CALLING ALL TRADE UNIONISTS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS Will you join us to Stand Up for the Burrup? WE RECALL the Pilbara Strike of 1946-49, when 200 Pilbara LawMen asked three leaders – Clancy McKenna, Don McLeod, and Dooley Bin Bin – to organise a strike and walk-off by Aboriginal workers and their families for land [...]
About chriswhite
Chris White now lives in Darwin, Northern Territory. He is secretary of APHEDA NT. He is a Honorary Senior Research Fellow at The Northern Institute Charles Darwin University +61889467169 chris.white2@cdu.edu.au He lived in Canberra from 2005 researching labour law and industrial relations and worked for the union ASMOF and then the NTEU ACT. He tutored in Politics for two years at the ANU Politics and International Relations. He has been criticising WorkChoices, specifically the labour law supressing the right to strike, the repression of building and construction workers, and reporting on the new China labour laws . He writes on social justice challenges. He links into international solidarity for workers and the disadvantaged. He worked for the SA unions for 27 years. First as an Industrial Officer for the Australian Workers Union SA branch. Then he was for 10 years Research Officer/Industrial Advocate for the LHMU, then the Miscellaneous Workers Union SA branch. In 1985 he was elected Assistant Secretary of the United Trades and Labor Council of SA and then in 1998 elected Secretary until 2001. He was on the ACTU executive for 15 years. He represented unions on SA Industrial Relations and Occupational Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Commisions and social justice and employment committees. From 1998 to 2002 he was a Director and Trustee of SA Statewide Superannuation Trust and United Superannuation Pty Ltd. He was active in Socially Responsible Investment decisions. For 10 years he was on the board of the SA Working Womens Centre. For 15 years he was Chair of the Junction Theatre Company. For 6 years he was Ministerial Arts Board member on the State Theatre Company. He was awarded a Centenary Medal Commonwealth Honour for contributions to unions and the community. From 2003-2005 he was a Board member SA Housing Trust Board In 2002 he was on the Offenders Aid and Rehabilitation Services (OARS): prison rehabilitation and restorative justice. For 30 years he was active in the SA East Timor Association and now Patron. Since 1974 he has been a member of the ALP and with SA unions organising in state and federal election campaigns. He has been active in the ACTU Your Rights at Work Worth Fighting For campaign. He was a Post Graduate Research PhD scholar 2003-2006 School of Law, Flinders University researching 'The right to strike', but for personal reasons did not complete his thesis. He was a radical student activist, editor of ON DIT and Secretary of the Student's Union. He completed a Law degree LLB and Arts (Honours Politics) in 1972. He then worked for a year as a law tutor at the University of Adelaide Law School before his career with the unions. He is an advocate and consultant on workforce and social justice issues. contact chrisdwhite@bigpond.com
Crisis
Labor can deal with its crisis in a labour way by Rob Durbridge The crisis besetting the Federal Government looks like a rising Queensland flood, while Abbott and Co watch and wait for the Government to drown. It’s a crisis with multiple causes, linked by the failure of a leadership without a sense of identity [...]

Minimum wage claim
Unions call for a $26 wage rise to help our lowest paid catch up to average earnings Unions will seek a $26 a week pay rise for Australia’s lowest paid workers in 2012, whose wages have fallen well behind average income earners over the past decade and are not keeping pace with the cost of [...]

The strike
National union congress talks Right To Strike Saturday, May 19, 2012 By Paul Benedek, Sydney About 100 unionists packed the Unions NSW Atrium on May 14 to discuss the right to strike campaign, at a fringe event of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress that began the same day. Titled “Advance Australia Fair? [...]

Give a pluck
At the ACTU Congress,Paul Richardson Assistant National Secretary of the NUW reported on the campaign to unionise some 3,000 workers in the chicken industry – mostly migrant-the sucesses e.g. the strike and two week community picket at Baida -see reports early on this blog, ending precarious contracts, enforcing OHS laws – you will remember the [...]

Capitalism: a crock of crooks
Capitalism: a crock of crooks by Humphrey McQueen For months, the bosses, their stenographers in the mass media and their political agents have been publicising corruption in the East Branch of the Health Services Union to tar the whole of the labour movement. The responses from the Killard government and the ACTU have been as [...]

IWW – then and now
IWW -then and now by Humphrey McQueen The ashes of Joe Hill Let’s start from three interlocked expressions of the IWW’s approach to educating, organising and agitating: its humour, its slogans and its songs. In comparison, today’s grouplets, including the IWW, seem po-faced. The first aspect is the power of IWW satire, sarcasm and irony. [...]

Unions support cooperatives
Manufacturing hopes rest on union-supported co-operative ventures Australian unions have endorsed the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) support for co-operative operations, recognising the critical role they play in advancing the organisation’s Global Employment Agenda and promoting decent work. ACTU President Ged Kearney said the 2012 ACTU Congress had endorsed the position in support of co-operatives as [...]

Lives on Hold
ACTU Secure jobs report now available… scroll down to the bottom to Lives on Hold. Worth reading and debating. http://www.actucongress.org.au/site/media-releases/1622-unions-pledge-to-tackle-the-growing-crisis-of-insecure-work-in-australia-with-a-national-campaign
IMPORTANT NOTE
About The Author
Chris has worked in the trade union movement for 30 years and researches on left politics, union issues and China labour law. He lives in Darwin.
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News from LabourStart
- Philippines: Violations of workers’ rights, getting worse – rights group
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- Mexico: CAT member kidnapped, beaten and threatened with death in Puebla
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- Global: Locked Out Workers Launch International Campaign to Get Rio Tinto 'OFF the Olympic Podium'
- Germany: IG Metall get highest pay rise in 20 years
- Australia: BHP's aim is to break the power of unions
- Canada: UFCW App Locates Unionized Stores
- Mexico: Worker rights defender kidnapped, beaten and threatened with death in Puebla
- Turkey: Support for Arrested KESK Women

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