
Issue No 32		24 September 1999

News

Off the Rails - Workers Gagged

Relations between unions and Transport Minister Carl Scully continue to deteriorate with the State Rail Authority refusing to release employees to participate in Joint Consultative Meetings.

Management has written to the Australian Services Union telling it that the Committee - which has been in operation since 1978 - "is serving no purpose and involves unnecessary additional expenditure to the Authority."

"From my observation the employees who attend your JCC neither receive nor impart any benefit as a result of their attendance nor do they positively add to the consultation process or assist the Authority in implementing new initiatives," State Rail's general manager employee relations Bob Mackenzie says in the letter.

The Australian Services Union says it considers the latest move by SRA management as "another tactic to further erode democratic participation by trade unionists in the operation of this organisation through consultative mechanisms."

The blue over the consultative committees comes as rail union commenced what could become a series of strikes over the Carr Government's management of the rail system.

The ASU's Gary Sergeant told this week's Labor Council that State Rail management was "liberal" and pro-Reith".

"The workers have got to the stage where they have had enough", Sergeant said, while revealing that State Rail management was now moving to block the union's access to internal mail systems.

He also criticised Scully for spreading "dis-information" that there were three employees for every manager in State rail. Sergeant says that Scully is counting station masters as employees - where they are in reality "workers and trade unionists".

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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