
Issue No 32		24 September 1999

News

ACTU Pushes On With Privatised Portal

Unions will have to lock into the ACTU-Virtual Communities computer deal for ten years if they want to reap a profit from the venture, according to the latest details of the plan formerly known as Vizard.

The details have emerged as the ACTU presses ahead with its plan to trade control of its web-site to a private company in return for cheap home computers.

Delegates and officials will be expected to sell the computers in workplaces - with unions required to use their "best endeavours" to sign members up to the deal. This may place a legal requirement on state union branches, whether or not they back the deal.

And despite earlier assurances, unions will not have a right of veto over which companies will buy space to advertise their products on the Virtual Communities home page - which will be integrated with the union site.

Instead, the ACTU and Virtual Communities will set up a four member steering committee to oversee complaints about content - although the committee must have regard to "the commercial objective of Virtual."

Under the draft contract, circulated to ACTU affiliates, unions who devise their own on-line products must offer Virtual a first right of refusal. If no agreement is reached, the union may still offer the service - but only through a third party's site - they won't be able to host it themselves.

For further details of the plan see Michael Gadiel's Column in From Trades Hall

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  Issue 32 contents

Interview: His Daily Fix
Graham Richardson talks of his transition from national politics to talkback radio and his ongoing jobs as a fixer.

Politics: Requiem to the Third Way
The swing to Labor in Victoria shows clearly that once again Australian voters have rejected economic rationalism. The result, and the reasons for it, should worry John Howard.

International: A Common Struggle for Freedom
It may not get the headlines, but Western Sahara has some chilling similarities with East Timor.

Unions: Woolscour Workers say No to Peter Reith
Workers at Canobolas Wooltopping - a woolscour plant near Orange, in central west New South Wales, have just sent a message to Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith: thanks, but no thanks.

Legal: Outlawed Acts of Consicence
The recent boycotts in support of East Timorese indepndence highlights the extremism of Reith's second wave.

History: Was Manning Clark A True Believer
A Canberra history conference shines the spotlight on Australia's most famous historian.

Review: Paranoid Echoes
The calls to examine the Australian�Soviet documents in the Moscow Literary archives have grown in volume over the past year.

Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre
The latest issue of Labour Review - a resource for officals and students.

Satire: Kennett Boosts Chances: Two More Independents Dead
Caretaker Premier Jeff Kennett today admitted that voters perceived him as arrogant and out of touch, but insisted that they were wrong.

» Public Servants Seek Leave For Timor

» Goodbye Green Bans - Dumped by the Wave

» Government Rules Nobble Public Sector

» ACTU Pushes On With Privatised Portal

» Powerful New Years Eve Deal for TransGrid

» Banks Grill Staff on New Fees

» Off the Rails - Workers Gagged

» Staff Frustration Boils Over at Sydney Water

» Kennett Nose-Dive: Botsman Picks It

» Academics Fail Non-Union Deal

» Nike in Indonesia: Military Employed to Intimidate Workers

» The Laugh�s On Barry