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

China strike wave

Strike Wave in China Puts Heat On Official Union by Jane Slaughter December 2011 ‘China faced its second wave of strikes in two years, as thousands of workers in industrial southern provinces—including the sanitation workers in Nanjing—took action. The strikes put heat on the country’s official union. China faced its second wave of strikes in [...]

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On Roxby

Rethink Roxby: Our Uranium fuelled Fukashima Adelaide Voices, Opinion by David Noonan, Independent Environment Campaigner. Australia uranium fuelled the Fukashima nuclear disaster yet our governments have just approved the world’s largest uranium project in BHP Billiton’s proposed new open pit mine at Roxby Downs. “We can confirm that Australian obligated nuclear material was at the [...]

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Occupy and the waterfront

December 12th West Coast Port Shutdown Occupy and Class Struggle on the Waterfront by MIKE KING ‘On December 12th, the entire Occupy movement on the West Coast will blockade their respective ports to shut down “Wall Street on the Waterfront.” This is both an effort to build a mass social struggle in the US against [...]

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Insecure work inquiry

Update Workers have an extra month to tell their story to Inquiry into Insecure Work 15 December, 2011 | Media Release Workers, unions, community and other representative groups have an extra month to contribute their experiences to the Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work in Australia, with the deadline for submissions now extended until late-January. ACTU [...]

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Supply chains

Organising through Supply Chains International Union Rights Journal Volume 18 issue 3 2011 http://www.ictur.org/Eng/IUR.html ICTUR This edition on Organising through Supply Chains has ‘A global union’s direct action promotes organising in the US’ against the giant global IKEA chain. Chicken processing workers in the UK and Ireland from Unite campaign against casualisation through increased agency [...]

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T-L diary

Timor-Leste diary 2012 http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=860ecd1c884d98cf6535a1aa1&id=f44d227bd7&e=5397062eac

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China toys

Making Toys without Joy: ICTI CARE Covers Labour Rights Violations for Global Toy Brands like Disney, Walmart & Mattel from SACOM In Guangdong province, where 70% of China’s toys are exported, migrant workers’ basic salary is around CNY 850-1320 (USD 134-208), actually the same as the statutory local minimum wage. And the minimum wage is [...]

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Strike decline

Whatever you might have heard, industrial action is in decline by GRAEME ORR We are told industrial action is flaring across the nation. In truth, what is flaring is that elements of the media are reheating well-worn claims by opportunists in big business, who want a rewrite of the 2009 Fair Work Act. Industrial action [...]

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Amin urges audacity

Audacity, More Audacity by Samir Amin The historical circumstances created by the implosion of contemporary capitalism requires the radical left, in the North as well as the South, to be bold in formulating its political alternative to the existing system. The purpose of this paper is to show why audacity is required and what it [...]

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