I published how WorkChoices breached ILO minimum International Labour Standards on the right to strike. So does the Fair Work bill (see my posts right to strike). The Australian government is supposed to not be in breach of ILO standards. As there is a debate on this today (see The Australian), read the analysis submitted [...]
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Leighton: Gillard’s honourable men
On Monday, 27 October, a floor collapsed during construction of an office block in Canberra’s CBD. Such assaults were nothing new for the lead contractor, Leighton. Union officials pointed to the 70-hour weeks being demanded by the company. A lesser failure had happened two weeks earlier. No one should have been working under the floor. [...]
McQueen: the very right-wing Rev. Rudd
As part of his PR campaign, K. Rudd proclaimed that he had never been any kind of socialist. Instead, while playing Judas to his leader, he paraded his species of Christianity in an article for The Monthly. Rudd extolled the Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose resistance to Hitler led to his execution in 1945. It [...]
MPs pattern bargain but not workers
In the Financial Review yesterday, DPM Gillard remains tough in Labor’s crack-down on pattern bargaining. Pattern bargaining – industry-wide industrial action in pursuit of an industry agreement or identical enterprise agreements – is like workChoices specifically prohibited by her Bill (sections 412 and 422). Her “Fair” Work Bill retains all of the WorkChoices repressive regime [...]
Washington!
Construction workers rallying in Canberra at 12.30pm outside Parliament House in orange ‘rights on site’ ‘one law for all’ T-shirts with Kim Sattler from Unions ACT. We cheered when Dave Nunan CFMEU Construction Secretary announced that Noel Washington received a letter saying charges have been dropped. He now no longer faces jail for refusing to [...]
1984 remains: DPM firm
It is frustrating to see Julia Gillard DPM on Insiders this morning repeat Howard’s mantra about ˜tough cop on the beat against building unionists and Reith’s and Abbott’s and Andrews and Hockey’s…and the Master Builders. 1. The DPM provides no evidence based analysis of why continuing the most repressive penal system against unionists for legitimately [...]
Canberra protest ABCC rally 26 November
From Kim Sattler Secretary Unions ACT There is a rally on Wednesday 26 November outside Parliament House at 12noon to protest against the unfair ABCC legislation which affects all construction workers. A petition will be handed over to the Parliament asking for the abolition of the Australian Building & Construction Commission. See my posts in [...]
Greens: Forward to where?
There are increasing concerns that the Government’s Forward with Fairness legislation will not be delivering sustainable fair workplace laws but rather will be serving up Work Choices-lite. The Greens have already argued the award modernisation process will result in a deterioration of minimum conditions of work, particularly affecting workers who are not able to access [...]
Repressive IR laws against building and construction workers have to go now
I have read many legal cases where the conduct of Howard’s industrial policeforce the the ABCC is in question. The latest on friday is the acting chief justice of the Federal Court Justice Jeffery Spencer accusing the ABCC of bias in pursuing an unfounded coercion case against the plumbing union and its leader while ignoring [...]
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