alberto Grando. Thefilm follows aninspiring journey of self-discovery and traces theyouthful origins of arevolutionary heart.
AETFA will be presenting this film preview as a fundraiser for Education in East Timor at Palace Nova Cinemas Rundle Street City 3:45pm Sunday 12th December
Tickets $12/$9 concession
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
Please phone...
Mark - 8277 7356 (after 6pm M-F, or on weekend) or email bookings - click here)
Back in the '70's a large Australian public sector organisation used to time its female employees' visits to the toilet and if they deemed too long had been taken, the worker concerned had to explain why to her (male) boss.
The practice ceased after one woman refused to explain, but placed a discretely wrapped object on the manager's desk.
Surely we can do something about this? What's the toilet nazi's
email?
Why can't Workers Online coordinate an email, campaign where Workers
Online subscribers email her?
If she's not stopped it won't be long til her workers will be getting 'please explains' about the time they spend in the loo.
Kaye Felgate, WA
I was moved to write by last week's story about 'pee poles' in the call centre.
Obviously this is disgraceful.
But really it's but one symptom of workplaces, which are the 'Factories Of The Future'.
These modern workplaces, which actually resemble cattle corrals, are one of the most alienating of all time.
And they are places which will only increase in number and in which unions must establish themselves.
You guys should give us a feature on them because your 'pee-pole' story is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of privations these workers face.
Cecily Sheehan
From the start of the federal election campaign, and especially after the televised debate between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Mark Latham, the media consistently reported that Mark had well and truly won the campaign, but that Howard remained by far the preferred leader, according to opinion polls.
Labor suffered a disastrous defeat, the extent of which was probably a surprise to everyone.
So the post mortem started, and immediately Latham was made the scapegoat by his colleagues.
He had supposedly well and truly stuffed up his election campaign in just about every way possible.
How could this be so, when he had received so much adulation and support during the campaign?
Well I surmise that the only way Mark's Labor colleagues could rationalise their bitter disappointment at the outcome of the election, was to pass the buck onto Mark.
Of course it couldn't be the fault of his advisers and associates , how could they be responsible for such an undesirable outcome?
Most sickening to me are the comments by Michael Costello, formerly Beazley's chief of staff:
"Labor was comprehensively done, especially in strategic terms. Its Medicare Gold was a strategic disaster, as last week was the campaign from hell. There was hardly a mistake they didn't make."
"The prime responsibility for this lies with Mark and those that put him there."
What extraordinary hypocrisy from the person who had advised Kim Beazley.
Apart from 9/11 and Tampa, the failure of Labor at the 2001 election was ENTIRELY the fault of Kim Beazley, whose campaign was nothing short of woeful and \ pathetic.
But then I guess it is the nature of the animal that back-stabbing and buck passing is part and parcel of Labor Party tradition.
Factional in-fighting takes priority over the more important issue of actually winning government.
And then of course there is the nonsense about Labor losing the election because of the frequently repeated lie by John Howard that interest rates would rise under a Labor Government.
Despite the fact that this was contradicted by economists BEFORE the election, Labor said nothing.
It was not Howard's lie that cost Labor the election, but Labor's total failure to repudiate this lie.
But I say: "Well done, Mark. A magnificent job."
Marvellous lateral thinking policies that were consistently aimed at making Australian society more fair.
And of course, unlike some other gutless people, you didn't hesitate to call a spade a spade.
Of course Howard‚s subservient relationship with George Bush was arse-licking, and of course GWB is an extremely dangerous man."
Julian Hancock
The reality TV model of choosing our next big star is now well-established and, despite the sneerings of the pop-cognescenti, quite effective in finding performers who match the hopes and dreams of their audience.
Australian Idol can be seen as a reaction to established structures of the Australian music industry that turned stardom a closed shop, requiring personal contacts and, even better, family contacts to get a slot in the popular culture.
With the collapse of grass-roots music thanks to the invasion of poker machines into pubs, the available talent pool shrunk until it took in little more than the family and close friends of a few record company executives and aging rock stars. Either that, or they are extremely good-looking.
Sure, experiments like JJJs Un-Earthed delivered some acts from left field such as silverchair and Killing Heidi, but few Australian acts cracked the charts and those who did were usually poor imitations of the US bands that dominated the Top 10.
In this context, Australian Idol has been an adventure in popular culture democracy, allowing the punters to vote with something more than just their wallets, actually managing the flow of talent into the mainstream.
And here's the punch line: when it comes to picking talent, the public seems to get it right, with both Casey and Guy they have clearly chosen the performer with the best set of lungs, rather than other assets that the establishment all too often promotes.
As Casey was embarking on her media blitz, another young woman was rewriting the rules of engagement, the 24 year-old legal secretary who caught one late train too many and decided to make a stand.
Yes, she was promoted first by the media and supported by the trade union movement, but the idea and impetus were her own - the existing order simply facilitated her campaign.
Like Casey and Guy, Rebecca was not particularly polished in her performance or sophisticated in her delivery - but she had a much more valuable commodity - she was real.
Casey and Rebecca got me thinking, as yet another round for ALP leadership talk began swirling this week.
Could it be that the real problem confronting the party are the very issues that have also engulfed our music industry: a shrinking talent pool caused by the professionalisation of the industy, an ailing grass roots structure and a collapse of talent identification.
Could it be that, given it is the punters who ultimately decide who wins elections, they should be given a greater say on who is strutting their stuff on stage on the big night.
It is with this is mind that I put forward my Modest Proposal for Australia's newest reality TV show - Australian Leader.
It would be a cross between Idol and The Apprentice - a bunch of hopefuls - rank and file workers, mortgagees and contractors in a face-off for the ultimate prize - leadership of the Australian Labor Party.
Contestants would be put through a number of tests: the standard political skills such as visiting shopping centres, kissing babies, 'managing' local branch issues.
Each week they would also be asked to work within an established genre - speaking at rallies, hiking through the wilderness, addressing foreign dignitaries, batting off curly ones in Question Time.
As the season progresses the contestants would grow under the tutelage of a panel of experts - say John Faulkner, Robert Ray and Ros Kelly (for whiteboard skills); and Australia's own Donald Trump, Bob Hawke.
The public would eliminate a contestant each week through the celebration of popular democracy, a phone-in poll, at $1.80 per minute - a great source of funding come election time.
First to go would be those who look like they want the job too much, who don the tailored suit and the toothy grin to tell you what you want to hear.
Next in the firing line would be those who change their positions to make life easier on themselves. The punters much prefer human qualities like honesty, candour and even frailty, than the illusion that things are OK.
Left standing would be those contestants who have a compelling life story, who have contributed to their community, who know what its like to be caught at the end of a bank line or on hold to Telstra, who have been squeezed between work and family, wondering where to send their kids and what happens when they get sick, and who care about the environment and are proud to call themselves Australians.
As a finale, the last two contestants would appear on the Opera House steps for the ultimate challenge - enthusing the crowd about their vision for Australia and laying out an honest platform that looks beyond the political cycle to confront the real challenges we face as a nation.
And the winner? Well, they would be someone the Australian people have chosen to lead the party that represents them, a modern day Ben Chifley, who is called to public duty by the Light On the Hill.
Call me misty-eyed, but I believe our leaders are in the community, not in our Parliament. Australian Leader would find them and send them to Canberra to bust the joint open.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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