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Issue No. 331 03 November 2006  
E D I T O R I A L

From Green House to Glass House
History tells us that towards the end of most reigns of power the regime stops listening to the people, stops talking to them and reverts to crushes dissent. Events this week suggest this is where the Howard Government is now.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Common Ground
Nature Conservation Council director Cate Faehrmann on the fight against global warming and how unions and greens can learn from each other.

Industrial: A Low Act
The Low Paid. The Fair Pay Commission knows who pays them. We can do something about it as they will not.

Unions: The Number of the Least
Forget 666 - 457 is looming as the scariest number for Aussie workers and their families, Jim Marr writes.

Politics: The Smoking Gun
Hayek's henchman, Raplph Harris, goes to free market heaven, writes Evan Jones

Economics: Microcredit, Compulsory Superannuation and Inequality
They are supposed to ensure the wealth of well-being of individuals. Whats wrong with that? asks Neale Towart

Environment: Low Voltage
Nuclear Power and Prime Ministerial pronouncements are seriously short of a few volts, wrties Neal Towart

History: The Art of Social Justice
Tom Martin was a terrific cartoonist and part of a great tradition in labour movement history and culture, swrties Neale Towart.

Review: Work�s Unhealthy Appetite
It pays the bills � usually � but going to work should come with a warning, wrties Jackie Woods.

Culture: A Forgotten Poet
There is little information on the public record about the radical working class poet Ernest Antony, writes Rowan Cahill.

N E W S

 Godfrey Hirst Carpets Workers

 Lies, Damned Lies and the Shirkin' Gherkin

 Guests Share Backpay Bonanza

 Win, Win for Filipinos

 Honey, They Shrunk Our Pay

 No Sex Thanks, We're Asian

 Green Jobs to Beat Climate Change

 They're Going Out The Door

 Medibank Staff Go Under Knife

 Thompson Slams Door on Delo

 Merchant Bankers Pull Entitlements Stroke

 Green the New Black

 Councils Fight Off Shoring

 Acitivists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Robbo Goes Green
John Robertson's speech to the Walk Against Warming

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Ian West takes a look at a former public institution and its contribution to NSW.

L E T T E R S
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News

Godfrey Hirst Carpets Workers


Three hundred textile workers risk losing their redundancy entitlements if they refuse to sign condition-stripping AWAs after their employer went into receivership.

Godfrey Hirst Australia, in the process of purchasing carpet-maker Feltex's operation, has offered individual contracts with conditions inferior to those the workers had been receiving and claims to be free of redundancy or severance pay obligations if workers refuse to sign.

Their union says the Feltex workers and their families have already suffered extreme insecurity over the future of their jobs and entitlements and deserve better treatment.

"Now, when they are at their most vulnerable, the choice they have is to sign away their rights on an inferior AWA or have no job and no redundancy pay," said Textile Clothing and Footwear Union Victorian secretary Michele O'Neil.

The TCFUA has filed an application with the Federal Court alleging breaches of workplace laws covering freedom of association.

Victoria's Workplace Rights Advocate Tony Lawrence said this week he would investigate the legality of forcing the workers to sign AWAs as a condition of employment.

View the ad at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEX6VdxpD88


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