F E A T U R E S

Interview: True Matilda
Former senior bureaucrat John Menadue coordinated the group of 43 calling for truth in government; and now he has bigger fish to fry.

Politics: State of Play
Are all political parties the same? Workers Online tries to cut through the jargon to compare the major parties' approaches to key policy areas.

Industrial: Capital Dilemmas
Public Private Partnerships amount to privatisation by stealth. Or do they? Jim Marr investigates.

Unions: Rhodes Scholars
Tim Brunero discovers how the Electrical Trades Union is doing its best to ease the national apprentice crisis.

National Focus: Rennovating the Lodge
Noel Hester previews how unions will be fighting the federal election - on the ground and online.

International: People Power
Over the next four years there is a real potential a major struggle will take place for workers’ rights and the creation of truly democratic unions in China., writes Andrew Casey

Economics: A Bit Rich
Who Gets What? Why? And So What?, Frank Stilwell reviews the BRW's Rich List

History: Mine Shafts
It's 25 years since Nymboida passed the baton to United, writes Peter Murray

Safety: Sick Of Fighting
Former RAAF engineers could be sitting on a health time bomb, Tim Brunero reports.

Organising: Building a Wave
Community groups, unions and social movements all practice organising, wrties Tony Brown and Amanda Tattersall.

Poetry: Anger In The Bush(es)
How dare any Liberal suggest that the Prime Minister is a lying rodent! Resident bard David Peetz reports on the outrage that this slur has justifiably caused.

Review: The Battle Of Algiers
Tim Brunero writes The Battle of Algiers is a coldly objective, almost scientific anatomy of revolution.

Culture: The Word On The Street
Phil Doyle reports on how the Australian working class experience lives on through the words of the remarkable Geoff Goodfellow.

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Hail to the Metro-Sexual!
If the cultural shift required in the workplace to give greater security to working families was broadly accepted the ACTU would not be locked in an adversarial Work and Family test case argues Sharan Burrow.

Politics
The Westie Wing
In his latest missive from Macquarie Street our resident Parliamentary commentator, Ian West, walks us through issues around the PBS.

Postcard
How Bush Lost His Wings
Tracking the National Guard Career of the Fatuous Flyboy from New Haven, Jeffrey St Clair.

The Locker Room
The Name of the Game
Phil Doyle wonders whether we are barracking for the sponsor or the team.

Postcard
Women to Women
APHEDA-Union Aid Abroad is working to create opportunities for Palestinian women living in Lebanese refugee camps.

E D I T O R I A L

Interest Overboard
A tired, ageing government tries to scare the electorate into re-electing it on the basis of a lie. Sound familiar? Yep, John Howard is going to the polls again.

N E W S

Sprung: Howard Liberal with Truth

Yanks Demand Racism

The Greening of Labour

Mums Move to Ease Squeeze

Flying Kangaroo Goes to Water

Health Warning for Bank Robbers

Heritage Goes to Waste

Freespirit in Hiding

Offensive Toilets Threaten Pupils

Telstra Dials Workplace Acquiescence

P-Plate Nightmare for Young

Free Loaders on Notice

Funny Money Raises Interest

Privatisation Debate Energised

Activists What's On!

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

	About Workers Online
	Latest Issue
	Print Latest Issue
	Previous Issues
	Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation

Sick Of Fighting

	The F111 Fighter-Bomber

When Rudi Agerbeek was doing maintenance work on F111 aircraft in the mid 70's he passed blood, slept for entire weekends and was beset with blinding migraines - but he never thought it was due to his job.

Even after drastically losing weight and collapsing into a coma did he, or his wife Liz, twig in was due to his years snaking around the ribs and cross members of cramped fuel tanks soaked in a toxic cocktail of poisons.

"I knew de-sealers stank from working in chemicals like SR51 - they were banned from the mess because of their stench and Liz was always forcing me to take my umpteenth shower for the day because of the foul reek," says Agerbeek, "But I had no clue I was in danger."

Even when Liz and each of his three children fell ill with unusual illnesses in the 1980's did he think of his years of exposure to carcinogenic organic solvents - protected only by his blue singlet and pair of stubbies.

It was only in 2001, when wife Liz heard a radio report on the plight of de-seal workers did he let the idea rattle around in his head.

But surely the RAAF wouldn't have exposed him to dangerous working conditions? Exposing servicemen to Agent Orange had been a simple mistake hadn't it? Wouldn't his union have made sure he was safe?

He now realised his litany of current health complaints - loss of feeling in his face, mood swings, memory loss, and claustrophobia - were due to his work decades before in the upkeep of Australia's most valuable aircraft.

By now, he and wife Liz were living in their dream home, a glass pole house they'd built in the branches of a magnificent stand of pecan trees in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

But as they met other sick veterans they learnt the loss of feeling Rudi was getting in his face, or peripheral neuropathy, could eventually confine him to a wheelchair.

The dream house would have to go. Along with making life changes like moving house Rudi joined other sick maintenance engineers who did de-seal work over the last 30 years in their fight for full compensation.

Many of his former colleagues from Queensland's Amberley Air Force were very sick - suffering from cancers, respiratory decay, neurological problems, impotency and cardio-vascular disease. Some of these men are in their thirties and forties.

But despite the de-seal/reseal program being stopped in 1999 by an outspoken RAAF doctor, the government has not awarded the full compensation many need to make their lives more comfortable.

A large number have lost homes as well as their ability to work. And many have had their personal relationships destroyed due to the mood swings and neurological problems which is a typical complaint of the de-seal community.

The government refuses to compensate the victims even after a 2004 report by Dr John Attia from Newcastle University found the workers are 50 per cent more likely to develop cancer that other Australians.

Attia says the combination of organic solvents, cramped working space, lack of protective equipment and hot temperatures may have led to the high rate of cancer.

Another study on other health complaints of F111 de-sealers was handed to the chief of the Air Force last month and is expected to be released publicly later this year.

Meanwhile Rudi is optimistic about his future, and has begun using herbal treatments from Tibet. And his health has markedly improved.

But while he as taken charge of his own treatment he knows he is one of the lucky ones. "You see it from Agent Orange to James Hardie, people do a job which makes them sick and suddenly no-one wants to know them," says Agerbeek, "they all deserve full compensation.

"I am just so lucky to have Liz and to have confronted my illnesses positively and proactively, in the end that's all you can do."

For more information go to http://www.gooptroop.com

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200409/c_historicalfeature_raaf.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005