Heading the call for Prime Ministerial action was the union that has most borne the brunt of Reith's class warmongering, the MUA.
'The MUA calls on this hapless minister to resign and payback the missing $50,000 and failing this the Prime Minister should demonstrate some leadership and sack him,' MUA NSW Branch Secretary Robert Coombs says.
PSA general Secretary Maurie O'Sullivan says heads would roll if such a scandal embroiled a public servant.
'There is no way he or she would survive. I can assure you that John Howard would not be going into bat as he is doing for Mr Reith,' he says.
'We are witnessing the most abject display of a senior minister absolutely abrogating responsibility. Peter Reith this morning snorted and snored and choked and coughed and farted as he tried to stumble through a minefield of accountability. He talked about the 'pin' attached to his phonecard, If, by some remote chance, he has any vestige of decency left in him, there is one thing he should do with his pin and that is he should pull it.'
Labor Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Arch Bevis also called on Reith to step down pending the outcome of a police inquiry and repayment of the outstanding $49,000.
He said Reith's attitudes and actions towards ordinary Australian workers provide a telling contrast to the Minister's performance over his telecard.
'Peter Reith justified the mass sacking of 2000 Australian waterfront workers because he alleged they were 'rorters'.'
'For example, on10 March 1998 he claimed these workers were 'rorting' the system for just seeking a wage increase of$90 a week. Peter Reith's actions have cost the taxpayer an average of $192 per eek for five years.'
by John Coombs, MUA National Secretary
On October 10 the full bench of the Federal Court dismissed an appeal by the minister to suppress secret cabinet documents relating to the Government's role in the waterfront conspiracy. No doubt the minister will appeal to the High Court, but he is only delaying the inevitable. The courts could well force the Government to release its confidential documents about his role in the murky affair.
The documents by Dr Stephen Webster centre on the diabolical plot to train industrial mercenaries in Dubai to take over the wharves once the entire MUA workforce had been sacked.
In the lead up to the mass sackings the Workplace Relations Minister ran a propaganda campaign in the media, plugging the 'rort of the day' on his official website and distributing The Fat Little Book of MUA Rorts far and wide. The irony has not escaped the media.
"In the light of his attacks on union rorts Peter Reith's political career should be over. He showed contempt for taxpayers' money for at least five years - a rort a day for 1826 days.... He has kept his job, while demanding employers have a right to sack errant workers for less." ("Phone Scam Strips Reith of Credibility", The Australian, 12/10/00)
"It was the docks dispute that cemented Mr Reith in the unofficial portfolio of chief rort buster... Yesterday, Mr Reith's long career as a serial rort-buster came home to roost. Leading a debate in parliament, Labor's finance spokesman, Mr Lindsay Tanner, said Mr Reith's behaviour was "awash with double standards". (Rorts Book back to haunt Reith", The Financial Review 12/10/00)
Of course, Peter Reith is not the first minister to take on the MUA by running the line of rorts on the waterfront only to have it backfire. MUA members have not forgotten the ignoble end of the former minister for transport John Sharp. Second only to Reith for wharfie bashing, Sharp's political career came unstuck over rorting his travel allowance in 1997. And now a third union basher Health Minister Dr Wooldridge looks set to follow in his Coalition colleagues footsteps for wining and dining at the taxpayers expense. The bill? Around $35,000.
FSU National Assistant Secretary Peter Riordan says a social charter is necessary to create a balance between sustainable growth for banks, customer needs and employee rights.
'A social charter would include minimum service standards for customers, guaranteed access to banking facilities for all Australians and an ongoing monitoring of fees and charges,' he says.
The campaign by a growing broad based alliance of unions and community groups against the Commonwealth Bank intensified this week with lunchtime rallies around the country outside prominent branches.
In Melbourne over fifteen hundred Commonwealth Bank customers signed a petition in a couple of hours protesting the bank's declining service. Thousands of small shareholders have given their proxies to the FSU in advance of the bank's AGM later this month.
Meanwhile Commonwealth Bank management has agreed to recommence talks with the FSU with the aim of finalising a collective agreement for members.
The new and intensive timetable of EBA talks got underway this week, following a recent Federal Court injunction on CBA's offer of individual contracts to 22 000 staff and industrial action by thousands of FSU members.
"Now that the CBA isn't distracted by preparing individual contracts, we are hopeful that it will be more committed to negotiating in good faith and addressing member concerns about staff, pay and targets," Peter Riordan said.
Banks in the bad books
A study by the Financial and Consumer Rights Council found that anger over bank fees, branch closures and the impact of electronic banking has hit a record high. Feelings of distrust and exploitation were overwhelming, according to the report. Customers particularly expressed resentment toward rising fees and charges, especially previously free ATM, phone and internet charges. The complaints pointed to a lack of information about transaction fees and free transactions offered.
The test case was run by APESMA on behalf of Stephen Craig, a member of the Associations Architects branch in NSW.
Mr Craig had been made redundant in 1999. Neither his contract of employment, nor the award that covered him at the time, contained provisions that entitled him to severance pay on redundancy.
APESMA argued that in legislating subdivision (d), division (iii) of the Workplace Relations Act of 1996, Parliament sought to provide for employees without access to awards, certain minimum requirements, including severance pay.
These provisions refer to Australia's obligations under article 12 of the Termination of Employment (ILO) Convention. APESMA argued that an employee's entitlement to receive severance pay on redundancy is entrenched in article 12 of the Convention, to which Australia is a party.
Despite strong opposition from Mr Craig's former employer, and from the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business, Reg Hamilton from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Bob Ironmonger from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry-who each intervened in the case- the Commission agreed with each of the arguments put forward by APESMA.
In handing down his judgement, Commissioner Harrison said "In my opinion the intention of the provisions of sections 170FA, FB, FC and FD is to provide employees with access to severance payments where they are not available as an award entitlement."
Legal Officer, Louise Beard, said the decision has significant implications for all employees and employers in Australia.
"It means that as the law now stands, all employees who are made redundant are entitled to receive severance payment in line with the minimum TCR standards.
"This is great news for APESMA members, particularly the Managers who are award free and whose contracts of employment are silent on the issue of redundancy or severance pay," she said.
'There are probably going to be some employers who aren't too happy with the decision though.'
"But it is about time all employees in Australia were given a legally enforceable right to severance pay- it's the least an employer can do in a situation where an employee is made redundant: They lose all their accrued entitlements, they suffer a break in the continuity of service and the inconvenience or hardship of finding another position," Beard said.
The APESMA member concerned, Stephen Craig, said he couldn't be happier with the result.
"It wasn't about the money but it was about the principle...It was a bit stressful going through this, but it was definitely worth it." he said.
"I feel I have done something worthwhile in my role in setting this precedent." said Craig.
Their counterparts at three BHP NSW coal operations are meeting to set to endorse a 7-day stoppage from Wednesday 18 October. The strikes involve workers at BHP's Central Queensland Crinum and Gregory coal mines and the Hay Point Coal Loader and the Illawarra's Appin, Tower and Cordeaux collieries. Enterprise agreements have expired at all these operations.
CFMEU General President Tony Maher says mineworkers have become increasingly frustrated with BHP's "stonewalling in negotiations. The company is not fair dinkum. Our members are outraged that BHP is refusing to seriously address our claims at a time when the company has never had it so good".
Maher also accused the company of lining its executives' pockets while denying their workers.
"BHP's chief executive Paul Anderson has pocketed $7.8 million for the year and BHP's directors have given themselves a 20% increase. Is it any wonder that the BHP mineworkers are so outraged and determined to fight for their fair share", says Tony Maher.
Maher said that BHP has recorded a $1.8 billion profit in coal over the past two years - "underwritten by a 54% increase in Australian coal mineworkers productivity in the past two years and a 38% reduction in our workforce. That performance alone entitles us to the 15% wage increase we are seeking over the next two years".
"But when you add in the extra hundreds of millions in windfall profits BHP is making from the lower Australian dollar (BHP's coal export contracts are written in American dollars, so the further the Aussie dollar declines, the greater the windfall profits for BHP) and the forecast price increase for Australian coal exports - then this company's refusal to at least share some of its gain with its workers after we have had years of pain, is scandalous". Tony Maher pointed out that the most conservative forecasts are for a 5% ($US2 a tonne) increase in coal prices. "Coal producer QCT Resources, the target of a BHP takeover bid, predicts a $US3 a tonne increase. This would mean additional profit gains of between $100 million to $150 million for BHP from its existing operations. BHP has the capacity to pay what its workers deserve", he said.
Organisers say workers really enjoyed the break, which highlighted the problems of stress and fatigue caused by increased working hours. Mr. Michael Costa, Labor Council Secretary, said "the latest union research continues to show that workers are working longer hours and their health and family life is suffering". Union sponsored research shows:
Responding to the report TWU State Secretary Tony Sheldon has called on the Minister for Workplace Relations, Mr Peter Reith to urgently adopt and implement the reports industrial recommendations.
"It is clear from Parliament's Managing Fatigue in Transport, Beyond the Midnight Oil report that if we are ever going to be able to reduce the number of people needlessly killed and injured in fatigue related accidents on our roads, then the Federal Government is doing to have to regulate and protect the terms and conditions of employment of drivers in the long distance trucking industry," Mr Sheldon said.
"In short, if the Government is serious about saving lives on our roads they should be immediately introducing legislation providing drivers with the right to collective industrial agreements and identifying enforceable minimum freight rates payable to all drivers involved in the industry."
TWU evidence to the Parliamentary inquiry made clear that the Government's current industrial regime and repeated refusals to provide drivers with minimum industrial protection is having a direct impact on both the safety of drivers and all other road users.
'Indeed, no one on the reports committee tried to deny that industrial agreements negotiated under Mr Reith's laws that require drivers to increase their average truck speed from 75kph to 90 kph just to maintain their earnings are contrary the safety and welfare of all road users,"says Tony Sheldon.
'In addition to supporting the union's call for legislative protection for drivers, the TWU is also calling on the Government to make all existing industrial agreements, including Australian Workplace Agreements, open to public scrutiny and review by industry and occupational health and safety experts."
"Obviously, all existing agreements that are found contrary to the safety of both drivers and all other road users should be immediately declared void," Mr Sheldon said.
Grace Grace, the assistant secretary since 1995 takes over from John Thompson. The QCU represents about 400,000 Queensland workers in 44 affiliated unions.
Grace was born in 1958, one of six daughters of Italian immigrants. She was a delegate for the Queensland State Service Union, has worked as an Industrial Officer for the FSU's Banking Division and played the same role at the QCU for four years.
'Improving people's wages and working life will continue to be the priorities for the Queensland union movement in the 21 century,' Grace says.
'As QCU general Secretary I will be promoting the organizing model of unionism, which gets things happening more in the workplace rather than at a central union level. Strong active unionism in the workplace is the key to recruitment and retention of members and I will be providing support to QCU affiliates to achieve that outcome.'
'In terms of the union movement's relationship with the ALP, I will be working to maintain mutual respect and understanding. We will have our differences from time to time, but within a framework of respect and understanding we should be able to handle this and move on.'
by Rowan Cahill
Also on hand helping boost picket line morale were Senator John Faulkner, former ACTU President Jennie George, and AMWU National Secretary Doug Cameron.
On Wednesday a marathon session in the AIRC moved the disputing parties close to resolution. A meeting of the 60 workers involved (members of the AMWU, AWU, and CEPU) will hear a progress report today (Friday) from their unions.
It is understood that while there are some outstanding matters requiring arbitration, the company has agreed to drop huge damages claims against prominent unionists, an issue central to settlement.
Providing scabs introduced during the dispute are removed, there will be a return to work beginning October 23.
Lightening the tedium of picket line life, there was some unexpected comic relief on Tuesday.
For over a month the Tasmanian based professional scab Bruce Studley Townsend has been at the Moss Vale factory with a team of interstate cronies.
Their presence aggravated the dispute, moving the unions and the company further apart.
Townsend has a long history of anti-union activity, and is a veteran of the Mudginberri, Burnie Pulp and Paper Mill, and Patrick disputes.
He supplies non-union labour, has a record of infiltrating union meetings and picket lines, and is proud of his surveillance skills. Video-surveillance is a speciality, and this technique has been much used by his Moss Vale team.
Most of all Bruce is tough. He has a scorpion tattooed on his left arm.
At Moss Vale the man who calls himself Bruce Townsend is known to the picketing workers as King Scab.
Tuesday was not his day. On his way to work he inexplicably stopped his late model Fairlane, with its black tinted windows, about 50 metres from the picket line, and in the middle of the road.
The men on the line looked up, and yawned; King Scab was about to make yet another ostentatious run through the Supreme Court restrained line.
It had been like this for a month. Scabs in, scabs out; like yoyos looking for trouble. Monotonous.
The car idled in the middle of the road for a while. Then the engine gunned, and King Scab was off in reverse in a blue cloud of burning rubber.
Some 50 or so metres later King Scab apparently decided to show the unionist yokels a thing or two. How about a handbrake controlled skid turn, so he could keep going away from the line, but in forward gear, and without loss of momentum?
A top idea.
But this was not Webb Dock. It was a country road. And King Scab lost it. The Fairlane whipped off the road, into the gravel, skidded about 5 metres, and thumped into an embankment, whacking the wire guy of a power pole in the process.
The exhaust pipes burned deeply into embankment clay.
Picketing workers hot-footed it to the accident scene and found their nemesis examining his damaged vehicle.
King Scab really had the shits when a picket pursuit-ute and amateur video crew arrived on the scene.
Hurriedly getting back behind the wheel of the wounded Fairlane, he fled at high speed towards town, ignoring level-crossing caution and stop signs, and sought the sanctuary of an auto-repairer.
Returning to the picket line, the workers got to thinking. Entrepreneurs one and all, they came up with a business possibility.
It did not take long to erect prominent signs facing the besieged factory, advertising the picket site-sheds as unregistered offices of a new Driver Training School; with a special on Advanced Driver classes.
Information technology is fast becoming an essential part of delivering human services. The last few years have witnessed the development of call centres to provide direct information and referral for consumers in various nations and in some states of Australia.
Electronic transfer of financial and performance data, and common assessment and client referral systems are two of the computer applications earmarked for introduction, on a broad scale, over the next 5 years.
The non profit community sector in NSW is slowly becoming IT literate. At one end of the spectrum, we are already seeing regionally based intranet services in the sector, linked data bases, internet based interactive reference sites and the beginnings of e-commerce. At the other, we know that the sector faces huge hurdles to upgrade its computer hardware and software to keep up, to access reliable and affordable maintenance and emergency IT help, and to train its staff and volunteers to effectively use IT products.
This conference will provide a snapshot of recent IT developments, affecting human services in NSW. It will also throw light on options for all of those in the community service sector to move forward.
Human Services dot.com will be held on November 2 at the Masonic Centre, corner Goulburn and Castlereagh Streets, from 9am. For more details contact Miguel Heatwolle Tel: 02 9211 2599, Fax: 02 9281 1968, email [email protected].
by Mary Yaager
Hundreds of building workers downed tools to attend the Launch at the Baulderstone Hornibrook Construction Site in the city and they donated over 4 thousand dollars to the campaign.
Michael Costa said "Youth suicide in Australia is of grave concern - deaths from suicide are much higher than the road toll according to the latest statistics. Last year there were, about 3000 suicide deaths and many were teenage males."
"According to the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), one of the biggest single causes of teenage suicide is schizophrenia and sufferers occupy more hospital beds than any other single illness."
Schizophrenia affects:
Schizophrenia costs:
"The union movement, particularly the building unions, were instrumental in getting the Research Institute - NISAD established in New South Wales and we have been campaigning in this area for the last ten years. I am still amazed how many families have been affected by this dreadful illness" Michael Costa said.
Michael Costa congratulated the Carr Government for providing the initial seed funding to establish the Research Institute and the appointment of a full time officer to raise funds for the Institute.
The Government has made a great choice in the appointment of the project officer Don McDonald former Secretary of the CFMEU who has been tirelessly raising funds for the Institute and through the CFMEU. Don has raised over 100 hundred thousand dollars Costa said.
"The Neuroscientists working for the Research Institute are at the cutting edge of "Worlds Best Practice" in terms of finding a treatment and cure but they are severely hampered by lack of funds."
Labor Council will take this issue into the workplace and raise awareness to help cast aside the stigma and ignorance associated with this illness as well as raising vital funds to continue the important research.
"I also intend to call on the Corporate Sector to get right behind this initiative and donate funds to support the work of this institute," Michael Costa said.
According to Dr. Philip Ward, Scientific Director of NISAD, schizophrenia contributes to a large number of the youth suicide which occurs in young people between 15 and 25.
Dr. Ward said, "Schizophrenia is a disease which affects the individuals ability to relate to the rest of the community impairing their retentive reactions, their ability to think clearly and rationally. It is often associated with terrifying hallucinations (hearing voices and paranoid delusions. For example everyone in the radio is talking about me and the radio is giving messages about me).
Dr. Ward went on to say, "In addition people with schizophrenia experience so-called negative systems involving withdrawal from family and friends and an inability to participate in a normal life."
"What the Institute is developing in terms of early intervention i.e. that helps these sufferers to live a normal life, is aiming to understand the causes of the disorder so that we can develop a cure and prevent the disease in future generations." Dr. Ward said.
We are on the cutting edge of this research and we have been recognised globally in terms of the Institute's work. Dr. Ward said.
People wishing to assist or make a donation to the Institute can contact Dr. Philip Ward on (02) 92958407.
"One of the highlights leading up to the games had to be CFMEU Olympic Park delegate Mario Barrios running in the torch relay."
I'm certain every schoolchild in Australia has that moment at the top of their list of pre-Games "highlights".
"This was a union event from beginning to end ... we should be proud."
We should be proud to pay the loadings various unions demanded? As for the Games being a "union event", how much did unions contribute to, say, the $US705 million NBC paid for the US TV rights? The Games were a big business event.
"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."
And they all volunteered as individuals. This was a triumph of free will, not of collectivist force.
"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."
Wearing clothes bearing a simplistic slogan or the Aboriginal flag is "a stand"? Hmmmm ... brave.
"The Games also provided sobering lessons for business."
Yes it did. One of the lessons was: "Unions will gouge you whenever they have the opportunity. Beware."
Tim Blair
I was distinctly under whelmed by ACTU suit Richard Marles contribution both to Labor Council last week and to the latest Workers Online.
He runs the "unions have to be sensible" and "we can't abuse our power" lines with just a little too much fervor.
The bosses have most of the power in our society/economy. They abuse their power every day. In fact the entire economy is based on their systematic abuse of power.
It would have been nice if Richard had qualified his exhortations with a little context as to where the real abuse of power lies.
And fancy accusing the Liberals of encouraging "perpetual industrial warfare"?!?!
There has been industrial warfare for several hundred years now, irrespective of who is in Government.
Granted news of this war is actively suppressed. But 3000 Australians are killed at work every year in avoidable accidents- to take just one piece of evidence illustrating a perpetual war against working people. I'm sure Richard would be familiar with these sort of figures.
In spite of Richard's desire to cuddle up to "good" employers, there will never be real industrial peace while the economy is based on greed and exploitation.
A little more reality from the ACTU leadership, please.
Phil Davey
Once again that hoary chestnut and that dry old argument, of the Three Tiers of Government, has risen its gruesome head to haunt the long-suffering citizen.
"Only Pollies would cry if we shed a tier" Frank Walker Sun-Herald September 17 2000"
Mr Max Bradley , a car mechanic from Berrigan , and the Local Government Association , have decided that a tier of government must be shed , and that the State governments must be the ones to go, leaving that epitome of "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" ,the Municipal and Shire Councils , to control our destinies.
One wonders what template of government Mr. Bradley would recommend, perhaps he suggests, Berrigan Shire Council, where we can all relax in the 20s' and 30s' with Dad, Dave and Mabel.
The reality is that most of these Municipal and Shire councils have been unable to deal with "Best Practice", on dog catching, pan collection from the outhouse procedures, or who owns the stray sheep in the pound, never mind State Budgets.
The only two local government bodies to show any ability to govern at this level, would be Bankstown City Council , and (choke ,CHOKE) , Sartors' Sydney City Council.
These two local government bodies could possibly, be used as examples as to how in the U.K., regional governance has been reasonably successful.
But to turn the State over to the incestuous nepotism and cronyism of Dad and Dave Shire Councils would be an abject failure, in fact it is the incompetent, mal-administered and mismanaged local government bodies that should be abolished.
Perhaps this could be the (post Olympic) future apolitical career for Lord Mayor Frank Sartor , and his collaborators - to examine the viability of the eradication of Municipal and Shire Councils , and the formation of much larger regional bodies , this would also be a natural step in the abolishment of State governments.
Tom Collins
The release of the Besley Report into Telstra has vindicated my stance in running for election to the Board of Telstra.
Mr Besley has clearly shown that Telstra service standards have slackened, particularly for non metropolitan Australians, and the government has recognised this by announcing that plans to privatise Telstra must be temporarily shelved.
But that is not good enough!
Mr Howard is good at pointing the finger at Labor having sold off the Commonwealth Bank and then claiming that they should be blamed for over reduced banking services, increased fees and closed branches.
Yet his plan for Telstra would be even more devastating and the average Aussie would be worse off.
There MUST be a certainty that Australians will not suffer reduced services and increased costs as a result of such a sale. We must ensure that Australians in remote areas receive a minimum standard of quality service.
Telstra services have already slumped over recent years. Perhaps readers should write in and provide a few thousand examples.
We must ensure that employees are not sacked merely to make profit which generally comes with reduced services as we have seen with our banks. We also need to be certain that the sale of Telstra will account for the loss of income that Telstra brings to Australia, an amount that is enormous and which I doubt can be recovered by the sale of Telstra.
As an old friend named said to me when I was on the RACV Board, there are a number of business opportunities that would allow Telstra to grow further, to increase profits and yet to give its customers enhanced service.
Telstra is a great Aussie company but it can be greater. I am running for the Board of Telstra and if the federal government were honest, they would not automatically lock their 51% controlling vote into their candidates who have one goal in mind - to SELL, SELL, SELL.
Ange Kenos
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Your new job has infamously been likened to a toilet cleaner's on the Titanic. Yet from all accounts you volunteered for the job. Why?
I volunteered for the job because I have aspired to do something like this for quite a long time. This is a place where you can make a difference to the lives of Australians who really need assistance, and to the future of the country. And one month into the job I'm reinforced in the view that it is the best decision I have ever made.
In your opinion, how is Australia travelling at the moment with regards to reconciliation?
I think the reconciliation process is in some trouble. It has got a lot of community support but it doesn't have any political leadership. I don't mean that it ought to be run by the government - I think the idea that it is more of a people's movement is good. But people need to feel that it is going somewhere and that needs a government indicating a willingness to make progress and there is no sign of that.
The sort of wedge politics that Howard has engaged in over the last few years has undermined that process, but the Olympics and things like Cathy Freeman's win and other highlights at the Games for Indigenous Australia would suggest that that might be hitting the wall. What do you think about that?
You are right. There are contradictory trends. There are positive trends and discouraging trends. - I wouldn't call them negative, but they are discouraging trends.
The positive trends are the upsurge of enthusiasm around, not just Cathy Freeman, but the tone of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and the public spirit that captured, and of course the Walk Across the Bridge. Not just the walk across the Bridge in Sydney which caught all the public attention, but the smaller ones that happened all around the country, in Hobart, in Canberra, in smaller cities around the country. Those are very encouraging signs that there is still a well-spring of support for reconciliation; for bringing the most disadvantaged Australians forward and recognising their rights and saying "Sorry".
But there has been a pattern under the Howard Government of using indigenous affairs for partisan advantage, particularly in collaboration with the Northern Territory Government, but also in its own right, and that is a bit discouraging. And it does detract from people's optimism that their efforts are going to be rewarded.
What do you see as the pressing issues for Aboriginal people at the moment?
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation put forward what they called "Four Pathways" and they seem to me to point in the right direction. Of course, they talk about addressing the disadvantage which is generally looked at - issues about housing, health, education, and employment, but also includes some law and justice questions.
Of course that is something we need to look at and give more effort to and have a more long term perspective about.
And they recently released a report about enhancing economic independence. Creating the opportunity for indigenous people to earn income, run businesses, etc., instead of being dependent on others. I think those two things are important, and there are two other areas that they have got in focus, coming up for future detailed report. They are about the issues of maintaining the process towards reconciliation and recognising and enhancing rights.
I think across those four areas you will find that is where the progress needs to be made and we need to make progress on all four.
How would you rate the ALP's performance in this area?
When we were the Government a lot of very important and positive things happened. Over the 13 years of the Government I think a lot of important progress was made. The reconciliation process was started; the Mabo legislation was passed; a number of land rights claims were acknowledged; and some very positive programs in terms of employment and health for example, were got underway.
But you never get a 100% record in anything that is run by people. Some parts of it will go wrong or you will have the right aspiration but it won't work the way you hoped, and I think we would get a good tick for effort - and that is the most important thing - that you are trying. I don't think anyone would think we got a 100% tick for achievement, but certainly we took things forward. The rate of progress between '83 and '96 was much more encouraging than between '96 and 2000. I think that is unquestioned.
Noel Pearson recently made some considered remarks about how welfare affects black communities differently from white, and in his opinion, in a very negative way. What are your thoughts about this?
I haven't spoken to Noel recently, so before I say too much I want to speak to him. To the extent that what he has done has enabled conservatives to latch onto his arguments and reinforce negative stereotypes, I think it is a pity. But I know that wasn't his intention, and I think to the extent that he was challenging all of us to say, let us find a more positive way of providing assistance - going back to what I said about the Reconciliation Council - let's see what we can do about encouraging and facilitating economic independence, rather than dependence. Then that is part of what we do need to do. So I think there are some positive elements in what Noel did but I think he runs the risk of allowing some negative forces to use his argument for very conservative purposes that he doesn't intend. We have to be careful that we take up the positive elements of what he does. That we don't feed the negatives as well.
What are those positives as you see them?
As I say, if I interpret Noel correctly - and I don't like to interpret other people until I have spoken to them - but if I interpret him correctly, he is challenging us to say: Find a more positive way. Help people for example, through agreements about land use, with which he has been involved, to set the basis for their economic independence. I think that is positive, and I think this question of getting more land use agreements; getting more of those positive elements up and running. I think that is an element that will be a key part of future policy. But I think, simply saying that in some way not giving people welfare would be beneficial, I think that can be seized upon as a very negative message because it could really do a lot of damage to a lot of individuals and communities who need and require and deserve the support they are getting.
So, it can't be used as an excuse for taking away the support for people, and that is what I fear. But if it is used to encourage positive economic independence measures around issues like land, then that can be a positive.
There is a conspicuous lack of Aboriginal voices in the higher reaches of the ALP. Do you think the ALP could be doing more to get Aboriginal spokespeople talking more about black issues on behalf of the party?
Yes I have spoken for some time - long before I had this position - about the importance, for example, getting more indigenous candidates. But it is improving. You do have significant representatives in the Northern Territory parliament. I am confident we will have Warren Mundine elected to the Senate at the next election. Significant figures like Pat Dixon from Armidale, who is coming forward as a leading player in local government on behalf of the Labor Party - and I hope that we will find a way to use her talents even better.
This is emerging and developing as a pattern and I see it and I am trying to help it happen in my own area up here in Canberra, so progress is being made, but it is too slow.
The emergence of One Nation was a sobering reminder that many Australians are susceptible to a racist message. Do you feel optimistic about our ability to change this?
Yes, I am optimistic, but you are right to say that One Nations shocked some people because we thought that those views had been superseded by more progressive views, and it forced all the people who had that view to realise that we have an obligation, not only to develop good policy and have good hearts, but to take people with us. If they feel alienated, then it is not their fault if they become attracted to more negative and divisive policies of downward envy and shifting the blame down onto the most disadvantaged. It is our fault for not sharing with them the benefits of economic success and not taking their views and concerns more readily and satisfactorily into account in our policy development.
Improving the lives of Aboriginal people can't be taken out of the context of the economy and welfare and other areas.
How closely would you be working with other Labor Ministers to solve these problems in a Labor government?
What I have been encouraged about in the month that I have had this position, is the enthusiasm with which colleagues in other areas are keen to integrate what they do with programs, either directly targeted to indigenous people, or to make sure that what they do has, as part of its pattern and purpose, the assistance of indigenous people to meet their aspirations.
So, yes, I think there is a really good basis for that cooperation. I have just come to do this interview from a meeting with Jenny Macklin about indigenous health and what we can do together. And I have discussions with other colleagues already and I am optimistic about that.
All those measurements of health, education, crime - why do you think they are all so bad?
I think the legacy of dispossession and discrimination is going to take generations to overcome and that is why we have an obligation to keep developing programs to assist in overcoming the disadvantage that is a product of that legacy.
But we shouldn't assume no progress is being made. We are making progress, it is just that it is not progress at a satisfactory rate, and we have to do better.
The Stolen Generation is obviously such a painful scar for the whole Aboriginal community. What will the ALP do abut it if they come to power?
The symbolic thing we will do is - and the Leader of the Opposition has made it clear - if Kim Beazley becomes Prime Minister he will make the apology, but there are some more substantial things that the "Bringing Them Home" report recommended, that we will take up. I will give the detail of that a bit later, because I am just working up the detail, but broadly we would like to see the determination of the entitlements and rights of the people affected, not have to go through searing court cases that will remind them and make them relive all their harsh experiences but find a more positive environment in which they can pursue their claims and the Commonwealth can test them so that we are not wasting tax payers money.
But the thing to remember in terms of the taxpayer interest in this is that the court case - the case for Cabillo and Gunner, which is the one that was just decided in the Northern Territory - cost taxpayers $12 million. Just think how much more we could have done to assist the Stolen Generation with that $12 million, rather than spending it fighting a court case tooth and nail, when all that means is that we will have more court cases.
What are your thoughts on Howard's refusal to apologise?
I think it is a tragedy. John Howard seems to have himself locked in this position where he can't apologise. I am sure initially it was trying to send a message to the constituency the Conservatives have lost to Pauline Hansen, that here was a person they could have confidence in in reflecting some of their concerns, but now I suspect it is a hook he would like to get off, but he can't find how to get off it.
How representative do you think his opinions are, even within Conservative circles?
I think the Prime Minister and others have managed to create a bit of apprehension about the implications of an apology and made it seem as if apology equals recognition that this generation is equally guilty. Neither of those things is true. And I think if we can get this Prime Minister out of the way... I think Malcolm Fraser is correct - the next Prime Minister will apologise, and will be able to do it in a context where people can be reassured that it doesn't cost them money directly or indirectly, and it doesn't say "we are guilty" any more than taking pride in the great achievements of the past makes us claim we were directly or personally responsible. We recognised that wonderful things happened in our history and we are proud about it. It doesn't mean we think we did it. We just know that it happened, and we know that there are some black spots in our history - doesn't mean when we acknowledge them and apologise for them - it doesn't mean that we say we were personally responsible - it is just that we acknowledge that they happened and that people are suffering today as a consequence and we regret that.
by Frank Stillwell
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The sharp fall in the value of the Australian dollar has important implications for Australian workers. It may all seem a bit remote from our everyday lives: after all, most workers aren't speculating in international currency markets, and only a minority are considering overseas holidays. But all of us are affected by the changing prices of imported goods, by higher interest rates and other general changes to the conditions in the Australian economy.
At the outset it needs to be emphasised that it is the American dollar which is at the centre of the action. Its value has risen generally, relative to most other national currencies, not just Australia's. That reflects buoyant conditions in the US economy and the politics of the US Presidential election. It is hard to see any correction coming until after the election, unless there is a major economic collapse. The sharemarket there is considerably over valued, according to most commentators, so a correction or even a crash can be expected eventually. Meanwhile all of us have to live with the consequences of the pumped-up American political economic conditions.
What does this mean for Australians? The financial press has made much of the potential benefits for our export industries. Their products are cheaper on world markets to the extent that the Australian dollar has fallen relative to other currencies. That should help in the competition with US exporting firms in particular. However, the volume of sales has to rise proportionately more than the fall in the value of the currency for there to be a net increase in sales revenue in terms of Australian dollars earned.
Meanwhile, imported goods - especially US imports - are now relatively more expensive. If that causes Australian consumers to stop buying them, that could improve the nation's trading balance. But that is a big if. In some cases there are no locally produced substitutes: the inadequacy of Australian industry policy has let some industries go to the wall. In other cases, consumers just carry on buying the imported goods (perhaps unaware of the relative price changes partly as a result of the coincidence of timing with the impact of the GST or perhaps just because of a continuing 'brand loyalty'). So the lowered value of the currency causes both an inflationary impact and an adverse effect on the overall current account deficit.
The general inflationary stimulus coincides with the specific effects of the rising price of imported oil. The sky-rocketing petrol prices are a major element, both directly and indirectly, in an inflationary surge. Inflation has not been a problem for over a decade now, but this situation now looks increasingly unsustainable.
The conventional response of the monetary authorities, facing a resurgence of inflationary pressures, is to further increase interest rates. The intention here is presumably to 'choke off' the 'excess demand' and thereby reduce economic growth. This is fundamentally misconceived to the extent that the inflationary process is driven, as I have argued, by a 'cost-push' rather than a 'demand-pull' process. Moreover, such a policy has potentially very damaging effects - increasing unemployment, raising the costs of investment for small businesses, and hitting hard at those trying to pay off their loans, particularly home buyers. It is particularly inappropriate for those parts of regional Australia already facing relative economic decline.
For the nation as a whole, the lowered value of the Australian dollar also intensifies debt repayment problems. To the extent that the foreign debt is set in terms of US dollars, the effect is to raise the interest repayments in terms of Australian dollars. A significant proportion of this burden falls on corporations because they account for much of the total foreign debt, but some falls as a burden on government finances. That has broader implications for the capacity of governments to reduce taxes and/or increase expenditures on social services and much-needed public infrastructure. Given that our federal government leaders are ideologically opposed to those sort of social expenditure programs anyway, they are likely to use the falling dollar as an excuse for even more cuts. Health, education and social security policies are the obvious targets.
So there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the value of the currency. It is not a symbol of the overall health of the economy: its value depends more on the activity of speculators than on any 'economic fundamentals'. But a plunge in the value of the currency can have adverse social consequences, magnified by the responses of the monetary institutions and a conservative government seeking excuses for stiffer doses of 'economic rationalist' medicine.
So what can be done? Reserve Bank intervention in the foreign exchange market can help to 'prop up' the value of the Australian dollar. Indeed, this can be a source of income for the Reserve Bank if the value of the dollar rises as a result of its active purchasing of dollars in the market. However, it is a risky strategy because, if the RBAs purchasing does not significantly offset the effect of widespread speculative selling which is pushing the dollar's value down, the nation's reserves are depleted.
More generally, the need is to eliminate the speculation in currencies which is at the root of the problem. Over 19 out of every 20 transactions in the foreign exchange market are purely speculative, having nothing to do with the financing of foreign trade or travel. There is growing interest in an international tax on currency transactions - the so-called Tobin tax - as a means of discouraging that speculation. But speculation seems to go hand-in-hand with capitalism. That observation suggests a more radical conclusion!
Frank Stilwell is Associate Professor of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. He is the author of the new book, Changing Track: a New Political Economic Direction for Australia, recently published by Pluto Press, Sydney. His book proposes an alternative to the prevailing economic rationalism.
by Lucy Taksa
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The ANU is failing in its legal and moral obligations to depositors of records and researchers and the general public who use the records held there by failing to provide funding for the continuation of the operation of the NBAC even at its current minimal level.
The Friends have launched a media campaign to raise awareness of the threat to the NBAC and are appealing to all who have an interest in Australia's history--social, commercial, pastoral, industrial and labour history--and see the value of preserving the unique documentary records of important aspects of that history to call on the ANU honour its commitments and provide proper funding for the NBAC. The money is there: ANU had a surplus of some $80 million dollars last financial year and has been able to find millions to bail out its failing commercial arm, ANUTech.
The Importance of the Archives
The records held in the NBAC cover the working lives of people who were associated with all of Australia's major industries (pastoral, mining, heavy industry, manufacturing, the waterfront, etc.). For most industries there are employer, employee and peak body records, a degree of integration rare anywhere in the world.
The records, many of them generated by companies and unions that no longer exist, constitute a vital element of Australia's cultural heritage and have at least comparable value to that of old buildings and the records of radio, TV and film.
The value of the NBAC is recognised across Australia and the people who consult its records come from all Australian states.
The NBAC has become a national institution and in the interests of the serious study of Australian society its holdings must be preserved and public access to them maintained.
The Crisis
For more than forty years the NBAC was funded from the budget of the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU. Since 1994 the staff have been reduced from 6 professional archivists and 2 support staff to just 2.5 archivists and 1 support staff with an operating budget of $250,000 p.a. In late August 1997 the Research School of Social Sciences announced that, to save money, the Centre would be closed at the end of 1997, with its collection being either mothballed or, more likely, dispersed or returned to depositors.
The Friends and allied organisations and individuals from around Australia and overseas rallied to save the Noel Butlin Archives Centre from closure by a vigorous lobbying and publicity campaign. A compromise deal was worked out with ANU central administration whereby the Centre would become part of the ANU Library and be funded (at $240,000pa) until the end of 2000, by which time it had to be self-funding. The ANU would make available the interest from $2,000,000 in its Endowment for Excellence if $1,000,000 was raised from external sources (with the ANU matching that dollar for dollar). This would provide the Centre with about $150,000 p.a., with the shortfall of $100,000 p.a. to be made up from charges to researchers and depositors.
This plan was never achievable but it kept the NBAC going in the short term. No cultural institution of this type in Australia has been able to raise $1m in donations. While work continues on fund-raising for the Centre (only about $100,000 has been raised so far), even if it got to $1,000,000 that would be nowhere near sufficient to keep the Centre operational as charges to researchers and depositors cannot provide anything near the $100,000pa needed.
The ANU had since agreed to continue the current funding arrangements for 2001 but has retracted that agreement. The ANU now proposes to fund the Archives at c.$150,000 (including overheads) in 2001 & 2002, with no recurrent budgetary commitment for 2003.
The ANU must maintain at least the current funding for the Centre, but so far refuses to do so. Therefore, it looks increasingly likely that a similar campaign to that mounted in 1997 will be needed in the near future. That is why the Friends needs your help and participation.
Background
The Archives were formed as an initiative of the Economics Department of the Research School of Social Sciences at the instigation of Noel Butlin in the early 1950s to collect primary research material of the economic development of Australia after the gold rushes of the nineteenth century. In 1957 it became a Unit of the Research School of Social Sciences and soon afterwards extended its operations to include records of the labour movement.
As the "Business Archives at the ANU" and (from 1975) the "ANU Archives of Business and Labour". The Centre's major collecting focus for more than 40 years has been the records of companies and trade unions that represent Australian industry at a national and regional level. This emphasis continues. In 1992 the name of the Archives was changed to honour the memory of its founder (who died in 1991).
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre (NBAC) is the oldest non-government collecting archives in Australia. It houses the largest collection of business and trade union records in the country. The NBAC collection consists of 13 km of records, including the records of over 170 business, records of over 240 employer, employee and professional organisations, and 150 personal collections related to both labour and business. The NBAC, combined with the University of Melbourne Archives, are the main repositories in Australia for the documentation of the working lives of Australians and Australia's commercial, rural and industrial heritage.
The Centre also holds the National Aids Archives Collection which aims to preserve educational material relating to HIV/AIDS and the records of non-government organisations producing such material and active in related areas. The initial collecting phase was funded by the Department of Health, Housing and Community Services through the AIDS Education Section of the Communicable Diseases Branch. This collection is unique within Australia and no other institution actively collects such archival material.
The position of University Archivist was created in 1998. Dr Sigrid McCausland was appointed as the inaugural University Archivist. The University Archivist has supervisory control of both the ANU Archives and the Noel Butlin Archives Centre. Prior to 1998 the ANU did not have any accommodation for its own Archives and the Centre consequently looked after a lot of its departmental collections and provided archival advice to members of staff. The two archives share facilities including storage areas, conservation supplies, photocopying and facilities for researchers.
The Centre, which in 1998 celebrated the 45th anniversary of its first accession, collects the permanently valuable records of Australian companies, trade unions, employer and professional associations and industry bodies, ensures their physical well being and makes them available for research.
Its holdings date from the mid 1820s to the early 1990s and in total represent a comprehensive coverage of Australia's industrial and business history. The Centre is unique in Australia in the spread and depth of its holdings in both business and employee/employer records. It is the only institution in Australia holding such a wide range of labour movement records which are balanced not only by the business holdings (which frequently complement the union records) but also by the records of industry and employer organisations.
Only the University of Melbourne Archives is in any way comparable. Its specialisation in mining & company records and those of Melbourne based engineering and other companies, compliments the heavy pastoral legacy of the NBAC and the more nationally orientated industrial records of later NBAC collecting, such as CSR Ltd, Tooth & Co Ltd, Burns Philp, Adelaide Steamship Co, and so on.
Clientele and Usage
The main category of user is naturally comprised of academics from ANU and interstate and international universities and scholarly institutions. This includes representatives from nearly every tertiary institution in Australia and from every Australian State. Such visitors usually plan their visits months ahead and work on projects of significant length (from 3-5 years) so their visits usually cover a number of years. The Centre's staff undertakes significant liaison with these clients and assists them whenever possible so that their visits are productive and efficient.
The second major category of users consists of members of the general public and various private organisations. Partly this clientele is drawn from those conducting local and family history research that could involve a one off or a series of visits.
Another group comes from the non-university professionals active in the heritage area - architects doing heritage studies on buildings and sites for municipal and city councils, people seeking details about hotels which are to be renovated, even garden historians seeking to records or restore historic gardens. Lately various indigenous groups or their representatives have been seeking the history of various portions of land (native title inquiries).
Additionally the Centre hosts a number of visits each year from local, interstate and international visitors and groups who come to be shown how the Centre operates. These range from students in the postgraduate diploma course in Archives Administration from the University of NSW to students doing management degree courses at University of Canberra and to international visitors from similar collecting institutions and libraries.
The Centre also conducts tours and exhibitions for the general public. Recent tours include:
Recent exhibitions include:
Supporting statements from Australia's leading historians
Stuart Macintyre
The Noel Butlin Archives are one of this country's great historical treasures. They consist of the records of major businesses and trade unions reaching back well into the nineteenth century.
It is here that you can find the documentary records of the pastoral industry, mining, shipping, manufacturing and other enterprises around which the Australian economy grew. Here also you find the records of the shearers' union, the miners, the waterside workers and also of the
Australian Council of Trade Unions, as well as those of the National Farmers Federation.
Together these records are our most important source for the history of enterprise and working life.
The collection is named after the late Noel Butlin, who first assembled such records as he pioneered the economic history of Australia. He was a leading researcher at the Australian National University, and his research school entered into agreements with the donors of the papers.
It also made agreements with other collecting institutions, including the National Library and the state libraries, that it would accept a national role in this area of manuscript collection.
Some years ago the Research School of Social Sciences sought to repudiate its custodial responsibilities. That brought a storm of protest and the University Library took over management of the Noel Butlin Archives. Now it appears there are to be further cuts and researchers are threatened with the mothballing of the Archives.
Historians, archivists and librarians are horrified by this vandalism. Business, professional and union representatives are highly concerned by the irresponsibility of a public institution.
It is unthinkable that the Research School, which receives block funding from the Commonwealth for its national research role, should throw off its obligations and endanger such a crucial national asset.
Perhaps Professor Chubb, the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor who takes office soon, will draw the ANU back from this threat to the good name of the University. Perhaps our Commonwealth Parliament, which provides the funding for the University, will step in.
Future generations would find it hard to comprehend that such a vital resource should be squandered.
Resolution of the Australian Historical Association
Received from the President, Professor Jill Roe.
The Australian Historical Association (AHA) views with deep alarm the proposal to close off the NBAC at the end of this year and to dispense with professional archival services on-site. The AHA wishes it to be understood that the plan to absorb the NBAC in the University Library at the end of this year is not a viable step from the point of view of academic and
professional historians.
The AHA calls on the ANU to indicate good faith with regard to the legitimate interests of the historical profession in this country by maintaining open access and professional archival services at the NBAC in 2002 AND BEYOND.
Professor Jill Roe, President, Australian Historical Association
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre is again in dire need of friends!
In Issue 44 of Workers Online, 3 March 2000, I raised a call to arms in support of the Noel Butlin Archives. Numerous readers responded to the call recognising that this repoistory is one of the key centres of the labour movements' collective memory. And like hard won labour traditions, it continues to face attack from the rationalists.
Send your support to:
THE FRIENDS OF THE NOEL BUTLIN ARCHIVES CENTRE
ANU LPO Box A231
CANBERRA ACT 2601
E-mail or fax your support for the NBAC to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Deane Terrell.
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: 02 6257 3292
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How do you understand work to have changed over the past 20 or 30 years?
One of the changes that has most interested me is the changing experience of time. There has been a development within capitalism away from the long term and towards the short term. Employees tend to be on short-term contracts, and in the welfare state, welfare is regarded as a short-term intervention in people's lives as long term dependence is humiliating. I see my project as exploring what it is like to live through these changes, under the effects of a capitalism that is dismantling any sustained connection between people and institutions.
This shift towards the short term is a result of changes within the operation of capitalism. Let us be clear about this: it is not about technology, it is not about innovation, it is about capitalism and how capitalism operates to achieve profit. Capital is now driven by short-term return. This results in organisations having to quickly change what they are doing and where they are going, and adjust their personnel accordingly.
This move towards the short term is specific to the contemporary, neo-liberal era of capitalism. For example, when John D Rockefeller was building up Standard Oil, the situation was very different. The struggle for domination in the oil industry was decided by who owned the infrastructure; Rockefeller succeeded through acquiring the right plants, the means of transportation and the retail outlets. Such an infrastructure is relatively enduring, and Standard Oil could develop slowly, giving each of the various parts of the organisation a well-defined, ongoing function. Its employees likewise had a well-defined place - they knew what they were doing and they knew what the future held for them.
The situation is quite different with a giant of the new economy, like Microsoft. Microsoft is not interested in owning things; it is concerned with occupying the strongest position in a market. That means being the most recognised and visible brand to consumers. It means being connected to other companies and institutions in the best way. It means getting access to capital. All these factors demand that the Microsoft corporation responds to changing circumstances very quickly. The corporation becomes an empty shell, whose principle activities are developing strategy, marketing, and farming out work. The actual people who do the work are on short-term contracts.
At the personal level, it is not clear what work you will be doing a few years from now. It is often not clear what work you are doing at that moment, because you are a temporary cog in an ever-changing machine. There is not time to develop knowledge of how the work that you are doing fits into the ever-changing organisation and into the economy as a whole. It is not clear what one should do to prepare oneself for the future. Governments insist that one should develop skills, but what skills? It is not the case that there is a general lack of skills. Only a minority at the bottom of society lack skills; most people do have skills that previously would have been enough to ensure employment for them throughout their lives.
The problem today is that the demand for skills constantly fluctuates. For example, many people at IBM lost their jobs in the late 1980s. They had been employed on mainframe computers and then retrained to work on PCs - only to find that the mainframe came back into fashion. The act of retraining had left them behind once again. There is not an optimal set of skills you can give people to equip them for the new economy. So, against the mantra of 'education, education, education', which is conceived as a remedy to this exact situation, I would say to New Labour that there is no quick fix to make this new capitalism more humane.
At present, one often encounters the argument that transformations in the economy are an emancipatory force for workers. It is a very elitist idea. The flexible labour market may be liberating for the top 15-20 per cent of people in modern capitalism, but flexibility means something very different to people who are further down the social scale. Those lower down lack both the material and social resources which those higher up can employ to navigate a flexible labour market. They lack the material resources that would allow them to deal with periods of unemployment. They also lack the networks through which further work can be found. For lawyers or accountants the notion of pursuing a flexible strategy towards employment makes a lot of sense. That same entrepreneurial approach to work among people in call centres or flipping hamburgers has devastating results. So, when New Labour or the Democrats in the USA generalise from the experience of lawyers or accountants one needs to be aware of how this conceals the real nature of work for most people. The reality of one social class is being universalised as the reality of everyone.
There is also the argument that flexibility within a workplace empowers employees - that people are given more freedom over how they manage their work. Do you see this happening?
Again, there is a vast discrepancy between the top and bottom that is erased within this ideology of flexibility. There is a huge difference between the experience of a computer programmer or advertising executive and someone doing data entry. There is the conception that all these people are doing 'knowledge work' that is intrinsically more humane, creative and satisfying than traditional, manual forms of work. But to include call centre work in this category is absurd. Everything is scripted for you; there is no room to use your mind or exercise discretionary power. The work is extremely tedious.
That said, for many people it is the case that they are expected to take more responsibility for their work. The management orthodoxy now is that rather than employees merely being expected to obey the orders given to them by their immediate superiors, they are expected to develop ideas and respond imaginatively to problems on their own or in co-operation with their fellow workers. The traditional hierarchical structure of the organisation is thereby seen to be flattened, and these changes are regarded as being both egalitarian and empowering.
However, again we need to distinguish the reality from the ideology. Employees in fact have very limited decision-making power. They do not have power over what kind of work they are going to do - what product they are making or what service they are providing. They are set tasks in advance. Their only power is deciding how they are going to do that work. They are set targets by higher management, and it is their responsibility to meet those targets. This situation is more demanding and stressful than in a traditional bureaucracy, because there is a greater possibility of failure. In a bureaucracy, as long as you follow normal procedures and the orders of your superiors, your work is considered satisfactory. In the flexible workplace, you are merely given a target and if you choose the wrong approach, you are perceived to be a failure.
The situation is made more stressful for workers by being given impossibly high targets as an attempt to increase motivation. The result of this, as I found out in interviews I had with people who are employed in these flat organisations, is that employees feel that they are always falling short - merely trying your best is not enough. This 'empowerment' becomes a technique for making employees work harder, making them feel more insecure about their work, and, ultimately, provides a justification for disposing of workers who fail to meet targets. What we have here is people in the grips of an economic system which has powerful personal effects on their lives, which is obscured by a very sophisticated, class bound ideology.
How have relations between fellow workers changed in the flexible workplace?
Relations between workers tend to be weak. Young managers are taught at business school that people should not get 'ingrown' within the organisation. That is to say, employees should not develop any attachment to each other or an attachment to the kind of work that they are doing as this could come into conflict with the greater good of pursuing the organisational goals as set by higher management. Therefore, teams are periodically reshuffled and the kind of work one is doing is constantly changed not just because changes in organisational strategy demand it, but also because such changes ensure that employees are more compliant. The possibility of people getting to know each other and forging structures of fraternity, and also structures of resistance, disappears.
If they are not being moved from team to team and project to project, then they are actually moving from employer to employer. The result is the same. This is one reason why worker solidarity is so weak in call centres or fast food restaurants - people stay six or eight months at one place and then move on. They are not in one place for long enough to develop strong attachments with their fellow employees. Relations between employees are even worse in companies where different teams are set to compete against each other in an internal market. This transforms those workers outside one's own small team into rivals.
How do these changes in work affect how we workers can get a better deal and resist the advance of capitalism?
Given that the workplace by itself provides so little as a basis for solidarity, we have to look elsewhere. We have to draw on the fact that there is more to people's lives than their identity as workers, and use this as a basis. This goes against the traditional approach taken by trade unions. For instance, secretaries at Harvard University organised a union in a manner that absolutely baffled old-fashioned union organisers. People sat around and discussed problems with their children and where to find cheap groceries. They arranged baby-sitting for each other. You could say that none of these things addressed their position as secretaries. However, it was a way of creating a community that allowed secretaries to break free of a very paternalistic bond that Harvard had with this mass of secretaries. I have found a similar pattern amongst garment workers in New York. They are mainly young Latino women with some young Asian women, while their union organisers are generally older Jewish men. The garment workers have tended to bypass the official union structures to do such things as set up creches and baby sitting networks, and setting up a health resource network.
In developing stronger ties with each other, these workers were drawing on the fact that they belong to the same community or live in the same neighbourhood. In the garment industry in New York almost all of the Asians live in a very concentrated space in the Lower East Side in Manhattan while the Latinos live in a place called Crown Heights. I believe that the fact of belonging to a certain community would be a far stronger basis for a trade union than doing a certain type of work. As things stand, if you're changing jobs frequently then your union association is weak. People are in need of some kind of durable social network that supports them through different jobs and through periods of unemployment. Communities can provide this - we tend to stick to the same place more than we stick to the same job, particularly when we have children - that is true in both Britain and in the United States.
How would a community or locality provide an effective identity around which to organise resistance?
How would it engage with the specific problems relating to the workplace? I am not saying that a community would provide the basis for an anti-capitalist identity. Rather, a community would provide a space where such an identity could be formed. This is an important distinction. We tend to think of social identities as group portraits in which people recognise themselves; we say 'I'm black', 'I'm gay', 'I'm Jewish', 'I'm old'. One of the really interesting things about people's experience of flexible corporations is that they cannot find 'group portraits' to apply to their situation. For instance, they find it very hard to decide which social class they belong to. The normal interpretation of this is that they have weak identities. I don't think this is necessarily so. I think one can have a strong sense of identity without recognising oneself in a group portrait. We can develop a sense of identity by sharing our experiences with others in a process of ongoing interaction. This is quite different to a group portrait, which is a well-defined, discrete entity that we can adopt unilaterally. An identity that exists through dialogue is open, subject to change, and incomplete.
What we find with the Harvard secretaries or the New York garment workers is that they are not asserting a single, complete identity - 'I am an oppressed worker'. Rather, they have multiple, fragmentary identities, because they have lots of different bits to their lives - as mothers, wives, homeworkers, Catholics, etc. Their multiple identity only reaches some kind of unity through the group dynamic found in the interaction between workers.
This kind of identity can be a lot more radical than simply sharing the same group portrait. Group portraits can be divisive. Joint communal action can often be undermined by a struggle over whose image should dominate the action. In urban community groups, I found that this struggle is normally fought around determining who is the biggest victim in the community. In contrast, community groups succeed in their struggles when people stop competing and enter a dialogue with each other, which is to say that they enter a relationship with each other that is partial, fragmentary and unresolved. It is only once people enter such an unresolved relationship that new kinds of social relations emerge and a form of oppression can be overthrown.
If we are thinking in terms of group portraits, or in terms of being a victim, we are simply reacting to the force that is dominating us. When movements succeed, they go beyond this. It was important for the women's movement to get beyond simply thinking in terms of male-female relations, and to develop notions of female autonomy - of a space which men could not enter. Likewise, it has been important in America to develop ideas of what it is to be black beyond one's relation to whites - being African American. Ultimately, this is how we need to think about dealing with global capitalism. We do not fight it head on, but we bypass it. Limited examples of this would include local co-ops, local exchange trading schemes (Lets), and even illegal street markets.
I find it helpful to use an idea of philosopher GWF Hegel's when thinking about this, an idea that had a particularly strong influence on Karl Marx - the master-slave dialectic. Hegel argues that the slave remains subordinate to the master for as long as he is saying to the master, 'look what you did to me'. One remains a slave for as long as one still addresses the master and seeks redress from the master. The slave only becomes free at the point at which he or she begins talking a language the master cannot enter into, for the master relies on his power being ratified and recognised by the slave. We need to stop asking the master for redress, and begin to think instead in terms of how we might get on with each other independently of the master. In practical terms, this means finding ways to interact and live with each other in ways that are indifferent to global capitalism.
Richard Sennett is a socialist sociologist from the USA, now based at the London School of Economics. His most recent book, The Corrosion of Character, examines the personal effects of the shift towards 'flexibility' in the workplace.
This interview first appeared in redpepper (http://www.redpepper.org.uk/)
by George Wright
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Workplace bullying will be the target of a major occupational health and safety campaign to be launched by the ACTU on Monday October 16.
Under the banner the workplace is no place for bullying, unions, trades and labour councils and workers around the country will focus on the growing health and economic costs of bullying behaviour by employers, managers and supervisors.
While many people think of bullying as persecuting or 'ganging up' on individuals this is only part of the story. Most bulling is not so obvious. Bossing people around, intimidating, threatening or keeping them under constant pressure is also bullying.
This is the most common form of bullying in Australian workplaces and it is a risk to health and safety.
This bullying takes many forms. Unreasonable demands and impossible targets, restrictive and petty work rules, inadequate training, constant and intrusive surveillance or monitoring, shouting and abusive language, compulsory overtime, unfair rostering and threats of dismissal or demotion.
While those most likely to be bullyed include young workers, apprentices, trainees, women, older workers and workers for non-English speaking backgrounds, bullying can happen to anyone.
It happens across all industries and in all professions.
Diminished job security, privatisation, downsizing, outsourcing, casualisation and long or unpredictable working hours have put Australian workers under enormous pressure.
The feeling in many Australian workplaces is that never has so much been done by so few with so little.
The push for ever higher productivity in an increasingly competitive environment is resulting in bullying tactics being used to push workers to the limit. Workers often get the blame for poor performance or low productivity, no matter how well they do their jobs.
Bullying is a significant mental and physical health issue.
It can affect our health in many ways. Being bossed around is a major cause of stress at work. At its worst it can result in serous physical illness, alcohol and drug use, depression and other mental illness. Other symptoms include headaches, sleep difficulties, high bold pressure, digestive problems, anxiety, anger and even nausea.
A recent study of stress in the United Kingdom estimated that bullying is the cause of between a third and half of all work-related stress, and it is not only workers who are paying the price. The study also concluded that in the UK, 18 million working days are lost every year because of bullying and that, on average, bullied workers take an extra seven days off a year compared with those who are not bullied.
Australian academics like Grithith University's Dr. Paul McCarthy estimate that some 2.5 million Australian workers experience bullying during their working lives and that the cost to Australian business could be as high as $3 billion a year.
Despite this, there is little acknowledgment from Governments and employers that managerial bullying is a problem.
A key focus of the being bossed around is bad for your health campaign is too encourage Governments, employers and occupational heath and safety authorities to broaden their narrow focus on worker to worker bullying and look seriously at the effects of all forms of bullying - including aggressive management.
If there is not serious community debate about what is and what is not acceptable behaviour in the workplace and agreement about the real health, safety and social consequences of bullying the victims of bullying may be condemned to continue suffering in silence. As one respondent to a recent survey of workers on the issue said, "Nothing will be done about it because how do you prove bullying when it is subtle and sly?"
Health professional also need to start seriously considering bullying and the stress it causes as a genuine cause of ill health in their patients.
Everyone has the right to dignity and respect in the workplace. If bullying is occurring in your workplace there are ways to deal with it.
Get the issues out in the open and remember that bullying is an issue for all workers, not just the victims, so make sure you get your workmates and your union involved. Once you are prepared, you and your workplace representatives should raise the issue with your employer.
Employers have a legal duty to control all heath and safety hazards in the workplace including organisational structures and behaviours that may lead to bullying. There is simply no excuse for causing or allowing bullying in the workplace and an employer who is notified of a bullying issue must investigate and address it.
On Monday and in the coming weeks workers and unions will be targeting toxic management, because toxic management can make workers sick.
ACTU Helpline 1300 362 223
For more information call the ACTU HOTLINE on 1300 362 223 or visit our web site www.actu.asn.au
Sharan Burrow
ACTU President
by Zoe Reynolds
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The job interview had been going okay. Stephen Rolls had all the qualifications and experience for the position. He felt pretty certain he'd been performing well during the interview. But something the two men on the panel had said at the outset disturbed Stephen. Signing an Australian Workplace Agreement (individual contract), he was told, would be a condition of employment.
At first Stephen had bit his tongue. Then he did voice concern. And when they later asked him how he performed under stress, he decided to speak his mind.
"I told them that the company was putting stress on people by forcing them to sign Australian Workplace Agreements," said Stephen.
The convivial atmosphere came to an abrupt end.
"The personnel manager suggested it would be better to terminate the interview then and there", said Stephen.
A chill in the air was broken a moment later with the second man over-ruling the first. No, he said. The interview would continue. Stephen could decide whether he'd sign if he was offered one of the positions. But the remainder of the interview was, in Stephen's words, "rather strained".
No one had to say a thing. He could read it all over their faces. They went through the motions, but Stephen could see they had already decided.
"I knew it was really all over," he said. "I just knew I was never going to get the job because of the way the interview went towards the end after I'd opened my mouth".
Stephen Rolls was already working on the wharves as a casual with Patrick. He had finished a long term job with Australian Paper in May 1999, moving to the waterfront with contractors Skilled Engineering and as a Patrick supp. He liked the work. So when he heard Burnie Port Corp was looking to take people on, he was among the first to apply.
The Port Corp handed out the AWAs to Stephen Rolls and the other prospective candidates. They were told that Port Corp would not announce who had the jobs until the signed AWAs had been handed back.
But when Stephen Rolls read the AWA he didn't like what he saw.
"It wasn't as good as the EBA," he said. "The terms of employment on offer were inferior - only four weeks annual leave (not five) and a 38 hour week (not 35)."
He rang Maritime Union branch secretary Mike Wickham and made a time to come in with a written statement.
"I would like to inform you of my concern that I may have been discriminated against at a recent interview for the port operative positions with Burnie Port Corporation due to my not agreeing to sign up to an Australian Workplace Agreement rather than working to the award that isnow in place..." he wrote.
"I was informed by the personnel officer that the position was only available provided that I was prepared to sign an AWA. I voiced my concern that would make me at odds from the rest of the workforce in what I felt would become a dispute over the rest of the workforce signing AWAs.
"We continued the interview in which I felt I had performed quite well until a question about stress was brought up..."
Down at the union rooms Mike Wickham read the statement, listened and agreed to help.
A phone call to Burnie Port Corp soon confirmed both men's suspicions.
Stephen Rolls was not one of the successful applicants.
Mike Wickham had been briefing MUA National Office. Industrial Officer Bill Giddins and National Secretary John Coombs took legal advice. Was it discrimination or duress? The union decided to take Burnie Port Corp on in the courts.
"I had cold feet at first," said Stephen. "I knew it was costing the union a lot of money. I'd only been a member a few months and was surprised they wanted to take my case on. But Mike told me we had a strong case."
Enterprise agreement negotiations between Port Corp and the Maritime Union had bogged down for some months. Management had made excuses rejecting any pay rise or improved conditions contained in the union log of claims.
Offering job applicants work on condition that they signed individual contracts was one way of undermining the union and the enterprise agreement negotiations.
Successful applicant and MUA member, Mr Kristen Donohue, had at first balked at signing an AWA. But he later told the union secretary he was 'desperate for the job'.
Mike Wickham understood his dilemma. Burnie is a small town but unemployment is high - one of the worst rates in Tasmania - ranging from 12per cent to 20 per cent for young men like 20 year old Mr Donohue. Many Burnie residents who do have jobs have to get by with only part time or casual work. "In the present climate the opportunities for job seekers in Burnie are bleak to put it mildly," Mike Wickham told the court. "I can certainly understand why Mr Donohue was desperate for the job at the Burnie Port Corp."
The union argued that the job applicants had been forced to sign under duress and that Stephen Rolls had been refused a job for saying he did not want to sign an AWA. This, the MUA solicitors argued, was in breach of the Workplace Relations Act.
The court agreed on one count - discrimination.
On August 24 Justice Ryan of the Federal Court found the Burnie Port Corp had contravened section 298K(1) the Freedom of Association provisions of the Workplace Relations Act when it declined to employ Stephen Rolls after he told an interview panel that he did not wish to be placed on an individual contract.
It was a landmark decision, setting an important legal precedent.
Union solicitors Maurice Blackburn Cashman described the decision as a blow to individual contracts. It was also a blow to the Howard Government, especially Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith, who has been advocating AWAs as the preferred method of employment.
Solicitor Kim Parker, who acted for the Maritime Union of Australia in the Burnie case, said the ruling made it clear that employers may be in breach of the Act where suitable candidates for jobs refuse to sign AWAs and, as a result, are not offered employment.
"The Court found it was unlawful to refuse to employ someone where they would not sign an AWA because they were otherwise entitled to the benefit of an EBA,' said Ms Parker.
The decision further extends the scope of the Freedom of Association provisions of the Act. It means that in some circumstances an employer who makes a job offer conditional on accepting an individual contract is in breach of the Act.
Section 298K (1) of the Workplace Relations act provides that an employer must not threaten to refuse to employ another person because they are entitled to the benefit of an award or agreement. The union had successfully argued in court that the Corporation had refused or threatened to refuse to employ Stephen Rolls when it stipulated that the positions on offer would only be filled by those prepared to enter into an AWA.
Justice Ryan found that "Given Mr Rolls had effectively declined at interview to enter into an AWA, he fell, on the union's argument, into a category of persons who would never be accepted for employment."
Justice Ryan also found that in denying Rolls a job unless he signed an AWA, Port Corp was also denying him the benefit of an industrial agreement. MUA National Secretary John Coombs said the decision of the Federal Court was to be applauded.
"This should give people going for jobs the courage to demand that they be afforded the protection and benefits of collective bargaining agreements," he said. "And that includes representation by unions. Stephen Rolls had the balls to make a stand against a bullying employer. As a result thousands of workers nationwide stand to benefit."
During the hearings Burnie Port Corp gave an undertaking that if the court found against them they would terminate the relevant AWAs where employment was conditional on signing the contract. But Port Corp has since applied to the court to be released from this commitment.
"I felt I had been short shifted," said Stephen Rolls. "I felt I was being discriminated against. So I really appreciated the union backing me. I'm relieved we won. It is great to see the union prepared to support the little man."
The corporation has filed an appeal on the grounds that the "learned trial judge erred in fact and/or in law".
The appeal will be heard in November. And the case is such an important one that the Minister for Workplace Relations Peter Reith has notified he will intervene.
Meanwhile the Howard/Reith Government has suffered a second blow to its plans to have Australian workers move to individual contracts.
On September 28, only weeks after the MUA win against the Burnie Port Corp, the Federal Court restrained the Commonwealth Bank from signing up its employees on individual contracts. The court found the Finance Sector Union had an arguable case that the bank had breached the Workplace Relations Act by coercing the union and its 23,000 award employees to accept an inferior EBA by threatening to offer individual AWAs to those employees at a time when the EBA negotiations became deadlocked.
If the Commonwealth Bank had not been restrained it would have been the largest rollout of individual employment contracts in Australian industrial relations history.
The law firm representing the FSU were Maurice Blackburn Cashman.
Comment From John Coombs:
THE Maritime Union won a landmark case in the Federal Court on August 24, when Justice Ryan ruled that the Port Corp had breached the Workplace Relations Act by refusing to employ a suitable job applicant because he refused to sign an AWA. It was a win against Burnie Port Corp, but it was the Federal Government and Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith who really took the blow. So much so that the minister has intervened on behalf of the Commonwealth in the appeal scheduled for November.
Standing his ground against the might of the government and the employer was one very courageous MUA member, Stephen Rolls. New to the union and the industry and with only a few days casual work to live off, Stephen spoke up against individual contracts during the interview with Burnie Port Corp.
If Burnie Port corp loses the appeal - and we are prepared to take this battle all the way to the highest court in the land - it will mean that desperate out of work men and women who are otherwise suitable for the job need no longer be bullied into signing Australian Workplace Agreements when an award or collective agreement is available to them. It is therefore not only the one brave member we are fighting for - but all MUA members and all Australian workers. Burnie Port Corp were attempting to bypass the union and force the entire workforce onto contracts. The court decision has not only foiled their tactic of undermining the pay and conditions of MUA workers in the port, but sent a very strong message to all employers contemplating following the Reith model of workplace relations.
by AFL-CIO
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Coal miners, bus drivers, factory workers, public employees, journalists, teachers, writers, music composers, actors and others joined the strike and took to the streets with their fellow citizens.
Despite widespread election fraud and voter intimidation, Serbians voted overwhelmingly against President Milosevic, who has ruled the troubled nation with an iron hand for more than a decade and is connected to horrific violence and campaigns of ethnic cleansing throughout the region. Opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica won the election for the presidency of Yugoslavia.
Shocked at the repudiation of his dictatorial rule, the Milosevic regime tried to ignore election results and steal the electoral victory they could not win at the polls despite blatant tampering. The Milosevic-controlled Supreme Court annulled the presidential election results, and the Serbian people responded with civil disobedience to defend their victory.
In this volatile and dangerous environment, the independent Serbian trade union confederation Nezavisnost and its members are playing an integral role in the struggle for democracy in Serbia. Working closely with the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Nezavisnost has established a network that extends from the national level to the worksite, providing its pro-democracy partners with tools for effective public communication and mobilization and keeping the public informed despite government censorship and media blackouts. In coalition with other democratic organizations, Nezavisnost has begun to lay the foundation for democracy, helping citizens see that they are capable of building a society in which they have a voice. In 1995, the AFL-CIO recognized the courage of Nezavisnost's President Branislav Canak with the George Meany Human Rights Award.
Throughout Serbia, Nezavisnost members joined in peaceful, nonviolent activities to pressure the Milosevic regime to accept the true election results, including strikes in the critical manufacturing city of Uzice, which was reported to have been almost completely shut down, and in Cacak. Nezavisnost members have taken the lead in shutting down a munitions plant and a mining smelting complex, and are among those shutting down the bus transport system. As of October 5, it appears that this popular response had driven Milosevic from power.
Prior to the elections, Nezavisnost members, working in coalition with other organizations, conducted door-to-door canvassing and participated in leafleting, rock concerts and demonstrations. Nezavisnost leaders conducted paid get-out-the-vote broadcasts, most of which included audience call-ins, on 13 radio stations and 16 television stations, and appeared in other broadcasts as well. Nezavisnost and its allies held 250 campaign meetings in the weeks leading up to the election. In the days leading up to the election, Nezavisnost and its allies printed and distributed 289,000 get-out-the-vote leaflets and brochures and supplied 131,000 get-out-the-vote informational inserts in newspapers in 12 cities. On the last day of campaigning, Nezavisnost President Canak personally covered more than 500 miles by car, speaking at numerous campaign events.
On Election Day, the union federation provided more than 1,000 trained election monitors to the independent monitoring commission and another 400 monitors to the democratic opposition's monitoring effort. The Nezavisnost monitors played a critical role in confirming that the Yugoslav Federal Election Commission falsified vote totals.
The union's determination to support democracy in Serbia and peace in the Balkans has exacted a heavy price, as the government's intensified intimidation measures--including illegal searches, arrests, interrogations and beatings--have taken aim at Nezavisnost activists as well as other democracy advocates. Despite these obstacles, Nezavisnost and its union activists remain committed to the cause of democracy. It appears at this time that their efforts are succeeding.
by The Chaser
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by Neale Towart
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In the era of mass unemployment in Australia, during the notorious "razor gang" days of Malcolm Fraser (maybe today we would look upon them a bit more kindly in comparison to the horrors that have come since), a group of Melbourne poets began writing about "work". Some of these poems have been collected from the magazine 925 and represent a cultural response to the economic crisis that faced Australian society in the period 1978 to 1983. 925 became the largest circulating small press venture in Australia, with over 3000 copies per issue. This anthology represents a unique look into the machinery of everyday life. 925 became a touchstone of performance poetry throughout Australia.
Ian Syson, editor of Overland contributes a stimulating preface, and the collection is edited and introduced by jeltje, one of the founding editors of 925.
Syson disarmingly begins by apologising for remarks he made decrying the absence of organised Australian working class writing since 1970. He was upbraided on this point by a speaker, Virginia Clarke (who ended up running against Pauline Hanson in 1998) pointing out the importance of 925 in terms of politics, effectiveness and content, and that it was just as important as any working class publication that preceded it.
925 published poems about builders' labourers, draughtsmen and women, clerical workers, mothers, shop assistants and just about every other occupation (155 occupations were poeticised in all).
jeltje sets out what got the magazine started. As he says, "Work is within everyone's range of experience, cutting across divides of race, class and gender. 925 became a community that came together to write about work, to encourage others to do the same, and to work together... "From 1978-1983 we attempted to counteract the reactionary forces at work in Australia".
The poetry is sad, funny, gritty and arresting. The typefaces and layout are part of the whole, with cartoons, photos and sketches essential to the whole feel of the project. A small taste of some of the work follows.
To get hold of this collection, contact: Collective Effort Classics of Australia; PO Box 2430V GPO Melbourne 3000. It will cost about $15.00 with postage included.
david g. harris; untitled
And how did you come to leave your last job?
Diplomacy.
Diplomacy? How come?
Well, everyone else says:
"Boss, I feel sick.
Can I go home?"
But what I said was:
"Boss, I feel sick.
Will you go home?"
stefan ziolo - "The things you learn in a chocolate factory"
The other day,
They gave me a new guy to work with:
A Polish guy
(been in Australia 3 weeks)
After a week
I could say:
"Tak", "Nie", "Dziekuye" & "Dobranoc"
yes no thank you & good night
He can say:
"How are you", "Thank you", "Smoko", "Lemon BonBons",
"Cherry Ripe", "Chocolate Eclairs", "Carmel Whip", "Country
Mints", "Orange BonBons", & "Jelly Beans"
cynthea brodribb; untitled
maybe it's because
I dislike fighting off randy foremen
or maybe it's because
I don't know anything about football
or maybe it's because
I never watch Ernie Sigley
or maybe it's because
I never got to enjoy the sunshine
or maybe it's because
the work I do is starving my brain
whatever it is
this factory & me don't get on well.
caterina passoni; two types of waitress
I work ten hours for eight hours pay.
"That's better than double that for none!"
My husband won't believe I've left his employ.
It hurts him I should serve all these tables
Italian food to strange men.
He wonders why I never served him
with such civility.
"Perhaps you have changed.
I want you back."
He observes my room above my work is dark.
It is dark,
But it's mine and private.
I have changed. That's why I won't go back.
Most of the poetry demands to be read aloud, or looked at for the visuals. They are performance pieces. Check them out. Many of the writers are still writing and performing. jeltje, Thalia and X.o are probably the most prominent and can be seen and heard regularly in Melbourne. Mike Ladd, one of the contributors, presents Poetica on Radio National each week.
Red Lamp today continues the tradition. See http://www.geocities.com/red_lamp/index.html for Red Lamp online, a journal of realist, socialist and humanist poetry.
by Peter Lewis
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Heavy rain in the Mezzagiorno - that part of Italy that runs from the shin to the toe - had washed away roads and cars as well as the annual parade through the town. We arrived in the eye of the storm and heavy fog, barely able to see the road in from Catanzaro over what we later learn is the second highest bridge in Europe to the town of 6,000 that my wife's mother had left as a girl of five. We'd stayed in the city overnight, resigned to missing the religious festival, which had been carried out for centuries. Instead, to the delight of many who had watched the Italian's string of gold medals, they were forced indoors where four hours of a different pomp was being broadcast around the globe.
It was a weird experience as we sat down with the cousins and watched the package of Australiana. We may have been missing out on the Festival of the Virgin, but Sydney served up its own kit bag of Aussie Icons from Elle to Kylie to Hoges. If it hadn't been for Christine Anu, Yothu Yindi and Midnight Oil's brave symbolism you would have called the whole thing tacky, but there was a striving for something better that came out and made me feel warmer towards the whole show. As for the locals, they're spellbound in front of the set. Through broken lingo we explained the Aboriginal situation, the stolen generation and the PM's refusal to apologise. To people inculcated with the family and Catholic guilt it was anathema. The reconciliation cause has won some strong, if distant, supporters.
The older folk of the South have their own connection to the land, a sense almost akin to indigenous Australia. They live in the town, but work their land, olive groves for oil and grapes harvested and brewed to create uncompromising wines. The harvests are carried out according to tradition, the picking, the pressing, the fermenting all subject to rules and regulations that are never written down, but live in the heads of the old men and women. They dress in black, the 12-month mourning periods running into each other until they become indeterminate. At night they return to the town, where they watch the ever present television, beneath the gaze of the Madonna and a very Italian looking Jesus, and none of them seem to be phased by the game shows where the busty blond mermaid reclines in a clam shell and sings trivia questions. Such is the clash of old and new.
The Festival has been put off for a week because of the rain, so we spend the time meeting the family, who laugh affectionally as we struggle through 'pocco' Italiano. They shower us with food, massive meals of five and six courses which cease to be pleasurable, a sign of plenty in a land when there is never enough. They take great pride in showing their houses, modest flats on the outside, but inside renovated kitchens and bathrooms and all the mod cons amongst the religious icons. Outwards extravagance is dangerous. Family is central and branches of the tree are rattled off with a hypnotic intensity that is all about marking a place. And it all occurs against the unspoken backdrop of the Mafioso, which despite high-profile trials in the mid-90s still cast a shadow over Calabria. Everyone has a story, like the time our cousin saw a car in the street outside where we are staying riddled with bullets. But you don't need the testimony, the suspicious looks on the faces, particularly with strangers in town, say enough. After all, there are no hotels in Borgia. It's been that way for millennia, the mountainous land is not just unforgiving, it is downright provocative, jutting out as it does into the Mediterranean exposed to wave after wave of invasion - the Greeks, the Arabs, even the Normans have come and imposed their culture here. What this does to the collective psyche is to place it under permanent siege.
On Saturday night the streets are lit up for whatever the Festival of the Virgin is - we have been told of a parade and a 'choo-choo' fire-eating donkey but noone's too strong on the details of the where, when and why. The young people head for the fairground, the older people to mass as a stage is set up at the end of the main road, mulletted roadies testing with an incongruous power-rock track. But the rain begins falling at nine and the band is delayed, the forlorn figure of the drummer banging away on his own for a few minutes before the clouds open and everyone goes home. We're woken next morning by explosions, the first of last night's fireworks being let off at 7am to get the town rocking. There's activity around the town from all directions but strangely disconnected. The church bells summon the followers to mass. The sounds of a brass band break out for a single song every half hour - but from where? A fleet of tooting cars does laps of the town, celebrating something with gusto - later we learn the object of their joy is totally removed from the festival and is actually a celebration of the Ferrari team's victory in the Japan Grand Prix. They obviously drive better than the revelers who crash one of their vehicles in the main street.
By evening the rain has set in again and the Festival, for the fourth time in two weeks, is in danger of being called off. What gets me is that this is the most important cultural event in the town's calendar and noone seems to know, or care, what's going to happen. What's more noone seems to know what it all means anymore - the choo-choo, the Virgin, the fireworks - it's just a tradition and that's good enough. For someone from a country which apart from indigenous culture is devoid of these types of festivals it seems almost wanton, a waste of a public asset. But when you've always had a sense of place and history I guess it's not such a big deal. And the opposite is probably true as well, which is why the Olympics seemed from a distance so great and so sad - great for the enthusiasm Sydney let forth and sad because this was the only outlet. Meanwhile in Borgia and its 9pm and the rain's getting harder. They've put themselves out of their misery and packed up the stockpile of fireworks, the choo-choo, and the fairground. It's been a bad night for the guy behind the bar in Grizzly's, the ice cream bar which is the Borgia nightlife. He shrugs his shoulders in signature Cal-abrasiveness. Maybe next year.
by Peter Moss
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Spring is an uneasy time for the sports fan.
And this year it's worse.
Spewed out of the Olympic vortex into the vacuum that separates the end of real football and the advent of real (don't start) cricket.
You're a bit like whatsisname in Kubrick's 2001 - screaming soundlessly as you drift in a sickening weight-free spiral further and further away from the lights of the mothership.
'Will somebody please open that bloody pod door!?'
Passive, lifeless desparados may swallow the pantomime of desert one-day cricket, the international rules football or 82-0 scorelines in debris rugby league.
For the rest of us, as always, the sweet smell of horseflesh is the only tonic.
Not having given a single thought to matters equine for nine or ten months, I find myself putting aside the form guide for further study.
I glance sideways at the TAB as I motor by.
I call my Kiwi mate - an ex-horse-strapper - for a list of NZ longshots which might have snuck in under our lax immigration laws.
And I reflect on my own appalling big race punting record.
Fact: I have never won money on a Melbourne Cup.
Decision: This year will be different.
But I need expert advice.
Where better to turn than the experts on statistics and probability at the prestigious Sydney University School of Mathematics and Statistics.
First call is Terry Gagen, Associate Professor.
Straight up, he confesses to being 'a born loser'.
'Years ago I went to the famous Lexington, Kentucky, racecourse with three internationally-renowned mathematicians,' Terry says to illustrate.
'We arrived ten minutes before the last race and each picked a runner at random from a field of eight. Our horses ran fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.
'I even pulled out of the Department's lotto syndicate because we didn't win for 18 months.'
Terry recommends I try his colleague Malcolm Quine, also an Associate Professor at the School of Mathematics and Statistics.
I think I'm getting warm when Malcolm reveals that he specialises in probability theory and has been hired as a consultant by NSW Lotteries and by poker machine manufacturers.
But Malcolm's straight up too: 'I don't gamble,' he says sombrely. 'Had a bet on the Melbourne Cup a few years back and did my dough.'
Malcolm confirms that the odds of winning big lottery and pokie payouts are 'in the millions to one'.
'You're almost guaranteed to lose money,' he says.
He reckons you could try blackjack but 'with eight decks in use you'll need a better memory than mine'.
Hope fading, I ask Malcolm whether he knows of any mathematician who does enjoy a punt.
'You want Doctor Bob,' he muses, and reels off a mobile telephone number.
Thirty seconds later Dr Robert Crossman is on the line and confirms that his interest in punting goes beyond the theory.
Formerly a lecturer at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Dr Bob manages to earn at least part of his income through betting and games of chance.
Specifically, horse racing, poker and blackjack.
Like any successful gambler Dr Bob plays his cards close, but he says it is possible to win - if you devote serious time and effort to your chosen pursuit.
He estimates the number of viable professional and semi-professional gamblers in Australia is 'in the hundreds rather than the thousands'.
'For racing, they use sophisticated mathematical modelling and techniques to identify horses above the odds,' Br Bob says.
'They operate in units using computers and they have substantial backing. They aim for small edges but on large scales.'
Professionals don't completely eschew the standard win and place bet, but their focus is overwhelmingly on the exotic bets, especially trifectas.
'That's partly because there is less government take - about 20% - from the trifecta pool, compared to doubling up on three win bets where 15% goes from the pool each time,' explains Dr Bob.
'There is also more dead money in a trifecta pool, largely thanks to box trifectas taken by ordinary punters.'
And here Dr Bob has a useful tip for us mugs - play more standout trifectas and less boxes.
'At least weight it so you bet more units on the better chances.'
But for the lone casual punter Dr Bob's advice is blunt. 'Enjoy it, but don't give up your day job.
'You can improve your chances by developing a methodology that gives you an edge and information from within the industry can also give you an edge.'
Naturally, Dr Bob is reluctant to share the specifics of his own edges.
This gambling academic is also one of Australia's best poker players, having won prize money in domestic and international tournaments.
Poker, Dr Bob says, is as much a 'people game' as a game of chance.
'You certainly use maths skills, but to win you need to be able to read other people, you need self-discipline. Most important, you need to know and monitor yourself.'
While tournaments charge an entry fee and pay cash prizes to the best players, Dr Bob says you can also make money 'playing tight' in 'cash games', when the chips are worth real money.
'The method is to bet only when you have a premium or above average hand.'
In casinos, blackjack is the game offering the best odds for punters.
Dr Bob says most people could reduce their losses to the bank to 1% with some effort.
'There are plenty of quality books covering blackjack technique. If you study these and practice for one hour a day for a week, you will improve your position,' he suggests.
I bring the interview back to horse racing, the Spring Carnival and the Melbourne Cup, where my quest began.
Any tips, Dr Bob?
'Look for quality horses and quality trainers. You could do a lot worse than Bart Cummings in the cups.'
Well, I have done a lot worse. But not this year.
Peter Moss is a Director of Lodestar Communications
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In this issue:
New York Union-Building: lessons for today
Gains for US workers following World War II came from collective bargaining. In New York, starting from a higher base than many other areas in the US, the union movement was successful in establishing a rich social program, including housing provision, rent control and housing co-operatives. Other services that unions were instrumental in establishing and improving included health care coverage from employers, establishment of union run health clinics, and helped found the City Center for Music and Drama, s families of modest means could enjoy this "high" culture and entertainment.
Unions can't go back to these times but lessons from the organising efforts then should be heeded. In particular the earlier successes show that:
(America@work, September 2000)
Talking to Teens: two activists say unions 'gotta get into young people', and, A Union Education
Two young activists say that unions need to reach young people, and perhaps the way to do this is for unions to turn out and raise their voice on broader issues that young people are aware of, such as environmental issues, sweatshops, and (in the US) prison labour. Young people aren't antagonistic to unions, but are not connected to them. Unions need to make the connections. Communication with students in open, innovative ways is crucial, and suggestions and examples are discussed here.
(America@work, September 2000)
Casual Employment and Dismissal
A man who contacted an employer every day for twenty months to seek work was found to be a "regular casual" employee and therefore covered by the dismissal provisions of the Workplace Relations Act 1996. Over the twenty months, the man worked about 275 days. It was held that while he had no expectation of work every day, it was reasonable for him to expect some work every week, and in that sense the work was regular and systematic.
Draper v Sherrin Hire Pty Ltd; CCH Recruitment and Termination Guide 22-150
(Recruitment and Termination Update; newsletter 25, 18 September 2000)
Options for Assisting Low-wage Earners
David Ingles and Ken Oliver
A number of proposals for reducing unemployment in Australia focus on cuts or freezes in award wages. The proposals include suggestions to offset some of the distributional impacts by top ups of wages or tax transfer systems. So far the tax transfer system and the living wage cases have helped underpin low wages, helping keep inequality in check. The sustainability of this mechanism is constantly in doubt with attacks on the industrial relations system and massive changes in the social welfare system. Suggestions presented here to maintain and improve the socio-economic conditions of low wage earners include rental assistance schemes, reduction of income tax for low wage earners, and income tax credit schemes.
(Economic and Labour Relations Review; vol. 11, no. 1, June 2000)
Investigating the Economic Cost of Injury in the Workplace: a case study approach
Geoffrey Kiel, H Ted Kolsen, Carmel Smith
Macro-economic costs alone do not accurately portray the totality of costs that are incurred as a result of workplace injury. Using case study analysis of six work related injuries, the paper reports on the total costs of injury, and identifies the key determinants of the costs. The studies indicate that the typical profile costs approach used in assessing cost on work related injuries bear little relation to the real costs of injuries.
(Economic and Labour Relations Review; vol. 11, no. 1, June 2000)
When Performance Fails to Meet Expectations: Managers Objectives for Outsourcing
Suzanne Young and Johanna Macneil
Managers may implement outsourcing for one or more of a range of reasons: to improve flexibility, to reduce costs or risk, to change their own roles, to change organisational structure or workplace power structure, and to intensify work effort. However, there are associated costs, either unanticipated or unquantified. This paper looks at two food processing companies to address the questions of why managers pursue outsourcing and have managers calculated the costs as well as the benefits? Managers start with clear objective for outsourcing but often find unexpected costs, and changes in objectives as information and situations change. Managers are often unable to objectively substantiate outsourcing decisions. (John Fahey and the outsourcing of IT contracts in the Federal public service seem to provide a further classic example of this. See the Sydney Morning Herald 6 October 2000)
(Economic and Labour Relations Review; vol. 11, no. 1, June 2000)
Where do the Children Play? What's happening with vacation care?
Every year, working parents have to manage around 12 weeks of their children's vactions, when their own allocation of recreation leave is usually four weeks. Cumulative survey data collected by Families At Work form 1999-2000 show that the number of days lost per parental employee due to care breaking down during holidays is 1.7 days per annum. There can be clear benefits for employers in minimising school holiday difficulties for parents. The Commonwealth Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestries - Australia (AFFA) has provided vacation care since 1992, initially by reserving places with local programs. Staff initiated the idea. As demand grew and it became difficult to reserve enough places, the dept used an existing amenities room and purchased services from a program provider. The dept guaranteed the program in the early years, but its role has lessened as the program expanded. Parents appreciate the ease of bringing children to work for the care.
Westpac provides information and referral services to their staff. Westpac's Family Carelink provides information and advice to employees on dependant care arrangements for children, elderly relatives, those with disabilities and other dependants.
(Work and Family; issue 23, August 2000)
Telework Project: interview with Dr Gillian Whitehouse
A national survey specifically about telework has been conducted, with the aim of identifying impediments to the introduction of telework in Australia and the potential benefits and costs that might be associated with this type of employment.
(Work and Family; issue 23, August 2000)
Back in 1997 it was revealed in The Australian that the Minister for Double Standards had approached Ron Walker, to buy a penthouse in the exclusive Domain apartment building on St. Kilda Road, Melbourne.
Reith paid $385,000 for his posh pad with a generous $43,500 discount courtesy of his mate, Ron, the Liberal Party bagman and Hudson Conway supremo. Later that same year the Daily Terror estimated that Reith had racked up a staggering $100,000 windfall gain on the property. Well blue bloods of the world unite! (It's nice to know he's got the money to pay back the 50 grand phone bill he tried to dump on us.)
Not surprisingly the Minister for Double Standards has maintained an interest in property/mates/speculative profits. He has since made a $5000 down payment on an apartment in the Grollo Tower, the grotesque, phallic, megalomaniac project planned to dominate the Melbourne skyline. On reflection, an entirely appropriate abode for our smug, testosterone-driven megatool.
The ReithCard scandal, with all its sleaze brings with it the smell of death, the terminal decline of this government.
A story of a Government Minister's telecard being used over 11,000 times by an unknown number of unknown people over five years would stop you in your tracks even if that story came out of Nigeria or some other corrupt banana republic.
Reith's brazenness and Howard's obstinacy show just how contemptuous they are of democratic conventions and of the Australian public. They are the Generals in the Labyrinth, power drunk plutocrats who just don't give a shit.
Arch Bevis had the hit-the-nail-on-the-head question for Howard.
"Given the well-publicised view of the minister for employment, workplace relations and small business, Peter Reith, concerning managerial prerogative, what action do you think he would propose be taken against an employee who gives his company credit card to his son, to then find his company has a bill for unauthorised expenditure of $50,000 as a result of that action?
"If the employee then offered to repay only $900 of the $50,000 (the amount Reith has repaid as the claimed total of his son's misuse) what remedy, do you think, Peter Reith would recommend that the employer avail itself of?
Margot Kingston points out on the Sydney Morning Herald website http://smh.com.au/news/0010/12/pageone/pageone2.html that 'the Telecard scandal is no longer just about Peter Reith. It is a story about the probity of Prime Minister John Howard and his fitness to remain in office.'
'The political atmosphere since the revelation of the misuse of public funds by a senior minister, and the Prime Minister's cover-up of a $50,000 fraud on taxpayers and his utter failure to clean up the system which led to the mess is, quite simply, Nixonian,' she says.
ReithCard wasn't the only stench of sleaze coming out of the government this week. We also discovered we've been paying for the Minister of Health's fags and cholesterol-rich gourmet meals to the tune of $35,000.
And the most damaging of all is yet to come with the Federal Court ordering the release of consultancy reports on the waterfront. Reith's relentless, systematic lying about his level of knowledge and his proactive role in the organizing of the Dubai mercenaries and the whole waterfront dispute will then come out into the public arena. (Were there any calls from Dubai on the Telstra ReithCard?)
Reith has bounced back from all sorts of setbacks in the past but this time he's gone and good riddance to the pig. And let's count the days till the rest of his blueblood mates follow him into oblivion.
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