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  Issue No 34 Official Organ of LaborNet 08 October 1999  

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News

Anger at Imported Beds for Games Village


The Olympic athletes village will be furnished with imported goods made in South-East Asian non-union sweatshops, unions representing local workers have claimed.

The allegations were made in a resolution passed at the ALP State Conference calling on SOCOG and the Olympics Minister to address concerns about the sourcing of the furniture.

CFMEU organiser Brad Parker, who moved the conference resolution, says the concerns about imported furniture have emerged despite an agreement to award separate contracts for the beds, mattresses and room fittings to Australian companies.

The problem is that these firms are then sourcing the materials for the beds and fittings from overseas in a bid to minimise costs. Parker says only the mattresses are being wholly produced locally.

Games Uniforms Rubbery Figures

Meanwhile, the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union has challenged SOCOG claims that 60 per cent of Olympic uniforms are locally made.

TCFUA state secretary Barry Tubner says the statistics refer to the number of items of clothing, rather than the value. Locally made socks (counted individually rather than in pairs) have falsely inflated the SOCOG figures.

In dollar terms, Tubner has calculated that 84 per cent of the value of the uniforms will be made in off-shore factories in Fiji, Malaysia and Indonesia - although the union has been denied information about their exact whereabouts.

The union maintains that any garments that can be made in Australia, should be; and that any offshore production should be subject to union monitoring.

"Without such a union role in monitoring, any Code of Practice will merely act as a fig leaf to cover the most shameful parts of an exploited industry," Tubner says.


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 34 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: A Crack to the Skull
Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Nick Lewocki took on the Carr Government�s radical rail refrom agenda and walked away a winner. He looks back on the week the trains stood still.
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*  Economics: Green Backs and Dirty Dollars
Paul Ehlrich says the real culprit behind the environmental crisis isn't so much the huge numbers of people in the world or conspicuous over-consumption in the West but an economic system that confuses price with cost.
*
*  Unions: Tally Ho!
A landmark meat industry decision might not have the impact the reith cheer-squad hopes for.
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*  History: The Western Express
West Australian historians are undertaking a project to chronicle that state's rich rail history.
*
*  Republic: The Referendum: A Spot of Reading
John Passant looks a the propaganda passing as information in the lead-up to the referendum.
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*  Indigenous: Australia Snubs Nose at the UN
The United Nations General Assembly will be told that Australia has breached an international convention on racial discrimination that Malcolm Fraser�s Government ratified 24 years ago.
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*  International: Desert Flashpoint
The United Nations has confirmed that demonstrations were suppressed in Western Sahara last month.
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*  Review: Temper Democratic
Humphrey McQueen has been a fearless critic of received opinions across a range of subjects for many years, and as a consequence has been criticised or more often ignored in debates in Australia.
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*  Satire: Tax Cuts Come in the Nick of Time for Struggling Packers
Welfare groups have called upon on the Federal Government to bring forward the date of proposed capital gains tax cuts.
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*  Labour Review: What's New in the Information Centre
Read the latest issue of Labour Review, a resource for union officials and students.
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News
»  Shaw Slams Rio Tinto Decision
*
»  Conference Sizzles - Now for the Meat
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»  Cabinet Capers in the Dark Tower
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»  Anger at Imported Beds for Games Village
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»  Cowboy Behaviour at the Equestrian Centre
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»  Wanted: Hardened Hacks with Hearts
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»  Security Employers Break Law in West
*
»  Confronting Images on Display
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»  Rooting and Rocking for the Republic
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»  Organiser of the Year to be Announced November
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»  Fears for Timorese Who Got Out
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Columns
»  Guest Report
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Piers Watch
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Letters to the editor
»  Off With Their Funds!
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»  At the Child Care Coalface
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»  Walsh Bay Development Backed
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