E D I T O R I A L

Don't Bank on Costello's Oil Shocker
Did the economy slip on a banana skin or an oil slick?

F E A T U R E S

Interview: A Life And Death Matter
Macquarie Street and Canberra are squaring off over safety in the workplace, NSW Minister for Industrial relations, John Della Bosca, explains what's at stake.

Unions: Fighting Back
When John Howard's building industry enforcer started threatening people's homes, one couple hit the road. Jim Marr met them in Sydney.

Industrial: What Cowra Means
The ruling on the Cowra abattoir case highlights the implications of the new IR rules, according to John Howe and Jill Murray

Environment: Scrambling for Energy Security
Howard Government hypocrisy is showcased in its climate change manoeuvring, Stuart Rosewarne writes:

Politics: Page Turner
A new book leaves no doubt about whether the faction came before the ego, Nathan Brown writes.

Economics: The State of Labour
The capacity of the state to shape the political economy and thus improve the social lives of the people must be reasserted, argues Geoff Dow.

International: Workers Blood For Oil
A new book by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson lifts the lid on the bloody reality of US backed democracy for Iraq's trade unions

History: Liberty in Spain
Worker Self-Management is good management. The proof in Spain was in Catalania, Andalusia and continues in the Basque Country, as Neale Towart explains.

Review: Go Roys, Make A Noise
Phil Doyle thought he'd find nostalgia, but instead Vulgar Press' new book, Maroon & Blue is a penetrating insight into the suburban mind under stress.

N E W S

Ah, Sol

Telstra Contractors in Bush Raid

Spooks Go “Nuclear”

Drivers Under Attack

Stacks on the Hill

Advertising Works

29 Face Secret Interrogations

Bureaucrats Sit on Wages

Blue Mountains Fit Through Loophole

G Spot for Rally

Chalkies Give WorkChoices An F

Howard Base Shaky

Deaf Workers Lose Voice

Canberra Scratches WorkChoices Handicap

MUA Hungry for Change

Vanny Changes Story

Activists What's On

C O L U M N S

The Locker Room
Ruled Out
Phil Doyle plays by the rules

Fiction
Tommy's Apprentice
Chapter One - Tommy and "The Boy"

Politics
Westie Wing
Ian West wonders what might happen if the NSW Coalition actually did win power next March at the State elections.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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Blue Mountains Fit Through Loophole

Blue Mountains City Councillor, Adam Searle, successfully moved last week for the council to use the state industrial umpire as a private arbitrator to solve industrial problems between council management and staff.

Searle hopes the move with protect both council workers from federal workplace laws, and provide the council with industrial harmony.

""It's important for council to send a clear signal to employees that they will continue to do things the way they have been done," says Searle.

"The council is a community leader and a major employer. It has a leadership role is sending a broader message to the community that relationships between employers and employees should be fair and equitable rather than the dog eat dog world of WorkChoices."

Searle said the arrangements were consistent with WorkChoices laws, which allowed employers and employees to appoint a third party arbitrator by agreement.

Although the arrangements required the goodwill to create a consent agreement between bosses and workers, Searle said there was no reason why similar arrangements could not be rolled out by responsible employers in the private sector.

Changes to NSW legislation had allowed the NSW Industrial relations Commission to take up the role of a private independent arbitrator.

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