
Issue No 31		17 September 1999

News

Industrial Faction for Pre-Conference Caucus

The NSW Labor Council will convene a cross-factional industrial caucus in the lead-up to next month's State Conference to ensure unions present a united front on key resolutions.


	Bus Drivers Vote to Take Further Action

With trade unions controlling 60 per cent of the floor, the development could tip the traditional Left-Right balance if unions unite on key issues.

The move comes amidst growing disillusion with the Carr Government's public sector policies, such as contracting-out and competitive tendering.

In the past week, local government workers have rallied on State Parliament and bus drivers have stopped work for four hours. A further rally by TAFE staff is scheduled for this week.

Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says the unions will caucus on three key areas:

- industrial relations policy - given the government's failure to introduce reforms limiting the use of labour hire and independent contractors, as well as allowing unions to charge a service fee to non-union members.

- competitive tendering; being pursued by government agencies and departments as a means of driving down costs.

- support for a social audit to chart the distribution of government services across the state, particularly in rural NSW.

The Caucus will also discuss a post-conference strategy to ensure that pressure is applied to hold the Carr Government to the ALP platform.

Union Anger Over Government Policy

* Six hundred local council workers employed from around the state rallied on State Parliament on Thursday to protest the Carr government's competitive tendering of council work, include road maintenance. The workers have called on the Carr Government to conduct a social impact study into the effects of competitive tendering on rural communities across the State.

* The Rail Bus and Tram Union held stop work meetings Friday between 10am and 2pm to discuss State Transit's log of claims served on bus and tram drivers (swwe Workers Online Issue 29). The drivers voted to commence an industrial campaign against State Transit's use of the Reith industrial laws to attack workers' conditions - including back annual leave and sick days.

* Next Wednesday unionists employed in TAFE will rally outside NSW Parliament House between 12 noon and 1.15 pm to protest cuts to staffing within the organisation.

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Issue 31 contents

Interview: Sadly Vindicated
Laborďż˝s foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton has spent the past year warning that East Timor would explode without a UN peacekeeping force. Now heďż˝s had to watch his predictions come true.

International: In the Bunker
One of the last reporters to leave East Timor, Workers Online's HT Lee remembers the week that Dili burned.

Republic: Tarred With the Same Brush
Neville Wran asks why it is that the most fervant monarchists are also the most eager union-bashers.

Unions: Hard Labour
Prisoner educators argue more attention needs to be given to rehabilitation through teaching, but theyďż˝re facing an uphill battle to convince authorities.

History: Labour and Community
A history conference in Wollongong next month will look at the changing role for labour into the next century.

Review: Bobbin' Up - 40 Years On
Forty years after its first publicaton and several European translations Bobbin Up, a classic of industrial fiction, is coming home.

Satire: East Timor Poll Triumph: Support for Jakarta Up 21 Per Cent
The Indonesian Government has declared that it is pleased with the result of the independence referendum in which 21% of East Timorese voted in support of maintaining links with Indonesia.

» Asylum Call for Independence Supporters

» Nurses Collect Vital Medical Supplies

» Industrial Faction for Pre-Conference Caucus

» Lees Backs Freeloader Laws

» Outsourcing Decision - Banks Under the Gun

» Reith Forces Truckies to Speed

» He Talks the Talk - But Can He Walk the Walk?

» Commission Tells AGC to Get Into the Nineties

» Cost-Cutting Puts Clinical Waste in Landfill

» Prisons Reject Free Computers

» US Defence Giant Eyes Welfare Sector