I’m putting together a post on Labor’s IR backdown, but I’m snowed under at work right now so I’m not really in the mood to finish writing it just yet. In the meantime, here’s some video and music you might find interesting. Kath & Kim: “Bloody Howard” You’ve surely heard that this week’s episode of [...]
As Michael Bachelard pointed out in The Age recently, the ABCC was ostensibly set up to deal with organised crime in the building industry — yet “almost two years after the ABCC was set up as a statutory commission, not one alleged organised criminal has been charged.” Instead, it uses its extraordinary powers to persecute [...]
An employer in the film industry has admitted paying his staff illegal, below-award wages, and has been caught on tape making threats of violence against a union official. Film producer Brad Diebert rang the MEAA’s Simon Whipp: How dare you say we have the money to pay actors more money… fuck you, spreading shit like [...]
The Howard Government’s union-busting ABCC released a report (pdf) today claiming that smashing unions is good for the economy. Needless to say, The Australian ran hard with the story, giving it the front page, an opinion piece (“analysis”), and the editorial. The report was prepared by Econtech, a firm that is heavily invested in the [...]
Alexander Downer has suggested Australian Labor should look to the Tony Blair’s industrial regime for inspiration. Downer says the British ex-PM …saw the modernisation of his national economy as the key to job creation, fairness and equality for all workers… [and] set a strong example for future Labour leaders, both in Britain and around the [...]
This is a guest post by Chris White. He hass worked for the AWU and LHMU, and is a former Secretary of the UTLC of SA. He is now a Canberra based labour law researcher. He is an ALP member. Union history includes that of struggle to protect striking workers from unjust penal powers. Workers [...]
Put this in your diary: the ABC’s new drama, Bastard Boys, will screen in two parts at 8:30pm on Sunday, 13 May and Monday, 14 May. The show tells the story of the War on the Waterfront, in which the Howard Government ganged up with a stevedoring company to try to smash the Maritime Workers [...]
When Labor announced it would retain WorkChoices’ limits on the right to strike, Jeff Sparrow argued that the “most striking” feature of the policy “is precisely how little it is driven by the polls.” After all, there’s absolutely no evidence of the public demanding a crackdown on strikes. Yes, industrial relations is a key issue—but [...]
Last week we heard about the Priceline decision, which upheld the right of a company to sack its workers to cut costs. It didn’t take long for other companies to cotton on to that strategy. Workers at Vopak Terminals in Sydney have been trying to negotiate a collective agreement. Vopak has been refusing to negotiate, [...]
In the run-up to Labor’s national conference, Kevin Rudd has begun to release some features of the IR policy he will take to the next election. These announcements seem to be intended to forestall real debate about industrial policy, so that Kevin Rudd can make announcements without worrying about the opinions of rank-and-file members. The [...]
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