
Issue No 78		17 November 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

More Reasons to Abolish the Employment Advocate

Australia's leading construction union has slammed Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz for locking unionists out of a construction industry seminar last week.

Tasmanian Construction Division Secretary Tony Benson and rank and file member Robert Vincent were refused entry on monday on the ground that they were not members of the organising groups.

However the promotional material for the seminar does not state that it would be closed to the public. Individuals were asked to RSVP, and this was done.

"It is a disgrace that a Liberal Senator, who is supposed to serve the whole State, refuses to discuss issues in a rational way with all industry participants", said Tony Benson.

"It is clear that Senator Abetz isn't interested in the construction industry or in the principles of free speech, he simply wants to engage in old fashioned union bashing."

National Secretary John Sutton has voiced concerns that the main speaker at the Seminar, Employment Advocate Jonathan Hamberger, has again made it clear that he stands with employers, rather than with ordinary workers.

"We have said from the start the Office Employment Advocate was established to assist Peter Reith to drive down wages and conditions of ordinary workers. Today's events are further proof that the OEA is not impartial in industrial relations and that the Office should be abolished," said Mr Sutton.

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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