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Issue No. 298 10 March 2006  
E D I T O R I A L

Home Truths
The truth has been breaking out in all sorts of strange places this week.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Organising In Cyberspace
Workers Online speaks to the ACTU's Union Organiser of the Year, Greg Harvey from the RTBU, who has been using cutting edge ways to communicate with a blue-collar workforce spread across five states.

Industrial: How Low Is Low
Neale Towart looks at the much hyped link between minimum wages and employment

Industrial: Cloak and Dagger
The Howard Govwernment has begun rolling out workshops to inform employers on how to use WorkChoices. Sean Ambrose sneaked through the doors for Workers Online.

Unions: Bad Medicine
Nathan Brown reports on how Australia Post�s dodgy Faculty Nominated Doctor system is leaving sick workers feeling worse.

History: Right Turn, Clyde
Bob Gould believes news of Clyde Cameron�s demise may be premature

Economics: Long Division
Kenneth Davidson looks at a successful political strategy

International: Union Proud
A University of California librarian calls for union labels to increase worker visibility

Politics: Howard�s Sick Joke
Phil Doyle looks at an attack on one of the great achievements of the union movement

Indigenous: The year of living dangerously
That mob in parliament house seems to be hopelessly out of touch with Indigenous Australia. So much so, that Graham Ring wonders if the House on the Hill is becoming a �cultural museum�.

Review: Lights, Camera, Strike!
Mandrake the Electrician has been down to the video store over the summer and rounded up the Top Ten Union Movies of all time.

Culture: News Front
If the owners are selling off papers, perhaps the unions should buy them says Mark Dobbie.

N E W S

 Wipeout: Minchin Surfs New Wave

 Scoop-idity: How The Truth Was Nicked

 Howard's Bastard Under Lock and Key

 Bank Shops Skilled Workers

 Debnam Dogs on Libs

 Jacko: "I'm Bad"

 Computer Strike Could Crash System

 Builders' Cleavage Strikes Gold

 Andrews Cops Legal Buffeting

 Brough Love for Women

 CFMEU Aids Escape

 Hunt on for Asbestos Crims

 Unions Counsel Queen

 Guests Get Pizza Topping

 Download a Pollie

 Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Australian Fascism
Rowan Cahill critiques Gerard Henderson�s unique take on history

Parliament
Westie Wing
Will Westie's Wings be clipped, or will the Hills Angels repent and deliver?

The Locker Room
The Heart Of The Matter
Phil Doyle rolls up the red carpet and celebrates the death of an old foe

L E T T E R S
 Howard, My Part In His Downfall
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Bank Shops Skilled Workers


An aggressive community campaign has beaten off Qantas plans to sack 2500 skilled workers but 480 Sydney families will be sacrificed to Macquarie Bank greed.

Business Council heavyweight, Geoff Dixon, has pulled back from his threat to outsource the company's entire heavy maintenance operation to low-wage Asian workshops.

Dixon, who extracted $6.1 million from the company, last year, announced his decision after months of community campaigning, headed by the AMWU and AWU, around aviation safety, Australian jobs and the country's skills base.

Dixon's retreat, however, contained a sting in its tail, with an announcement that heavy maintenance at Mascot would cease. More than 100 of the lost Sydney jobs will be picked up at Qantas depots in Melbourne and Brisbane.

The city's Daily Telegraph revealed, last week, the job shedding had nothing to do with Qantas' international competitiveness and everything to do with Mac Bank's profit drive.

A Mac Bank subsidiary, Macquarie Airports, has been gouging Sydneysiders, and tourists, since paying the federal government $5 billion for the airport two years ago.

The precinct is becoming no-go zone for families and friends of travellers as prices for everything, from a cup of coffee to luggage trolleys and parking, has gone through the roof.

The Terror says it was the privatised airport's insistence on a gigantic shopping precinct, over the objections of local authorities and state government, which cost the city nearly 500 high-skilled jobs.

It blew the whistle on a master plan, released last November, that set aside insufficient room for ongoing maintenance operations.

Instead, the Millionaire Factory plans a massive retail and cinema complex, that planners warn will lead to traffic chaos and threaten the future of existing suburban shopping centres.

Qantas engineering general manager, David Cox, confirmed space had become an issue, under the new regime.

"There is not sufficient for us," he said.

Cox said shopping centres hadn't been part of airport planning five years ago.

Dixon confirmed Qantas' intention to use Work Choices to strip thousands of dollars out of family budgets when enterprise bargaining negotiations resume.

AMWU national secretary, Doug Cameron, said that agenda would be resisted.

"The AMWU gives this guarantee to workers and the flying public - we will ensure Qantas does not pursue cut-price safety or cut-price maintenance," he said.

Cameron said the AMWU would pursue Qantas to justify every single job it has targeted for destruction.

"We believe no jobs should be lost from a profitable company where the CEO has taken a 302 percent wage increase over the last five years," Cameron said.


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