
Issue No 71		15 September 2000

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News

Protesting Posties Blast Bosses in Swank Hotel

Hundreds of Australia Post workers looking for a modest Olympic Allowance rallied outside the posh Westin Hotel in Sydney's CBD yesterday where their senior managers had holed up for a luxurious Olympics fortnight.

The postal workers are looking for a $400 allowance for the games. This is identical to the allowance won by Telstra workers and by employees of Visionstream, a cabling and communications company. It is less than that being paid to a large number of NSW public sector workers.

Management have offered a measly $165 to a tiny number of workers - 450 - in Sydney, Homebush and Bondi.

The CEPU believes 7000 postal workers in the Sydney Metropolitan area will be affected by the increased workloads and inconvenience of the games. At the 1996 Atlanta games there was a 20 per cent increase in mail volume and a 10 per cent increase in post customers in the metropolitan area.

'Our members will have to change how they process, transport and deliver mail for the next three weeks. They also have to change their way of getting to work which will involve extra hours above the call of duty,' says the CEPU's Jim Metcher.

'We have been talking to management about the allowance since April. They gave us every impression they would pay the allowance but were just waiting to see what other public sector workers would be getting.'

Australia Post served notices issued by the IR Commission individually on their 13,000 NSW employees on the morning of the rally to prevent them taking action outside the Westin Hotel.

'The Westin Hotel in Sydney has rooms costing over $700 per night, before GST. While Australia Post Corporate Executives are happy to spend this kind of money on themselves and their corporate mates they deny postal workers one or two dollars an hour extra to work in unusually hectic and congested conditions,' says Jim Metcher.

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  Issue 71 contents

Interview: Surviving The Firestorm
After several years as the focus of some brutal politics Carmen Lawrence is back on the ALP front bench. She talks to Workers Online about her new portfolio, unions and the ALP and mud slinging in politics.

History: Unions, Sport and Community
Remember when sport was a fun way to relax after arduous labour? The fight for the eight-hour work day was based around a slogan that said, in part, eight hours work, eight hours play. The play was unpaid and unsung, but enjoyable.

Politics: Global Failures
Sharan Burrow told the World Economic Forum this week that the union movement acknowledges the benefits of globalisation but it's time to address the failures.

International: Mobile Workers
A global IT labour shortage is throwing up challenges for both the developed and developing world. Gerd Rohde, from the Geneva-based Union Network International, is working to strike a balance.

Unions: Stuffed or Stoned?
In a recent dispute at the South Blackwater Coal Mine in Central Queensland CFMEU members resisted the introduction of random drug testing in the absence of a better strategy to test impairment and not just lifestyle.

Review: A Perfect Circle- Mer de Noms
Peter Zangari believes the music world has moved on from the simplistic chords of Nirvana and Soundgarden and the grunge scene has been obliterated. But like most other things, especially music, it re-invents itself.

Satire: Silly 2000
Editors demand something happen: �We�ve got 300 Olympic pages to fill and everyone is training�.

» Protesting Posties Blast Bosses in Swank Hotel

» Mario Carries Torch For Workers

» Union Flag Flies High At Olympic Park

» International Passport for IT Workers

» Homecarers Strike Another Blow Against Outsourcing

» Alliances The Legacy of S11 Say Protestors

» Violence Rife Against Union Activists

» Call Centre Workers Compo Call Answered

» Better Pay, Big Screens and Ice Cream for Bus 2000 Drivers

» 'Appalling' Detention Centres Behind Riots

» Election of Burmese Official A Slap In The Face

» Away For The Games

» Sport

» Labour Review

» Tool Shed

» Listen To The Young

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