WorkChoices and the Fair Work Act: Removing the Choice to Strike by Chris White (The following is from the Journal of Political Economy no 56 p68 www.jape.org. But this key Howard repression of strikes remains in 2012 in the Fair Work Act and hence I only add in the ALP government. Unions still campaign for [...]
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
Kerin: Enough
Dave Kerin from the new community group Enough has helped run a daily picket outside Telstra’s Collins St office in Melbourne for the past three weeks. The picket is a protest against Telstra’s decision to send hundreds of jobs offshore. Kerin is also an activist with the Socialist Alliance. A speech Kerin gave at a [...]

ABCC goes in name only
Coercive building industry law passes lower house By Susan Price The House of Representatives narrowly passed changes on February 16 to the undemocratic building industry laws that target building workers. The Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill, which will replace the Building Industry Improvement Act, was narrowly adopted by a [...]

MR on China
Monthly Review on China http://monthlyreview.org/2012/02/01/february-2012-volume-63-number-9

Leach on TL elections
TIMOR-LESTE goes to the polls again on 17 March to elect a new president for a five-year term. While the president’s role is largely symbolic, and government is formed at the parliamentary elections in June, the election is important in several respects. First, it will set in place part of the leadership that will take [...]

Anderson on Timorese elections
Timorese elections: ‘big man’ culture v. ‘mauberism’ by Tim Anderson This year’s (2012) elections in Timor Leste will not just be about a clash of parties or personalities, but also a confrontation between two important themes: ‘mauberism’ and ‘big man’ culture. Fretilin’s better known ‘mauberism’ is an assertion of indigenous identity which stresses cultural pride [...]

Bans for the barrier reef
In light of the current alarm about dredging and dumping in the Reef, it is worth recalling how it was saved by union action which is now illegal under the Fair Work Act. This interesting extract from Humphrey McQueen’s new book reminds us how important trade unions have been in protecting Qld coastline and the [...]

TL Presidential election
Presidential candidate and founding father Francisco Xavier do Amaral dies http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/east-timor-founding-father-francisco-xavier-do-amaral-dies/story-e6frf7lf-1226291215845 Dennis Shoesmith in an ALP publication looks at T-L’s political parties. http://www.alp.org.au:6020/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?nodeguid=db25b77b-6314-4351-b5c7-05c1a9500145 “Is Small Beautiful? Multiparty Politics and Democratic Consolidation in Timor-Leste” by Dennis Shoesmith read here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1943-0787.2011.01318.x/full Election Comment from Indonesia http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/03/06/waiting-top-two-among-13-timor-leste-election.html Damien Kinsbury warns Presidential candidates that the President is only ceremonial. [...]

Jeff ACTU resigns
Statement from ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence I have decided not to re-nominate for the position of Secretary at the ACTU Congress in May. I will turn 60 during the Congress, and have been assessing my future after five years in this role. Over the next few years, Australian unions will face a number of challenges [...]
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.
Subscribe to Chris White Online
Categories
- ABCC Australian Building and Construction Commission
- Aboriginal
- ACTU
- Book Review
- Capitalist Financial Crisis
- China
- Collective Bargaining
- Environmental crisis
- Featured
- Film
- International
- Labour Law
- Music
- Occupy
- Personal
- Public Policy
- Right to Strike
- Social justice
- Timor-Leste
- Uncategorized
- Unionism
- US politics
- Video
- WorkChoices
- Workers Rights
News from LabourStart
- Australia: BHP's aim is to break the power of unions
- Turkey: Support for Arrested KESK Women
- Ireland: IMPACT calls on Government to deliver reforms on collective bargaining and employees' rights
- Australia: Unions wrap up ACTU Congress with renewed vigour to campaign for rights at work and fairer Australia
- Colombia: Urgent Action: Colombian union leaders in danger
- Europe: IndustriALL-European Trade Union Born Today with Merger of Three Federations
- Bangladesh: Workers suffering from low wages end days of strikes and riots sparked by disappearance of trade union leader
- Switzerland: Unions hold protest at International Olympic Committee to support Canadian Rio Tinto workers
- Global: Full coverage of IUF congress in Geneva
- Turkey: Turkish Government ’s anti-democratic attack on the right to strike

Recent Comments