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Issue No. 326 29 September 2006  
E D I T O R I A L
F E A T U R E S

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.

N E W S

 Death Sites Under Construction

 Bank Pledge - Safe as Houses

 Brush Big Business: Keating

 Sydney the New Mumbai

 CFMEU Blocks Vets Sale

 Workers Go Cattle Class

 Pay for Work Scheme Floated

 Howard Blesses His Brethren

 Uni Flunks AWA Test

 Minchin Takes Back Door Route

 Solid Group Goes Grassroots

 Shrinking Act

 Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

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.

L E T T E R S
 Seditious Intention
 Botched Surgery
 Values Call
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Uni Flunks AWA Test


Sydney University has extended its deadline for condition-stripping AWAs in a bid to boost flagging take-up rates.

The University this week cancelled a September 28 cut-off date and, instead, told staff they could apply for individual contracts at any time.

Fifty university staff celebrated the backdown by staging a Tear-Up-Your AWA demonstration on the sandstone uni's Isabel Fidler Lawns.

"If staff sign these AWAs they stand to lose over 50 percent of their union-negotiated rights, including paid parental leave and sick leave," CPSU state branch secretary, John Cahill, told them.

"These AWAs are a disaster for anyone with a family, a mortgage or who has the misfortune to become seriously ill.

"The union agreement offers higher pay than the AWA over its life, as well as protecting key conditions that cannot be enforced under the AWA."

Sydney University was forced into offering AWAs by a federal government threat to slash funding.

Like most AWA employers, it hasn't offered individually tailored documents but pattern agreements with pay scales that reflect rates negotiated by the union.

The big difference is that most negotiated conditions have been taken out of the AWA and moved into university policy.

Cleaner and workplace delegate, Ralph Halden, said that meant they would be unenforceable and could be changed by the university at any time.


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