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  Issue No 90 Official Organ of LaborNet 30 March 2001  

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Economics

The Failure of the Third Way


In his presentation to this week's ACTU Organising Conference, John Buchanan painted a dark picture of the emerging labour market.

 
 

John Buchanan

The return of mass unemployment since the early 1970s most advanced capitalist countries has been one of the most significant dimensions of social change in that time. While joblessness has fluctuated with the trade cycle, unemployment has settled at a higher level at the end of each cycle. More importantly there is growing evidence that, on balance, the quality of jobs is deteriorating. This is evident in rising levels of involuntary part-time work and the growth in many forms of non-standard employment.

In parallel with these developments there has been a shift in policy about work. Whereas an earlier generation of policy makers attempted to improve wages and employment conditions directly, belief in the efficacy of such interventions has declined. Interest in income support and training appears to be replacing an earlier interest in improving the nature and content of work. Such developments are presented as 'innovations' by adherents of the third way. Indeed, interest in training and new forms of income support such as tax credits are presented as a break with the kind of neoliberalism which dominated government in the English speaking world during the 1980s and 1990s. But while the ascendancy of the 'new right' has waned, the legacies of this period survive. Adherents of 'the third way' now promise to transcend the limitations of both classical social democracy and 'new right' neoliberalism. This political tendency, primarily associated with Clinton's Democrats in the US and Blair's 'New' Labour in the UK, purports to redefine politics around the 'radical centre'. Electorates in the English speaking world are now offered a 'new' vision for our time - neoliberalism with a human face.

Are third way inspired policies likely to effectively address the key issues confronting working life today? And are alternatives to them possible? This paper reflects on the experiences of 'third way' style policies in action. Between 1983 and 1996 Australia was governed by a social democratic party, the ALP. Consideration of recent Australian experience is useful because many of the policies that are now described as 'third way' were pioneered by the ALP over a decade ago. The particular focus of this paper is the restructuring of the labour market and working life, a key area of policy concern to 'third way' adherents. We argue that not only have 'third way' style policies failed to effectively address a deteriorating labour market situation, many have in fact been counter productive.

It has been a presumption of economic policy in general and labour related policies, in particular, that jobs are provided by a single employer conceived as being the owner of the enterprise that engages wage earners. It was also assumed there was a fairly fixed relationship between the demand for output and the demand for labour. The Australian variant of the classical wage earner model also included a conception of labour market regulation. The essential feature of this part of the policy model has been the assumption that social progress in the labour market is best achieved through quasi-judicial regulation of wages (especially wage relativities) in conjunction with collective agreements. Both are supported by the provision of income support where the worker is between jobs (ie frictionally unemployed).

The achievements of the Australian policy model have been considerable These include early experimentation with new forms of social security, especially for women and children in the 1910s. At many times over the last century and a half Australia has occupied a leading position in the reduction of standard hours of work. This began with the achievement of the 8 hour day in key building trades in the 1870s and subsequent achievements of the 40 hour week in the 1940s and then the 35 and 38 hour week in the 1970s and 1980s. Until recently Australia had comparatively high material living standards that were pretty evenly spread throughout the population, arising largely from a compressed relative pay structure. When combined with the active management of effective demand in the post war years the essential features of the 'classical wage earner model' of labour market regulation in Australia delivered one of the highest levels of full employment from the 1940s through to the early 1970s.

It is important to acknowledge that inequalities continued to exist. About a sixth of the workforce, for example, came from non-English speaking backgrounds (especially Southern Europe, the Middle East and Asia). These workers occupied the least attractive jobs. Despite, their relative location, however, they shared in the same underlying benefits of other wage earners concerning the maintenance of basic standards in wage rates, hours of work and entitlements to sickness, holiday and long service leave as well as standard unemployment income support. Over time, too, women's relative position improved. The landmark equal pay cases in 1969 and 1972 resulted in one of the fastest realignments of gender based relativities in the OECD at the time. Consequently, whilst inequality persisted, the underlying trends involved increasing the proportion of the population that shared basic wage earner standards of living.

The efficacy and relevance of this model, however, began to break down in the 1960s and 1970s. This was evident in the changing realities of labour supply, labour demand and rising inequality from the 1960s onwards. On the issue of labour supply women's increased labour force participation rose from just over 30 per cent to just under 50 per cent between 1966 and 1986. This had not been envisaged in the model and was only imperfectly incorporated into it, primarily on the basis of employment that was part-time and casual in nature. Since the mid 1970s the unemployment rate has risen steadily. Whereas in August 1966 the open unemployment rate was 1.8 per cent, by the later 1970s and 1980s it was hovering between 8 and 10 per cent. Changes in labour demand were just as pronounced.. For example, the proportion in manufacturing fell from 25.6 to 16.4 per cent. Consequently, employment in services rose from just under two-thirds to just over three quarters of the workforce. The change in occupations was just as profound. While just over half the workforce was blue collar in 1966, this had fallen to 40.1 percent in 1986. White collar jobs grew by a corresponding amount, with the growth in professions rising from 7.6 per cent to 11.8 per cent over this period. The security of jobs on offer has also fallen. Casual employment was so rare that it was not even reported separately in official statistics in 1966. By the mid 1980s 17.2 per cent of employees were engaged on this basis.

Particular concern has focused on the bottom of the labour market, and the extent to which the 'poor got poorer'. Jeff Borland, for example, has shown that between 1975 and 1995, the bottom 10 per cent of earners suffered a 9.4 per cent decrease in their real earnings, with the deterioration worsening after each recession. And weekly hours of work for full time employees steadily rose from the late 1970s at the same time as under-employment increased steadily amongst the growing numbers of part-time workers. Equally dramatic changes also occurred in the structure of household. Both dual and non-waged income household have increased in secular fashion since at least the late 1960s. Increased female labour market participation rates represent more than a response to increased economic need, they are indicative of a profound shift in gender relations over the last three decades.

In short, as a matter of reality, the classical wage earner model has accounted for a dwindling proportion the labour market since the late 1960s. In addition, it no longer represents the preferred model of work for growing numbers of workers, especially women. The divergence of the labour market reality from the precepts of the classical wage earner model did not merely represent an 'old policy framework' not keeping up with 'modern times.' The changes also reflected developments within the world economy and Australia's place within it. Long term trends in profitability and the country's role as a provider of raw materials raised serious challenges to the continued viability of the 'new protection settlement' and its implicit 'wage earner model' of work.

The emergence of a new settlement at work: from 'third road' to 'third way' responses to the long downturn

Key features of old policy mix began to unravel following the economic slowdown of the early 1970s. Like most labour movements, the Australian movement was initially overwhelmed by these events. The ALP government in office at the time, led by Gough Whitlam, initially attempted pump-priming initiatives. When these proved ineffectual it commenced a program of fiscal and monetary austerity. This latter program was continued more vigorously by an incoming conservative Liberal-National administration under Malcom Fraser which actively embraced 'monetarist' solutions. These in turn proved equally ineffectual, and an ALP government led by Bob Hawke was re-elected on a corporatist/Keynesian program of economic reconciliation and reconstruction in 1983 based on an Accord with the ACTU.

The immediate impetus for the Accord strategy was to reduce unemployment. In formulating its position the labour movement adopted, initially, a broad agenda of change based on an incomes policy. Wage policy was to be coordinated with industry, demand management and social/health policy. The best organised sectors of the labour movement undertook responsibility to discipline their militants to deliver wage restraint so that growth would result in a 'rebalancing' of factor shares and not 'excessive wage rises. This political stance complemented their limited practical options for devising a wages policy in the wake of the deep recession of the early 1980s. During the first two years of the Accord, supportive action was taken in establishing universal health insurance (Medicare), a scheme to reduce long term unemployment through direct public sector job creation, and significant policy interventions to revitalise the steel, car and heavy engineering sectors. Strong growth delivered reduced unemployment.

From 1985, however, neoliberals mobilised. Their power base was located in central public service economic departments and the key export sectors of mining and agriculture. Financial sector economists also played an important ideological role. Seizing on a balance of payments crisis in 1984/85 the thrust of policy shifted from economic regeneration based on an augmented Keynesian position to a classical austerity policy mix based on 'fiscal consolidation', free trade and 'microeconomic reform'. The Accord remained, but almost solely as a mechanism to restrain aggregate wages through a combination of disciplining militants, accommodating tax cuts and the introduction of industry based occupational superannuation.

Over the course of the second half of the 1980s and into the early 1990s both the ALP Government and senior union officials steadily devised a series of 'pragmatic' responses to neoliberal prescriptions, especially in the realm of policies on labour related issues.. By the latter 1980s financial deregulation limited monetary policy options, and austerity fiscal policies limited the Government's room to move in the realms of taxation and public expenditure policy. Equally, the steady emergence of a free trade position limited the capacity for active policy initiatives concerning industry development. In the context of this policy mix labour related issues received increasing government attention as one of the few areas where the Government felt able to launch new initiatives to respond to the pressures associated with the increased internationalisation of the economy. The initial impetus for these reforms was to promote a high skill, high wage economy. This concern was quickly displaced, however, by a preoccupation with increasing 'labour market flexibility' through 'deregulation' to enhance international competitiveness. Three areas in particular received special attention.

The first concerned wages and industrial relations policy. Between 1987 and 1991 this shifted from being based on a centralised approach of nationally coordinated wage bargaining to a system of enterprise by enterprise negotiation. This proposal was initially promoted by neoliberals and especially by the Business Council of Australia. It was soon enthusiastically embraced by the leadership of the ACTU. By 1993 a newly re-elected Labor Government actively promoted non-union bargaining, an arrangement that had been made unlawful 50 years earlier

From 1985 onwards employability became the key concern and considerable attention was given to the issue of skill formation reform. Initially much of this activity was directed at breaking the domination of the skilled trades in the vocational training system, the aim being to make vocational education more broadly available through-out the workforce. A shift to competency based training was the hallmark of this approach. This initiative subsequently evolved into the push to have an 'employer driven' training system based on the creation of a national 'training market'.

Finally major changes were introduced to social security arrangements. A large scale review of the social security system was undertaken in the 1980s. This was primarily directed at better integrating a wide array of programs of income support. With the onset of the 1990s, however, the problem of long term unemployment became a matter of pressing policy concern. At the heart of these initiatives was the development of a 'mutual obligation' approach based on a jobs 'compact' between welfare recipients and the state. These ideas have been subsequently taken further by a conservative government elected in 1996 under John Howard's leadership.

How effective have these policies been in addressing a deteriorating labour market situation?

The legacy of 'third way' initiatives: undermining labour market standards

It is one of the great ironies of recent Australian labour market experience that impressive labour market outcomes were associated with the period of high corporatism and Keynesian reflationary policies in contrast to the remarkably unimpressive outcomes associated with their abandonment. The greatest achievement of the early Labor years was strong employment growth. In the mid to late 1980s this was the strongest in the OECD. Indeed, in 1989 unemployment fell below 6 per cent.

A number of less desirable trends have been apparent since the late 1980s. This is clearly evident in rising levels of inequality in terms of both market based income and the increasing proportion of workers undertaking extended or insufficient hours of work. The end result of these changes is a redefining of standard work both at the top and bottom of the labour market. This is especially apparent in increasingly levels of labour market churning amongst the low paid, dissatisfaction with hours of work amongst the higher paid and almost universal reports of increased levels of labour intensification. Far from being part of the solution, most third way initiatives in Australia appear to have intensified problems in the labour market (

The level and composition of labour demand changed dramatically. After initially falling through most of the 1980s unemployment rose dramatically in the recession of the early 1990s reaching levels not seen since the 1930s (ie around 12 per cent in 1992). Deindustrialisation of work also continued with significant employment growth occurring in low wage, service sector jobs. Of greater significance has been the change in the workplace setting of all jobs. This primarily concerns the quality and especially the security of tenure of work on offer. Comprehensive data on these aspects of labour demand have been collected as part of the AWIRS surveys undertaken in 1990 and 1995

All the indicators point to a decline in full-time, permanent jobs and a growth in precarious forms of employment which provide managers with tighter control over how labour is deployed on the job to ensure all hours worked are productive. The greater use of casuals, employment agencies, retrenchments and high levels of unpaid overtime highlights this dynamic. Of particular significance is the rising incidence of retrenchments amongst larger workplaces. Despite entering the recovery phase of the trade cycle in the mid 1990s large Australian workplaces reported a higher incidence of job shedding in the middle of the decade than they did just prior to the recession of the early 1990s.

As the 1990s drew to a close only half the workforce was employed on a full-time, permanent basis. Indeed, over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, precarious categories of employment have grown at a faster rate than full-time, permanent jobs. Casual employment is especially widespread amongst women, where one in three are now employed on this basis. What was particularly significant about developments in the 1990s was that precarious of forms of employment became widespread in former unionised strongholds. Employers are now increasingly creating jobs of this nature. As such the nature of labour demand is being radically and rapidly recast.

The policy preoccupation with employees' employability resulted in neglect of concern about employer training practices. Data on trends in these over the same period shows that the decline in apprenticeship training was not off-set by a rise in employer training effort elsewhere

The restructuring of wages has been profound. Over the course of the 1980s and into the 1990s levels of wage inequality continued to increase. This development is often attributed to the changing gender and industrial composition of the workforce. It is important to note, however, that significant growth occurred in the incidence of low paid service sector work amongst the male workforce. Not only did men shift from manufacturing jobs to service sectors jobs, leading to important changes in the composition of their low paid jobs, but within those service industries the incidence of low paid jobs increased dramatically. For example, in wholesale and retail trade the incidence of low paid jobs jumped from 6.6 per cent to 10.5 per cent, an increase of 59 per cent. In entertainment and recreation the increase was from 11.1 per cent to 18.6 per cent, a rise of 68 per cent. Women, on the other hand, experienced similar compositional change, but the incidence of low paid jobs actually fell across all industry group

In the 1990s, workers' earnings became much more sensitive to enterprise-level conditions, and the kind of wage fixing mechanisms under which they now operate.

Hours of work were totally recast throughout this period. In the mid 1990s just over one third of the labour force worked standard hours each week. About one-third worked overtime and just under one-fifth work part-time.

Amongst the full-time workforce, working longer became the order of the day. Since the late 1970s the proportion of full-timers working standard hours of work dropped significantly and the proportion working very long hours rosen dramatically. In the late 1970s, most full-time workers � about two thirds � still worked from 35 to 40 hours per week. By the late 1990s, this group were in the minority: less than one half of full-time workers were doing normal hours; the majority were now working extended hours. The proportion of full-timers working very long hours � more than 48 per week � nearly doubled over this time period, jumping from 19 per cent of all full-timers to 32 per cent. The period when a new era of long hours got underway was the end of the 1981 recession. As the economy moved into growth, a new way of working emerged.

What we appear to have witnessed is the emergence of defacto new labour market standards, but not of a universal nature. At the bottom of the labour market is the emergence of a new standard of 'churning' between different labour market states. At the top is a new standard of rising hours of work along with rising incomes. And common to all is a rise in the intensity in the pace of work and apparently chronic job enlargement.

Disadvantage percolates across the entire labour force. It clings most tenaciously to the long term unemployed, it dogs the footsteps of the precariously employed, and it furrows the brow of the mature-age under-employed.. The last two decades in Australia have shown that most new job opportunities go to new labour market entrants and to the more recently unemployed. The outcome of increased 'labour market flexibility' is not a shift from one compartment (unemployment) to another (employment), but rather a more rapid expansion in low-paid precarious employment. A new standard of precariousness appears to be becoming the hallmark of a growing proportion of Australia workers.

At the other end of the labour market, standards of quite a different nature are taking shape. Here the emerging issue is extended hours of work and work intensification. While new standards appear to be emerging on the question of working time there is evidence that the new arrangements are not necessarily desired by a significant proportion of the people concerned. The end result of all these developments appears to be rising levels of work intensification and job enlargement

It is clear that the dynamics involve far more than 'wages', 'jobs' and 'casualisation'. Rather, what we find are important connections between market competition, wages, job quality and their subsequent feedback effects on the level and composition of labour demand.

'Third way' style policies failed totally to grapple with these realities in Australia. The vision behind the ALP's policies of the 1980s and 1990s was that of the market as neither 'master' nor 'servant', but rather 'colleague.' As such it was seen as a valuable partner in meeting the challenges of 'globalisation.' The reality, however, was that the market that was the senior partner, with the ALP Government doing nothing to upset the underlying dynamics of consumption and investment. The end result was that the dynamics of accumulation based on inequality merely intensified during its tenure of office. Clearly the challenge for policy is to build on the best of the classical wage earn model and escape both its limitations and those of the 'third way'. How is this to be done?

After the classical wage earner and beyond the third way: redefining the basic categories for understanding and regulating work

The preoccupation with labour related issues as the pivotal policy area for competitive success is misleading and unhelpful. Labour is only one factor of production. To put the matter starkly - the best trained, most flexible and cheapest workforce in the world cannot make up for inadequacies in the operation of capital markets and policies and institutions of industry development. At best industrial relations and labour related policies can complement a wider policy mix. They can never work effectively in the context of a deficient policy framework. This is especially the case given the dynamics of accumulation based on inequality noted earlier.

It is important to outline what a new approach to labour related policy might look like as a potential complement to such a policy mix. For just as labour related policy cannot solve all economic problems, equally policies on macroeconomic management, industry development and capital markets will not (on their own) directly address problems such as non-standard forms of work, changing business structures and inadequate training arrangements.

When devising a new approach to labour related issues the priority must be to address concrete problems in an innovative way. Such an approach requires that the core assumptions underpinning policy are carefully assessed. Given the analysis of developments in the 1980s and 1990s in Australia it is clear that the assumptions informing the classical wage earner model have serious limitations in providing a guide to practice. If policy about work related issues is to engage more effectively with these new realities the basic categories underpinning it need to change.

In place of the classical wage earner model we propose a more encompassing 'working life model.' At the core of this model is a different conception of the essential elements of a system of employment. Workers should be defined more broadly as people who work for multiple employers over the course of key phases of their life cycle, within the context of integrated industrial and social security rights provided by the state.

The first issue that requires consideration concerns the categories used to define labour as a productive input. As the material on developments in the 1980s and 1990s showed, the dynamics driving inequality in the labour market involve more than a simple interaction of 'employers' and 'employees'. The focus needs to be on 'suppliers of labour' and the appropriate standards needed in the contemporary labour market. Instead of regulating work on the basis of the formal legal status of 'employee' and 'permanents,' rights and obligations should arise universally where ever labour is expended in the course of a commercial transaction. Experience in New South Wales with the regulation of 'unfair contracts' for sub-contractors in road transport and construction provide good examples of how 'new rights' can protect the suppliers of labour whether they be executives or contractors, casual or permanent employees Equal attention needs to be given to the new realities associated with employer structures and behaviours. Competitive pressures in the product and capital markets are forcing growing numbers of employers into an increasingly vicious cycle of reducing employment, wages and conditions. Acting in isolation, employers often have little choice. What is needed are new institutional arrangements which enhance flexibility at the workplace level through greater coordination and the pooling of risk at the multi-employer level. Examples of such arrangements include central funds for worker entitlements such as long service leave, severance pay and superannuation (as currently operate in construction) and group training schemes Under these more collective arrangements, the burden of honouring work-related entitlements is shared.

Once the rights and obligations of workers and employers are defined in new ways, it is also necessary to find new ways of integrating industrial and social rights. Social policy should not operate as an after-thought, as an attempt to patch up problems generated by the market. Rather, social policy should be integrated with industrial relations policy from the outset, and it should be based on a coherent vision of 'working life rights'.. Gunter Schmid has written at length in this area and his proposals includes institutional arrangements to provide decent job opportunities for those wishing to deviate from 'standard time employment' at various stages of their lives He devotes most attention to five different types of transitional labour markets, the transitions between:

� education, training and employment;

� domestic work or private activities and gainful employment;

� short-time work and full-time work;

� unemployment and employment; and

� full-time work and retirement.

At present, many workers involved in such transitions have only a marginal or precarious attachment to the mainstream labour market. Schmid argues for policies which deal with these precarious situations by formalising transitional labour markets and thereby providing an alternative to the growth of the 'secondary' labour market. In the United States, the secondary labour market takes the form of low-wage jobs. In Europe and Australia, it takes the form of an ever growing group dependent on social security payments. For Schmid, transitional labour markets are a mechanism which could grow in recessions and contract during booms, thereby dampening the more extreme effects of swings in the economic cycle.

Schmid's proposals clearly provide an alternative approach to the kind of subsidised low-wage sector which would result from a wage cuts / tax credits system so popular with third way policy makers. The policy debate must shift from subsidising low paid work to finding ways to co-finance more efficient and fairer transitional labour markets. Schmid and Auer have identified four criteria to help evaluate policy proposals in this area. They argue good transitional labour markets have the following features

� first, they empower individuals faced with critical life events; just sending in a pay slip for income protection is not sufficient (Criterion 1: Empowerment)

� second, they support evolving local networks and public-private partnerships for implementation; just to leave it to the local public employment service is not sufficient (Criterion 2: Cooperation)

� third, they provide every incentive to 'activate' passive expenditures for effective employment promotion; the challenge is to save money by spending at the right time and at the right place (Criterion 3: Dynamic Efficiency)

� fourth, they support transitions back to the 'regular' labour market rather than into secondary and dead-end jobs (Criterion 4: Sustainable Employment)

If workers are to have a real choice in balancing work and other commitments and interests, and if they are to achieve more security as they move through different stages of their life, then they need supportive structures to minimise any losses associated with exercising such choices. At the same time if new transitional labour market arrangements are to be politically and economically viable, they also need to offer something to employers.

Gazier argues that the 'co-financing' of new intermediary arrangements 'should be considered the central wage principle of transitional labour markets...' An example of how such arrangements might work is provided by Work Foundations in Austria, which aim to provide support to retrenched workers, rather then leaving them to handle the transition on their own. The foundations are funded from four sources:

� a levy of � of one per cent of earnings on the remaining workers at the establishment;

� a matching level of finance from the company doing the retrenching;

� a contribution from the redundant workers themselves from their payouts; and

� a contribution from the government.

These foundations provide training and labour market intelligence for unemployed workers. All parties have a strong interest in seeing the redundant workers find new employment as soon as possible so as to reduce the demand on their contribution

In summary, the innovative part of this notion of transitional labour markets is that it moves beyond seeing social policy as just alleviating 'poverty', and embraces questions of social inclusion. And social inclusion means working in jobs based on proper social standards when it comes to wages and hours, not working in low-quality jobs which marginal employers are prepared to create because of government subsidies (such as tax credits schemes). Transitional labour markets provide a policy framework which takes us beyond the impoverished visions of the future which bedevil the current debates. It poses the question in a more constructive way: how do we raise social and community standards? Not, how do we cope with their demise?

Conclusion

Within a market economy competition has a strong tendency to create, entrench and continually enlarge the number of marginal jobs that are low paid. The reality of such a trajectory has been evident in Australia over the last 15 years with increased casualisation, growing fragmentation in hours of work and a growing proportion of low paid jobs within industries, as well as across the economy at large. All these developments have led to a profound increase in inequality in wages, hours of work and employment insecurity. In short, after 13 years of Labor Government following, for much of the time, 'third way' style policies Australia has inherited a legacy of greater economic and social inequality and a deep-seated decline in the quality of working life for most people.

Clearly the precepts of the classical wage earner model suffer major limitations as a guide to policy in the current situation. Equally, 'third way' style initiatives have merely exacerbated current trends. Their preoccupation with supply side issues, in particular, results in systematically ignoring the key causes of most labour market problems: institutional shareholders, their management agents and the arrangements they devise that restructure work. In getting beyond the limitations of both the classical wage earner and 'third way' approaches to regulating work, more encompassing categories of labour, jobs and rights concerning working life are needed. Ironically practice concerning such issues as the regulation of contractors and the emergence of progressive labour hire arrangements appears to be running ahead of policy on some of these issues. The challenge is to build on practical, progressive gains in leading sectors to establish new standards for new realities. In this context it is vital that policy debate grapples with the challenge of how best to manage the rights of the citizen at work and beyond, and over the entire life cycle. Unless the debate engages with this challenge, policy and analysis about work will be distracted by counter-productive 'third way' style solutions or nogstalgic attempts to revive an approach to labour market regulation from a earlier era.

This is an edited version of a much longer paper by John Buchanan and Ian Watson


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*   Issue 90 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: On the Up and Up
On the eve of new figures showing the slide in union membership may be bottoming out, ACTU secretary Greg Combet takes stock of the state of the movement.
*
*  Unions: Organising Theory
Labor Council�s Chris Christodoulou reports back from this week�s ACTU Organising Conference
*
*  Economics: The Failure of the Third Way
In his presentation to this week's ACTU Organising Conference, John Buchanan painted a dark picture of the emerging labour market.
*
*  History: Emblems of Unity
The Gregory J. Smith Collection of Trade Union badges was auctioned today in Sydney. Smith compiled a book on 763 of his remarkable collection which was published in 1992.
*
*  Legal: Della's Compo Plan
Labour lawyer Richard Brennan places the NSW workers compensation reforms under the microscope.
*
*  International: East Timor Goes Union
Workers in the fledgling nation have established their equivalent to the ACTU to build a safety net for workers.
*
*  Satire: Management for the Post-Industrial World
A new management fad is sweeping the post-industrial world, which has major social and political implications at the macro and micro level. We have called it "Purge Management Strategy" (PMS).
*
*  Review: Surviving The Temptations of TV Island
Cultural analyst Mark Morey rakes over the coals of American TV culture to find very little is there.
*

News
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»  Breakthrough on Sweat-Shops
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»  Beazley to Force Executive Disclosure
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»  Call Centre Union Busters Get Wake-Up Call
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»  Victorious Workers Paint the Picket Red
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»  Grenadier Workers Maintain Vigil
*
»  Kembla Water Rats Face Extinction
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»  Employers Told: Casual Workers Have Full-Time Rights
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»  Good On Ya Mum, Buttercup�s Leaving Town
*
»  Forty Seven Years of Service Rewarded
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»  Telstra Called to Account on Legionella
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»  Record Low Aussie Dollar Adds to Surging Profits
*
»  No Progress on Stonemasons
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»  Burrow Lobbies on BHP and US Trade Abroad
*
»  Feed the Shangri-La Workers Fund
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»  STOP PRESS: Union Numbers Up - ABS
*

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
»  Crumby Company
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