Workers Online : Issue No. 3, 05 March 1999


Issue No 3		05 March 1999

Features
Interview: How Organising Works
The ACTU�s Sarah Kaine is part of a new breed of union organiser who help workers stand up for themselves.

Unions: Big Boys Bank on Mergers
Mergers of the big banks are back on the agenda, and the Finance Sector Union is leading the community campaign against them.

History: Commemorating Our Dear Departed Equal Pay Activists
Two women who deserve special recognition and commemoration as part of our Women's Day celebrations are Eileen Powell and Edna Ryan, both of who played a crucial role in the struggle for equal pay.

Legal: New Judge Announces Zero Tolerance Of Pay Inequity In NSW
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission is training its sights on industrial raw-deals for women, and targeting the traditional under-valuation of women's work.

Review: Keep the Australia in Australian Television.
Local content quotas for Australian television are under threat from our Kiwi cousins.

Campaign Diary: Radical Conservatives Raise Their Own Bar
This Monday writs are issued for the state election, The phoney campaign ends and the real one begins; and the issue of stability, the need for it and the lack of it, is set to dominate the next four weeks.

Sarah Caine - ACTU Organiser

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News

Jeff Shaw: "Just a bit off the side thanks"

Unions Win Virtual Access To The Workplace
Public sector workers have secured the right to use the InterNet and e-mails for union-related activities, under a ground-breaking deal struck by the NSW Labor Council and the PSA.
[ Full Story » ]

Shaw To Snip At Gender Pay Gaps
The Carr Labor Government has cleared the way for wage rises for women in female-dominated industries such as hairdressing, clothing and seafood processing.
[ Full Story » ]

Living Wage - Round One To Unions
The ACTU has claimed an important victory even before the latest Living Wage case has been handed down. Employers and the government have embraced the language of needs-based wage levels.
[ Full Story » ]

Workers Fight Hotel Chain's Contracts Push
Hundreds of LHMU members employed by the giant ACCOR hotel chain are fighting attempts to cut their wages and push them onto individual contracts.
[ Full Story » ]

No Picnic, No Pay
Workers who don't turn up to their union picnic day should not be paid to take the day off, according to the NSW Labor Council.
[ Full Story » ]

The Modern Day Tales Of Robin Hood
How wharfies and seafarers are taking millions of dollars from rich and greedy ship owners and giving it back to poor and exploited seafarers.
[ Full Story » ]

Nothing Casual About Woolies Drivers
Transport Workers Union members at Linfox working on the Woolworth's Contract have shown great spirit in voting unanimously to support moves by the TWU to have 40 casuals made permanents.
[ Full Story » ]

Unionists Flex Muscles for a Gay Time
The spirit of the Village People was alive and well at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade last Saturday, with more than 100 trade unionists donning overalls and hard hats to show their support for same sex rights.
[ Full Story » ]

Desperately Seeking Union Songs

MUA Picket Videos

Greeting From BC

Tabloid Readers Are Traitors

Making A Space For Working Women

This week Workers Online puts the spotlight to the lingering issue of gender pay inequity, looking at some ground breaking advances in New South Wales on the eve of International Women's Day.

While we have had formal equal pay since the 1970s,the skills performed in female dominated areas are still given a lower monetary value than those performed in the more traditional male areas.

The disparity has given rise to some quite profound questions such as how do we, as a society, put a value on nurturing skills? And not just in the workplace, but also in the home.

Progress is being made on these difficult issues in NSW. The State's Industrial Relations Commission late last year handed down a ground-breaking report into Gender Pay Equity.

NSW Attorney General Jeff Shaw this week endorsed that report, in a decision that should be applauded by all with an interest in justice.

In this issue, solicitor David Chin looks at how these principles are already being put into practise, while historian Rosemary Webb gives the latest news some context, examining the careers of two pioneers in the battle for equal pay.

Whether the advances in NSW lead to real improvements in the wage structure depends largely on the result of the upcoming state election.

With a committed Government real advances can be made but, with employers already baying for the IRC report to be trashed, there is a risk the report will become just another expensive doorstop.




Thinking Virtually with Eric Lee	Mungoes Death Throes Won�t Be Pretty	Superman with Mark Lennon	Piers on the Mardi Gras - Does Size Really Matter?

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