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Justice, Applied Liberally
To think, Phillip Ruddock used to be a liberal.
Interview: Australia�s Most Wanted
The ACCC is the latest state agency to turn its guns on the construction union. National official, Dave Noonan, discusses the implications.
Industrial: The Fox and the Contractor
With new laws looming for �independent contractors�, Foxtel subbies have had the carpet pulled from under their feet, writes Nathan Brown.
Unions: Industrial Wasteland
A group of inner-Sydney veterans appear to be working to strip their families of retirement incomes. Jim Marr records their desperation.
International: Two Bob's Worth
German and British workers are participating in business decisions while WorkChoices locks Australians out of the conversation, writes Anthony Forsyth.
Economics: National Interest
John Howard claimed that interest rates would always be lower under a Coalition government than under Labor, Neale Towart crunchess the numbers.
Environment: The Real Dinosaur
Economic ignorance remains at the top and the critics are oblivious says Sol Power
History: Only In Spain?
The experiences of self management during the Civil War have been the one positive factor to come from that tragic event, and the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation thrives today.
Review: Clerk Off
Nathan Brown draws solace from some fellow social misfits.
 Boss Gives Dad the Finger
Amber's Law Pulps WorkChoices
Westfield Flogs Good Deal
Building Workers Spooked
Bankers to Train Assassins
Astroboy Blasts Off
First Global Deal Docks in Germany
Bans Stop the Press
Deportation for Pay-To-Work Tradesman
Telstra in Bush Bloodbath
Boss Punts Assaulted Teen
Ballots Stuffed By WorkChoices
Howard in a Spin
Extras � The Waterfront.
Activist's What's On!
Legends
Westie Wing
MLC Ian West ventures beyond Macquarie St and into the desert of the eco rats. The Soapbox
Testing Times
Former RLPA secretary and Newcastle Knights prop, Tony Butterfield, fires up over dawn raids. Obituary
Dare to Win
The union movement has lost an inspirational leader of working men and women, writes Jeana Vithoulkas Fiction
Tommy's Apprentice
Chapter Two - Tommy�s Tale.
Please Don�t Go
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News
Ballots Stuffed By WorkChoices
Federal Government moves, this week, reinforce fears WorkChoices is designed to make strike action virtually impossible.
As 107 workers were hauled before the courts in Western Australia, the Australian Building & Construction Commission (ABCC) was sabotaging bargaining claims and legal industrial action in two separate Victorian workplaces.
AMWU members' campaign at Metlabs hit a speed bump when ABCC lawyers intervened to oppose the union's application to hold a secret ballot.
In a similar move, Kevin Andrew's department supported an ABCC move to overturn a secret ballot among ETU members working for Wormald at the Laverton gas turbine power station.
ETU spokesperson Troy Gray described the ABCC move as signalling "the Government's clear intention to outlaw industrial action by any means possible."
The moves make a mockery of Kevin Andrew's claim the new laws "would not take away the right to strike."
The ETU's Gray sees it as "more of a Clayton's right to strike."
"Even if you do clear all the hurdles placed in front of you - secret ballots, appeals from the employer and government departments like the ABCC, delays in the timeframe- the minister has the ultimate power to call off the action if he so wishes," he said.
An ABCC spokesperson denied the commission was seeking to have its cake and eat it too by prosecuting individuals participating in unprotected action while challenging legal moves to strike.
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Issue 322 contents
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