*****
The Jack of Hearts has trumped himself this time.
It is very strange that someone familiar with the medical principle of "do no harm" should find himself overseeing something as useful as Australia's Defence infrastructure.
Luckily Nelson is able to embrace the Howard government principle of "no care, and no responsibility" thus saving him from actually being accountable for the fantastic achievements of the Defence Department in recent times.
While we may shake our heads about an institution that seems to think that spitting on women is a brave and manly act, or wonder how it is that someone can lose several million dollars down the back of the lounge, or even why we would buy a helicopter that can't fly at night or over water, we can rest assured that the safety and security of a nation is in the hands of someone as principled as Mr Nelson.
Now, Brendan mightn't be the smartest bloke that's ever wielded a stethoscope, he does, nonetheless, possess all the talents necessary to rise in the ranks of the current show in Canberra.
Indeed, Dear Leader Howard took a break from his conga-line duties in the US to disagree with Blind Freddy and actually claim that the Department of Defence was, in fact, competent.
This raised eyebrows down at the club, where a few old boys had been muttering into their ports, because there is a tide of opinion that would indicate that things are, in fact, pointing 180 degrees from the position adopted by Gunner Nelson.
Now, Nelson may appreciate the many photo opportunities presented to the Minister for Playing Armies, but it's important to remember that Nelson has always been a big picture man, not one to be bound down by red tape, details or common sense.
And so it comes to pass that the boots fall apart, the equipment fails, the pay is crap and indignity after indignity is dumped upon what M*A*S*H referred to as 'enlisted personnel' and other indians in the defence infrastructure, while the Brass over at HQ continue to spend like, well, a drunken sailor, ensuring that Australia has the very best technology for the defence of the nation, such as ensuring that the Officers mess at Duntroon is suitable stocked with Grange and Larks Uvulas in Aspic.
Now, some foolish citizens would think that the defence establishment is about ensuring that our ever-growing list of enemies is kept at bay so that the general citizenry can celebrate the many freedoms that being an English colony entitles us.
Brendan Nelson has taken it upon himself to dispel such opinions.
He has, quite rightfully, shown us how the Defence Establishment is, in fact, a nice little earner for the idiot sons of the landed gentry (also known in Yachting circles as the Officer Class), an outlet for the buffoonery of chaps from good private schools, a good photo opportunity for conservative politicians, and a wonderful instrument for distracting people's attention to the fact they are being robbed blind by the Federal Government
Then there's also the fantastic bogey-man of terrorism, where the Defence industry can play a brilliant role in whipping up public hysteria to a perceived threat, and thus enable Nelson and his cabinet colleagues to address what might, in a sober assessment, be considered real threats to our way of life - such as living standards heading off towards South America while the environment takes on a very Saharan hue.
And if a few people get killed along the way, or their bodies mislaid, this is no cause for concern, as any body or report can be conveniently mislaid and the families of service personnel considered collateral damage.
Given the state of the Defence establishment in this country today maybe Minister Nelson should have stuck to his original medical career, god knows, he would have made a damned fine proctologist.
A search of company records reveals financial backers of the Perth builder using labour hire, AWAs and immigrant labour to slash incomes have equally chequered records.
Dutch-born Gerry Hanssen is John Howard's construction industry spear-chucker in WA.
He flies the Boxing Kangaroo from his sites, challenges union reps to fist fights, and, according to the CFMEU, boasts he will eventually run his operations on the backs of 300 Chinese and Filipino workers who can't arc-up for fear of deportation.
Last week, Workers Online, broke news of his plan to import another consignment of Asian construction workers for projects falling behind schedule.
This week, we can reveal that Hanssen rose from relative obscurity to become an industry player on a partnership with shadowy multi-national operators.
After a tiling operation went bust, Hanssen re-emerged, around Perth, as a low-level building industry player.
That all changed, however, when he formed an exclusive arrangement with Finbar, and launched into the inner city apartment market under the Finbar Hanssen banner.
Company records show Finbar is controlled by publicly-listed Singapore-based Chuan Hup Holdings which, in turn, is effectively controlled by Malaysia-based, Scomi Group.
The relationship with Chuan Hup, is direct. The company is the largest single shareholder in Finbar and two of its three directors, including executive director John Cheak, sit on the Finbar board.
Chuan Hup, originally a maritime operation, was swallowed by Scomi, a gigantic corporation that built its fortune on equipment for the oil and gas industries, last year.
The takeover was effected by Scomi's strategic investment vessel, Habib, according to Singapore's Business Times.
Scomi made international headlines in 2004 when it was implicated in the sale of nuclear weapons componentry to Libya and Pakistan.
The father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, was unmasked in October, 2003, when authorities seized a German ship carrying 1000 centrifuges, en route to Libya. The parts, they discovered, were made in Malaysia.
The breakthrough came when Libya gave up its nuclear program and agreed to co-operate with international inspectors. Amidst plans for a nuclear bomb, inspectors discovered hundred of centrifuges, central to uranium enrichment.
According to the New York Post of February 9, 2004, they also discovered documents that sourced the equipment, bought by the Libyans, to Scomi Precision Engineering of Selangor, Malaysia.
Both Scomi and subsidiary, Oil Tools International, appear on the ICFTU shame list of corporations that continue to profit from dealings with the Burmese military dictatorship.
Back in Perth, Hanssen has co-opted former hardline WA IR Minister, Graham Keirath, to his anti-worker campaign. He says Keirath is now "employed" by Finbar Hanssen.
Keirath's third wave workplace changes are widely regarded as the model for John Howard's WorkChoices.
Keirath and Howard's Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, held a secret get together at Perth's Swan Italian Sporting Club, last week. Minders ensured reporters were barred from the gathering.
CFMEU WA state secretary, Kevin Reynolds, said the public and players like Keirath should be careful about who they helped enrich.
"Australian property buyers are entitled to ask if their investments are helping prop up the supporters of military dictatorships, or worse," Reynolds said.
"People like Keirath should also be careful about the masts they nail their reputations to.
"The whole Hanssen operation is questionable. Our research suggests the exploitation of foreign labour and slashing of Australian living standards might be just the tip of the iceberg."
WA Business News reported that all apartments at Finbar Hanssen's latest offering, Domus in Hay St, were snapped up on their first weekend on sale.
It said the 80 apartments returned $32.3 million to Finbar and its controversial backers.
The motion, to be endorsed across factional lines, is a response to a push to soften Labor's policy on AWAs being promoted by some in the political wing.
Workers Online understands sections of the party want to allow a stream of individual contracts to continue and would honour the existing policy to abolish AWAs only to the extent of a name change.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson says the abolition of contracts designed to undermine the right to collectively bargain must be a cornerstone of ALP policy.
"AWAs are a cancer for workers rights' to organise - the option of modifying them to make them 'less bad' is simply delusional," he says.
The abolition on AWAs and rebuilding of a system of industrial awards are at the top of the list of issues that unions will bring to the State Conference.
Other key items for the conference include returning powers to the Industrial Relations Commission, improved right of access to the workplace for unions to recruit and a simplification of unfair dismissal laws with a focus on reinstatement as the primary remedy.
Master Builders Association chief, Brian Seidler, confirmed the agenda at a NSW Industrial Relations Society Convention, last week.
Seidler said building industry employers would use the Independent Contractors Act to get rid of rostered days off.
"There is a major push in the industry to get rid of RDOs, and the ICA would be used to do just that," Seidler said. "I make no bones about that."
Seidler predicted the ICA would be "far more detrimental" to construction unions that the suite of anti-worker industry-specific Acts, already in force.
These include Howard Government laws that force building workers to attend interrogation sessions, on pain of gaol, and introduce a standing commission, policed by 150 lawyers and form police officers, to defend employer interests.
These moves have seen construction unions tied up in a string of expensive court actions. Even on the many occasions the taxpayer funded prosecutions have been thrown out, unions have sustained heavy financial costs.
The Independent Contractors Act is expected to deny contractors the right to be represented by unions; to declare dependent contractors independent, and to move them out of the jurisdiction of industrial instruments or industrial commissions.
Dr John Buchanan, from Sydney University's Workplace Research Centre, said the full scope of Howard Government industrial relations changes would not be apparent until the contractor provisions were unveiled.
He predicted details, due to be made public next month, would make apparent what the "choice" element of WorkChoices really meant.
He said the ICA would "free" contractors, within market constraints, but leave everyone in the IR system bound up by "micro-regulation".
Unions are opposing the changes to the Occupational and Health and Safety Act that would end the regime of strict liability and limit the targets of safety prosecutions.
"Some of the amendments in their present form constitute significant erosions and watering down of existing worker protections in the OHS Act," the opinion by barrister Brendan Hocking warns.
The legal advice on the changes prepared for Unions NSW argues that the changes would end the reverse onus of proof on employers that has existed for the past 23 years.
This means that when an accident currently occurs, the presumption is that employer is breaching the law.
Under the changes, a prosecution would need to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the employers did not do everything to make the workplace safe "so far as reasonably practicable".
Docking argues this shift will make it hard to secure prosecutions, with factors to be considered including knowledge of the accused and the4 presence of 'slippery'; legal terms such as 'likelihood'.
The second area of concern is a change in definition of people who can be prosecuted, with fears that it will break of chain of responsibility, particularly in the coal industry. Unions believe the wording of this section is in response to the wide scope of prosecutions flowing from the Gretley disaster.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson says on examination the legislation has serious deficiencies and has called on the government to take it back to the drawing board.
Debnam - I Can be Meaner!
Meanwhile, NSW Opposition leader Peter Debnam has attempted to outdo the government on attacking work safety by banning unions from making safety prosecutions and freezing all such cases currently before court.
The Coalition said it would be unjust to continue prosecuting employers, which assume an absolute duty of care, when in future businesses will only need to do what is "reasonably practicable" to provide a safe workplace.
Under the changes, the following cases would be put on hold:
Five defendants due to face court in October following the death of a 16 year old labourer at Eastern Creek. Joel Exner was on his third day as an apprentice roofer when he fell 12 metres to his death.
A 19 year old fractured his jaw and both arms, suffered punctured lungs, required a tracheotomy and was on life support for four days when he fell 15 metres from the edge of a building at Rhodes. One of the defendants is also being prosecuted in the Exner case.
Prosecutions in relation to the death of Gregory Rees, who was killed during the demolition of 'Boiler No.6' at the former BHP site in Newcastle.
An inexperienced 15 year old worker at North Ryde who was dragged into a conveyor and experienced a partial severing of the right arm at the shoulder.
A prosecution in relation to two furniture removalists who fell from a balcony at Rozelle and were impaled on a metal spiked garden fence. They suffered spinal injuries, lower leg, nerve, tendon and ligament injuries, fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.
Over 100 workers and sub contractors, facing the loss of $2.5m, are picketing a Parramatta building site.
At least one subcontractor risks losing his home after the developer, Estate Property Holdings, refused to release further money to builder Citilink.
Another dozen family businesses face ruin if they cannot recover debts from the company.
"Our company worked on this project in good faith, yet now we are out of pocket $174,000 which is devastating to a small family business like ours," says Manuel Marinof, owner of labour hire company Kazman Pty Ltd. "I have already been forced to mortgage my home to pay the wages of my workers, and if I don't receive the money I am owed I will not only be out of business, I will lose my home.
"We have stopped working on the project, the power is off, the crane is off, and we are not going to keep going until the developer can guarantee that we will be paid for the work we complete.
The businesses completed plumbing, electrical, gyprock and other work on the 25-story tower before discovering Citilink has insufficient money to pay the $2.5 million dollars owing.
Last year, Estate Property Holdings was the developer of a block of luxury units at Camperdown where the builder went bust and millions of dollars was never paid to subbies.
The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union is backing the campaign to ensure all businesses and workers are paid for work on the site at 138-140 Church Street.
"This will impact on more than one hundred building workers and their families, who risk the loss of wages, holiday pay and entitlements if the subbies are not paid," said CFMEU Organiser Mal Tulloch.
After attending a protest addressed by former MaxiTRANS employee Mark Walker, Opposition leader Kim Beazley announced a major shift in ALP policy, banning employers who retrench locals from using guest labour.
Ballarat company MaxiTRANS, which builds semi-trailers, made headlines last week after it sacked 35 Australian employees while keeping on up to 25 Chinese welders it imported last year at the same time that it temporarily froze its apprenticeship program.
Walker, one of the sacked MaxiTRANS employees spoke at the rally saying that he grew up in Ballarat, spent 12 years in the Australian Defence Force and then returned to work in Ballarat two years ago.
He has not had one day off and was willing to be trained to do higher skilled work at the plant.
Walker says the local MaxiTRANS workers had been assured they would not be the first to go if there were sackings in the event of a business downturn. He was sacked last week with no notice and feels he has been lied to.
The ACTU has welcomed the plan that would require employers to show that they are not laying off Australian workers one day and then applying for cheaper overseas workers the next.
"The Howard Government is handing out 100 overseas worker visas a day and is failing to properly check whether these are being used to replace existing Australian workers," ACTU president Sharan Burrow says.
In the last ten years 270,000 skilled workers from overseas have been imported and yet 300,000 young Australians have been turned away from TAFE.
The ACTU has also this week written to the Howard Government to request the establishment of new bodies to certify employer applications for temporary work visas.
"The new certifying bodies would include representatives from job and training bodies, local councils, unions, and government and ensure that employers exhaust all avenues to employ or train Australian workers before receiving approval to bring in overseas workers," Burrow says.
"I think all Australians would agree that this is reasonable and is something that a Government that cares about Australian workers should be doing."
The Fair Pay Commission has been asked to examine the economic implications of eight figure executive salaries in the wake of this week's Mac Bank revelations.
Unions NSW has written to Dr Ian Harper asking for an investigation of how the big end of town's largesse to itself impacts on the nation.
"Executive pay increases are in the vicinity of 120% to 150% while working people are getting rises of 4%," says Unions NSW secretary John Robertson.
The bagmen for some of Australia's largest infrastructure projects are trousering up to $21.2 million each.
Robertson said that Unions NSW had called for a binding vote of shareholders on proposed executive salary increases.
"The federal government merely supported non-binding votes, which are clearly not working."
"These salaries are being paid for by the taxpayers of Australia because of Macquarie bank's involvement in infrastructure."
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Macquarie bank CEO Allan Moss was paid $21.2m a year, while executive chairman David Clarke pocketed $11.4m a year working at the bank known as "the millionaire factory"
The Macquarie bank is Australia's largest operator of toll roads and also owns Sydney Airport.
It has announced plans to buy into other infrastructure projects, including regional airports and future toll road projects.
Recently, questions have been raised about Macquarie Bank's involvement in the Beaconsfield Gold Mine, which took the life of miner Larry Knight.
The full bench put it right on Andrews, last week - comply with lawful directions or risk being shut out of considerations.
The extraordinary ultimatum was delivered by the full bench after Andrews' solicitor provided the commission with a three-line statement that addressed none of the issues it had been given until April 11 to clarify.
When the Commonwealth was granted leave to intervene in the state wage case, being run by Unions NSW, it was directed to supply the following information:
- its position on Unions NSW's four percent claim
- the material it intended to rely on to support its position
- why it should be permitted to cross-examine in the proceedings
Andrews' response ignored every direction. It read, in full, "The Commonwealth's position in respect of the claim by Unions NSW is that it does not support the timing of the claim. At this stage, the Commonwealth does not have a position on the quantum of the claim."
The NSW bench said failure to "precisely identify" his position, or attempts to delay proceedings, were "unacceptable" as they failed to comply with directions.
It warned Andrews that his status gave him no "special dispensation" to ignore Commission directions.
"An indication from the Commonwealth of what view it takes of the claim by Unions New South Wales would be of assistance to this Full Bench in at least enabling us to have regard to the Commonwealth's preferred position in arriving at an appropriate outcome," it said.
The bench warned Andrews that if he did not comply before the case begins, on June 5, it could revoke his leave to intervene.
Denise Guthrey was offered a two-month contract by Wirraway Pre School that saw her rate cut by almost four dollars an hour.
Guthrey refused to sign the contract and was told in front of other staff she would now be employed as a 'casual relief' teacher only and her old role would be readvertised.
Despite not being officially sacked, Guthrey has been asked to return her keys to the centre, along with her work diary.
Guthrey had been working at the Cranebrook childcare centre for an average of 13 hours a week supporting children with 'additional needs', such as developmental delays, speech problems, autism and behavioural issues.
Having been there so long with stable days and hours, early in 2006 asked for a temporary part-time position.
After two months of deliberation her employer offered her a two month contract which saw her wages drop from $18.36 an hour to $14.74 and gave her one hour less work. She would be unable to access any leave entitlements due to the short term of the contract.
Guthrey told delegates at last week's Unions NSW meeting that she had turned to the LHMU for advice.
The union is negotiating with the childcare centre to secure Guthrey's position.
A new joint contract by Gosford City and Wyong Shire for garbage services could see pay cuts of up to $340 a week and over 100 jobs placed at risk.
A new contractor could dodge negotiated rates by passing itself off as a "new enterprise", under WorkChoices provisions that allow conditions to be ignored.
After 10 years the council workforce was told last month a new joint contract would go to tender with a flat pay rate as low as $12.75 an hour; a decision workers have slammed as "disgraceful" and "insulting".
Wyong Council waste worker Paul Weston said he had challenged Wyong and Gosford Mayors to start work at 5am for $12.75 an hour and still manage to support their families.
"I am very worried about my family's financial future if I lose my job. If another company is prepared to work for the minimum rate of pay with no penalty rates then we are in real trouble," says Weston.
"All we ask is that the Councils do the right thing by working families on the Central Coast."
Protesting workers called on both Mayors to protect their jobs, entitlements and working conditions.
"The Gosford and Wyong Councils are willing to leave 100 local families without any certainty about their futures," says Transport Workers Union secretary Tony Sheldon. "This loyal workforce performs a vital and important community service. How can the Councils possibly expect them to do the same job for $340 less a week?"
Nikhil Singh, who works for the journalists union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, had his passport returned on Friday and is expected to fly back to Australia.
"We are very pleased he hasn't been convicted and we are looking forward to his return to Australia," says national secretary of MEAA Chris Warren.
Police allege Singh, who holds joint Australian and Fijian residency, was the organiser of a protest by Indo-Fijians unable to vote because of registration errors.
Singh appeared in the magistrates' court in the northwestern town of Ba last Monday to face a charge of unlawful assembly and was granted bail, according to media reports from AAP and Fiji television last week.
Singh pleaded not guilty and was ordered to surrender his travel documents.
The alliance said he took leave to do voluntary work for the opposition Fiji Labour Party as well as monitoring the elections on its behalf.
The protesters gave John Howard a rowdy reception when he arrived to address the Canadian parliament at the invitation of new conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Rally organiser Barbara Byers of the Canadian Labour Congress said the protesters, wanted to warn Mr Harper against adopting similar industrial relations laws to WorkChoices.
"The three mentors that I can think of for our new prime minister are (former Canadian prime minister) Brian Mulroney, George Bush and John Howard," says Byers.
"It's almost like Stephen Harper looked in the personal columns and said, 'Can I figure out a mentor with a mean streak and I'll join that group?'
Byers said Howard had a mean streak against working families and that Canadians were aware of his government's attacks on working people.
The Canadian Labour Congress represents 3 million Canadian workers.
I read your article on psychometric testing for bullies. It is no surprise, it confirms my experiences.
Would it be possible to publish some realistic strategies for the ordinary person to manage working with or for a bully?
The most helpful comment I have read is: respond, don't react.
Ingrid Flood, Victoria
I did watch Beazley and I was pleased to hear things that need to be said.
I also read the newspapers the next day and watched some of the television news and was again not surpirsed to see that the focus of reporters is on how the big fella's performance went.
There is no reporting of the different priorities, vision for Australia, broader imagination and relevance of policy that a party of the not-so-right can offer the people of Australia.
There is no followup reporting on the relevant questions raised (beyond the scandolous AWB affair) relating to this government's failure to address skills, education, productivity, national infrustructure, current account deficits, education...nothing. Just how well the Kimbo performed.
I guess that's why I subscribe to workers online.
Keep up the good work.
Sylvano Lucchetti, NSW
Dear Marcus Strom,
Having read some of your articles in Labor Tribune and Bob Gould's response, I would like to add my two-bobs worth.
It would seem that some intellectuals� of the left haven't read anything since Marx and Marcuse. Older ideas of class analysis are all well and good, but over time what constitutes the classes� of society might well change.
This issue between Bob and yourself is well exemplified in your analysis of the Greens, where you dismissed them as "middle-class", claiming both that the bulk of the Greens' voters and activists are tertiary educated, and are therefore not working class. Bob regards this analysis as quite unscientific, as do I and many other social commentators.
As Bob notes, viewed in a serious sociological way, the Greens' constituency is working class, mainly from the new social layers of the working class. This view also fits in well with the analysis of Professor Richard Florida, whose book, The Rise of the Creative Class (Pluto Press, North Melbourne, 2003), has taken a new look at some aspects of socio-economic change in contemporary western societies (although the focus is mainly on the USA).
In doing so, he touches on issues relating to class and post-industrial society, largely by reconceptualizing workers in the arts� and some other groups as part of what he calls the creative classes, and by suggesting that these creative classes constitute a new and dynamic sector in any economy.
In this, Florida seems to be taking on board ideas that were prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s, about investment in human capital and its important role in economic development. Part of the problem then which largely led to the abandonment of the concept was the difficulty in actually measuring both such investment in human capital and the returns from that investment. More sophisticated tools and more elegant theories mean that such ideas may again have relevance today.
Florida's definition of the creative class is very wide, with him suggesting that if you are a scientist or engineer, an architect or designer, a writer, artist or musician, or if you use your creativity as a key factor in your work in business, education, health care, law or some other professions� then you are a member of the creative class�. Such a broad-ranging definition covers a disparate group of activities, not all of which would necessarily be seen as middle class (some are actually more white-collar working class). Florida further suggests that the creative class� has shaped and will continue to shape deep and profound shifts in the way we work, in our values and desires, and in the very fabric of our everyday life.
As Florida summarizes: the Creative Class has the power, talent and numbers to play a big role in reshaping our world. He goes on: As with other classes, the defining basis of this new class is economic.
Some of Florida's discoveries� are thought-provoking. Researching the question of how people came to choose where they lived and worked, Florida found that people did not slavishly follow jobs to places; rather their location choices were based to a large degree on their lifestyle interests. He developed various measures (like his "Bohemian Index" a measure of the density of artists, writers and performers in a region) to quantify� the location decisions of various high-tech industries and talented people. When he compared some of his indexes with those of other researchers, he found some unexpected correlations (for example, Gary Gates� research on the location patterns of gay people yielded high correlations with Florida's). As a result, Florida's conclusion was that, rather than being driven exclusively by companies implementing high-level technological change (leading to increasing productivity), economic growth was occurring in places that were tolerant, diverse, and open to creativity because these were places where creative people of all types wanted to live.
Florida goes on to note that research and development spending by both government and industry an investment in creativity - is the highest-returning investment of any. Since it is, as he sees it, the most important source of economic growth, he suggests that the best route to continued prosperity is by investing in our stock of creativity in all its forms rather than just pumping up R&D spending or improving education, though both are important. It requires increasing investments in the multidimensional and varied forms of creativity arts, music, culture, design and related fields because all are linked and flourish together. It also means investing in related infrastructures and communities that attract creative people and that broadly foment creativity.
Florida is realist enough to note that just triggering creativity in great salvos won't automatically solve our problems. The ends to which creativity is to be directed are of critical importance. According to Florida, the most crucial policy decision is where we choose to invest. In the past, firms as well as governments tended to make large-scale investments in physical capital new machines, factories, canals, roads, airports and other forms of physical infrastructure. These investments paid off in terms of increased efficiency and also generated demand and pervasive multiplier effects. But now, according to Florida, we need to shift both public and private funds away from investments in physical capital towards investment in creative capital.
One should be wary of attempting to apply this research direct to Australia. One major reason is the very different demographies in the two countries, as well as their very different social and labour histories. And while not buying into Florida's main purpose to encourage the Creative Classes to start thinking of themselves as a coherent group, and acting accordingly to influence debate and development - it does seem possible that several lines of his argument are worth talking up, in particular those relating to how the working class� is conceptualized in Australia, and how this might affect perceptions of their relevance and perhaps, most importantly, who can claim the political allegiance of the 'creative classes'. Otherwise, all we will get will be a lot of "Strom und drang!".
Garry Wotherspoon, NSW
In early April a Victorian unionist mailed me leaflets for the June 28 Workers & Community National Day of Protest. The leaflets, produced by the Victorian Trades Hall Council, call on workers and the community to assemble at one of four locations and march onto the Melbourne city centre. In inspiring bold red print it reads, "Together we are unbreakable!"
Again, Victorian unions have distributed posters and leaflets three months prior to their Day of Protest. This is one reason why they could mobilise over 100 000 people for the 2005 November 15 rally.
Sadly this isn't the case in NSW. Unions NSW secretary, John Robinson, was vehemently opposed to a June 28 rally in Sydney. A compromise was eventually struck with a Blacktown rally being organised, the most marginal electorate in NSW. While this is terrific for workers in western Sydney, thousands of people opposed to the new IR laws can't participate. This strategy demobilises people as it attempts to channel their anger into a just vote Labor campaign.
Unions WA has refused to endorse the ACTU National Day of Protest. Consequently WA blue collar unions are forced to organise the rally themselves.
Unfortunately, sections of the union leadership are diverting our campaign to a "Just Vote Labor" strategy. Similar marginal seat campaigns in 1998, 2001 and 2004 all failed. This led to demoralisation and pessimism within the ranks making it easier for the Coalition to deepen its attacks.If Beazley's popularity and performance is any indication, we are doomed. What's our strategy in the likely event Labor isn't elected? Let me guess, a 2010 election campaign.
If elected, there's no guarantee that Labor will repeal the legislation unless the union movement keeps campaigning to defeat it on the ground. Beazley refuses to abolish AWAs. Without an industrial campaign and mass protests the best Labor will do is to merely ameliorate the worst aspects of the legislation.
Many agree we need national stoppages to defeat these laws. We're warned not to compare the successful French IR campaign with our own. Australia union density is more than double that in France; however their campaign of escalating industrial action, not lobbying, defeated the anti-worker laws within a month. Howard hopes our union movement won't organise national stoppages.
We can defeat Howard's IR laws and rebuild our unions. We must not rely on Labor to do it for us.
John Gauci, NSW
If you consider the tax cuts provided in the budget carefully certain sections of the population are targetted. It seems that the the greatest tax relief is provided to Prime Ministers (certainly those nearing retiement). The next favoured group are ministers of the crown (they do not have to wait until they are 60 to access their lump sums). The third highly favoured group are politicians, of all hues.
However, I am sure that this consequence was quite unintended. Sure!
W James, NSW
Solidarity what a word, remember when it meant every thing to a trade unionist?
Well for far too many it means nothing today, Howard must love us, the union movement the ALP, we each take our side and rubbish the other.
Howard has no need to divide and conquer we do it for him.
Let us not pretend that solidarity means something to us all,some just refuse to open a dictionary and read what the word means.
This country born unionist thinks it means united we bargin divided we beg,it means we all must work for a Labor victory.
Those that came before us demand we unite and fight now.
Today we live in dark days tucking our heads in the sand will not do it.
Have you been told to only talk on site to union members? and only in isolated places?
Have you seen workers in civil construction told to wear raincoats because no blueys will be bought for warmth? at 4am?
Fire up Australia not with union busting strikes, with pride and solidarity lets unite against Howard let us all be there that fine day the Labor prime minister SACKS the building industry task group.
Those who come here to read our page but do not leave the office to find out why a kid gets $50 a month and bashed!
Or cares nothing about docked pays for collecting for a dead man, who are not offended by cold workers wearing rain coats for warmth on clear sunny days but in freezeing cold winds.
united we bargin divided we beg lets unite name and shame this mob
After all it's still true today workers united will NEVER be defeated!
Allan Bell, NSW
Congratulations on your editorial. The Independent Contractors Act is more of a threat to working families than even Workchoices. Its ambition is simple but bold. It is to eliminate altogether 'employment' law as such, and reduce every person in the labour market to nothing more than a pair of hands/brain for hire, with as little rights as the computer sitting on the manager's desk, and with fewer protections. It is the ultimate in outsourcing - it is a way of devolving every 'risk' of existence onto the sturdy shoulders of each individual and their family. A simple way to reduce the cost of employment is to simply have no employees! The costs of living then become someone else's problem-the contractor's of course! Bingo!
It is time that the implications of this strategy and its meaning for households everywhere was highlighted. By the way, the fanfare for the legislation could be read in the journal IPA Review in February this year. This is a right wing rag whose sources of funding might be usefully pursued by a busy funster, although you would find the usual suspects. They had a goergeous little peice about a conference where independent contractors talked and wrote about the joys of throwing off the shackles of employment and being able to work as long as they wanted! It was a corker.
Linda Carruthers, NSW
So Mr. Dilemma declares "Sydney is drought proof", Penrith Star Tuesday May 9, 2006.
Does that mean the end to the desalination farce being pushed by this inept government.
Tom Collins, Emu Plains
To The Editor
How dare you presume that no-one is interested in what Kim had to say! I even got my Liberal voting Step-father to watch and listen. While I agree with just about all he had to say, Labor needs a much higher profile media-wise if we are to get all Australians to wake up and listen. Most people I know amongst workers will turn over to Cable or 7 or 9 if there is anything political on abc or sbs - that is if they ever watch those stations anyway. I make sure that my Delegates know what is in your publication and I'm sure I have plenty of Comrades who do the same.
Cheers
keep up the good work, just don't put us down.
Di Smith, NT
The NSW election pits a three-term government with a new leader who wants to maintain state industrial powers against a three-time loser with a new leader who want to hand those powers over to Canberra.
On Work Choices, the NSW government has done all it should; led the charge amongst the states to shore up the state system, passed legislation to make it harder for a hostile takeover and run the constitutional arguments through the High Court.
NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca, in particular, has read the politics and connected the dots from IR to family values, creating clear differences between the government and an Opposition that will toe the Canberra line.
If only the battle lines for the March election were this clear.
The X factor is a perception being driven from within the government itself that the Labor Government is exposed on the economy. Driving this fear is the fact that a short-term, cyclical deficit is budgeted for next year.
To put this into perspective, this shortfall will represent less than half of one per cent of the state's GDP and is linked to a downturn in the property market, a decision to scrap a number of taxes and, to its credit, a decision to pay public servants decent wages.
These numbers have created something of a panic at Macquarie Street, with our much loved Treasurer sharpening the knife for job cuts and looking for anything not nailed down for privatisation.
Forget that the biggest political issue facing the NSW Government is a perceived erosion of public services due to under-investment over many years by treasurers desperate for surpluses, the focus of all political angst is the budget bottom line.
This mindset has driven a shift in broader messaging and policy: the 'Open for Business' catchphrase being seen as defining motif of the Iemma Administration.
It is this attitude that seems to be behind an ill-conceived push to water down occupational health and safety laws, ending the strict liability requirement on employers at the behest of the business lobby.
That the discussion paper on changes that would make it much harder to prosecute negligent managers and directors was circulated as the Beaconsfield rescue was in full throttle is an unfortunate coincidence.
The broader political question though, is why choose now to cuddle up to an employer lobby that is still licking the cream of its lips after the WorkChoices coup d'etat?
Regular Workers Online readers will be familiar with the analysis of American pollster Vic Fingferhut (see issue 272), developed over four decades of research, that the frame of the debate decides elections.
In simple terms, conservative parties win elections on the economy - regardless of the merits of the policies; left of centre parties win on services delivered to people.
While there could be a case that budget trimming is needed to neutralise the economy attack from the Conservatives, there is no logical argument for making a crusade out of it.
Next time the Treasurer does a victory lap around cutting jobs, don't think of it as economically smart, it's just politically dumb, handling the Opposition the playing field that suits it best,
State Labor has its winning election strategy - workers rights and public services; the less focus on the budgetary heroics and the interests of the business community over the coming months the better for all of us.
Peter Lewis
Editor
A new joint contract by Gosford City and Wyong Shire for garbage services could see pay cuts of up to $340 a week and over 100 jobs placed at risk.
A new contractor could dodge negotiated rates by passing itself off as a "new enterprise", under WorkChoices provisions that allow conditions to be ignored.
After 10 years the council workforce was told last month a new joint contract would go to tender with a flat pay rate as low as $12.75 an hour; a decision workers have slammed as "disgraceful" and "insulting".
Wyong Council waste worker Paul Weston said he had challenged Wyong and Gosford Mayors to start work at 5am for $12.75 an hour and still manage to support their families.
"I am very worried about my family's financial future if I lose my job. If another company is prepared to work for the minimum rate of pay with no penalty rates then we are in real trouble," says Weston.
"All we ask is that the Councils do the right thing by working families on the Central Coast."
Protesting workers called on both Mayors to protect their jobs, entitlements and working conditions.
"The Gosford and Wyong Councils are willing to leave 100 local families without any certainty about their futures," says Transport Workers Union secretary Tony Sheldon. "This loyal workforce performs a vital and important community service. How can the Councils possibly expect them to do the same job for $340 less a week?"
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