Chris White Online

Abbott tells corporate leaders that WorkChoices was not an economic mistake, not all bad, but politically a mistake.
WorkChoices was necessary as regulation for unlimited freedom for profit making and undermining unions.
Turnbull was to hide WorkChoices 2. With Abbott the contest is back in the open.
But the Murdoch press weekly has propaganda “Abbott [...]

ACTU media release. Liberals will bring back WorkChoices to cut wages and conditions at next election: new poll
A majority of Australians believe a Liberal Government led by Tony Abbott-led will bring back WorkChoices, a new national opinion poll released today shows.
The poll of 2,099 working Australians finds fewer than one fifth (18%) believe it unlikely [...]

Typical media reactions against current workers’ strike actions hides the political reality analysed in detail on this blog that Labor’s Fair Work fails to ensure the right to strike, largely denies workers’ lawful industrial action, and so continues one of the worst repressive regimes against unions.
I will look at in 2010 some of the specifics [...]

Interesting reading at Global Labour column.
http://column.global-labour-university.org/

TWO young Victorian workers have died in the past 24 hours.
It is reported in the Age yesterday that “A 24-year-old Wangaratta man was hit by concrete as he cleaned out a concrete pump hose yesterday, and a 21-year-old plumber died in hospital on Monday night after receiving an electric shock while working at Stawell in [...]

The right to strike in Australia by Aron Neilson.
He is a dual qualified Solicitor in both Australia and England and is a Legal Officer for UNISON in the UK. This appears in ICTUR journal ‘International Union Rights’ Vol 16 Issue 4 2009.
Aron Neilson looks at the historical development of the right to strike in [...]

What policy makers can do is to examine these detailed evidence – based arguments in this lodgement of complaint about the Fair Work Bill to the International Labour Organisation. Political discourse depends on the merits of the arguments that the Rudd/Gillard government, like Howard, is in breach of fundamental international standards.
Rudd is striding the UN [...]

In this concluding section I deal with lines of argument from those opposed to the right to strike. See below for references.
Is the right to strike an historical anachronism or has it contemporary relevance?
1 ‘Firewalling the right to strike is too much’ employer line
Skilled industrial relations advocates settle collective bargaining and workplace disputes by [...]

I contend this ‘doublethink’ applies again with the Fair Work Act (2009) – albeit in a different form.

A new ‘1984 doublethink political spin’ that ‘WorkChoices is dead’ and the Fair Work Act (2009) establishes ‘the right to strike’ and ‘fair rights for workers’ and a ‘fair balance for all’.