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The Power of One
The power has now shifted. John Howard has control of the Senate by a solitary vote and no matter where your politics lie, the earth has definitely moved.
Interview: On Holiday
Historian Richard White looks back on the Aussie vacation - and finds a way of life is under threat.,
Unions: One Day Longer
Nathan Brown travels to the Boeing picket line and find a group of workers with a steely determination to stick together.
Industrial: Never Mind the Bollocks
Jim Marr plays the Howard Government's industrial relations spin job on its merits.
Politics: Spun Out
Canberra’s latest campaign underlines the need for controls over government advertising, according to Graeme Orr and Joo-Cheong Tham
Economics: If the Grog Don't Get You ....
Evan Jones explains how the way we purchase alcolohol reflects the type of economy we live in.
History: Taking a Stand
Neale Towart looks at two books that chronicle how to build community support against social injustice.
International: The Split
Amanda Tattersal outsider's account of an insider's shake-out at the AFL-CIO Convention 2005
Legal: Pushing the Friendship
George Williams argues that the federal government’s constitutional powers are not sufficient to enact a comprehensive national industrial relations scheme
Poetry: Simple Subtractions
The latest blitz of taxpayer-funded advertising has revealed a crisis of arithmetic in government ranks has moved resident bard David Peetz to prose.
Review: Sydney Trashed
Sydney band SC Trash are on a mission to give new life to folk and country music – and the politics of common sense. Nathan Brown had a beer with them
 “Disgusting” AWAs Court Out
Andrews Agenda Rolled in DEWR
Sick Days Get Hadgkiss Sniffing
Fun Guy Skips Work, Docks Staff
Nurse Launches Neighbourhood Alert
Security Staff Bush Whacked
Commo Bank Staff Force Smiles
Cameron Gets ‘Fair Dinkum’
Feds: Inconsistency “Not Inconsistent”
Telstra Dials Up Cash Grab
Howard Votes Family Last
PacNat Troops Won't Be Railroaded
All Aboard Vic Safety Train
Activist's What's On!
Parliament
The Westie Wing
Our favourite MP, Ian West, goes away for a couple of weeks and look what happens… The Soapbox
The Last Weekend
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson's speech to the Last Weekend - how the Howard government laws will undermine the Ausrtalian way of life. The Locker Room
A Concept Is Born
In which Phil Doyle helps the proponents of the vision thing across the road. International
Workers Blood For Oil
A new book by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson lifts the lid on the bloody reality of US backed democracy for Iraq's trade unions Postcard
London Post
During his recent stay in London IEU industrial officer John Shapiro was living only a few hundred metres from the site of one of the bomb blasts.
Farmers’ Best Friend
Govt Has No Case
Logon to IR
Ears and Minds
Howard on the Couch
Which Bank?
Kevin the Tool Man
Tom On Safety
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Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation
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News
Feds: Inconsistency “Not Inconsistent”
John Howard is backing American defence giant, Boeing, in its bid to dud Australian tradesmen of thousands of dollars.
The Prime Minister waded into the 10 week lockout in Parliament, this week, backing Boeing's "right" to force 31 Williamstown workers onto individual contracts that pay around $12,000 a year less than union-negotiated agreements at similar operations.
Howard told Parliament Boeing was within its rights to reject the demand of technicians who service Australia's fighter jets for a collective agreement.
"They are, on my advice, entitled to return to work at any time," Howard said.
A spokesman for Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, said Mr Howard's endorsement of Boeing's refusal to negotiate a collective agreement was "not inconsistent" with government promise to "preserve the right of workers to have a union negotiate a collective agreement if they wish".
AWU secretary, Bill Shorten, said the Prime Minister's stance undermined all the assurances his government was giving about its radical IR agenda.
"Our members have clearly demonstrated they want the right to a collective agreement, rather than being forced to stay on unfair and discriminatory individual contracts," Shorten said.
Howard's stance also leant weight to union accusations he was actively supporting Boeing in the dispute.
Last week, the AWU, said the government had waived significant financial penalties Boeing was liable to for failing to deliver under the terms of its contract.
Boeing's individual contracts contain a 43-hour week, no allowances, and no overtime rates with the effect, the AWU says, of technicians being at least $12,000 a year worse off than those on union-negotiated agreements.
Individual contracts, that undermine collective wages and conditions, are at the heart of sweeping workplace changes planned by the Howard Government.
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Issue 276 contents
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