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
Author Archive | chriswhite

Tears of Gaza

Tears of Gaza is a gut-wrenching full length promotional documentary (83mins) of the 2008-2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military, three years ago to the day. It uses actual footage from local Palestinian crews of the bombs falling, the terror of the Palestinians targeted and the ensuing chaos of getting the wounded to overcrowded [...]

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GM occupied

75 Years Ago Today, the First Occupy By Michael Moore On this day, December 30th, in 1936 — 75 years ago today — hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them. The workers couldn’t take the [...]

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Schweppes locks out workers

Read here for the details. Say to retailers that you do not want to buy Schweppes products. As argued on this blog, here is another reason why the lawful lock-out ought to be denied to the more poweful employer. Workers and their unions have such a limited right to strike that our so-called “fair” bargaining [...]

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Worst anti-union companies

This Year’s Worst Companies to Work for if You Want the Right to Join a Union By Liana Foxvog and Sean Rudolph, International Labor Rights Forum Today we published our list of this year’s Scrooges for workers’ right to unionize. The companies that topped our list are Dole, Hershey’s, Philippine Airlines, and Wal-Mart. These corporations [...]

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Socialism…

Australian Options magazine no 67 out now editorial: Whither Capitalism; Whither Socialism? ‘AO founder Elliott Johnston posed “the question of socialism, however named” just before his recent death. The hundreds who attended his memorial service heard of a tireless campaigner for justice and social change on which to build a better world. Far from being [...]

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FWA review

Fair Work review is an opportunity to dispel employer myths and strengthen workers’ rights 20 December, 2011 ACTU Media Release Next year’s review of the Fair Work Act must not become a forum for employer grandstanding, and unions will take a strong interest to ensure the voices of working Australians are heard and that their [...]

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ABCC remains

ABCC hangs on, but legislation to scrap it will be debated early next year from Dave Noonan CFMEU Despite our best efforts, the ABCC has received a stay of execution. The legislation introduced by the Labor Government to scrap it was not debated this year, and won’t be back in Parliament until February at the [...]

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ye are many

Jim Sharp Poem/1090 [1]16/2011 We are the 99% a materialist concept of class struggle endures recurrently high & low “rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number- shake your chains to earth like dew which in sleep had fallen on you- ye are many- they are few” by Percy Shelley

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MP pay system not for workers

Union leaders are understandably upset that their union members do not get these large increases. Putting aside the Remuneration Report’s recommended high level for the base rate for MPs, one issue is the wage fixing system itself- that under the Fair Work Act for all and for the political elite their own. Our political elite [...]

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