*****
Ian Harper's journey through life in a parallel universe appears to be going smoothly, untroubled by the appearance of any low-paid people from the real world.
The reality challenged Harper expressed a wish to meet low-income earners a while back.
Harper appears to be troubled that what he wished for may actually come true.
So Harper has done what lots of ordinary people do when they want to meet someone - he's hired a PR agency.
Of course most low-income earners have access to a PR agency.
When dealing with Centrelink, or negotiating an AWA, ordinary folk are often known to get on the blueberry and talk media with the guys down at the agency.
And who else to have their finger on the pulse of what ordinary Australians think and feel, but some ponytail wearing, banana swallowing goose from Crows Nest or South Yarra.
It really shows what Harper's low pay commission is all about; a vehicle for bible thumping Harper to continue his mendacious hypocrisy unabashed, providing window dressing for the Federal Government that it is going through some sort of legitimate process, when it is a forgone conclusion that he is about sending a sizeable portion of the Australian citizenry off to a third world existence.
Exactly what sewer Harper emanated from remains unclear, yet the man who thinks sweat shops are a good idea, and that the people cooking his food, washing his dishes and scrubbing his toilets are overpaid, has decided to distance himself from any accountability with the Australian public.
His idea of 'meeting' people consists of sending some B grade PR flack out into the real world to sound out
The last time this was effectively used as a form of public administration was during the reign of Louis the XVI - the French king was fond of sending his musketeers out into the countryside to deliver the kings will at the business end of a barrel.
Unfortunately the technique embraced by Harper was so popular in Monarchial France that the citizenry rose up against the powers that were, leaving many who supported the Harper-Louis XVI method sans head courtesy of the astonishingly efficient guillotine.
While Harper's intellectual prowess remains untroubled by reality, common sense, or anything that's actually going on in front of his face, his sanity must be called into question if he thinks that the Fair Pay Commission can get away with public consultation consisting of sending some smiling idiot out to
This must be a fantastic contribution to making those of us who will be affected by the Low Pay Commission feel so included in the decision making process.
In fact, Harper's concern for us runs so deep that he doesn't want to be sullied by actually meeting us and hearing what we think.
We look forward to Harper sending a PR flack along to meet with the Federal Government, the Business Council of Australia, ACCI and Australian Business Limited, after all, he would in no way be biased against the ordinary people who merely have to survive on the basis of his decisions would he?
Besides, our Tool Of The Week is a busy man. It takes up a lot of time making dumb decisions that alienate and annoy the general public.
The shock move, which appears to fly in the face of Commisioner Ian Harper's desire to meet a low paid person, was revealed in Wollongong, last Thursday.
Not one of the five commissioners, handpicked by the Prime Minister to examine minimum pay rates, bothered to show up to advertised "public consultations".
Instead, they sent a flak from a Collins St public relations agency, Royce Communcations, to run the show.
The hired hand blocked the South Coast Labor Council from making a public submission on behalf of members and their families.
Last Friday, the Commission told Workers Online its members were too busy to meet Wollongong people.
"They (the commissioners) have had a very busy time consulting across stakeholders," Fair Pay Commission senior communications advisor, Sarah McAdie, said.
"They all have other jobs, and other roles that they play.
"Commissioners will not necessarily attend these meetings. It all depends on their schedules.
"There was never any undertaking that they would be at every consultation."
McAdie denied claims by one person who attended the Wollongong no-show that the Commission had "obviously" run back grounds checks on him.
The press is barred from Fair Pay Commission consultations and to gain entry, individuals have to register seven days prior to hearings.
"The people are googled to give us an idea of who we are talking to," McAdie said.
South Coast Labor Council secretary, Arthur Rorris, said the session had been advertised as an opportunity for locals to put their views to the commission.
"We did everything right because we wanted the voices of the thousands of families we represent to be heard," Rorris said.
"We rang up a week ahead and gave them the names of people attending but when we arrived we found that not one commissioner had turned up.
"We thought they would go through the motions but they are not even bothering to do that.
"Then this fellow from the pr company barred us from making a public submission. In the end, we walked out."
The Fair Pay Commission was appointed to set all award rates in Australia, and the minimum wage.
It took over from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission after the Prime Minister, Workplace Relations Minister and business spokespeople accused that body of being too generous.
The AIRC held public hearings but the Fair Pay Commission will only listen to submissions in secret sessions that cannot be reported.
The Commissioner, Ian Harper, was appointed after arguing that minimum wages were too high.
He once wrote a paper that contended Australia was at an economic disadvantage to the United States because it hadn't allowed sweat shops.
Harper, a committed Anglican, says he want to use the post to do "God's will".
The economist told an Australian Christian Lobby conference, last year, that he didn't know many low paid people.
He repeated that line in a national television interview and said he wanted to meet more battlers.
"I don't meet many low paid people in my line of work, so I've got to find ways of getting to that constituency," he said.
Harper indicated his round of public consultations would be used to provide him, and four fellow commissioners, with that education.
�F*** off my site,� screamed Garry Clark at two CFMEU officials responding to a public complaint about holes in fencing next to public land, which allowed local youngsters onto the sprawling building site.
Tim Vollmer and Dick Whitehead had been recording safety breaches, under NSW OHS Act provisions, when Clark turned up.
"He was very erratic, screaming at us, saying we had no right to be there," said Whitehead. "He definitely gets himself emotional."
Clark then launched himself at Vollmer, who was videotaping proceedings, wrestling with him in an attempt to grab the camera. The camera's microphone was broken in the attack.
Clark then padlocked the front gate, but the union officials left by the breach in the perimeter fence, which had sparked the initial complaint.
While inspecting the site Vollmer and Whitehead identified numerous fall hazards and problems with temporary scaffolding.
Whitehead said the problem with perimeter fencing was serious as many children had been injured and killed on building sites after hours.
"Any young kid would be attracted to play on a building site," says Whitehead. "That's why legislation says the site has to be secured."
Vollmer, whose neck and back was injured in the attack, said he would report the matter to Penrith police.
Sydney's Daily Telegraph splashed on the Kelly-Clark property portfolio, last weekend, reporting the Liberal MP and her husband owned eight homes around Queensland and NSW.
Radio Rentals sacked three union activists on the spot, last week, and tried to impose sub-standard AWAs on anyone left standing.
Stunned AMWU officials say the company has lied, torn up negotiated conditions, and employed a dodgy corporate restructure to further its income-slashing agenda.
Assistant national secretary, Glenn Thompson, said Radio Rentals had:
- refused to conclude a new collective contract, offering only an effective pay cut
- categorically denied its intention to impose individual contracts
- successfully applied, under Howard's new laws, to have the existing contract terminated
- introduced "sub-standard AWAs"
- sacked the elected delegate, with 30 years service, and two other activists, and,
- tried to change the legal identity of the employer from Radio Rentals to Walkers Stores, effectively eliminating rights to enforce service-based entitlements
Thompson said the three technicians, declared "redundant", had 30, 26 and 17 years service with Radio Rentals, respectively.
"They handed them cheques and walked them out the door. As a result of the collective contract being terminated, our delegate lost $86,000 in redundancy pay as well as his job."
Thompson described the pattern AWA, offered to 24 staff, as a "nasty piece of work" that effectively eliminated a range of core award protections.
"The AWA is a bare-bones agreement and anything not included is at the discretion of the company and can be abolished through company policy," he said.
He confirmed the employer, for AWA purposes, had been changed to Walker Stores Proprietary Limited.
AMWU members at Radio Rentals have not had any wage increase for three years.
When Workers Online published, workers were meeting to determine their response.
Meanwhile, disgusted South Australians rallied outside Radio Rentals, last Friday, in an effort to protect Radio Rentals staff from the ravages of John Howard's new workplace regime.
"We've got to draw public attention to what this company is doing," SA Unions secretary, Janet Giles, told Workers Online.
"Radio Rentals is an iconic business in this state. It's where most Adelaide people got their first television.
"They were a respected employer of good standing. It is very disturbing to see them using John Howard's laws to stop people collectively bargaining."
Workers Online understands Radio Rentals AWAs are the handiwork of Adelaide law firm, EMA.
Bel Air BP suspended part-time teenager, Bill Schultze, for two weeks after he failed to capture the registration plate of a petrol thief, earlier this year.
With no security cameras, staff were required to write down the registration numbers on drive-off merchants.
Last week, staff were contacted in writing by BP Human Resources with notification that the formerly independent outlet would by acquired by a BP subsidiary called, No 1 Riverside Quay.
They were invited to attend an information session and told that continued employment would hinge on signing on a non-negotiable AWA that slashed base rates from $9.09 to $7.17 an hour.
BP said it was cutting the hourly rate to compensate for petrol stolen during 'drive offs'.
Bill's father, Adelaide policeman Peter Shultze, attended the information session and told Workers Online the company representative refused, point blank, to negotiate any feature of the AWA.
"We asked them if refusal to sign the contract in its current form would lead to the offer of employment being refused and they confirmed if Bill didn't sign there would be no job," his father said.
Given a week to consider the contract, Bill contacted his union, the AMWU and the family approached Adelaide MP Kate Ellis .
Ellis asked the Prime Minister, in Parliament, if he was aware of the position facing the 17 year-old schoolboy.
Peter Shultze said positive support from the general public had been fantastic and a big support to the whole family.
"The AMWU had a meeting with Bill and talked through some issues and helped make him feel better about his future and the whole situation.," he said.
"Bill's not going to sign the AWA and won't get the job, but he's getting something lined up in the hospitality industry. He certainly realised the value of union membership," he said.
The move threatens almost 500 jobs from the Concord Service Centre, which has already seen 90 jobs disappear this year.
Employees have been working until 10 o'clock at night, as well as weekends, to cover positions already cut, and have reacted angrily to the news jobs could be outsourced to an offshore operation.
"We have done everything in our power to ensure we have done the right thing by Westpac," says Financial Sector Union delegate Carmel Bourke. "It's a slap in the face because even after everything we've done it's not good enough."
"I don't think they can do anything better, it's just cheaper.
"People are very worried. They have lives. They have children and mortgages to think of."
According to Bourke the targeted Transactions and Unsecured Lending unit (TULO) at the Concord centre provides "enormous" support to branches and is important for IT skills development.
The unit handles sensitive information including dishonoured cheques, deceased estates, subpoenas, electronic payrolls and some electronic and internet banking operations
If the proposal goes ahead, information stored in India would not be protected by privacy laws
FSU members are launching a campaign to pressure Westpac into abandoning its proposal, and for the introductiuon of laws that would disclose where customer's information was processed and to ensure banks had customer's permission before they could process information offshore.
.
Bourke says she fears that in, in the future, even more jobs could be targeted for offshore outsourcing.
The Bank used John Howard�s IR legislation to claim union members had tried to �coerce� financial market figures to intervene in collective bargaining on their behalf.
Justice Madgwick ruled that intent to coerce required "illegality or illegitimacy amounting to unconscionable conduct".
He said there was no such intent in the FSU's move to ask shareholders and other market players to intervene with the employer.
The court had been told the FSU had encouraged 150 of the bank's 36,000 employees to attend its 2004 AGM as shareholders or proxies, when they should have been at work.
Westpac also alleged the FSU breached the Workplace Relations Act by providing inadequate notice of a bargaining period, and including matters that did not relate to the employment relationship.
Justice Madgwick rejected all its claims.
FSU state secretary, Geoff Derrick, said the challenge to shareholder activism should never have come before the court.
He described Justice Madgwick's decision as a "landmark ruling on a right that shouldn't have been in doubt".
"This case means all unions, including ours, have the right to use shareholder activism to pursue legitimate industrial and social objectives," Derrick said.
"They have lost their father and the Australian Government is trying to let employers off the hook for killing workers," says Marlene Shores. "Safety laws need to be toughened and penalties increased for those that do the wrong thing, not making it easier for employers to profit while killing working people.
"Unions are the best protection working people have in creating a safe workplace, if they strip away the rights of unions it is working people that will suffer."
Ronnie Shores was 43 when he was killed on the Cross City Tunnel job.
The CFMEU is currently prosecuting builder Baulderstone Hornibrook over the incident.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson accused the Federal Government of colluding with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to water down proposed national OHS laws.
The ACCI tried to claim four guiding principles underpinning any proposed federal OHS laws were merely a "guide".
When the Feds appeared to agree with them NSW premier Maurice Iemma withdrew NSW representatives from a national working party on the new laws.
NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, John Della Bosca, said the Iemma Government would not allow national discussions on workplace safety laws to be hijacked by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"NSW is willing to discuss harmonisation of Australia's workplace safety laws as long as those discussions are based on the principle that safety standards will not be reduced," says Della Bosca. "I cannot stand by as this Liberal Party lobby group, headed by Peter Reith's former chief of staff, attempts to impose a Work Choices approach to workplace safety."
All governments previously agreed on the four principles that NSW is insisting upon:
1/ The use of a tripartite approach, where the concerns and suggestions of the States, unions and employer groups are properly considered;
2/ Observance of COAG's directive that there is no reduction in safety standards or current levels of support for injured workers;
3/ A considered analysis of the implications for compliance efforts required by employers, and regulators to ensure any increased consistency extends to enforcement of standards; and
4/ Proper consideration be given to the resource implications for employers, and also regulators involved in administering any increase in uniform laws.
That was the excuse offered by Australian Provincial Newspapers print general manager, Garry Osborne, when he was tracked down by official, Danny Dougherty, last week.
"This is an international communications company and it can't fulfill its responsibilities to sacked staff because it has lost a phone number," Dougherty said.
"When I rang Osborne on his mobile he wanted to know why we were so agitated and said he couldn't alert us because he had lost our phone number."
APN, a division of Tony O'Reilly's Dublin-based Independent News and Media, canned the jobs of 30 Ipswich printers and 60 part time inserters, last week.
It will move printing of the city's Queensland Times newspaper to Sunshine Coast facilities and has indicated anyone who transfers will have to sign an AWA.
Dougherty said the Queensland Times had printed in Ipswich since 1867 and to dump the operation, without warning or discussion, was an insult to loyal locals.
"APN has taken millions of dollars out of Ipswich, in profits, but won't even talk about local jobs," he said.
It will cease its Ipswich printing operation in December.
Most of the 60 on-call inserters will receive no redundancy payments. Members of that section of the workforce, who have been with APN for five or more years, will get maximum payouts of $1000.
Dougherty said ANP's failure to notify the union breached commitments given to Queensland staff.
The AMWU has a hard copy of a company's power point presentation at which it undertakes to notify the union of job losses.
APN is Australasia's largest operator of regional newspapers and radio stations. It also has interests in pay tv and digital media.
Cabin crew for Qantas-owned Jetstar's fledgling international service are being forced to sign Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) which pay up to $8200 less than collective agreements.
The move follows Dixon's comments AWAs would be used in parts of Qantas, sidestepping negotiations with unions.
It was recently revealed Dixon and Chief Financial Officer Peter Gregg would, together, receive an extra $12 million for continuing their contracts.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the situation highlighted the unfairness of the Howard Government's industrial relations changes.
"Jetstar is part of a profitable company. Qantas made $670 million last year and has just upped the entitlements of its senior executives by $12.2 million," Burrow said.
In Qantas's profit announcement last week, Dixon singled out the flight attendants' union, the FAAA, as a difficult union to deal with.
"They are the same group who threatened Qantas quite aggressively last year when we were doing an AWA, and we just don't have to deal with people like that," he said.
"We do have to deal with them in Qantas, but we certainly don't have to inflict them on Alan (Joyce, Jetstar CEO)."
Dixon said AWAs would not be the major industrial tool in Qantas, as it was just one of a number of industrial implements.
More than 100 casino workers beat drums, blew horns and trumpets and chanted their opposition to management stalling on wages at a noisy 4am shift change.
It was the first in a number of colourful shift change protests that entertained gamblers and guests of the ritzy complex throughout the day.
LHMU representatives have been trying to negotiate a new collective contract since last December.
The existing agreement expired in June and wages, for more than 2000 low-paid Sydneysiders, are at the root of the stand-off.
Croupier, Sharon Eurlings, called on her boss to share massive profits with the people who had helped create them.
"By not agreeing to a decent wage increase and string out these talks, casino proprietors are gambling with our families," she said.
Star City is the largest employer in Sydney's CBD.
More than 80 percent of its croupiers, cleaners, waiters, chefs, tradespeople and security officers are members of the LHMU.
Sydney Uni vice chancellor, Professor Gavin Brown, admits they are offering the AWAs so they can pocket $13 million in Federal government funding.
"Examples from other sectors suggest that staff will be properly cautious," says Professor Brown.
The AWAs, which were offered to staff via an email, contain a non-guaranteed 6% performance bonus, while making it easier to sack staff and take disciplinary action
A statement from the university says the offer is to ensure that the University of Sydney complies with the Federal Government's Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements, which ties $13million worth of funding to the AWAs being offered.
The statement also said staff taking up AWAs accepted "risks of simplified procedures for disciplinary action and employment termination".
Other conditions at risk include all leave arrangements; academic freedom; and no access to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to arbitrate disputes says Michael Thomson, President of the NTEU Branch at the University of Sydney.
"Universities should be about excellence in teaching and research, not about ideological warfare," says Thomson.
Like all other Universities, the University of Sydney is required to offer AWAs to all staff by a 30 August deadline in order to be eligible for its share of a $260 million pool of funding.
The proposed law, introduced to parliament last week, opens up the possibility of workers being pushed onto sham "contracts" where they would have to pay for their own holidays, sick leave, super and insurance.
It offers no protections to contractors who wish to negotiate collectively with the big end of town.
According to the ACTU, the central problem in the Independent Contractors Bill, is that it fails to define the difference between genuine contractors and employees.
ACTU president, Sharan Burrow, described that as a "fundamental flaw".
"It will see employers contracting out their workforces and put the onus on individual workers to go through lengthy and expensive court processes to protect their entitlements," she said.
The Independent Contractors Bill delivers a wishlist to the ICA, a right wing front organisation pretending to represent independent contractors.
Workers Online lifted the lid on the ICA, last week, revealing it was supported by 0.01 percent of its potential membership, at best.
While ICA executive director, Ken Phillips, refuses to divulge membership numbers, he told Senate Estimates he had the support of a "couple of hundred" people.
According to the ICA's own propoganda, there are more than 1.9 million independent contractors in Australia.
Unions have panned the contractors legislation as part of a sustained assault on living standards and workplace rights, spearheaded by WorkChoices.
Phillips told the Senate his ICA fully supported Canberra's contractors law.
Phillips and ICA founder, Bob Day, have strong links with the anti-worker, HR Nicholls Society, founded by Peter Costello.
Day combines his advocacy for independent contractors with his job as head of the Housing Industry Association, an industry body whose members employ thousands of contractors.
Sub-contractors successfully called on the government to provide the police to attack construction workers in Pohang in Korea, who have been striking since July 1.
"The government has sent in thousands of riot police to not only stop the strike but also any demonstration the union coordinates even though it has gained legal permits to hold rallies and marches," says a spokesperson for the local Pohang construction workers union.
The union says police violence has resulted in serious injuries to several members and has caused a death and a miscarriage.
On August 1, 2006, Ha Jeun Keun, a 42 year old member of the Pohang local union died due to a sever beating he suffered by the riot police during a legal demonstration organized by the Korean Federation of Construction Unions.
Witnesses stated that the police repeatedly beat Ha Jeung Keun in the head with their metal shields.
On August 10, the union announced at a press conference the wife of one of the union members who was participating in a
sit-down demonstration miscarried as a result of violent confrontation with the riot police.
Despite the strike, which began on July 1, negotiations between the union and the sub contractors are still proceeding.
The union's main demands are a 15% increase in wages, five-day work week, and better working conditions.
National Industrial Relations Forum 2006
Ends with cocktail evening
Fair Go From Here?
2nd in the 'Fair Go' conference series
Hosted by the Australian State and Territory Governments, this one-day event provides an opportunity for employers, workers, social commentators and academics to engage in constructive and open debate about the real impact of the federal Work Choices legislation on the Australian workplace.
The forum provides an affordable opportunity to hear a balanced and broad range of views from reputed experts in academia and advocacy and will discuss the implications of the federal government's industrial relations changes examine ways of working under these changes and the implications for IR in practice and explore ways forward in the new IR environment.
Date: Thursday 24th August 2006
Location: Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney
Time: 9.30am - 5.10pm
Conference website: www.iceaustralia.com/ir
Fair Go website: www.fairgo.nsw.gov.au/Conference/index.html
Conference Secretariat:
ICE Australia
Email: [email protected]
Concert of solidarity with Iranian Bus drivers
The International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker Communist Party of Iran is organizing a concert of solidarity with workers of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company in particularly and generally workers in Iran. This night of solidarity focuses on fundraising for as many as 44 sacked bus workers and their families. The aim of the night is also raising public awareness towards unconditional returning of these sacked workers back to work, and freeing Osanloo, President of the executive board of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company. (Sherkate Vahed Otobosrani Tehran va Hoomeh).
The Iranian singers will in solidarity and support of workers of Tehran and suburbs United Bus Company, presents a very happy night to the audiences.
Speakers from workers union including Andrew Ferguson the State Secretary of the CFMEU and Robert Coombs the Branch Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia will in support of these workers speak at the function.
Foods and drinks will be available in the hall.
Place: Granville Youth & Community Recreation Centre, 34 Memorial Drive, Granville
When: Saturday 26th August
What time: starting 7pm up to 12pm
Entry fee:
� Adult $ 15
� Free for children under the age of 10
� Half fee for children over the age of 10
Please book - phone Nazeri on 0411-553-152
Rally for WA Workers
Sydney rally to support workers on the Mandurah railway project. 107 workers face fines of $28,600 and legal fees under the Howard Government's new work laws for taking industrial action.
Solidarity rally: protest the prosecutions
When: 10am, Tuesday, 29 August, 2006
Where: Trades Hall, 377 Sussex St, Sydney
Make Life Fair Everywhere
September 20, Wednesday,
Union-Aid Abroad APHEDA Annual Dinner
6.30pm for 7pm start
Petersham RSL (7 Regent St)
More info: 02 9264 6343 or [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):
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
5 - 7pm Drinks followed by DINNER
7 - 11pm CONCERT
Combined Unions Choir
Bob and Margaret Fagan
Mark Gregory
Jumping Fences
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]
Pope Talks IR
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])
There's a rumour going around Australia that Sol Trujillo is doing his job as the chief executive officer of Telstra for "love".
Yep and Mary's my sister and Bob my dead uncle.
Mr Trujillo has just announced that thousands more of the public telephone boxes located in crucial spots for use in emergencies and for everyday use by travellers, tourists, the homeless and other people unable or unwilling to own a mobile telephone, are systematically being disconnected.
The red boxes which have provided a sense of security for parents whose children travel long distances to school are all being removed.
And let's not forget it was Telstra that wanted to get rid of providing discounted telephone services for the around the clock "lifeline" call centres.
There is no such thing as "free love".
Of the 50,000 Telstra employs Mr Trujillo's plans are to get rid of 25,000 within five years or so.
The government regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, have
been unsuccessful in negotiations with Telstra that would provide for the maintenance of standards and competitors bring able to access the monopoly owned cable infrastructure at reasonable prices.
It was not good luck or new ideas that made Telstra a billion dollar profiteer.
Telstra shareholders are taking a class action following reports provided in the second half of last year that showed nefarious practices including the non-disclosure of the true state of affairs in the company.
What's love got to do with running a Telco that scoffs at the general populus?
Mt Trujillo's message is clear. Australians will never be allowed the Telco services that have been readily available in other countries for years unless Telstra can continue to hold onto the ways to rip off competitors and ultimately all consumers.
Indeed, there is no sound of that nebulous stuff called "love" running down any cable copper networks anywhere in Australia.
Gorillas may be lustful but they do not love.
Kathryn Pollard, NSW
It's clear that a 'roll back' position is politically untenable, indeed, the system that WorkChoices demolished was itself the result of Senate amendment to an earlier wave of anti-union legislation.
The Holy Grail is a viable alternative that protects workers rights while ensuring a dynamic and vibrant economy that creates secure jobs that underpin a healthy community.
To its credit the union leadership is approaching this challenge in a systematic way. A group of senior union leaders are finalising their report after a fact-finding mission to Europe and North America.
These recommendations will be debated at the October ACTU Congress before becoming official union policy. Those unions affiliated to the ALP will then have the opportunity to press elements of the package into the platform Labor will take the people at the ALP National Conference in early 2007.
This is no small task - what is being designed is the next system of work laws to govern the nation.
The restoration of fair dismissal rights, enforceable bargaining rights and a fair process for determining the minimum wage are key elements of this new agenda. Debate here will revolve around workability rather than ideology.
But a more fundamental question is the debate is over the industrial relations regime that delivers these rights - whether the movement signs up to the Howard Government's vision of a unitary system or maintains the dynamic federation of a federal-state arrangement.
This is one debate that may get little public attention - we know that the composition of federal-state relations will have little impact on voters. But this does not mean it is not significant to the future of the movement.
Proponents of the unitary system talk of 'modernisation', that a national economy needs one set of rules and regulations for the workplace. On the face of it, this argument has merit, a practical sign that unions are prepared to modernise. Scratch the surface though, and the argument falls down.
In an era of free market extremism, the state systems form a buffer, not just for the workers they protect, but for the ideas behind them. As WorkChoices strip back rights and conditions, the NSW IRC is delivering minimum wage increases, maintaining harmonious work relations and enforcing its legislative mandate to put fairness in to the workplace.
As State Labor Government's around the nation are discovering, these systems are one of their strongest assets in laying out their credentials to govern.
Cashing these in for a shot at running the national economy is a big gamble. Yes, you may gain power for a few terms, but then the pendulum swings back to the Tories the entire population will be at their mercy. Why would unions prefer hedging on the state systems where they have had far more electoral success?
Beyond these political considerations, the jury is also out on the economic merits of a unitary system - according to the Productivity Commission, there is 'little pay-off' in a unitary system.
Further, the Productivity Commission argues that 'horizontal competition' between the Commonwealth and the states is healthy for the national economy, allowing new approaches to be trailed in one jurisdiction and then spread nationally.
Think of some of the recent advances from workplace surveillance protection to gender pay equity - devised in NSW, trialled here, then refined and adapted in the other states. Conversely, conversion of casual employment to secure work has been won at a federal level and then applied by state jurisdictions. The advances have ebbed and flowed between systems, but they have all been in a positive direction.
In this context it is easy to see why big business wants to see an end to the state systems where workers rights have been seeded and nurtured. Understanding the union movement's readiness to give them away is harder to fathom.
Peter Lewis
Editor
Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
© 1999-2002 Workers Online |
|