Australia

Australia/Iraq Trade Union Solidarity (AUSIRAQ)

A Sydney group has been formed to raise money for and build links with Iraqi unions. In July a meeting initiated by Workers Liberty held at the Gaelic Club led to the formation of the Australia/Iraq Trade Union Solidarity group. Frustration with the refusal of most of the left to support the struggle of the workers’ movement in Iraq gave rise to this development. A fund raiser in December raised several hundred dollars which has been distributed to union groups in Iraq. If you want to find out more, feel free to join the AUSIRAQ email list, send a blank email to ausiraq-subscribe@yahoogroups...

Elections unleash employers

Bosses seek longer hours, more exploitation, by Wayne Sonter, from Shorter Work Week News No. 26 Jan 2005 Voters in Australia and United States - two countries whose workforces already work the longest annual hours of the world’s industrial economies – recently returned the reactionary Bush & Howard governments, entrenching them more deeply in power and giving them the ability to make laws that will severely punish the working classes of both countries. Their re-election also encourages further blatant imposition of US imperial might around the world. In USA the Bush regime prepares to use...

Boss watch

By Lynn Smith BYE BYE AMERICAN PIE In its last days, Iraq’s US appointed interim administration mysteriously transferred US$500 million to an obscure bank in Lebanon. The loot was quietly removed from Iraq’s Central Bank, placed in boxes then flown by charter jet to Lebanon. Ironically, the cash transfer came the day after George W. Bush’s obscenely expensive inauguration circus in the US during which he pledged to "oppose corrupt, oligarchic regimes". "IF IT PLEASES YOUR HONOUR, I WOULD LIKE $25 MILLION FOR DOING BUGGER ALL" William Adams, a direct descendent of Tattersalls’ founder George...

Refugee rights in Australia

Kat Pinder describes a three-day protest outside Baxter Detention Centre for refugees, which is situated in a remote part of Australia. On Wednesday 22 March I left Perth and set out on a 41-hour coach journey across the Nullarbor desert to Baxter Detention Centre. I have only recently moved to Australia and the trip was a good introduction to the country. But my reason for embarking on such a journey (and I thought Manchester to London was bad) was to take part in a three-day Easter weekend demonstration to end mandatory detention for refugees and asylum seekers in Australia (including...

Wellington union rep sacked

The Service and Food Workers’ Union (SFWU) in New Zealand is calling on national and international union networks to publicise the sacking of one of its union reps at Wellington Airport. SFWU argues that the rep was dismissed unjustifiably and targeted because of his union activities at LSG Skychefs. The rep already had an outstanding personal grievance against the company from disciplinary action taken against him last year. The union believes this dismissal is part of an ongoing attempt by the company to terminate his employment because of his union involvement. More information: Labourstart...

How to build a trade union

Bob Carnegie is an organiser for the Queensland Builders’ Labourers’ Federation (BLF). He was previously an organiser for the Maritime Union of Australia, and has been a rank-and-file trade unionist in a number of industries, including construction and seafaring. The Queensland BLF today shows a pattern of industrial militancy and organisation substantially different from that to be found in unions in the countries of old trade union organisation like the UK. Job grievances, even when they immediately concern only one or a few workers, are routinely dealt with by strike action. The typical...

Sugar refinery strike

The owners of the Hacienda Luisita in the Philippines will shut down its operations in March to thwart workers involved in a bitter dispute. The four-month dispute at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), the biggest sugar refinery in the Philippines, began in November when workers belonging to the CATLU union organised a strike following deadlock in the collective bargaining agreement talks. Employers sacked union leaders and threatened workers. CATLU received solidarity from another local union, the ULWU farm workers’ union. On 16 November, seven demonstrators were killed by bullets when an...

Striking sugar mill workers fear massacre

Striking sugar mill workers in the Philippines are preparing for an expected assault by police and military against their occupation of the Hacienda Luisita. Workers fear another massacre will be carried out when authorities attempt to disperse striking members of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) in order for the Luisita sugar refinery to be able to resume operations. Their dispute has been ruled illegal by the government. Strikers inside the sugar estate have been preparing for another clash with anti-riot forces by carved...

Fourteen killed in Philippines strike

Fourteen people, including two children, were killed in the Philippines on November 16 when the army dispersed a strike at the Hacienda Luisita Sugar Mill. At least 35 people were reported to have sustained gunshot wounds, 133 were arrested and hundreds were wounded. One of the victims was allegedly strangled after being shot and his dead body hanged by the factory gate. The two children, aged two and five years old who died from suffocation from teargas lobbed by the police and armed forces. The trade unions in the Philippines are calling for a strong international protest, demanding a full...

Bosswatch

HOT PROPERTY Next time you play monopoly with the kids and you pick up the CHANCE card which says "pay tax on all your properties", spare a though for poor Denis O'Neil. Big Den used to own quarries and Hymix and is now into developing hotels in Sydney's Kings Cross. Recently he's reported to have paid $6 million for a Point Piper marina and ordered a 12 seater Lear Jet. Why does he need a Lear Jet? To fly to the Whitsundays of course: that's where he parks his $5 million motor yacht "Illusions". HARVEY NORMAN'S DOUBLESPEAK After forking out $270,000 to cover legal costs paid by the Australian...

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