
Issue No 78		17 November 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

Bag The Building Union Back In Vogue

The CFMEU has angrily denied allegations raised in this week's Sydney Morning Herald by journalist Neil Mercer under headline 'Union faces questions on missing cash.'

State Secretary Andrew Ferguson says there is no substance to the allegations raised by Mercer in an article based on the claims of one unnamed source.

And CFMEU state president Peter McLelland says Mercer was offered full access to the unions' records but passed up the opportunity to inspect them because "it stood in the way of the rubbish he published."

In the article the one-time TV current affairs host makes a series of allegations without naming any officials. Instead he tries to turn the story into a spy drama hiding behind the psuedonyms 'Mr A', 'Mr B' and 'Mr C'.

But Ferguson says the allegations are without substance.

'The CFMEU can account for every cent that was recovered on our members behalf and we are obtaining legal opinions in relation to this very misleading heading,' Ferguson says in a letter to NSW LaborCouncil;

'Council will remember the Greiner Government's Royal Commission into the building industry and the attacks on the BWIU at the time.

"In an attempt to protect the integrity of the union's wage recovery processes the union developed a very strictly audited wage claim computer system and strict auditing processes.

"The system survived all past anti-union attacks and the same system is in place within the CFMEU today.'

'The CFMEU prides itself on the integrity we have maintained over the past decades in relation to recovery of unpaid entitlements for members, with a record $3.6 million recovered for CFMEU members in the past 12 months.'

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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