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  Issue No 82 Official Organ of LaborNet 20 December 2000  

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News

Big Bastard Censors Dissidents

By Michael Crosby

While BHP workers take a stand against the company's deunionisation effort, the company has responded by sweeping concerns under the carpet.

One small example of that is the presentation for long service made by the company to Mine Maintenance worker, Tony Ryman recently.

The management arrived to present him with his gold watch only to find Tony and his mates all wearing tshirts with the slogan "I'm Not For Sale". BHP printed the photo in their company newspaper - Iron Ore Chronicle - cropped to exclude the T-shirt and message.

Despite the injunctions in place at BHP's iron ore operation in the Pilbara, the company continues its deunionisation effort.

Intimidation of the 60 per cent of the workforce remaining on a collective agreement continues with a wide range of pressure on union members being reported.

Workers wearing union badges or T-shirts are sent home, have been sacked for allegedly writing "scab" on a toilet door and workers are routinely warned that once the injunction has been lifted they have two weeks to make up their mind and sign individual agreements. One worker has even been reprimanded for getting an "aggressive" haircut. (BHP clearly hasn't seen Michael Costa's haircut recently!)

The workers are fighting on. They are using the time during the period of the injunction to strengthen their level of workplace organisation.


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*   Issue 82 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Being Michael Costa
Labor Council�s secretary on the 2KY sell-off, the Olympics and his plans for the future.
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*  Unions: Millennial Milestones
In a year of highs, some trade union stories stuck in the collective consciousness. Here's ten of the best.
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*  International: Eric Lee's Year in Review
The editor of Labourstart looks back on the global issues that mobilized labour in the past 12 months.
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*  Organising: Dispatches from the Field
Despite the 'Botsmanesque' critiques which have been levelled at Organising, it would be hard to deny that the year 2000 has seen more and more unions in NSW latch onto the approach - at least in principle anyway.
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*  Economics: Who Gets Gold??
At the end of this Olympic year, Sydney Uni's Frank Stilwell charts the winners and losers in the new sport of redistribution of income.
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*  Politics: Election 2000: The Winner is Gridlock
In the last in his series on the US Federal Election Campaign, Michael Gadiel, our roving reporter, gladly signs off.
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*  Satire: Chaser Launches Book
In the great tradition of repackaging old material to cash in on Christmas, the team from The Chaser & Silly 2000 has produced its first book.
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*  Review: Cultural Wasteland
The spotlight was on Australian culture in 2000. But was it a missed opportunity, asks Peter Zangari.
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News
»  Mad Monk's Secret Union Past
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»  New Life for Trades Hall
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»  Top Cop is Our Organiser of the Year
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»  All We Want for Christmas
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»  Summer for Social Justice
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»  Unions Return to Mosh Pit
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»  Unions Head West
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»  Big Bastard Censors Dissidents
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»  South Coast Labor President Steps Down
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»  As a Died in the Wool Westie Steps Up
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»  Dying Workers' Asbestos Plea
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»  Workers at Centre of Turn Of the Century
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»  Truth about S11 Starting to Come Out
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  The Locker Room
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  The Greatest Team Ever?
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»  ABC Online Did Strike
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»  Why Nader Vote was not Wasted
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»  John Scrooge's Christmas Gift
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