Issue No 90 | 30 March 2001 | |
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Compo Wars: Round One to the Workers Breakthrough on Sweat-Shops Beazley to Force Executive Disclosure Call Centre Union Busters Get Wake-Up Call Victorious Workers Paint the Picket Red Grenadier Workers Maintain Vigil Kembla Water Rats Face Extinction Employers Told: Casual Workers Have Full-Time Rights Good On Ya Mum, Buttercup�s Leaving Town Forty Seven Years of Service Rewarded Telstra Called to Account on Legionella Record Low Aussie Dollar Adds to Surging Profits No Progress on Stonemasons Burrow Lobbies on BHP and US Trade Abroad Feed the Shangri-La Workers Fund STOP PRESS: Union Numbers Up - ABS |
The American Way As the dominant nation-state of the 20th century, the United States of America has an influence that permeates nearly every section of life in a global outpost like Australia. Much of it is positive, a popular culture industry that has delivered products as diverse and stimulating as Michael Moore, the West Wing, and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. But there are as many offerings that, while suited to the American culture, make unwelcome intrusions in our lives: Rikki Lake, basketball and Survivor II come immediately to mind. US medical assessments are another example of an unwanted American import. The Carr Government shipped them in for motor accident victims and is now seeking to spread them to workers compensation. The problem is the assessments treat people as machines, breaking the body into defined parts and presuming that each does not effect the whole. Thus, when you lose a leg, your arms and body are still perfectly fine. This logic is convenient for cutting back the level of compensation claims, but less effective if the objective is to protect injured workers. Add Medical panels with no right of legal appeal and you have a system loaded against the worker. This is just one of the elements of a cost-saving package dumped on the NSW union movement this week. We will now be campaigning to point out its unfairness before the legislation is debated. As the say Stateside, it should be a 'humdinger'. Another American influence on the trade union movement is the 'Organising Model', which was the centerpiece of a two-day conference at Sydney University this week. It was an important event, highlighting the good work being done on the ground in many unions and also placing the organizing model, which has been placed by some on a pedestal, into some sort of context. As ACTU secretary Greg Combet said, organizing is not a movement, it is not a religious cult, it is a reorientation for trade union organization. For mine, it is a shift from top down to bottom up unionism, which is totally consistent with organizational change in many other facets of society. The problem with turning 'organising' into a doctrine is that it becomes something that can be used for all sorts of reasons. Like all pure ideologies it can easily become a vehicle for ambitious individuals, becoming a convenient justification for personal ambition. This is starting to happen in the union movement and, as Combet recognisies, is nothing more than politics. The risk, though, is that if we are not careful, 'organsing' could become another good idea that is spun so hard it ends up devoid of all meaning. How very tragic - and Amercian - that would be. Peter Lewis |
Jim Maher on the Bastard Banks | Hoppa Gives League the Finger | Paul Howes� Week on the Web | Heart of Stone |
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