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

May Day Unions NT

May Day 2012 Unions NT Magazine Unions_NT MayDay 2012

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Politics: Winner take all

Winner-take-all politics 20 February, 2012 – 12:51 Frank Stilwell Concern with economic inequality is making a modest political comeback. Barrack Obama has made it a recurrent feature in his speeches, while Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has copped flak for saying he is more concerned with the broad middle class than the very rich or [...]

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Reviving the strike

‘Reviving the strike’ Book review http://evatt.org.au/news/reviving-strike.html

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TL Presidential elections

My opinion piece on Presidential elections in Timor Leste, most democratic. Remember we have an inherited Queen of England as our Head of State and we rejected an elected President! http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13488

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Caterpillar lock-out

The Electro-Motive Lockout and Non-Occupation: What did we lose? What can we learn? Herman Rosenfeld Along with everything else, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath created new openings and potentials for working people in the struggle against neoliberalism. A number of struggles initially opened up, including factory occupations, efforts to defend pensions and the [...]

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We Built this Country

SYDNEY BOOK LAUNCH “WE BUILT THIS COUNTRY BUILDERS’ LABOURERS AND THEIR UNIONS 1787 TO THE FUTURE” by Humphrey McQueen The book should be compulsory reading for new and old union officers and organisers; it will certainly challenge them to decide whether they are workers’ representatives or ‘workplace relations practitioners’. Howard Guille, former secretary of the [...]

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Rethinking the China campaign

The Vancouver & District Labour Council session with Elaine Bernard from Harvard University on March 24th went very well with a good turnout and discussion. A number of people unable to attend wondered if there were handouts or if it was videotaped. The nature of the session was a conversation so it wasn’t recorded, but [...]

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Capitalist restoration in China and fall of Bo Xilai more

Dramatic events are unfolding as China’s once-in-a-decade leadership transition gets underway. A serious schism in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top ranks has come into full public view – something unprecedented since the mass anti-government protests of 1989. Bo Xilai, standard-bearer of the neo-Maoist “new left”, has been dismissed as provincial party chief of Chongqing.

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Workers’ Control

“Ours to Master and to Own Workers’ Control from the Commune to the Present” edited by Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini (Haymarket Books, 2011) Review by Chris White This excellent series of essays is essential reading for anti-capitalist activists and all those who know that we do not need our bosses. Occupiers at night can [...]

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