Chris White Online

For almost two years the Australian oil rig workers – members of the MUA-AWU Offshore Alliance – have been trying to seal a union deal with an iconic Danish shipping giant Maersk. But Maersk refuses to talk to the union – and favours workers who are non-union.
Support the Australian union members now campaigning for [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

We all know Abbott.
One memory I have is in Adelaide at an AIRS conference addressed by Abbott as Workplace Relations Minister spinning his Building and Construction laws.
At the time little building work in Adelaide meant few strikes.
More union industrial action in Melbourne and Perth had Abbott’s ‘double-speak’ labelling lawful and legitimate workers [...]

Political discourse and contested debates on the labour movement. Margarita Windish in a Socialist Alliance discussion of union work.
http://alliancevoices.blogspot.com/2009/11/notes-on-our-trade-union-work.html

X-mas coming…check out this Union Communication services.
http://www.unionist.com/

National OHS Harmonisation – Campaign for best practice continues. By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary.
Back on the 28th September the Federal Government, through the Workplace Relations Minister’s Council, released for public comment a proposed new OHS national model law.
The six weeks ‘public comment’ period gives the trade union movement an opportunity to promote and [...]

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’.