E D I T O R I A L

Rights and Wrongs
Something unseasonal and hitherto untoward has been occurring up at Macquarie Street in recent weeks, a flurry of legislative activity around workers rights.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Fortress NSW
NSW IR Minister John Della Bosca on how to win the battle for workers rights - and save the state system.

Unions: Fashions Afield
With new anti-sweatshop creations being paraded at this year's Australian Fashion Week, is equity the new black and are sweatshops the new fur? asks Tara de Boehmler.

Industrial: Pay Dirt
John Burgess argues that the flow-on effect from changing the minimum wage could be more than we bargained for.

Politics: Infrastructure Blues
With much attention given belatedly to the shortage of infrastructure, little attention has been given to the structure of infrastructure, writes Evan Jones

History: Big Day Out
Neale Towart looks back on the events that created the May Day heritage.

International: Making History
Hundreds of aid organisations, charities, trade unions and religious groups have formed a global alliance called “ Make Poverty History”.

Economics: The Fear Factor
The solution to skill shortages is intelligent planning, argues John Spoehr

Review: The Robots Revolt
New kids flick Robot uses our electronic friends to teach audiences that inbuilt obsolescence is just a state of mind, writes Tara de Boehmler

Poetry: The Corporation's Power
The idea of a corporations power that could cure any ill has inspired our resident bard, David Peetz, to verse.

N E W S

Harmer FACS Families

Brats Drive Bus Row

Harsh Reality – Bella Turns Pink

Rev Kev Blesses Bosses

Workers Online Legit

Howard Rides Kiwi Model

Della Opts for Gaol

Feds in the Dock

Carr Race to Bottom

Bosses Walk on Water

Govt Gets Claws into Nurses

Ion Faces Legal Probe

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
May Spray
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson delivered the annual May Day Toast - and warned it is no time to be comfortable and relaxed.

The Locker Room
A Rucking Good Time
Phil Doyle reveals many things, some of them useful

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Our favourite MP, Ian West, is back to regale us with inside goss and intrigue from the Bearpit.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

	About Workers Online
	Latest Issue
	Print Latest Issue
	Previous Issues
	Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation

Carr Race to Bottom

AMWU secretary, Paul Bastian, said the most glaring example involved the overhaul of Manly ferry, Freshwater, by a Queensland outfit, bankrupted three years ago, that had to import skilled NSW workers to complete the contract.

Bastian said Brisbane Slipway won the Freshwater contract on price alone using temporary, casual labour; not having an EBA with any union, or any commitment to training.

It beat three established NSW operations that provide fulltime, ongoing work to hundreds of skilled people.

"Our companies might not be the best employers in the world but they have a commitment to fulltime, permanent employment and skills training," Bastian said.

"Brisbane Slipway contracted for this job without a single permanent employee on its books. It hires casuals, from interstate if necessary, and lets them go at the end of a project.

"This tendering process, based entirely on cost, costs us jobs, skills, wage and conditions and will result in a race to the bottom that is unacceptable from a Labor Government."

Bastian said the same mentality was evident in rolling stock tendering that favoured overseas firms at the expense of Hunter Valley-based companies that directly employ more than 600 skilled Australians.

He questioned the sincerity of the Carr Government's public commitment to beating the skills shortage and called on it to "put its money where its press release is".

Unions NSW will push the state government to develop a procurement policy that would enhance the state's skills base.

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 262 contents

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/262/news85_race.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005