Workers Online : Issue No. 72, 06 October 2000


Issue No 72		06 October 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Features
Interview: Taking It To The Union Busters
ACTU Assistant Secretary Richard Marles talks to Workers Online about turning back the anti-union sentiment growing in the business community, responsible unionism and the sense of fun to be found at the ACTU.

International: The White Knights
The International Labour Organisation has become the great hope for those fighting to give globalisation a human face. Australian Bob Kyloh is one of those working with trade unions within the ILO to make it happen.

Politics: Industrial Democracy for Australia
Glenn Patmore argues we need new forms of employee representation in the workplace to broaden employee participation.

Unions: Behind The Scenes
In a small office at Homebush Bay, as the world focused on all that was positive about our games, Unions 2000 and SOCOG officials worked tirelessly to ensure that no worker was ripped off. Chris Christoudoulou reports.

Satire: Parade of Icons �Could Have Included Even More Ex-Aussies� Say Critics
The selection of Greg Norman, Paul Hogan and Elle Macpherson to represent Australia in the �Parade of Icons� during the Closing Ceremony of the Sydney Games last night has prompted a storm of complaints from other famous former Australians.

Review: Elliott Smiths Figure 8
Smith is basically the secret love child of the fab four and it�s so blatantly obvious. That�s not a bad thing because one thing Lennon and McCartney were reknown for was there ability to pen catchy tunes.

Carr Congratulates Workers

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News

Serco Denies Collective Agreement

Interstate Rail Workers Rebel Against AWAs
Members of the Rail Tram & Bus Union held demonstrations at capital city stations this week, demanding British multinational Serco negotiate a collective agreement.
[ Full Story » ]

Australia Post Exposes Staff to Bomb Danger
A CEPU investigation has found Australia Post negligently exposes its workforce to threats from mail bombs and other dangerous materials sent through the postal system.
[ Full Story » ]

Alliance Builds Against Commonwealth Bank
Unions and consumer groups have joined forces in a national advertising and community action campaign against the former People's Bank.
[ Full Story » ]

Carr Lauds Union Movement For Golden Olympics
NSW Premier Bob Carr paid tribute at Labor Council last night to the workers, unions and volunteers who made the Olympic Games a resounding success.
[ Full Story » ]

Big Brother Unwelcome In Child Care Centres
Kiddie-webcams, which allow working parents to log onto a website to see their children in child care centres, have become the focus of a workplace surveillance controversy.
[ Full Story » ]

Council Workers Win Community Language Allowance
Eighteen months of hard work has resulted in a $13.14 per week Community Language Allowance for MEU members who are required to use second language skills in the workplace.
[ Full Story » ]

Fiji Facing Dictatorship
The leader of Fiji's union movement - Felix Anthony - warned today that the Interim Administration had started walking down the path to dictatorship.
[ Full Story » ]

Home Care Win Recognises Community Contribution
More than four thousand Home Care workers throughout NSW have just won a 3.5 per cent wage increase.
[ Full Story » ]

Pressures Mount on Truckies
The Transport Workers Union is calling on the Federal Government to introduce a system of licensing and protection for the industry through an enforceable code of practice.
[ Full Story » ]

Industrial Action Looms At IBM Global
Staff from IBM Global Services Australia held stop-work meetings around the country yesterday over stalled enterprise bargaining negotiations.
[ Full Story » ]

In Your Face Provocateurs
As Alice might have observed, the long-running Joy Mining Machinery dispute gets "curiouser and curiouser".
[ Full Story » ]

Putting A Stop To Workplace Intimidation
The Workers Health Centre and Labor Council are holding a forum to discuss the issues of workplace bullying and intimidation on October 16.
[ Full Story » ]

Australian History To Be Buried Alive
A major Australian business and labour archives is to be mothballed by the Australian National University. The Noel Butlin Archives Centre will be sealed off in its repository in the tunnel at Acton Underhill on the ANU campus.
[ Full Story » ]

Brits Look To Cuba For Health Solutions

Looking For Donnelly

Union Official Nominates For Telstra Board

End the Olympics?

We Should Be Proud

Firstly, I fess up. Right up to when the Games started I was an archsceptic. But in the afterglow of two brilliant, memorable weeks scepticism has given way to pride. For the NSW Labour Movement this is a great moment.

What characterised these Olympics and underpinned their success was the cooperation between the union movement, the state government, SOCOG and employers to create and deliver the facilities, infrastructure and organization needed to make the Games a stunning success.

This was done with fairness and workers responded by delivering on time and on budget, with enthusiasm and pride. One of the highlights leading up to the games had to be CFMEU Olympic Park delegate Mario Barrios running in the torch relay followed by 50 kids wearing t-shirts saying 'My dad built the Olympics.'

This was a union event from beginning to end. Sport may have been the focus of the last few weeks but there have been seven years of hard work and commitment with contributions from across the movement to precede it. We should be proud.

The Games gave other reasons for pride and optimism.

Just when you thought individualism had taken a pathological hold on society nearly 50,000 brilliant volunteers come out of the woodwork to prove that civil society and a sense of public responsibility are very much alive and well in Australia.

For Indigenous Australians the games were a triumph. From their mesmerizing contribution to the opening ceremony, to the phenomenon that is Cathy Freeman they provided the cultural soul that made the Games much more than a sporting carnival.

The fantastic public response to Cathy's performance and the stands taken by Savage Garden, Midnight Oil and Yothu Yindi at the closing ceremony show that reconciliation has a momentum of its own that will run over the top of the Federal Government's malicious and opportunist stance on race. Australia is moving on despite the shackles on us at the top.

The Games also provided sobering lessons for business. Large prominent employers like Telstra, Rio Tinto and the Commonwealth Bank have been trying to put union-busting in the mainstream of corporate behaviour. The Twenty Seventh Olympiad showed them unequivocally that working constructively with unions is the key to world's best practice. If the Workplace Relations Act had been the IR framework behind the Olympics these would have been a much different and much less enjoyable games.

Noel Hester
Editor