*****
Lawyer jokes are off the agenda at the ABC after the government found one last scoop at the bottom of the barrel and appointed Janet Albrechtsen to the ABC board.
The corporate ambulance chaser has made quite a name for herself since she began sharing her thoughts with us through the august pages of that newsprint which was once a newspaper, the Australian.
From this experience we have learned that our Tool Of the Week is a deeply unhappy person.
Apparently there are all sorts of people that hold contradictory opinions to her.
Unfortunately for our Tool Of The Week most of them actually know what they are talking about, which places Ms Albrechtsen at something of a disadvantage.
Given her love of the market and, more importantly, the markets love of her, it appears necessary in some circles that a more level playing field is thus called for.
In achieving this end it has proven problematic for Ms Albrechtsen to improve her knowledge of what's going on beyond the end of her nose, so what is obviously needed is to silence those people who actually do know what they're talking about.
This will assist Ms Albrechtsen to continue her wonderful contribution to humanity in presenting whatever claptrap she thought up as being of such importance that it must be shared with us all before it ends up lining the budgie cage.
She has also demonstrated a remarkable commitment to ensuring that those who don't come from the better families are kept in the place. She does a good running trade in informing us how better off we'd all be if we just put up with being paid in food scraps or killed so that we can continue to help keep her friends on the Fortune 200 list in pickled larks uvulas.
What else can we say for someone who sells workplace safety as a way for unions to Get Rich Quick?
The idea that we don't like to see our workmates maimed, killed or slowly poisoned because we think of them as human beings must be hard for her to grasp.
Especially since it must be hard for someone who has a Gold Amex where everyone else has a heart to understand a concept like that.
The death of Joel Exner, the destruction of John McPhilbin, the tears of Robyn McGoldrick never happened on planet Albrechtsen. With the commercial lawyers eye for compassionate humanity she puts it all down to a sinister conspiracy to do her mates in Darling Point out of dough.
But that lack of understanding what her fellow Australians know didn't deter our Janet, who took the unusual tack of saying that workers should be grateful to be shot while working in a bank and that they should stop picking on the poor old ANZ who, after all, are down to their last three squillion.
It was a moving performance by the enigmatic Albrechtsen.
Not surprisingly Bullying is also a concern of Albrechtsen's. On this subject she puts herself forward as something of an expert.
"When workers were surveyed by the NSW Labor Council earlier this year with questions such as "Have you ever experienced bullying or intimidation in your workplace?" she breathlessly told her readers. "You could wager your mother on the outcome."
And Janet would be true to form if she did.
Talk about projection; Freud, if he made any sense, would have a field day!
You have to hand it to her, she makes Ayn Rand look like Mother Theresa and is a fantastic example of the Joseph Goebbels school of compassion.
Given her experience of spending her entire life outside the real world Albrechtsen will bring a unique insight to the board.
Her sinecure at the rather appropriately named News Limited has provided much mirth for the rest of the population that lives in the real world.
No conflict there. None whatsoever. Not a skerrick. All above board. And here's a pup you might want to buy.
Nonetheless these missives will continue while on the ABC board she learns about what should prove to be a wonderful new concept to her: journalism!
Not so much the dumbing down of the ABC as the dumbing up of Janet.
In the meantime The hero of sexually frustrated chinless wonders from the more perverted GPS schools can save us from than den of tree-hugging, terrorist Marxists at the ABC.
No more gay Big Ted on Play School! Out with the political correctness of Macca and his hoard of subversives on Australia All Over! Australia will be safe once again and the ABC can return to its rightful place as the light entertainment channel for the BBC's Pacific office.
A true champion of the person.
You can contact Janet Albrechtsen and congratulate her for making the ABC board and the Tool Shed in one week by emailing her at [email protected]
Six of eight employees at Civiquip, Hoppers Crossing, have joined the AMWU in a bid to knock off AWAs being championed by Prime Minister, John Howard.
AMWU organiser, Fergal Eiffe, says proposed earnings fall between $1 and $9 an hour below enterprise bargaining rates being paid in the region; that 2.5 percent annual increases would see workers fall below the CPI; and that leave loadings appear to have vanished all together.
"This is the trouble with AWAs. They are an opportunity for employers to tear down wages, conditions and basic human rights with the government's blessing," Eiffe said.
"These ones look like they were drafted in the 1800s."
The documents bar radios, computers, mobile phones, slacks, shorts, coarse or blasphemous language from Civiquip's premises, on pain of dismissal, and allow the company to work employees on Victoria's Melbourne Cup public holiday.
They give the thumbs-up to religious discrimination and legitimise employer discrimination, as long as he has less than six fulltime employees.
"Nothing in these provisions prohibits", the AWA reads, "any discriminatory conduct by:
"(A) a person (against another person) if the discrimination is necessary for the first person to comply with the person's genuine religious beliefs or principles.
"(B) an Employer if the Employer employs no more than the equivalent of five people on a fulltime basis ... "
Civiquip AWAs call on workers to sign away rights to union representation.
The AWAs, prepared by IR Australia of Pitt St, Sydney, were handed to employees just prior to Christmas.
That, Eiffe says, goes to the core of what AWAs are all about.
"These people didn't even know IR Australia existed," Eiffe says, "until they found out they were writing their new terms of employment.
"This has got nothing to do with flexibility or bargaining in the workplace. It is about loading the dice in the employer's favour so he can cut living standards and, in this case, impose his own value system on everyone who works for him.
"We respect religious beliefs but living in a society is all about finding a balance."
Sue Simes is one of six former Merbein Mushrooms pickers who will see their boss in court in a bid to have Howard Government individual contracts overturned.
Simes, who buried her 23-year-old son in December, had worked six days a week for eight years at the mushroom farm near Mildura.
Her employer, Geoff Izard, who attended the funeral, introduced AWAs after state law forced him to pay higher wages from January 1.
The agreements cut penalty rates and bonuses, replaced hourly pay with "piece" rates and maintained all staff as casuals.
Simes says all 45 mushroom pickers opposed the agreements which meant average pay cuts of $150 a week.
But she believes many were coerced into signing after Izard conducted one on one interviews, and refused to negotiate or meet union officials.
When asked by staff what was in the new deal for them Izard reportedly replied "well you've got a job don't you".
"I felt so angry and hurt they had done this," said Simes. "After working there for eight years I thought I deserved better than this."
Simes and five sacked colleagues unlawful dismissal cases to the Federal Court this week.
AWU secretary Bill Shorten says such cases would become more common given Howard government plans to promote individual contracts and cut award conditions.
"It will be much easier for companies to impose pay cuts and to sack people for not signing individual contracts," Shorten said.
As state Labor�s ministers vowed to oppose the government�s plan to nationalise industrial relations systems, Andrews let fly at awards, the independent umpire and the minimum wage.
In a major speech in Melbourne today outlining the Government's agenda for industrial relations reforms, Andrews claimed that ideas of 'fairness' in workplaces were 'misconceived' and that '...an emphasis on fairness only leads to regulatory excess and inefficiency'.
Detailing the Government's long-term agenda in workplace relations, Andrews said his vision of the workplace in five years time would have no place for unions or an independent umpipre.
"Decisions as to the type of employment arrangements entered into, be they part-time, full-time, permanent or casual, or contractually based, would be left to the parties themselves at the workplace level," Andrews says.
Andrews also endorsed the big business plan to wring more ouot of working families by:
� Undertaking a hostile take-over of all State industrial relations systems that currently cover about half the Australian workforce.
� Eliminating basic award protections that are reported to include long service leave, jury service leave, notice of termination, and superannuation provisions.
� Scrapping unfair dismissal laws, and
And abolishing the role of the independent AIRC in setting minimum wages and conditions and settling industrial disputes.
But Andrews was today sent a clear message that any take-over would take a messy constitutional fight, with state Labor IR ministers meeting in Sydney to coordinate their response.
NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, Mr John Della Bosca, chaired the meeting of state and territory Ministers in Sydney that vowed to fight the Commonwealth's bid to impose a federal system which is costly to business, unfair to workers and has the nation's worst record on disputes.
"The Federal Government's radical plan to implement a single national industrial relations system will be disastrous for small business, workers, regional communities and families," Della Bosca says.
"They will be forced into a complicated and expensive system based on workplace agreements which will favour big business but provide no safety net for those who most need it - small business, vulnerable workers and families who rely on flexible work practices to juggle child care arrangements.
"The arrogance of the Federal Government in planning to push such reforms through the Senate after July 1 will be matched by the determination of all Labor states and territories to stand up and be counted."
In a major change of direction, Australia�s largest company will contract-in several hundred positions in regional Victoria.
CPSU organiser, Hayden Jones, called the corporate about-face a victory for "people power".
"It's a positive outcome that shows what people power, and a good trade union, can achieve," Jones said.
CPSU members at Ballarat and Moe call centres have been campaigning for years to have Telstra reverse decisions that had cost them income and job security.
Telstra's Moe call centre had been contracted out to cut-price US outfit, Teletech, whose management style led to a rash of problems and complaints.
Teletech was nominated, more than once, for the Tony Award set up to finger Australia's worst employer.
Telstra has announced it will directly employ several hundred Moe call centre operators from February 24.
The company will also take on more than 60 call centre staff at its Wendouree Big Pond call centre, near Ballarat, ending years of reliance on labour hire.
As a result, some affected staff can expect to see annual salaries jump from around $30,000 to $38,000.
"It's a good result, not just for the staff but their families and the whole region. Security of employment, and income, is a major achievement," the CPSU said in a statement.
Both call centres were subjected to long-running organising campaigns after trying to use individual contracts, and a range of other strategies, to deunionise their operations.
"It doesn�t work," former Walter Construction corporate services manager, Mike Walsh, says.
"Nobody gets anything for 16 weeks and they still have to put food on the table and pay the mortgage. People are terrified until the first payments come through."
Walsh and 450 former white collar colleagues at Walter Construction are owed over $18 million dollars in entitlements.
The General Employees Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) only pays award rates, offers no protection to subcontractors, doesn't cover super and caps redundancy at eight weeks.
The scheme also gives the government complete discretion on any payouts.
The majority of Walter's blue collar workforce will be paid tens of millions worth of entitlements in full and have new jobs after two weeks of pickets and negotiations.
CFMEU members are protected from losing their long service, redundancy and superannuation as money is placed in industry trusts.
"White collar workers are envious of our blue collar colleagues after the way the CFMEU has looked after them," Walsh said.
Walsh was speaking at this week's Unions NSW meeting as delegates voted to back his non-union colleagues
The CFMEU has managed to secure the entitlements of some white collar workers.
The union is sponsoring the 'Walter Staff Employees Group', composed of former Walter staff, and wants the scheme to guarantee 100 percent of worker entitlements.
A bus load of white collar workers will travel to Canberra on March 9 to deliver a petition with more than 5000 signatures calling for GEERS reform.
Next week a mobile billboard calling for the GEERS scheme to be beefed up will be launched at Kirribilli. The $20,000 cost of the billboard is being paid for with donations from blue collar and white collar workers.
Banton, who won Unions NSW�s prestigious Frank Belan award for his role in staring down corporate villain, James Hardie, is discreet about an approach from Gibson�s production house, Icon Shanahan, to put his life story on the silver screen.
The former union delegate at the company's Rosehill factory, said he had been told to stay quiet about the project.
"They (Icon Shanahan) rang me and said 'don't say anything about it, we'd like to talk to you first'. They're coming to see me in a few weeks," Banton told the Australian media, this week.
But industry talk already centres on who the Americans will cast in a story, driven by a relentless trade union campaign that pushed NSW Premier Bob Carr into instigating a public inquiry.
Australian icon, Jack Thompson, is a warm favourite to play Banton while Nicole Kidman shapes up nicely for the role of his activist wife, Karen.
Industry insiders say Pulp's Jarvis Cocker would make a 'fantastic" Greg Combet while Russell Crowe's any-time, any-place attitude to a scrap give him the inside running as hard-hitting AMWU secretary, Paul Bastian.
In playing Ghandi to popular acclaim, Ben Kingsley, would appear to have the John Robertson role sewn-up.
One left-field suggestion has the production company seeking the services of Elton John as a bespectacled state premier with vocal authority.
Theatrical agents spoken to by Workers Online say company roles will be difficult to fill in Australia, especially if "other commitments" prevent Roger Rogerson being cast as CEO, Peter Macdonald.
They were split on whether Icon Shanahan would see Dustin Hoffman or Farrah Fawcett as its first-choice Meredith Helicar.
Nobody from the production company was available to comment on the final make-up of the cast.
The secret was uncovered when a manager at the workshop let the cat out of the bag to an AMWU member, according to state secretary, Paul Bastian.
The decision to sell Goulburn comes as the State Government finalises plans to privatise maintenance across the rail network.
Bastian said privatisation and contracting had been behind many of the problems besieging the NSW rail network in recent months.
He said public safety could not be guaranteed when everything from brakes and other components, right up to entire rail cars are imported from overseas.
"When you're hurtling down the tracks on a crowded peak hour train, its not much comfort to know that you're riding on the cheapest possible tender price" Bastian said.
"This plan will also cost jobs - particularly in regional NSW.
"We already have a major skills crisis. We can't start to compete on exports if we've exported all ours skills!"
Mr Bastian said that the problems in rail were compounded by the state Government's lack of action to keep ship building contracts in NSW.
The AMWU and AWU have both accused the Carr government of "welshing" on longstanding rail infrastructure assurances.
The state's Rail Infrastructure Corporation (RIC) was today considering two private expressions of interest, one from a US consortium, to buy the 30-year-old Goulburn Rail workshop.
Sixty highly-skilled staff, responsible for building wagons, general engineering, and building and maintaining the network's bridges, have been delivered an ultimatum - move to whoever buys the concern or quit.
Meanwhile, state pollies are tight-lipped about plans to knock-off the design, construction and maintenance of 500 electrical passenger carriages, under the guise of Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Only 20 percent of the $1.8 billion contract has been earmarked for NSW with the rest open to international tender.
AMWU attempts to get an explanation for the repudiation of Ministerial assurances work would remain in the state have drawn a blank.
The union estimates 2400 skilled jobs could be lost if the tender goes offshore - 800 existing rail employees, 800 more at private engineering firms in Sydney and the Hunter Valley, and as many again in downstream services.
NSW's content commitment is being compared unfavourably with the 80 percent demanded by federal government on a multi-billion dollar contract for new naval vessels.
"The significance of these tenders to the future of the rolling stock industry cannot by overestimated," Bastian says. "The loss of more skilled workers has long-term implications, for job security, regional economies and the future of our skills base.
Organiser Mark Hoban fingered RIC CEO, Bob Pentecost, as the architect of the Goulburn sell-off plan.
"Pentecost has got form but we are onto him," Hoban said. "He was responsible for selling large chunks of Telstra and has brought the same mentality to rail."
Unions NSW will co-ordinate a campaign amongst sector workers to oppose the sell-off of rail infrastructure.
The revelation came in the same week as Prime Minister John Howard moved against the minimum wage claiming it "prices people out of work".
"What they're paid compared to the cost of care makes it not worthwhile to stay [at work]," Russo told Sydney media earlier in the week.
He was commenting on a report by the Task Force on Care Costs, which claims there is immense pressure on Australian workers because of inadequate support those with family responsibilities.
The study claims the 20 per cent of workers responsible for elderly or disabled relatives need more financial support.
"You shouldn't be forced to chose between working and caring," says Task Force chair Juliet Bourke. "I think financial support should be provided.
The Task Force was put together by an alliance of businesses including McDonalds, ING, Westpac, Qantas and BlueScope Steel, who are calling for the government to intervene to help meet carers' costs.
Govt Flags New Minimum
Meanwhile Howard flagged a push for a change in the way the minimum wage was set saying the Federal Government wanted the terms refined.
"It has to be a minimum that takes account of the employment opportunities," Howard told Melbourne radio.
Opposition in the Senate has so far stopped legislation to change the minimum wage but after July 1 the Government will be able to pass the changes.
Fischer has forced contractors at his Gazebo hotel redevelopment to sign clauses blocking them from speaking to the media.
Many have downed tools, citing $10 million in unpaid bills and safety concerns. Individual contractors are owed up to a million dollars.
Fischer, an Americas Cup yachtsman, is transforming the Gazebo into upmarket apartments. The project is over a year behind schedule and has churned through10 different project managers.
He has sued some of the protesting contractors for damages.
Workcover has fined the company numerous times over the life of the project.
A fortnight ago, Workcover slapped prohibition notices on the site because it lacked emergency procedures and female toilets.
CFMEU official Brian Parker says the company's attitude to safety is "blas�" and managers have sworn at safety committee members who raised concerns.
"I have never ever seen such a nightmare of safety non-compliance," says Parker.
"What we are asking for is for Syd Fischer to sit down with the parties and negotiate an outcome to make sure contractors get paid so they can meet their obligations to employees."
A mass meeting of CFMEU delegates last week voted to picket the site if outstanding issues aren't resolved.
This is not the first time the project has made the news.
In 2002, his development company, Australian Development Corporation, hired then fired, 13 backpackers after they refused to continue demolition work without basic safety protections.
The backpackers were paid $15 an hour all-up, about half the industry rate.
The appointment of the right wing activist, who has publicly criticised and ridiculed the public broadcaster, is being viewed by some commentators as a Howard Government celebration of "total victory" in the culture wars.
It comes hard on the heels of other ideological fellow travellers, including the notorious David Flint, to once-independent broadcasting bodies.
Albrechtsen, a lawyer-turned columnist, was accused of "plagiarism" and "distortion" by the ABC's Media Watch program after a column in which she argued gang rape should be seen as an ethnic issue.
Rather than answer a series of specific allegations about her sources and interpretations, she sent program makers a threatening letter from another lawyer.
Other Howard Government appointments have included Liberal Party heavyweight Michael Kroger and Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) ideologue, Ron Brunton.
Albrechtsen, an advocate of hacking off the public teat, will, instead, suck on it for the next five years.
CPSU ABC section secretary, Graeme (Grumpy) Thomson, said the board had been stacked with lawyers, accountants and business people.
"Staff, viewers and listeners could be forgiven for wondering why the government doesn't actually appoint someone who actually knows about broadcasting or program-making," Thomson said.
"These positions should be advertised and filled on merit. That way ministers would have to justify their decisions."
The one board member with broadcasting experience, staff-elected director, Ramona Koval, also criticised the appointment. She said Albrechtsen was "hostile" to the very philosophy of public broadcasting.
Subcontractors were left $1.5 million out of pocket after development company, Donmastery, went belly up in December 2003.
Two of the three owners of Donmastery run restaurants on the corner of George and Valentine streets.
The businesses are Caf� Kasturi, Golden Cinnamon Restaurant, Valentine on George Hotel and Satay Sydney.
The owners have responded to the picket by covering their business names with new signs including "Sam's Satay".
Building workers picketed the Safari restaurant in Newtown owned by one developer, James Nazmi, last year. After eight months Safari closed.
The CFMEU says Nazmi has been associated with a string of failed companies, including DH Exports and Imports, Dewdore, Donmastry, Fairway Design International, Paul Nazmi and Purete.
CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson says workers will maintain a protest at the sites until developers back down and agree to pay up immediately.
"Determined action by workers, subcontractors and unionists shut down Safari restaurant and if these developers don't pay up, they will face the same fate," says Ferguson.
Sue Simes is one of six former Merbein Mushrooms pickers who will see their boss in court in a bid to have Howard Government individual contracts overturned.
Simes, who buried her 23-year-old son in December, had worked six days a week for eight years at the mushroom farm near Mildura.
Her employer, Geoff Izard, who attended the funeral, introduced AWAs after state law forced him to pay higher wages from January 1.
The agreements cut penalty rates and bonuses, replaced hourly pay with "piece" rates and maintained all staff as casuals.
Simes says all 45 mushroom pickers opposed the agreements which meant average pay cuts of $150 a week.
But she believes many were coerced into signing after Izard conducted one on one interviews, and refused to negotiate or meet union officials.
When asked by staff what was in the new deal for them Izard reportedly replied "well you've got a job don't you".
"I felt so angry and hurt they had done this," said Simes. "After working there for eight years I thought I deserved better than this."
Simes and five sacked colleagues unlawful dismissal cases to the Federal Court this week.
AWU secretary Bill Shorten says such cases would become more common given Howard government plans to promote individual contracts and cut award conditions.
"It will be much easier for companies to impose pay cuts and to sack people for not signing individual contracts," Shorten said.
Investors added nearly $3 billion to the value of Rio Tinto and BHP stocks in a single day after they piggy-backed off Brazilian miner, CVRD's, move to gouge 71.5 percent increases out of iron ore customers.
News broke on Thursday that Rio Tinto had extracted a 71.5 percent movement out of Nippon Steel and analysts predicted BHP would follow suit "in coming days".
As Japanese politicians expressed "fear" over the impact of the price increases on their economy, AMWU official, Jock Ferguson, called the copycat pricing "hypocrisy at its worst".
"Rio Tinto and BHP are at the forefront of pushing the federal government's industrial agenda and the centrepiece of that is opposition to pattern bargaining," Ferguson said.
"We are not commenting on the prices they get for their products but, clearly, this is pattern bargaining.
"The efforts of these minerals giants is self-serving hypocrisy at it's worst.
"They and their friends in the federal government go ballistic about pattern bargain by wage and salary earners and the reason is obvious. It is effective and they know it is effective."
BHP and Rio Tinto have been aggressive champions of John Howard's radical workplace agenda.
At isolated sites in the Pilbara they have pushed aggressive anti-union campaigns, using AWAs and new laws to try and break down collective bargaining.
This month, BHP Billiton reported the biggest half-year profit in Australian corporate history - in excess of $3.5 billion.
Commenting on a significant increase in inuries at Zinefex's Rosebery mine, manager Fran Burgess, laid the blame on "miners' behaviour".
"They were very concerned about their entitlements; it reflected in their behaviour," Burgess said.
The explanation has been rejected by the AWU, which pointed to lack of staff, long shifts, heat and lack of ventilation as major safety problems.
"It's ridiculous to tie the entitlements issue to the injuries," says Ian Wakefield, Australian Workers Union (AWU) state secretary. "What did the company do to alleviate their concerns?
"They need to look at the real causes of these incidents."
Mine workers want shifts reduced from twelve to 10 hours to address concerns over fatigue related injuries.
The mine went through a period of retrenchments that saw approximately 20 workers laid off from a workforce of 160.
A Zinefex survey showed that 49 percent of its miners did not always feel safe at work.
In 2004 there were 100 injuries recorded at the zinc mine in February, 95 in March, and 80 in April.
Closed Coroner's Inquiries Opened
Meanwhile, A grieving widow's unanswered questions and a union campaign have moved to increase transparency over workplace fatalities.
Pressure from Tasmanian workers and their families has seen the government move to ensure mandatory public inquests are held into workplace deaths.
The move follows the closed inquiry held into the death of Ray Bonney at the Hercules mine on Tasmania's west coast in June 1999.
Bonney's family called for an open inquiry to resolve questions raised after the coroner handed down a record of investigation in 2002. That investigation found that Bonney had been instrumental in his own death.
Ray Bonney's widow Caroline told Tasmanian media that the closed inquiry, which did not interview any of Bonney's workmates, raised more questions than it answered.
"Five years is too long without any answers," says Caroline Bonney. "I still feel that we don't know what happened that day or why Ray is dead."
Australian First
The Tasmanian Attorney-General Judy Jackson has confirmed that, in an Australian first, the Tasmanian Government will introduce an amendment to the Coroners Act to ensure that workplace deaths are the subjects of Coronial Inquests.
The Tasmanian Branch of the AWU has welcomed the move after conducting a long campaign for a more transparent system.
"The message to employers is clear," says Tasmanian AWU secretary Ian Wakefield. "If a fatality occurs in their workplace they will need to demonstrate that they have provided a safe and responsible workplace.
"The AWU believes the capacity to test evidence being considered by the Coroner is fundamental to natural justice.
"Unfortunately at this stage this matter hasn't helped the Bonney family.
"Discussions are ongoing with the Attorney Generals Department in relation to that inquest."
"It's the Government's own neglect of skill shortages and infrastructure bottlenecks that is putting pressure on interest rates, not the hard earned and modest pay increases of ordinary Australians," says ACTU Secretary Mr Combet.
Growth remains 3.4% in the private sector, within the Reserve Bank's range of "acceptable outcomes" and below any level that would pressure interest rates.
"Australian workers deserve an apology from the Treasurer," says reg Combet. "During the election Peter Costello promised to keep interest rates down if people voted for him.
"But ever since then he has been running around saying that interest rates are going to go up and trying to blame this on the modest and hard earned pay rises of ordinary Australian employees."
"What these figures confirm is that the Government's industrial relations agenda has nothing to do with interest rates and everything to do with creating workplaces where people are forced to work harder and longer for less.
"What the Government has to realise is that you don't help families pay their mortgages by cutting their wages and working conditions.
"The Treasurer should apologise to ordinary Australian workers for trying to blame them for pushing up interest rates."
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, Wage Price Index figures released today show trend annual wages growth in Australia remained steady at 3.5% and just 3.4% for the private sector.
This puts private sector wages growth in line with average outcomes since 1977 when these figures first began to be collected.
The controversy of one man - Kisch in Australia
When Czech journalist and peace campaigner Egon Erwin Kisch (1885-1948), came to Australia in November 1934, he challenged a conservative Lyons government, caused a media sensation and won the hearts of many
Australians.
The renowned political activist will be remembered in a new exhibition - Kisch in Australia - opening at the State Library of NSW on 14 February 2005.
The exhibition tells the story of the man who publicly defied the government's ban on his entry to Australia by jumping overboard at Port Melbourne (breaking his leg) in his determination to reach the Australian public with his message of anti-Fascism.
According to State Librarian & Chief Executive Dagmar Schmidmaier AM: "The fascinating story of this extraordinary man will be brought to life through original items from the Library's renowned collection, including Kisch's hand-written notes used in his public speeches."
The exhibition panels also include newspaper reports of the controversy surrounding his arrival, rare protest posters campaigning for Kisch's release and letters written in defence of Kisch's freedom.
Dr Heidi Zogbaum, author of the recently published Kisch in Australia: The untold story (Scribe, 2004) said, "Kisch had the ability to give rousing speeches with limited English and drew enthusiastic crowds wherever he went."
"Kisch was convinced that his ban was the result of Nazi pressure on the Australian government," said Dr Zogbaum, "but he was quite wrong. The newly appointed Attorney-General, Robert Gordon Menzies had staked his reputation on keeping Kisch out of Australia."
After his return to Paris, Kisch worked tirelessly on behalf of his fellow writers who had fallen victim to the Nazi regime. Upon the fall of France in 1940, Kisch managed to escape to Mexico. He returned to Prague in 1946 and died of a massive heart attack in 1948.
"The memory of Kisch is kept alive in Germany through the renowned Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for journalism, which honours the "reporter of truth" in a most fitting way," said Dr Roland Goll, Director of the Goethe-Institut, Sydney, who initiated and is supporting the exhibition.
Kisch in Australia is a free exhibition in the State Library's Picture Gallery from 14 February - 24 April 2005. It will then travel to the Migration Museum in Adelaide.
STRUGGLES, SCABS + SCHOONERS is BACK!!
Now confirmed for 19th March 2005 from 3pm.
4 pubs. 4 struggles. 4 speakers. A lot of singing (with passion, not talent).
Join us as we celebrate our great movement - remember & learn about great struggles, drink great beer, and recharge our enthusiasm for the next battle.
Tickets are $30 (unless we change our minds or go broke at the last minute), which includes dinner.
If you wanna get on board the bus (walkers are welcome & free), please let us know ASAP - you'll have a confirmed seat if you get us the money before the day.
RSVP to Chris ([email protected] or 0438 898 435) or Michael ([email protected]) for more information.
2005 Palm Sunday March and Rally
Parramatta
Assemble 2pm at park opposite St Patrick's cathedral, Church St, parramatta
2.40pm March to Parramatta Town hall square
GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
SUNDAY 20th MARCH
12 NOON AT TERRIGAL SKILLION
BRING : * PICNIC LUNCH
* WATER
* UMBRELLAS
* RUGS and a spare blanket or length of cloth with which we will form the word NO as a giant 'patchwork'.
* WEAR A WHITE RIBBON [
white ribbons are a symbol of our grief for all those killed in Iraq and our desire for the war to end. White is the symbol for peace in many countries around the world and the symbol of mourning in others.]
NO war
NO erosion of human rights
NO troops in Iraq
NO Australians in Guantanamo Bay
NO mandatory detention
NO forced deportations
NO deaths in custody
Sydney: Is Government Delivering a Livable City?
What sort of city should Sydney be? What challenges does it face? And is
Sydney a sustainable and livable city?
The NSW Fabian Society is conducting this seminar with:
Craig Knowles (Minister for Infrastructure & Planning)
Julia Finn (Lord Mayor of Parramatta)
Professor Peter Newman (Murdoch University)
The seminar will be chaired by Sean Kidney, Executive Member of the NSW
Fabian Society.
When: Wednesday 23 March from 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Where: Theatrette, NSW Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney
Cost: Free
Forthcoming Fabian Society Seminars
April: Could Chifley Win A Labor Preselection Today? - Getting Better Labor
Candidates
With: John Button (Former Federal Minister), Tim Gartrell (ALP National
Secretary), & Rod Cavalier (Former State Minister)
When: Wednesday 20 April from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
May: Do We Need A New Environmental Agenda?
With: Bob Debus (Environment Minister), Prof Mike Archer (co-author of "Going
Native") & Peter Garrett MP (Past President of the Australian
Conservation Foundation)
When: Wednesday 18 May from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Community Organising School
In light of the re-election of the Federal Liberal Government, reflecting on and increasing our ability to organise and work across movements is vital. We can gain strength if we learn new strategies for working with people from different sectors and experiences.
The Community Organising School 2005 is a part of a broader project that seeks to link experienced organisers from a variety of movements, including community organisations, the union movement, environmentalists and social justice movements, to learn together and to build our collective strength.
Details of the School
The School will be held at Currawong (Pittwater training facility) from Sunday April 3 to Wednesday April 6 2005. It is the first of a variety of cross-movement, capacity building projects to begin in 2005.
People attending the School will learn, share and build organising techniques for expanding our capacity and effectiveness for social change in Sydney and NSW. It will run sessions to draw out experiences and lessons on effective organising and social change practices from participants.
The School�s residential accommodation only allows us to provide 40 places and we are aiming to have a very diverse range of participants in the school. For this reason we are asking people to go through a registration process. If your or your organisation is interested in participating in the school, we request that you distribute the attached registration form to individuals in your organisation, or to other organisations that you work with, and encourage them to register for the School. Registrations are due by Friday 11 February.
The registration fee for the school will be approximately $300 per person (including three and a half days of training, accommodation and food). However we do not want costs to prevent people from registering. If your organisation cannot afford this cost, please indicate this on the registration form. We are seeking sponsorship from larger organisations to subsidise the costs of others. Please do not see costs as a barrier to attendance.
The Community Organising School is the culmination of a year-long discussion between union organisers, community organisations, adult educators and environmentalists. While the School is the first public project, it will be one of many opportunities provided to reflect and learn about community organising. To find out more about the School or to discuss how you can participate in this exciting and timely project feel free to contact either:
Tony Brown, Centre for Popular Education [email protected]
Christine Laurence, Western Sydney Community Forum [email protected] 9637 6190
Melanie Gillbank, Search Foundation [email protected] 0403 051 606
Amanda Tattersall, Unions NSW [email protected] 0409 321 133
Community Organising School Committee
C/- Centre for Popular Education, UTS
PO Box 123
Broadway 2007
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Community Organising School
3- 6 April 2005
Currawong, Pittwater
Aims
To increase our ability to organise and work across movements in order to build cross movement collaboration, by:
o providing the opportunity for organisers and activists to share their experiences with other organisers and activists working in different fields
o identifying differences while examining commonalities and opportunities for working together
o learning, sharing and developing organising techniques for expanding our capacity and effectiveness for social change
o discussing different approaches to strategic campaigning and community organising
The School will draw on the experience, knowledge and expertise of those attending.
Are you organising for social and economic change?
Concerned at the growing power of employers, the state and big business?
Concerned at the state of advocacy and activist groups to influence the agenda?
Wanting to turn the tide and re-build grassroots capacity in local communities and the workplace?
Wanting to build cross movement collaboration?
We are seeking organisers working in/with:
social movements,
young people,
environmental advocacy,
resident action
trade unions
popular arts, cultural development and education
migrant communities,
community organizing and development organisations
student organising
who are committed to working for social, economic and environmental justice.
What's in it for you?
The School will:
bring together organisers and activists from across different sites of activism who are focused on developing new ways of working to build strong and effective organizations,
enable participants to meet, learn from and work with organisers in different fields of practice,
provide an environment where organisers from a range of backgrounds can develop mutual respect, understanding and knowledge,
develop networks as a continuing resource of skills, expertise and influence, and
challenge you to think and act differently.
________________________________________
The program will run from Sunday afternoon April 3 � Wednesday April 6 2005. The Community Organising School is a residential weekend; applicants must be available to attend the entire event.
I have noted the call by the Business Council of Australia's Chairman to the Howard government to further savagely reduce worker's award entitlements.
I also noted the Business Council honcho is also the Chairman of Westfarmers - a W.A company which trades as Bunnings Hardware - that's right Bunnings.
The union movement should now get together and urge its members to cross Bunnings off the list of businesses they trade with - if they do so it will certainly hurt the Bunnnings bottom line. That way employers may not be so brave as to support the next round of savage cuts to award entitlements by the Howard Government.
Denis McGrane
Thanks for the positive review of Dare to Struggle Dare to Win in the February 11 Workers Online.
Just one point of clarification. In the review Tim Brunero writes "the BLF's 'go it alone' policy isolated it." This is, in fact, the exact opposite of what I argue.
The point I made, backed up by quotes from leading national union officials, was that the BLF was isolated by key unions in the labour movement because of its stand on the Accord and determination to keep its members' wages and conditions the best in the country.
Their position was that whenever the stronger unions won gains, this flowed on to the rest of the workforce - a claim supported by all the statistics.
The Accord and its supporters countered this, arguing that the strong had to hold back to protect the weak.
Well as Tom McDonald himself said in his autobiography: the "great weakness" of the Accord was that it disempowered workers and in the end "undermined unionism".
He acknowledges that it took away workers' right to struggle for higher wages and conditions, with everything decided at the "top echelons!". (IU p.279-285, 289)
As we face another round of attacks on union rights and workers' wages and conditions, the question of how to fight is of more than passing interest to activists in the labour movement.
Read my account of the BLF's struggle and decide which position you'd take.
Then let's debate the issue in the union movement, through Workers Online or come along to the Labour History Conference in Sydney and debate it out with me.
In solidarity
Liz Ross
How to respond to the Federal government's next round of IR reform is the debate currently rumbling through the union movement.
The ACTU Executive meeting in March will make some decisions on the near term strategy based on the trends emerging in the movement.
One view is for spending millions of dollars in advertising campaigns with non-confrontational imagery. We must not emphasise rallies and other such blokey images in fear of repeating the stupid behaviour of a small minority at the 1996 Parliament House demonstration.
Another trend of thought puts emphasis on organizing working people to demonstrate their opposition to the coming storm through public actions and education.
This idea is to use workplace and community campaigning to lift public awareness of the issues and their impact on families.
Naturally, there are a dozen shades of grey between these two poles that include legal strategies and coalition building.
The debate has not yet moved into dealing with the new rules of the game in the long term. Once the legislation is in place how will the movement survive six or more years of unfettered hostility from Canberra?
The one idea that should be rejected outright is that of spending large amounts of money on advertising.
While the objectives of an ad campaign have yet to be spelled out by its supporters there is every reason to question the assumption that it can do more than momentary good.
As one senior ACTU figure said at recent strategy meeting, "We can raise millions at each election for he ALP why not do it for ourselves?"
The comparison just does not work. Advertising in an election is for a very specific purpose (influencing votes) in a very specific time frame (usually five weeks).
There is no reason to believe that an ad campaign without such immediate purpose will influence anyone's beliefs or actions in the long term.
The major corporations establish their image by permanent media placement. We are just not in this league nor should we be thinking in those terms.
If the movement is capable of raising some millions of dollars for a survival strategy we must have a long-term view on its best use.
We need capacity to build progressive ideas through links with education institutions and think tanks.
We need to build a permanent profile for our ideas through shared resources for web based blog pages, discussion groups and alliance with other social movements.
We need skilled people on the ground for community and political activism.
We need to establish a political presence genuinely independent of any political party.
Let's invest in the movement long term not in the pockets of Murdoch and Packer.
Brian Mason
The article "Parking Ticket Rage", page 7 Daily Telegraph, 24-02-05 is only one of the many units of measure that are indicative of the growing resentment throughout society, and in this particular case , manifesting itself through a physical reaction.
While this may be unacceptable, it cannot be entirely unexpected.
In fact historically , society has until recent times sought severe official sanction as to what is clearly highway robbery , and in some cases considered extortion such as this not only an indictable offence , but one requiring the most severe of punishments , including public floggings and executions.
One need only refer to cases such as Dick Turpin, Captain Moonlight or even Ned Kelly.
Having now stated the obvious, perhaps these local government entities, should not only reconsider their position on revenue raising, but the selection process for those employed in the extraction of monies from the already overtaxed public , and perhaps Mr. McLeay from the USU , would find bicycles a more profitable mode of transport.
Tom Collins
I am concerned that Howard is going too far with his power. He is now going after pensioners who've been informed they can't earn more than an extra $100 on top of their pension or they'll lose it!
The PM is going after the poorer in society, who are troubled and cannot make end meet. If he needs to go after pensioners, then what he is saying there is work for everyone. And they need the pensioners to fulfill roles in the workplace. However that makes a liar of the statistics that there is so many unemployed people!
Why does he not concentrate on the unemployed instead of punishing those who are on a pension. After all it is very hard to get on a pension in the first place. Why would anyone want to go through all that is required to get on it, to only have it taken off them if they work more than 15hrs a week of paid employment!
All this will do is stop people from trying to get p/t work!
And that will defeat his purpose in the end!
He will not win another election that's for sure. It seems the power he has gained is going to his head, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
Lindsay-Vovette Simon
It's time to declare all out industrial war on the this vile hostile worker basher reactionary Howard Government as it searches
desperately for more slaves.
As if making people work unpaid overtime wasn't enough. Now Howard is targeting disability folk.
"Got one arm? Got one eye? Maybe from a work site accident? Well you can still see to put a brick on a brick can't ya? With the other eye and arm? And can you work Overtime? Unpaid? We gotta get the job done and keep costs down, to keep out profits going up."
Dan O'Brien
Much of what is coming was expected - it is a direct steal from the obnoxious policy paper released by the Business Council of Australia last week.
At its heart is the 'economic imperative' to drive labour costs down so big business can further increase their share of national prosperity at the expense of working families - after all, it's a lot easier than running a business efficiently.
All the 'reform proposals' are to this short-sighted end:
- legalising the rights of employers to sack workers unfairly;
- 'reviewing' the minimum wage to make it harder for low paid workers to get a pay rise;
- promoting union-busting campaigns by neutering the industrial umpire to create a system where employer lock-outs of unionised workers is rife;
- and aggressively spreading individual contracts to make the lives of Australian workers putty in the hands of their managers.
The one proposal that wasn't flagged was the federal government's hostile takeover of state industrial relations systems - an audacious move that may ultimately be more difficult than Howard et al imagines.
The push for a unitary industrial relations system is one of those insidious plays that looks oh so reasonable on paper. After all, surely it would be efficient to have everyone under the one system?
There are two big problems; first the federal industrial relations system is now an industrial relations system in name only, in reality it is a license for big business to liberate their workplaces from the influence of unions.
But more significantly, particularly for workers under the NSW state system, it would do away with a framework of work relations that has evolved over 100 years to deliver one of the great successes of not just the Australian, but also the global economy.
The beauty (and yes, I believe an IR system can be beautiful) of the NSW industrial relations system is that it has been designed to create the sort of society that most Australians (the BCA and Kev Andrews excepted) say they want - based on fairness and equity.
That's why the NSW Industrial Relations Commission has powers:
- to maintain industrial harmony;
- to set wages - not just based on the wishes of employers, but also the value of the work performed;
- to ensure that awards flow across industries, even to those without the resources or wherewithal to make a wage claim.
But it goes further, the NSW IRC is charged with taking a broader view of the way the economy works - in recent years it has reviewed gender pay equity and is currently looking at the plight of casual workers.
In short, the NSW system is an institution that has delivered prosperity and fairness - principles that big business say are mutually exclusive, but have been part of our way of life for 100 years.
The achievements are so ingrained that few even recognise them, they accept them as their way of life.
Most working families would be horrified to think that, over the next few years, they may lose control over their working hours, their leave entitlements, even their job security.
As I have written in recent weeks, our response must start with an exercise in educating working families about what they are going to lose - and showing how boring sounding legal terms and institutions actually make a difference.
Peter Lewis
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