*****
Piers Akerman was on Insiders the other week, expressing an interest in the possibilities of men being able to marry goats.
It shows the sort of cosmopolitan man of the people that Piers really is.
Never one to be swayed by public opinion, or common sense, or even reality, his exchange with David Marr was truly inspiring - providing the sort of stimulating debate that has made him the foremost satirical writer of our times.
Normally Piers' foray into the realms of the bizarre would be merely run of the mill - old Piers banging on as the Grandpa Simpson of Australian politics - yet he followed up his goat-love effort this week in the august pages of the Daily Telegraph, with a fascinating insight into the geopolitical role of Australian Workplace Agreements.
Apparently, according to Piers, without AWAs Australia will become the next Albania.
It's good to see that old Piers has extended his interest in foreign countries beyond his favourites, Columbia and Bolivia.
Piers was railing against the Marxist regime of Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha, himself a fan of many despotic regimes such as Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and Belgrade.
In fact Uncle Enver has followed many different forms dictatorial Marxism over the years, not unlike Piers himself.
Piers is alarmed that, without AWAs, Beazley will have free license to invade Macedonia.
Piers central beef is that Beazley has woken up and smelt the coffee. Anyone with half a brain can see that having someone take a machete to your pay is not considered a good thing. Meanwhile, Piers begs to differ.
Akerman is perturbed that we aren't using China as a benchmark for global labour standards, which must be reassuring for everyone in the mining industry given the safety standards of your average Chinese mine, and for Chinese keen to raise their own living standards.
Obviously Piers is not just disappointed that working Australians are overpaid, they're obviously not being killed off enough as well.
But Piers bloodthirsty loathing for ordinary working Australians is not his only source of disquiet - he is worried that the ALP is a dangerous Marxist-Leninist organisation hell bent on forcing us all into work camps to prop up the trade union movement.
This unique take on reality provided a greatr deal of mirth for everyone in the real world, as we saw by that (obviously in Piers view) fellow travellwer with Marxist Leninist demagoguery, Alan Jones.
Jones tore strips off an increasingly crestfallen Peter Costello, who was forced to chew long and hard on the brown sandwich, as Jones hammered him over the reality of what AWAs meant for ordinary Australians that are trying to put a roof over their family's head and food on the table.
Unfortunately Piers doesn't get it: not the ordinary family, the reality of the modern workplace, what WorkChoices means or how damaging this will be
The only thing missing from his diatribe was a fulmination against pot smoking dole bludgers and we could have been able to diagnose him as having flashbacks to a bad acid trip form the seventies.
Piers may have edited a leading national newspaper, had the ear of the Prime Minister, walked the halls of power with captains of industry - but you sleep with one goat...
American multi-national Esselte is spiriting employees to the Campbelltown Art Gallery where they are being interrogated about �union coercion� by officers from Kevin Andrews' Department of Employment and Workplace Services.
Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, said the strategy proved the federal government was "partisan" in its workplace dealings.
"This company has called in DEWR to pressure workers into signing AWAs while pretending they are investigating unions for pressuring workers." Mr Robertson said.
'It's absurd. The simple answer is that workers at this company made a prudent decision not to sign the AWAs because it's not in their interest.
"This is another example of federal agencies being used as enforcers of government's political ideology."
Esselte manager Justin Reidy is taking people from the distribution warehouse, two at a time, and driving them to the Art Gallery, where DEWR officers grill them in a back room.
Workers are told they will be subpoenaed to appear in court if they refuse to answer questions.
They are then required to sign witness statements that could be used against their union.
At least five people were interviewed last Thursday and a further four on Friday.
A witness statement seen by Workers Online gave evidence of an Esselte manager pestering workers to sign AWAs, which strip penalty rates, wages and conditions.
Officials from the National Union of Workers were amazed by the company's move.
Esselte had been aggressively pushing the individual workplace agreements on 20 employees at Minto.
"If the department is wondering why these workers aren't signing these AWAs, it's because they leave them $80 a week worse off," says Derek Belan from the NUW. "Do they think our members are that stupid they'd agree to that?
"It's not rocket science."
Ministerial advisers told the sacked woman, through the office of electorate MP Jackie Kelly, to use the state system to get justice after she was punted from her casual job.
Denise Guthrey was frozen out of her job at a Cranebrook Pre School, in April, after she asked for permanency.
Guthrey contacted local Liberal MP, Kelly, and was passed from the Office Of Workplace Services to the Industrial Relations Commission, which recommended Legal Services. The government's lawyers said she may have a case, but none of them understood the WorkChoices laws.
Sick of the run-around, Guthrey went back to Kelly's office, which called the OWS. The OWS then contacted Guthrey to say the pre-school had done everything right.
Guthrey, who had worked at the childcare centre for an average of 13 hours a week supporting children with 'additional needs', was fuming, and phoned Kelly again.
This time Kelly's electorate officer went to the Minister.
Guthrey told a Unions NSW meeting last week that Andrews' office had advised her to run an unfair dismissal case in the NSW State System.
The LHMU filed a dispute in the state IRC. Guthrey is now back at work and happy with the outcome.
"The whole process placed a huge strain on me and my family, both personally and financially," said Guthrey. "If I had to fight under the Federal laws I'd still be fighting - at huge cost to myself and my family.
"I am glad that the state industrial law was able to provide speedy protection."
BHP Billiton admitted negligence related to the 2004 explosion that killed Wadley and left three colleagues severely burned.
The prosecution was lodged, under WA Mines, Safety and Inspection laws, after an inquiry found safety had been compromised by BHP's AWA-driven industrial relations strategy.
Perth barrister Mark Ritter described the company's drive to individual contracts as "a factor which has impacted and continues to impact on the successful implementation of safety systems".
BHP Billiton is a key player in the Australian Mines and Metals Association that, last week, lashed ALP leader Kim Beazley for his opposition to AWAs.
Acting Magistrate Robert Burton fined the company $100,000 for Mr Wadley's death, and $50,000 each for the injuries sustained by two of his former workmates. He also ordered to pay $58,000 in costs.
Workers Online understands the billion-dollar multinational also faces charges stemming from other fatalities at its Australian mining operations.
Last year, the bereaved fianc� of union delegate, Corey Bentley, filed papers suing Australia's largest company for negligence.
Bentley was crushed at BHP's Port Nelson iron ore facility, also in the Pilbara, just weeks after proposing to Tracey Appleyard.
In Adelaide, three criminal charges have been laid against BHP Billiton in relation to last year's death of a father of two who suffocated on mud and dust, 500 metres below its Olympic Dam uranium mine.
The South Australian Industrial Relations Court laid the counts over the death 38-year-old, Karl Eibi.
If found guilty, under South Australan law, Australia's largest company would face maximum fines of $100,000 on each count.
Meanwhile, the Australian Mines and Metals Association has opposed a proposition that could have seen negligent company directors charged with criminal offences when employees were killed at work.
Unions WA has called for directors to be charged with industrial manslaughter in serious cases of negligence.
Minerals Council of Australia spokesman Rob Rawson said the proposal was "unnecessary" and "illogical".
"The assumption there is they (directors) are somehow responsible or involved and I think that's not necessarily the case," Rawson said.
Workers Gassed In Tunnel
Two electrical contractors have been hospitalised after being gassed by carbon monoxide fumes while working on the Lane Cove Tunnel project over the Queens Birthday long weekend.
The electricians were working on a diesel powered scissor lift in the tunnel at about 11.30pm on Friday night when they began to feel nauseous.
One worker left the scene while the other was ordered to keep working with a facemask. That worker then complained about feeling worse, before both electricians were hospitalised with high levels of carbon monoxide in their systems.
Workers allege that Theiss John Holland had turned off extractor fans, allowing the toxic gases to accumulate.
Freehills, the largest beneficiary of Canberra's workplace legal crusade, has revealed that union agreements contain 4.3 percent average annual wage movements, against 2.5 percent for non-negotiated, individual contracts.
The fact, contained in a hush-hush presentation prepared by the Melbourne law firm, undermines government claims that workers are better off on AWAs.
The timing is significant because it fills a vacuum created when the Australian Bureau of Statistics decided it would no longer measure relative movements in different types of agreement.
That decision was taken after surveys consistently showed employees on union-negotiated contracts earned higher hourly rates than those on AWAs.
The latest completed survey, in 2004, showed non-managerial workers on registered individual contracts earned two percent less than those on registered collective agreements.
In the subsequent silence, Prime Minister John Howard and Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, have loudly claimed better outcomes for Australians on AWAs.
Andrews started claiming that AWA workers were "on average" 29 percent better off but he has reduced that to the Prime Minister's figure of 13 percent.
Industrial Relations professor, David Peetz, insists both figures are based on "bodgy statistics".
Peetz says both men refer only to "weekly earnings" which are skewed towards AWAs because a large number of those on collective contracts are casual or part-time.
There are also a preponderance of AWAs covering senior managers in the public service where Canberra has made them a condition of employment.
Peetz says the latest available hourly comparisons, from the ABS, show, across the whole workforce, people on collective agreements earn two percent more.
He said the survey showed that women on AWAs earned 11 percent less, per hour, than those on collective contracts.
"For casual workers, AWAs paid 15 percent less. For part time workers, AWAs paid 25 percent less. Indeed, amongst permanent part-time employees, even those on the award minimum, earned an average eight percent more than those on AWAs," Peetz said.
The Freehills document, dated 22 February, 2006, warns employers with enterprise agreements of the 'potential threats" posed by competitors who use AWAs to eliminate overtime, penalty payments and loadings.
It suggests one sentence for AWAs that can be used to eliminate entitlements to all six conditions the federal government claims are "protected by law".
Freehills has been sucking heavily on the public teat since Canberra diverted millions of taxpayer dollars to its campaign against trade union members.
Only, last month, Senate Estimates heard Freehills had pocketed $791,000 in the 11 months to May 8 by the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
It also works for Andrews' Department of Workplace Relations and was one of the key firms involved in writing the WorkChoices legislation.
In ruling a Victorian unfair dismissal case out of the Commission's jurisdiction, Vice-President Ken Ives said few employees would be able to prove they were not sacked for �operational reasons� if that was what the employer claimed.
Under John Howard's new work laws, employees in companies with more than 100 workers can claim unfair dismissal, unless they were sacked for "operational reasons".
But Ives said a worker's ability to produce evidence for such a claim was "beyond most employees' capability and resources".
Melbourne IT officer, Azwar Koya, was sacked from Port Phillip City Council in April after having his position abolished and turning down other positions offered to him.
Koya argued the restructure had been contrived to remove him from his position.
Ives said the IT worker's claim did not "cast any shadow" over the employer's evidence.
Right wing activist ABC director Janet Albrechtsen's musings on the Cronulla riots appear holus bolus on the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan website.
The article, which blames multiculturalism for the riots, appears ahead of news items on a "Klanswoman" winning 1000 votes in a Canadian election and Jews being behind the Russian Revolution.
The website's homepage warns surfers to "practice racial integrity" and "don't race mix".
Albrechtsen, a rabid supporter of Prime Minister John Howard, has caused uproar in the past with columns blaming Islamic values for gang rape.
Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan appointed her to the ABC board last year.
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A giant toilet brush, the Village People, some tuneful cleaners and a rousing rally all combined to turn around the attitude of property giant, Allco.
"We've agreed in principle with what they're fighting for," Allco spokesperson Chris Bowen told the Sydney Morning Herald last week.
What cleaners have been fighting for is their Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners’ campaign, which is seeking to get major property owners to only deal with reputable cleaning contractors who provide decent conditions for their cleaners.
Allco was awarded the notorious Golden Toilet Brush Award for 2006 after repeatedly declined invitations to meet cleaners' representatives.
They were the only major property owner to refuse to meet to discuss the Clean Start campaign.
Other major property owners have already indicated their broad support for the Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners’ principles.
Get more Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign info here...
Lyle White, a supervisor at Ullrich Aluminium in Smithfield, will join thousands of Sydneysiders at Blacktown Showground on June 28 at 9am to "make our voices heard".
"I'm fighting a big enough battle without the government getting stuck into me as well," White says.
White, who undergoes six hours of treatment every 21 days, was diagnosed with lymphoma in January.
Earlier this month he was dismissed for "performance reasons" after he explained to bosses he would need time off for chemotherapy.
Thousands of Sydneysiders are expected to head to the geographical heart of the sprawling city to take the campaign to the seat of Liberal MP and WorkChoices supporter, Louise Markus.
The rally is part of the ACTU week of action, with protests scheduled across the country.
"This is about working Australians and their communities standing up against these unfair laws," says Unions NSW secretary John Robertson. "If John Howard and Kevin Andrews think they can ignore the message this rally will send they do so at their own peril."
Free To Air Costs
The rally comes as the ACTU has sent out a call for people to help keep the current TV ad campaign on the air.
Donations can be made via the ACTU - Your Rights At Work website.
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To expedite the process, security officers showed up for assignment at the company's Jakarta headquarters and haven't left yet.
Lend your support to the Indonesian security guards - send off a protest e-mail today
But Securicor Indonesia has failed to comply. These workers have faced numerous hardships -- some have lost homes, been unable to pay their children's school fees and skipped medical care because they couldn't afford it.
"The highest court in the land has affirmed that these workers must be reinstated and paid the wages they are owed," added the workers' attorney, Ecoline Situmorang of PBHI (Perhimpunan Bantuan Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Indonesia).
"We hope that the company will move immediately to comply with the ruling. If they do not, we will pursue further legal action."
The Indonesian Supreme Court decision was released on 8 June 2006, affirming the 12 January 2006 PTTUN (High Court on State Administrative Affairs) and 29 June 2005 P4P (labor tribunal) decisions supporting the workers' position.
On April 25, 2005, about 500 security guards engaged in a legal strike to demand clarity from the company over whether they would remain permanent employees with the same rights following an international merger between Group 4 Falck and Securicor.
Rather than pay severance or guarantee the workers that their terms of employment would remain the same, the company fired 238 striking workers in the capital Jakarta and a further 24 in Surabaya.
The company's labor rights violations have also been cited in the U.S. State Department's 2005 Human Rights Report.
Qantas said John Howard's legislation left it with no choice after 99 baggage handlers held an urgent safety discussion when bolts started falling from overhead construction work at Sydney Airport.
But the Transport Workers Union will contest the deductions in the Chief Industrial Magistrate's Court.
"These men were placed in extremely dangerous situations, with scissor lifts operating above their heads," TWU secretary, Tony Sheldon, said.
"During their meeting, employees raised 19 serious questions about safety in their workplace.
"Qantas management informed them they would each be docked four hours pay which is the minimum penalty allowed under Howard's workplace changes.
"The TWU will not sit back and allow this to happen."
Federal Workchoices legislation instructs employers to dock a minimum of four hours wages for any industrial stop work meeting.
The only exception is where workers can prove they faced "imminent risk".
Sheldon said that's exactly what baggage handlers had been exposed to.
Qantas was an strong supporter of the Prime Mininster's workplace regime that has already been used to strip conditions, lower earnings, and deny collective bargaining rights.
Company CEO, Geoff Dixon, is a key player in the pro-WorkChoices Business Council of Australia.
Sheldon said the TWU launched legal action after Qantas failed to reply to a request to return the workers' money.
In a newsletter "circulated within the Liberal Party", Gosford Councillor Malcolm Brooks slams the Government's WorkChoices advertising as "gobbledegook" and says workers deserve a better explanation.
"Why can't a group of workers be able to negotiate an agreement with an employer? Imagine a solitary truck driver trying to negotiate a work place agreement with Linfox ... Let's get real," the letter states.
"There are too many unknowns in the new legislation, and these need to be clarified now, because some voters who voted for us at the last election have already decided to vote Labor at the next election."
Brooks notes there are more workers in Australia than employers, and workers have been responsible for Howard's last four election wins.
"If we lose the support of these workers, we will lose government."
Prime Minister John Howard shrugged off the criticism.
"I think he is wrong," Howard said.
Business Council of Australia boss, Michael Chaney, has put the Opposition leader on notice that Australia's largest companies will undermine his bid to become Prime Minister, if he doesn't distance himself from party policy on AWAs.
The Business Council hammered Mark Latham in the lead-up to the 2003 poll and, in a personal letter, last week, Chaney warned Beazley was headed for similar treatment.
"Prior to the last federal election, the BCA was critical of the ALP for seeking to re-regulate the labour market and reverse the direction of workplace reform," Chaney wrote.
"The BCA views your announcement in the same light."
Chaney, who as chairman of Wesfarmers hauled down a salary of $6.12 million, last year, is an aggressive supporter of WorkChoices legislation that allows business to slash employees' incomes and greenlights unjustified dismissals.
His BCA, made up of the chief executives of Australia's largest companies, wrote the cheque for a tv advertising campaign in support of WorkChoices, last year.
At the heart of that system, are AWAs - take-it or leave-it contracts that can be imposed on workers as a condition of employment.
Barely a month after WorkChoices became effective, the minimalist documents have already been used to eliminate overtime, statutory holiday entitlements, penalty payments, shift allowances and slash annual leave below the four-week standard.
AWAs that cut negotiated conditions can be "offered" at any time, even during the currency of an existing agreement.
Unions are barred from entering premises where all staff are on AWAs, even if those people are union members.
After months of equivocation, Beazley made his stand at last week's NSW party conference.
"I believe AWAs are the poison tip of John Howard's industrial relations arrow," Beazley said. "They can't be fixed. They must be rejected."
Business reaction was swift and aggressive.
Chaney's position was echoed by former Peter Reith staffer and Business Council chief executive, Peter Hendy; Rio Tinto managing director, Charlie Lenegan; and the Australian Mines and Metals Association.
The Mines and Metals Association, a leader in the de-unionisation drives of the 1990s, claimed doing away with AWAs would cost the economy $6.6 billion a year.
It advanced no evidence for that claim.
In a comprehensive refutation of the federal government's claims for its radical new workplace regime, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development finds ...
- unfair dismissal laws do not cost jobs
- minimum wages don't increase unemployment
- collective bargaining is strongly related to low levels of unemployment
The findings are contained in Economic Outlook 2006 which brings together research and analysis from the OECD's 30 member countries, and an accompanying document, Boosting Jobs and Incomes.
The report describes the impact of EPL (employment protection legislation) and union density on unemployment as "statistically insignificant".
The findings are somewhat surprising, given that the OECD, often referred to as the Rich Man's Club, has been liberal with conservative remedies for the ills of developing nations.
Howard and Andrews have repeatedly claimed that individual contracts, inferior conditions and reduced wages will lead to greater employment.
Their other key claim is for increased productivity but that is undermined by the New Zealand experience where businesses that cut wages and conditions, simply transferred the savings into profit.
In fact, after New Zealand introduced its Employment Contracts Act, in 1991, productivity nosedived in comparison to Australia which, at the time, had a strongly centralised, collective wage-setting structure.
Federal Shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan said the OECD's findings were "a direct assault on the economic case" the Government had mounted for Workchoices.
Under Nedlands Council's "spend-to-save" scheme, managers who sign up for individual contracts will be given 10 per cent bonuses to implement a two per cent saving in wages.
General Manager David Price told Council the two per cent was equivalent to $130,000 a year or 15 jobs.
Mayor Laurie Taylor said the bonuses would "incentivise" the managers to find the cuts.
"People should be recognised for their contribution," Taylor said. "It is a modest scheme based on performance."
Australian Services Union state secretary Paul Burlison told a Western Australian newspaper ratepayers would question rewarding people who cut services.
"Is this how the City of Nedlands works - by rewarding faceless managers who slash budgets and cut services to achieve so-called performance targets?"
The film "YouthWorks - the High Price of a Low Wage" features real life experiences of young South Australians.
Issues explored include underpayment, harassment and health and safety.
Hospitality worker, "Sally", tells of the perils of casual work in the restaurant trade, finishing shifts at 2am and being expected to be back at work at 6am.
"They expected an awful lot of us and gave us nothing in return," she says in the film. "They rang me up out of the blue and said there's no more work available - do your next shift on Saturday and then leave your uniform behind."
YouthWorks director Alex Solomon-Bridge says the documentary aims to inform, enlighten and empower.
SA Unions secretary Janet Giles says he has produced a landmark film.
"We would like every high school students in South Australia to see this film, and recognise that they don't have to put up with underpayment, bullying, harassment, unfair shifts and unsafe work practices," Giles said.
An Urgent Appeal From Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA
We need to raise money immediately so that the people of East Timor can rebuild their lives after the recent unrest.
Please send a generous gift to assist local organisations in rebuilding a peaceful, free and productive society in East Timor.
Click here to donate using our secure online donation form https://secure.fantasticone.com/apheda/order_form.php Select East Timor from the drop down menu under 'section C. Once Off donations'.
OR phone our toll free number 1800 888 674
OR send a cheque made out to APHEDA Inc. with a note alerting us that it is for the East Timor Appeal
The recent conflict in East Timor has severely disrupted the day-to-day lives of the population and has been a blow to the confidence of this young independent nation. Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA would like to provide additional support to its partner organisations in East Timor to help rebuild infrastructure and restore confidence. Support from donors like yourself can help make this happen.
Union Aid Abroad -APHEDA will need to quickly respond to the needs of local partner organisations in East Timor when they are able to resume their work. These key civil society organisations focus on strengthening vocational skills, developing the union movement, resolving conflict peacefully and informing the population through independent media.
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's partner organisations are likely to need assistance in the following: Repairing any damaged infrastructure or equipment Replacing stolen or damaged goods Restarting their programs Developing programs that encompass reconciliation and peace building activities using community radio and theatre groups Providing vocational and income generating skills to unemployed young men so they feel they have a share in the future of their community.
You can help by donating:
$1000 - To fund a vocational training workshop targeting young unemployed males $500 - To fund a theatre tour to rural villages to promote reconciliation $100 - To partially fund training for community radio stations on developing programs that support peace building and reconciliation $50 - To help make a gate to secure an office building $30 - To help replace stolen/destroyed office equipment
By donating to East Timor you will be helping the traumatised people of this nation redevelop confidence and hope that their nation can continue to grow and prosper.
You will be supporting programs that equip individuals and communities in East Timor with skills and experiences to create a peaceful, free and productive society.
Your support for the people of East Timor is so important for them at this difficult and unsettling time.
Jammin' For Justice
9 June 2006
Is a huge band competition aimed at educating us on how the new fucked up workers rights laws will affect us... ALL OF US.. Any local (local, Qbn, Cooma, Goulburn, Yass, Braidwood) band that are 18+ may enter. Your band can be any style (rock, country, hip hop, metal, indie etc.). Your band will be required to write 3 new songs containing lyrics from the new laws (you will be given a fact sheet upon successful regerstration). There will be 6 heats at the GR, 2 Semi's at the GR and the Final at the UNI. There are plently of prizes with high profile judges for the finals and a grand prize which consists of a 5 track EP Recording to the value of $10 000. Head to THE POT BELLY, BETTER MUSIC, PRO AUDIO, OSHEAS, TOAST, THE PHOENIX, ANU, SONGLAND, RAVEN CLOTHING or head to www.unionact.org.au
Monday 25 September 2006.
Brisbane Work and Industry Futures QUT, and the Department of Industrial Relations Griffith University are convening a one-day conference that explores Work, Industrial Relations and Popular Culture.
David Pope, the cartoonist behind the Heinrich Hinze cartoons will be Keynote Speaker with his presentation - "Is the pen mightier than s356? Cartoons and Work" (www.scratch.com.au)
We welcome any paper that explores the manner in which popular culture is used by unions, management or policy makers or alternatively, how work and industrial relations is represented within popular culture.
Sub-themes for the conference include: - Policy, Influence and Modern Mediums - Which is Reality, Work or TV? - Popular Music: Is it the End of the Working Class Man? - Working in the Movies: What do we see? - Popular Culture as a Teaching Tool. Call for Papers. Abstracts are due 14 July 2006 Full papers are due 11 September 2006 Location; Southbank, Brisbane.
The convenors would welcome participants to submit proposed titles earlier to assist in preparations. For further information please contact Keith Townsend ([email protected]) or David Peetz ([email protected])
Rekindling the Flames of Discontent: How the Labour and Folk Movements Work Together
A Conference - Dinner - Concert
The Brisbane Labour History Association is holding a Conference/Dinner/Concert on Saturday 23 September. This event will explore the historical relationship between the labour movement and the folk movement in Australia with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
Why? To celebrate the history of the interaction between the Folk and Labour movements, and promote its longevity.
When? Saturday 23 September. Conference from 1pm. Concert from 7pm.
Where? East Brisbane Bowls Club, Lytton Rd, East Brisbane, Next to Mowbray Park
It is still in the formative stages, but to date the following are confirmed:
1-5pm CONFERENCE (will include music with the presentations):
5 - 7pm Drinks followed by DINNER
7 - 11pm CONCERT
For more information contact the BLHA President Greg Mallory on [email protected], or Secretary Ted Reithmuller on [email protected], or Dale Jacobsen on [email protected]
Get Connected in the West
Your Rights at Work Family and Friends Community Day
Coast Goes Online
Check out the brand new Central Coast Your Rights at Work Website www.centralcoastrightsatwork.com.au
Doug Eaton on John Manifold & the Communist Arts Group in Brisbane, Brisbane Realists
Bob & Margaret Fagan on Sydney Realist Writers
Mark Gregory on trade union & labour songs/music, nationally/internationally
Lachlan & Sue on international perspectives
Combined Unions Choir
Bob and Margaret Fagan
Mark Gregory
Jumping Fences
Penrith Lakes 12 June, 12.30pm
Contact Mary Yaager from Unions NSW for more information on 9286 1699
"(Some parties) are opposed to the recruitment drive because it opens up the industry to other pools of employees, which undermines the unions' ability to exploit high wages amid the skills shortage," says Amanda Vanstone.
It's funny (peculiar) how "market forces" in the labour market are acceptable to employers and the Howard government when it means they result in lower wages and conditions but they squeal about how unfair it is in the rare cases when "market forces" work in favour of workers!
D Smith, NSW
Tuesday night and I am heated. Maybe its because I am just a simple worker, but why has no one pulled Howard and his mate Anderson up today? Quoting pre-WorkChoices AWAs on figures from ABS is plain lies. Surely we should be screaming from the roof that post-workchoices AWAs are different? That Spotless was just one? That post-WorkChoices ones are mostly imposed?
We should surely have, during many TV and radio press and other interviews, told the truth! Average workers are saying the AWAs [based on pre- ones] are OK? And who has explained common law contracts? Some want them and we need to assure them they are a far better thing than AWAs. Some we hope to vote for us are forming wrong opinions because we fail to inform them.
Information is our best weapon.
Allan 'Belly' Bell, NSW
A few weeks ago, as things started turning really nasty for the Federal Government on industrial relations, the Prime Minister declares we should start talking about nuclear power.
This week we discovered that Australia's only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights was leaking.
I think we can expect another distraction any day now.
Ed Husic, NSW
While the PM, big business and the conservative press are working themselves up into a total lather over his announcement that he will not alter exiating ALP policy on AWAs, the truth is the Big Fella has nailed it.
In one simple statement of principle, Beazley has done two things - derailed an absurd internal debate about watering down IR policy and taken decisive steps to narrow the gap between people who are opposed to the changes and those who know where Labor stands on the issue.
It is this disconnect - one in four voters - that has been holding back Beazley and Labor in the polls, the result of a desire to track the changes and develop nuanced responses at a cost of cut through.
But as evidence of the way AWAs are being used and abused by employers to take away penalty rates and other entitlements is emerging, there was no room for tampering - you are either for or agin'.
The response from his critics has been absolutely bereft of anything other than a desperate flailing; you suspect they too know the game is just about up. This attack has taken three distinct forms.
The first is the blindly ideological - that he is impinging on the right of workers and employers to negotiate directly. Utter piffle. Thirty per cent of the workforce are - and will continue to be - on individual common law contracts, underpinned by the award system. Nothing changes for them.
The difference is that the legal tool designed to destroy collective bargaining, the AWA, will be abolished under a Labor Government. They will be abolished because they drive wages down, cut conditions and remove choice from workers.
This is where the 'freedom' doublespeak is most stark - under WorkChoices new starters have no choice but to sign an AWA; an employer can simply refuse to negotiate a collective agreement and can even sack the workforce, rehire them on AWAs at a lower rate, with the blessing of the law. It is social engineering via legislation, pushed a party that once stood for liberalism and individual rights.
The second argument can only be described as a crude form of voodoo economics. We have had the advocates of big business, with an attempt to keep a straight face, claiming the Beazley abolition of AWAs will drive down wages.
We have had them plucking a figure of 13 per cent comparative benefit under AWAs without 'fessing up that the figures include managers and incorporate first time sweeteners to seduce individuals away from the collective - before the era of coercion began.
And we have them turning a conveniently deaf hear to OECD analysis this week, that these anti-worker laws have absolutely nothing to do with productivity. Just another inconvenient truth.
Finally, we have the personal character assassination, carried out so enthusiastically by News Ltd newspapers this week. These have ranged from the hysterical to the downright - none finer though than our old mate Piers Akerman likening Big Kim to Albanian leader Enver Hoxha. But beyond Piers' silliness, across the stable, it has been the most sustained and biased display of political booster-ism in my memory.
The point that I don't think the public misses is that the story is that Kim is getting off the fence - some would say after spending far too long collecting splinters. How this becomes a sign of weakness is one of the enduring mysteries of the past week.
It makes you wonder. News Ltd is one of the strongest corporate supporters of AWAs, a company that already offered new starters jobs on condition of singing the contracts. Should it perhaps disclose it corporate position on AWAs before it presents its propaganda as news? Just a thought.
All this noise will only benefit Beazley, Labor and the Rights at Work campaign - and one suspects that the more the business lobbies cries poor, the Howard Government cries foul and the Murdoch mouthpieces just cry, the better it will be.
My brave prediction is that Beazley will receive the poll boost the decision deserves; setting momentum all the way to the election on an issue that allows federal Labor, for once, to fight an election on its home turf.
For the union movement it means a political team is finally on the paddock, prepared to rise or fall on the issue that has always defined it; one that it is worth putting in the extra yards for because you know they are prepared to take a stand not just punch at the edges.
Because the truth is this: the campaign against the IR changes is not about ideology or free market economics or personal agendas (although the legislation is dripping with all three). It is about people who work and the rules of engagement.
And if the government, big business and the Tory press think that Australians are such mugs that they will willingly give up their right to control their life, bargaining together and aspiring to be something more than a labour unit on a balance sheet, then they are in for a rude surprise.
Bring it on..
Peter Lewis
Editor
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