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  Issue No 81 Official Organ of LaborNet 08 December 2000  

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News

National Action Hits Manufacturing Sector


Thousands of workers from hundreds of factories and workplaces across four states stopped workthis week in support of a campaign for a new industrial agreement in the manufacturing industry.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union was joined by other manufacturing unions and community groups at the rallies for Campaign 2001, which aims to deliver better job security, protection of workers entitlements, wage rises and a common expiry date.

NSW State Secretary Secretary of the AMWU, Paul Bastian says the stop work action is just the start of a long campaign by manufacturing workers across Australia.

``Campaign 2001 is about three core issues - job security, protection of workers savings and entitlements when companies go bust and for a better way of life for workers and their families.'' Bastian says.

He says workers in the manufacturing sector are not going to just sit back and wait for the next ``National Textiles'' or ``STP'' whereby shonky corporate takeovers or collapses see workers saving and entitlements get lost.

``The big issues facing our members will not be sorted out at the enterprise level, and it is time that the employers in our industry sat around the table with us and we came up with some real answers for workers.''

Rallies were held in QLD, NSW, Tasmania and South

One of the key issues in the AMWU's log of claims is the establishment of ``Manusafe'', a trust fund for the protection of workers savings and entitlements that employers would be required to pay into so that workers would not lose money when companies went bust or changed hands.

Bastian says that the AMWU expected a hysterical response from the Minister for Workplace Relations Peter Reith, but the community believes in fair and decent outcomes for workers, and that many working families were feeling betrayed by the present industrial relations system.

``Politicians and employers need to understand that it is getting harder and harder for many working families to keep their heads above water, and a lot of workers feel that enterprise bargaining has left them behind and failed them.'' He says.

``This industry campaign is about the issues that are impacting on the broader community - job insecurity and needing to have a decent pay packet to take home to the family.'']


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*   Issue 81 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Back to Work
After a stretch of unemployment following the 1996 election, former Keating Minister Robert Tickner is now helping others find work.
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*  Media: Reality Check
Aiden White, head of the international journalists' union, argues that online journalism presents a new set of challenges for organising.
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*  Economics: In the Same Boat
In an unprecedented move, a coalition of industry, community and trade union groups have joined forces to address long-trerm unemployment.
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*  International: Nepalese Hotel Workers Ask for Support
Hotel workers in the small Himalayan nation of Nepal have finally decided to vent their anger and call a general strike for Monday - over a 21 year old dispute.
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*  Unions: Speaking in Tongues
Labor Council's Mark Morey outlines the successful campaign by local government workers for a community language allowance.
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*  History: Fighting Words
The anti-conscription campaign of 1914-18 tore the ALP apart; but this was not the first time the labour movement took a militantly anti-war stance.
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*  Politics: A New Socialism
In an extract from his new book, political economist Frank Stilwell argues the need for a new radicalism to counter the Third Way
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*  Satire: Roy Slaven on the Rampage
John Doyle's history of the ABC stretches back to a 1958 evening in Lithgow on which he was "scared shitless" by Blackboard on Mr Squiggle.
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*  Review: Mauled in the Bear Pit
Vengeance may be sweet but it is always made better when you are able to write a book about yourself that also provides the opportunity to dump a bucket load on those who undertook your removal.
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News
»  Vale Cliff Dolan: A Lifelong Commitment
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»  Bussies Buck Up Over Lane Cheats
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»  Tassie Brings Home the Bacon on Call Centres
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»  Howard Sinks Merchant Navy
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»  Rural Line Drawn on Telstra
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»  Don't Rain on our Family Picnic Day
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»  ACTU Living Wage Case Begins
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»  National Action Hits Manufacturing Sector
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»  TWU Calls For Mayor to be Charged
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»  Workers Blow Whistle on Secret Melbourne IT Sell-Off
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»  Help Us Win a Gong!
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»  Reith Sacked Over Telecard Affair
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»  2001: A Tipster's Odyssey
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  Mike Dwyer to Address South Coast Council
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»  Media and Police Versus Protestors
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»  City Council Conspires to Compress Comrades?
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»  Labor's Education Sell-Out
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»  McGuiness Defended
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»  Is Costa a Sandwich Short of a Picnic Basket?
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