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Issue No. 306 | 12 May 2006 |
Good Times
Interview: Out of the Bedroom Industrial: Cloak and Dagger Unions: Lockout! Legal: The Fantasy of Choice Politics: Labor Pains Economics: Economics and the Public Purpose Corporate: House of Horrors History: Clash Of Cultures International: Childs Play Culture: Folk You Mate! Review: Last Holeproof Hero
Workplace Cop Shrugs Shoulders Gerry Built Apartments Fall Behind Killer Bosses Swoop on Croweaters US: Thousands Fired For Joining Unions
The Soapbox The Locker Room Parliament
Budget Dividend The Real Truth About Independent Contractors
Labor Council of NSW |
News Howard Hunts Heroes
The NSW Mines Rescue Service, a specialist operation half-owned by the CFMEU, worked hand-in-glove with the AWU to rescue the gold miners buried 1000m below Beaconsfield in Tasmania.
The CFMEU's Peter Murray, a Rescue Service board member, said Howard had an agenda to undermine safety training. He said they wanted to put an end to union-backed safety organisations, such as the Mines Rescue Service. The organisation, formed 80 years ago after a string of underground disasters, provided the experts for the Beaconsfield rescue and trained one of the trapped miners. It provides safety training to miners under state-based OHS laws. The laws require at least five percent of the mining workforce to undergo safety training. However, the Howard Government has flagged wresting power off the states in OHS - threatening specific provisions in mine safety. Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews' draconian legislation specifically forbids the inclusion of union or union-backed safety courses in agreements. His Office of the Employment Advocate has just refused to ratify a Queensland coal mining agreement that green lights union-endorsed safety education. His government is a fierce opponent of the CFMEU. It has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a dodgy Royal Commission and a special anti-worker building industry police force in a bid to limit its ability to represent its members.
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