Media coverage of Kim Beazley’s plan to protect wages and conditions by abolishing AWAs has not improved. In fact, it seems to be getting worse, as Tim Dunlop shows in this demolition of a report in The Australian: So a lead article, under the headline, “Beazley to risk pay cutsâ€?, offers the “beliefsâ€?, the “warningsâ€? [...]
With the Socceroos about to kick off in the World Cup, it’s important to remind people that the excitement and glamour of professional soccer is made possible by the massive exploitation of workers around the world. Oxfam has published an important report, Offside! Labour Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia, which exposes the brutal conditions [...]
While I’m on the subject of workplace safety, today we have the disturbing news that workers will be penalised for a brief stoppage to conduct a whip-around for a widow. It is a building industry tradition that workers contribute to a fund for the widows and children of killed colleagues. In the early years of [...]
Named after a famous left-handed baseball player, the Koufax Awards are the big annual awards for the best left-wing weblogs (mainly in the United States). This year the Best Single-Issue Blog award was won by the excellent Confined Space. Its author, Jordan Barab, is an occupational health and safety activist, who continually exposes the incredible [...]
Victorian readers should make a trip to Fitzroy to catch Grant Hobson’s photo exhibition, The Industry of Working. The photographs depict workers after the Kennett IR reforms, in factories that have since closed down. Hobson’s exhibition is part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversay of the eight hour day, and he hopes it will [...]
While I was watching this preview for The Red Tail, I couldn’t help thinking about Australia’s own red tail airline. Qantas has been at the forefront of the push to create a “flexible” workforce, and the tactics have been almost identical — sacking staff, shifting jobs overseas, hiring scabs, freezing wages while directors get huge [...]
V for Vendetta hits Australian screens today; I will be going along this weekend to see if the translation from Alan Moore’s wonderfully conflicted graphic novel is successful. I’ll also be going because we ought to support stars who stick up for their behind-the-scenes co-workers. Natalie Portman, who stars as Evey, told the San Francisco [...]
In a media statement last week, Minister Helen Coonan explained how she was going to “restructure” the ABC board by removing the staff-elected position. The rationale, apparently, is that the current staff-elected director, Ramona Koval, was accused of leaking board business — never mind the fact that, as Steven Fenely put it in Crikey: The [...]
Seattle emo-pop group Pretty Girls Make Graves recently released their second full-length album, Elan Vital (at least, it’s available in Australia; the rest of the world will have to wait). One track that grabbed Triple J’s attention is “Parade”: We are marchin’ from the shipyards We are marchin’ from the hospital We’ll take it to [...]
