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Issue No. 278 26 August 2005  
E D I T O R I A L

A Secret Country
Beyond the obvious shift in the Australian political landscape, we are currently witnessing major changes in our political culture � personified in the two Herald Sun journalists currently facing jail.

F E A T U R E S

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

N E W S

 Busted: Howard's 14 Percent Fudge

 Emperor Stripped on Wages

 Witch Hunt Targets Priest

 No Malice in Pregnancy Termination, Court

 Building Boss Risks Lives

 Cleric Preaches Murder

 Bus Rams Home IR Message

 Contractors Get Run Of �The Mill�

 BHP Mining Cheap Labour

 Toll Bells For Corrigan

 Lorikeet Folds Wings

 Safety Is Apples In Orange

 IR Ads Dubious

 Striking Tongans Serenade Princess

 Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

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.

L E T T E R S
 Rodent Knows Best
 Godspeed LHMU
 Help Wanted
 Proof in the Pudding
 Safeguards Already There
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Bus Rams Home IR Message


Goulburn's Big Merino restaurant is refusing to cough up around $17,000 in entitlements after fleecing one of its longest-serving employees.

Patricia Blay told her story to people gathered at the Goulburn Workers Club during Unions NSW's Your Rights at Work bus tour.

Blay, who worked as a casual at the restaurant for 18 years, was told she was sacked in a letter from her employer.

The employer who sacked her took over the restaurant less than 12 months ago, cutting Blay off from unfair dismissal rights. He is also refusing to pay out the long-service leave she is entitled to.

Blay said the letter came as a complete surprise.

"You think 'what have I done wrong' - but of course I haven't done anything wrong," she said.

Not only had Blay worked at the restaurant for over a decade, her three children and their spouses had also worked there.

"It's been degrading to me and my family," Blay said.

The Shop Assistants Union's Athol Williams said the union would win Blay her entitlements but her treatment through the process was "shocking".

The Your Rights at Work Bus toured the South Coast and the Southern Tablelands last week hearing from workers about their concerns about the way workplace relations is headed.

It was also able to bring together people in smaller communities who are concerned about the Federal Government's upcoming changes.

Unions NSW Secretary John Robertson said it was important for people in rural and regional areas to talk about the reforms and their implications for communities.

"Word of mouth is something the government can't buy with its $20 million advertising campaign," Robertson said.

"So talk to your friends and neighbours and everyone you mix with."

The bus tours western NSW next week and northern NSW in late September.


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