
Issue No 78		17 November 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Trades Hall

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

By Alison Peters and Mary Yaager

The Labors Councils women's dinner was obviously the social place to be this week -with glitz ,glamour and frivolity.


	Piers looks in!

Sam Moait Labor Council's President said "the Sussex Street Boys offered big bucks to buy a table at the event however they were knocked back".

The gals also thought they caught a glimpse of Piers peeping in through a port hole window on the south side.

Women from all facets of the Union Movement attended the event and roared with laughter as a panel of successful women recounted their life's most embarrassing and memorable moments.

Naomi Steer, Ex-Labor Council Officer, said her most embarrassing moment was when she had to perform a karaoke duet in Japan with Michael Costa. The song was Hey Hey Paula. "The worst line I had to sing was " I want to marry you too" " My face still glows with embarrassment when I think about it' Naomi continued to say.

Justice Trish Kavanagh, Judge with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission recounted that when she first went to the Bar she received a number of briefs from the Health Industry Unions which came to a stop when "that man I married" became the Minister for Health. More recently the biggest compliment she was paid was when another unnamed judge described her to a couple of barristers as being "a great advocate in this place before you were born".

Grace Grace who is the first woman Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions (or as she is dubbed by the press " Secretary and mother of one") delighted the guests by recounting how she learnt the numbers game from a NSW bloke. She's a good learner given her current position.

Sharan Burrow, President of the ACTU said she was starting to feel relaxed in her new position when she attended a typical union Barbie and had a delegate approach her and say " well you've turned out to be alright. I thought you were going to be a f****** dud". The moral is to never take your position for granted but at least Sharan felt she'd made it!

Feedback from those attending was that it was a great night and that it was good to see highly successful women being able to see the humorous side of their work and being able to laugh at themselves. The dinner also showed that women in the union movement are fun.

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Issue 78 contents

Interview: Doubly Blessed
With that unforgettable name, Grace Grace is making her mark as the first female secretary of the Queensland trade union movement.

Unions: On The Line
Trade unions this week entered a landmark partnership with the call centre industry to improve the quality jobs in this growing sector.

History: Conspiracy or Class? The Whitlam Sacking
Never trust a man who wears a top hat and tails in Australia, in Summer. Neale Towart considers this and other evidence of conspiracy in the great shonky dismissal.

Legal: Return Of The Lock-out
Marian Baird reports on the increasing tendency of aggressive employers to use lock-outs to reduce wages and conditions and promote individual agreements.

Activists: Waterfront Hero Bows Out
John Coombs, the man the government compared to Ned Kelly - villain to the bosses, the big land owners and conservatives, folk hero to working Australians - bows out of the union movement next month.

International: Morocco Stonewalls In Western Sahara
Morocco has new king but its old game plan of defying world opinion over its occupation of the Western Sahara continues.

Review: The Identity-Shifting Pragmatist
If New Zealand should have an Australian as its first Labour Prime Minister, then it is only fitting that Australia should have as its first a man who spent much of his formative years across the ditch.

Satire: Hackers Infect Microsoft Computers With Mysterious Windows Virus
SEATTLE, Thursday: Shame-faced workers at Microsoft admitted today that hackers had succeeded in penetrating their network's defences and had installed a sophisticated virus on the Apple Macintosh machines used across the software giant's operations.

» STOP PRESS: Global First - ILO Sanctions Against Burma

» Big Bosses Bloat While Working Poor Grows

» Union Puts Heat on Bastard Bank

» Reith Fiddles As Workers Diddled In Shelf Company Scam

» Call Centre Group Sets New Standard

» Bag The Building Union Back In Vogue

» Reith Uses the Back Door

» Big Australian Blamed As Ships of Shame Toll Rises

» Public Education Bus Donated to East Timor

» Vic Opposition Blocks Fair IR Laws

» More Reasons to Abolish the Employment Advocate

» Coca-Cola Hit by Racism Claims

» Souths or Bust!

» Fundraisers for Burma, Timor, EMILY's List