The Australian Worker Magazine Issue 4 2008 by Henry Armstrong

ISSUE 4 2008 $4.50 (INC GST)

After the fall Workers & the economic crisis

America’s most wanted Can Obama change the world?

Fair Work Bill A new era in industrial relations – at last

Postcard from Gove WELCOME TO THE WORKERS’ UNLIKELY PARADISE!

ISBN 978-186396379-4

PLUS

Real to reel – labour issues on screen • The chopping block – motorbikes with attitude • Love your work – Indigenous volunteering • G’day China – AFL vs the world

34 theaustralianworker

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contents Issue 4 – 2008

Features 06 FITTING THE BILL The Rudd Labor Government’s Fair Work Bill.

08 POSTCARD FROM GOVE Michael Blayney heads to the Top End to check out a workers’ unlikely paradise.

12 AMERICA’S MOST WANTED American unions mobilised like never before to help Barack Obama win the US Presidency. Jim McKay and Chris Ryan look at this historic global event.

18 AFTER THE FALL Are there ways to survive the impact of the global economic crisis? Tom Scahill investigates.

22 ABSENT WITH LEAVE If you think that Australia’s leave entitlements are good, Laura Macfarlane finds that we actually lag behind some other developed nations.

26 LOVE YOUR WORK the Indigenous Community Volunteers are changing lives. Julia Richardson talks to those involved.

32 REAL TO REEL Anne Brooksbank looks at some classic realist films – and the issues they dealt with

50 WHO’S HOLDING THE BABY? Mum-to-be Dilvin Yasa investigates the rising costs and sorry state of child care in Australia.

54 CHOPPING BLOCK Boris Mihailovic revs up some customised motorcyles.

56 G’DAY CHINA

08 62

AFL may not have conquered the Commonwealth, but Aidan Ormond finds that Australia’s favourite game is gaining popularity in some amazing places!

62 COOKING WITH RUSS He may devote most of his time to pursuing and protecting AWU members’ rights, but AWU NSW Branch Secretary Russ Collison has a hidden talent!

Regulars P04 National Opinion P26 Frontline News P48 Meet the Delegates/Officials P60 Kidding Around – Darwin P64 Kids’ Page and book offer P66 Grumpy Bastard

AWU

EDITOR Paul Howes, AWU National Secretary AWU NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS CO-ORDINATOR Andrew Casey AWU NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Henry Armstrong Address Level 10, 377-383 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000 e: worker@awu.net.au www.awu.net.au Telephone (02) 8005 3333 Facsimile (02) 8005 3300

ACP Magazines Ltd Publishing

EDITOR Kyle Rankin ART DIRECTOR Wayne Allen DESIGNER Helen MacDougall SUB-EDITORS Graham Lauren PRODUCTION SERVICES Kate Fox PREPRESS SUPERVISOR Klaus Muller PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Phil Scott PUBLISHER Gerry Reynolds PUBLISHING MANAGER Nicola O’Hanlon Published for The Australian Workers’ Union (ABN 28 853 022 982) by ACP Magazines Ltd (ACN 18 053 273 546), 54-58 Park St, Sydney NSW 2000. © 2008. All rights reserved. Printed by PMP, Clayton, Vic 3168 and cover printed by Energi Print, Murrumbeena, Vic 3163. Distributed by Network Services, 54 Park Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. Articles published in The Australian Worker express the opinion of the authors and not necessarily ACP Magazines Ltd. While all efforts have been made to ensure prices and details are correct at time of printing, these are subject to change.

PRIVACY NOTICE This issue of The Australian Worker may contain offers, competitions, or surveys which require you to provide information about yourself if you choose to enter or take part in them (Reader Offer). If you provide information about yourself to ACP Magazines Ltd (ACP), ACP wil use this information to provide you with the products or services you have requested, and may supply your information to contractors that help ACP to do this. ACP wil also use your information to inform you of other ACP publications, products, services and events. ACP may also give your information to organisations that are providing special prizes or offers and that are clearly associated with the Reader Offer. Unless you tell us not to, we may give your information to other organisations that may use it to inform you about other products, services or events or to give to other organisations that may use it for this purpose. If you would like to gain access to the information ACP holds about you, please contact ACP’s Privacy Officer at ACP Magazines Ltd, 54-58 Park Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000. Cover photo: David Hahn

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theaustralianworker 3

NATIONAL OPINION

AWU members at the heart of the community t has been a good year for the members of the Australian Workers’ Union, with many significant battles being fought and won. This time a year ago AWU members across the country were celebrating the leading role they played in the election of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, and the removal of the most anti-worker government in Australian history. What we have learnt in this last year is that while having a federal government that is not hostile to us does make life a bit easier, it is up to us as union members to take responsibility for our own working conditions. In the local government sector in Queensland, we have been victorious in a long and significant fight to protect the rights and conditions of all local council workers. AWU members can be justifiably proud of what they have achieved. Without their solidarity, all council workers would be under the Federal Industrial relations system, and the federal government would have had unprecedented rights to make decisions regarding local councils across Australia. This victory shows how important AWU members are to the fabric of our community. In the Queensland health system, our members have fought a very long campaign to protect their own job security, and also to keep private contractors out of the health system. The experience with private contractors in hospitals around the world has been that the job they do

AWU LEADERS

Russ Collison Greater NSW Branch Secretary

4 theaustralianworker

Bill Ludwig National President Queensland Branch Secretary

is not as good as direct employees, and also that private contractors end up costing the taxpayers much more in the long term. Without the members of the AWU, our state health system would be at risk of some jobs being contracted out, to companies whose primary concern is profit. The only possible outcome in this scenario is a reduction of patient care. This victory once again shows the vital role AWU members play in maintaining standards in our community. AWU members are usually found in the less glamorous jobs, the jobs that are hard, and sometimes downright dirty. Many AWU members do the jobs that no one likes to think about, but need doing. AWU members working in these sorts of jobs can take great pride in the jobs they do, and in the role they play in their community. They have proved over the last year just how vital their union membership is, both to their own working conditions and to the community at large.

“AWU members are usually found in the less glamorous jobs, the jobs that are hard, and sometimes downright dirty.”

Mark Stoker Newcastle Branch Secretary

Andy Gillespie Port Kembla Branch Secretary

Cesar Melhem Victorian Branch Secretary

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Respect for workers – at last! he timing was perfect. New laws to deliver fairness at work were introduced to federal parliament the very week that Kevin Rudd celebrated one year in government. It is a great present for AWU members as we start thinking about Christmas and summer breaks. It was the union movement’s Your Rights@ Work campaign which delivered the killer blow to John Howard at the last election. Now Kevin Rudd and his Workplace Minister, Julia Gillard, are delivering on their promise to unions and their members – returning fairness at work to the Australian workplace. WorkChoices stripped away the rights of millions of Australians, hurting working families. By creating a fairer IR system that respects workers’ rights Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are consigning WorkChoices to the dustbin of history. We’ve come a long way – but there is still more to do. What we can be confident about is that we now have a government in Canberra that will listen to workers’ voices. We do think Canberra can make some more changes to the work laws – for instance construction workers in our union are treated worse under IR laws than any other members of our union. We do think Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard should get rid of the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner (ABCC).

PHOTOS GETTY IMAGES

Wayne Hanson Greater SA Branch Secretary

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Graham Hall Whyalla Branch Secretary

Paul Howes National Secretary

“Construction workers in our union are treated worse under IR laws than any other members.”

But what the AWU and other unions know is that Labor in Canberra will listen to our views. Unions will continue to lobby and provide more firm evidence about the need for more change to make our workplaces even fairer. Another area where the AWU will continue to campaign hard is in defence of members on the frontline of climate change. This year has been a busy year for this campaign to defend members’ jobs in steel, aluminium, cement and on the oil and gas fields. But federal ministers like Senator Wong and Martin Ferguson have kept their doors open to us, listening to our arguments that we should not concede to extreme green attitudes on climate changes. Good regional jobs need not be sacrificed if we bring in a smart plan to shift industry lower-carbon technologies.

Post your letters to: The Editor, The Australian Worker, Level 10, 377-383 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Or email them to: worker@awu.net.au

Stephen Price West Australian Branch Secretary

Ian Wakefield Tasmanian Branch Secretary

Norman McBride Tobacco Branch Secretary

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FEDERAL IR POLICY

fitting

the bill

I “The philosophy that underpinned WorkChoices said, essentially, make your own way in the world – without the comfort of mateship.” 6 theaustralianworker

The Rudd Labor government’s introduction of the Fair Work Bill 2008 marks a return, at last, to workplace democracy. PHOTOS GETTY IMAGES/ACTU

t was arguably the pivotal election promise that swept the Rudd Labor government into office just over a year ago. After years of battering workers’ rights and entitlements and the introduction of so-called WorkChoices, Australians could take no more of the Howard Government. And it showed on election night – when, at last, the end of the most anti-worker Federal government the country had ever experienced was decisively swept from office. But after a decade of under-handed legislation and bullying tactics from John Howard’s Liberal government, restoring workers’ rights could not happen overnight. However, on November 25, 2008, Deputy Prime Minster and Industrial Relations Minister Julia Gillard introduced into Parliament the Fair Work Bill 2008 which heralds the restoration of a fairer balance of bargaining rights and co-operation between employers and employees. The Industrial Relations Minister told Federal Parliament that the Fair Work Bill would strengthen unfair dismissal protection and give more say to unions. When introducing the bill, the minister recalled that as the Howard government’s WorkChoices systematically eroded fair pay and working conditions, it also rapidly dispelled any notions of a “fair go” for workers. “The philosophy that underpinned WorkChoices said, essentially, make your own way in the world – without the comfort of mateship; without the protections afforded by

a compassionate society against the odds deliberately stacked against you,” the Minister said. She also said that the new laws conÞrmed Labor’s election commitment to scrapping WorkChoices and re-laying the pathway to workplace democracy. ◆

What’s it all about? Essentially, the Fair Work Bill 2008 creates a workplace relations system that will be applied nationally. The comprehensive Bill is far-reaching and introduces a system that is fair to workers and flexible for business while promoting productivity and economic growth. The major reforms that will impact workers directly will see the protection of and, in some instances, the reinstatement of the following workplace rights: ➜ Maximum weekly hours of work. ➜ A right to request flexible working arrangements. ➜ Parental leave and related entitlements. ➜ Annual leave. ➜ Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave. ➜ Community-service leave. ➜ Long-service leave. ➜ Public holidays. ➜ Notice of termination and redundancy pay. ➜ Modern awards which provide flexibility and stability for employers and their employees. The Bill also allows for additional minimum terms and employment conditions – for example, minimum wages, overtime and penalty rates, allowances, representation and dispute settlement tailored to the unique needs of particular industries or occupations to which the award relates. Another celebratory element to the bill is that, after a decade of the Howard government attacking the rights of unions to enter work sites and represent the interests of their members, it legislates the right of entry for unions and for workers to have their union represent them in negotiations. A new and independent authority, Fair Work Australia (FWA), will be introduced to administer the new workplace relations system. The FWA will facilitate collective bargaining, approve enterprise agreements, adjust minimum wages and award conditions, deal with unfair dismissal claims, deal with industrial action and settle workplace disputes.

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The AWU’s response Australian Workers’ Union National Secretary Paul Howes says the Australian public sent a clear message a year ago at the election that they rejected the Liberal and National parties move to take away workers’ rights. “The AWU and other unions waged a massive community campaign to say enough is enough and we have started the process of turning it around,” Paul said. “All AWU members should take enormous pride in having turned the tide and been part of an historical campaign that succeeded in stopping the attacks on workers’ rights.” The AWU believes that the introduction of the Fair Work Bill marks a genuine historic turning point in restoring rights for Australian workers. “Workers will be able to stand together with their colleagues once more and not be marginalised individually, as they were under the Howard government’s WorkChoices, with little recourse to a fair go and workplace justice,” Paul said. “Now that the Fair Work Bill is on top of the national agenda, working families will be better off and so will the economy. “This Bill is a cornerstone in rebuilding the horrendous

damage done by a decade of anti-worker legislation implemented by the former Howard government.” Paul said the AWU believes the legislation should deliver: ➜ Strong rights for workers to bargain collectively and be represented by their union. ➜ Unfair dismissal rights for all workers. ➜ A robust new safety net of awards and national standards, along with a fair and transparent process for setting minimum wages. ➜ An industrial umpire with the teeth to safeguard workers’ rights. While the union movement is pleased generally with the introduction of the Fair Work Bill, Paul believes that unions should remain alert to the work that remains to be done. “While this legislation is a major achievement, it in no way means that the campaign for improved workers’ rights and conditions is over,” Paul said. The AWU remains concerned that there are important areas of unfinished business still to be tackled. “AWU members can be assured that their union will always pursue improvements in the workplace and work towards better mechanisms to safeguard the jobs and living standards of working Australians,” Paul said.

“All AWU members should take enormous pride in having turned the tide and been part of an historical campaign that succeeded in stopping the attacks on workers’ rights.”

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Industrial Relations Julia Gillard. The federal Labor government is determined to reintroduce a fair deal for Australian workers.

theaustralianworker 7

POSTCARD FROM GOVE

the workers’

paradise At 700 kilometres down a dirt track, you could say that workers at Rio Tinto Alcan’s Arnhem Land bauxite mine work remotely. But sweating it out in a small, tight-knit mining community on the Northern Territory’s Gove Peninsula is the perfect life for many AWU members. WRITTEN BY MICHAEL BLAYNEY PHOTOS DAVID HAHN

Below: Activities for kids are abundant in familyfriendly Gove; Below centre: AWU Senior Site Delegate Garry Lynch and his partner Catherine with three of their four children (from left) Kody, Ziggi and Pia; Below right: Gove suffers from a shortage of housing, but there is a focus on building more accommodation.

8 theaustralianworker

t’s the build-up to the wet season at the Rio Tinto Alcan bauxite mine and alumina reÞnery on the north-eastern tip of the Top End. Gove Peninsula locals simply dub this hot and steamy time of year the “mango season”. Sweltering southerners are probably more familiar with the terms “mango madness” and “going troppo”. Beside a red-dirt track, Rio Tinto Alcan plumber Johnny O’Shea is helping fence a perimeter at the mining giant’s water-aerator facility. It’s two in the a!ernoon. The humidity is nudging 90 per cent, and the temperature in the sun is 52°C. For most, 52 is an age, not a temperature reading, but Johnny appears unßustered by the punishment beating down on his hard hat. “I don’t mind the weather,” he

says, speaking like a Gove local of some 20 years’ standing. “I guess you could say I’m used to it, but it’s never really bothered me.” Johnny is responsible for the upkeep of 20 underground bores that service the mine, reÞnery, and the community at large. If the water supply breaks down, it aﬀects everyone and Johnny’s main duty is to keep the water ßowing. The RTA reÞnery alone uses roughly 1100 cubic metres (1.1 megalitres) of water every hour. As a result, his job can be demanding. “The longest working week was a 93-hour stretch when a bulldozer burst one of the water pipes,” he says. “The pipes are about 600 mills to a metre under the ground, and the driver made a blue. We had to work around the clock to get it Þxed.”

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Aluminium ore was Þrst discovered on the Gove Peninsula in 1955. It took until 1969 before the mining project was up and running, and two years later the region’s main township Nhulunbuy (an indigenous Yolngu word meaning “place at the bo#om of the hill” and pronounced Nool-un-boy) was under construction. Conveniently located almost halfway between the mine and reÞnery, the town is now home to a population of more than 4000. The mine and reÞnery are connected by an 18.7-kilometre conveyor belt for ease of bauxite delivery. A!er processing, several large docks are manned to ship the alumina worldwide. RTA Gove is now the third-largest bauxite mine in Australia, producing 3.8 million tonnes of alumina a year. Despite the fact that this isolated region owes much of its existence to bauxite, the residents have formed a community that is far richer than the ore the workers strip-mine and reÞne. During leisure hours, friendships have been formed hunting wild boar in the scrub or angling for black marlin in the waters of the Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria. The peninsula oﬀers some breathtaking coastline. Shady Beach, close to the indigenous Yolngu town of Yirrkala, has stunning turquoise waters hemming white sands and crimson earth. This secluded patch provides spear-Þsherman Graham Maymuru and his family a chance to land a meal. “We catch kingÞsh,” he says. He adds that southerners are more likely to know the Þsh as trevally.

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If h fforts are met with h success, his spearing eff Graham cooks his catch “on site”, with the Þsh wrapped in an aromatic djilka leaf lying over a bed of hot coals on the foreshore. “We know it’s time to catch kingÞsh when the nuts are on the ground,” he says, walking away from the sand to offer a bush-tucker lesson. He points to a tree and picks some nuts off the ground. “This is ganyawu. The cooked nuts taste like cashews. When they’re falling off the tree, there’s kingÞsh in the water.” This is Graham’s way of saying that the kingÞsh is a seasonal catch. The traditional Yolngu way of life practised by Graham Maymuru has, in the past, created conßict with mine owners. There is a history of passive (and legal) resistance over land ownership, and all RTA employees must undergo a one-day cultural awareness program to familiarise themselves with Yolngu customs and habits. The aim is to give newcomers an appreciation of the culture and an understanding of the struggle that has culminated in mine owners now paying an annual royalty to the Aboriginal community for use of the land. Back in Nhulunbuy, Lynne Walker is the area’s local Legislative Assembly member. A Gove resident for 18 years and a former mine employee, the ALP candidate was elected for the Þrst time in last year’s Northern Territory election with 74.1 per cent of the vote. “The two big challenges in town are a lack of housing, affordable or otherwise, and the cost of freight. We’re always trying to Þnd more efficient ways of delivering services,” she says 

Above left: The Rio Tinto Alcan mine at Gove; Above centre: The RTA refinery; Above right: A conveyer takes the mined product from the mine to the refinery for processing.

“The mine and refinery are connected by an 18.7-kilometre conveyor belt for ease of bauxite delivery. After processing, several large docks are manned to ship the alumina worldwide.”

POSTCARD FROM GOVE from her small, unclu#ered Nhulunbuy oﬃce. Half of the housing in town is owned by RTA, and most jobs at the mine pay accommodation expenses. It’s just as well. Privately renting the most basic of three-bedroom houses in Nhulunbuy can cost in excess of $1000 per week. Added to that expense, unleaded fuel recently crashed through the $2 a litre barrier, and even the local Mitre 10 store is known colloquially as Mitre 20 because of in-store mark-ups. The only overland access to the town is via the Bulman Track – a gravel road with slithers of bitumen – that heads south for 700 kilometres before popping out about 50km shy of Katherine. This is frontier living and prices are a true reßection of the peninsula’s remoteness.

The AWU senior site delegate for RTA Gove is Garry Lynch. Working as a crane driver and rigger, his duties run twofold: one day he’s in the cabin operating a crane, the next he’s hooking up a load and barking instructions to the driver. In his spare time he plays touch footy with his work colleagues and is a paid volunteer for the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service in Nhulunbuy. “This place has been home for 17 years,” says the expatriate South African. “I’ve raised four kids here and it’s the perfect place for it. Everyone looks out for each other, and there’s a real sense of community.” His partner Catherine Rut Rutishauser has lived in Nh Nhulunbuy all of her life, her parents arriving on the

“There hasn’t been an industrial dispute for a very long time. We’re doing well up here. Wherever we have delegates, we’re covered.”

10 theaustralianworker

1977

2001

1974

Airstrip used by Australian Armed Forces during WW2. The peninsula is named after Flight Sergeant William Gove, killed in a mid-air collision over Millingimbi.

1969

Methodists form the mission at Yirrkala.

1963

1934

Dutchman Jan Van Carstens is considered the first European to cast eyes on this part of the world, naming Arnhem Land after one of his ships.

1955

1623

Timeline

1943-44

Right: Annette with the flower in her hair. Gove locals are warm and welcoming; Centre: Spear fishing is a timeless skill; Far right: Bush tucker provides more than nourishment – when these ganyawu nuts fall from the trees, the local Indigenous people know that the kingfish season has arrived.

Bauxite discovered.

Bark Petition delivered to Canberra’s House of Representatives, outlining Yolngu concerns over the mine’s construction.

Mine project commenced as a joint venture between Gove Aluminium Limited and Swiss Aluminium Australia.

Missionaries move out of Yirrkala.

Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 proclaimed.

Alcan purchases 100 per cent of the Gove Project.

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2004

2007

Clockwise from above: The Gove Peninsula juts out of the North East Arnhem Land coastline; while the beach is beautiful, the water is a haven for crocs; rich, red earth and the Rio Tinto Alcan Refinery; plumber Johnny O’Shea working at the water-aerator treatment plant for the town’s water supply; a tiny footy team hopeful waits patiently to outgrow the ball!

Expansion plans increase production from 2 million to 3.8 million tonnes of alumina per year.

Rio Tinto gets on board. Operation now known as Rio Tinto Alcan.

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peninsula in 1970. Catherine was born in Gove, making Garry and Catherine’s oldest child the Þrst non-indigenous baby born at Gove District Hospital whose mother was born in Gove, too. “Dad was from Switzerland and employed through the mine,” she says. “The place was so isolated back then. If mum could get potatoes at the local shop, we’d have a celebration. It was a close-knit community, everyone was in it together. We’d all go camping in the bush, snorkelling, Þshing. There’d be 30 kids running amok on a beach to ourselves. I love the fact that our kids can do the same thing now.” Catherine works for RTA as a lab tester. “I play with mud for a living,” she says, smiling.

In reality, she analyses diﬀerent samples of rock to test composition, on the lookout for the perfect mix - bauxite with 49 per cent alumina and 4.7 per cent silica content. Although Catherine works for RTA part-time, her duties are performed by workmates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She joined the AWU on her Þrst day on the job, Garry wouldn’t have had it any other way. “You could say I didn’t have a choice,” she laughs. “Traditionally, we’ve had a good relationship with all the other unions on site and management,” Garry says. “There hasn’t been an industrial dispute for a very long time. We’re doing well up here. Wherever we have delegates, we’re covered.” ◆

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US ELECTION

12 theaustralianworker

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AMERICA’S Just over a year ago Australian union members were exhilarated after a long campaign under the banner Your Rights at Work resulted in the defeat of John Howard and the election of a government committed to tearing up WorkChoices. American workers were similarly also inspired by Barack Obama’s message of hope and his promise to introduce new pro-union, pro-worker laws. Jim McKay, communications officer with the United Steelworkers, an American union with strong ties with the AWU, talks about how his union galvanised a massive wave of support for this inspiring new leader, who promises real change – for his own country and the world. WRITTEN BY JIM MCKAY/CHRIS RYAN PHOTOS GETTY IMAGES/USW/CHRIS RYAN

i!sburgh. Backed by 11,000 volunteers, the United Steelworkers (USW) mounted unprecedented grassroots campaigns in key American ba!leground states to elect Barack Obama president and get the United States economy back on track. “When you feel the brunt of the economic downturn and wake up wondering if your job is being shipped overseas, you want change,’’ Leo Gerard, president of the USW, said. “Our members worked like hell to make sure change happened.” With the economy collapsing around them, working-class voters in union-heavy industrial states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan turned out in unprecedented numbers to embrace President-Elect Obama, the Democratic candidate, and his promises of change.

Mobilising like never before In addition to its army of union volunteers, the USW’s political campaign had more than 500 people working full-time in 31 states, mobilising union members and working families like never before. The campaign to elect Obama began in full force a"er the USW held its Constitutional www.awu.net.au

Convention in late June and endorsed the Illinois senator as its preferred candidate. “Steel workers, this is our time,” Obama told the USW convention to cheers from the delegates. “We’re going to change this country. We’re going to change this world. We’re going to put people back to work. We’re going to give health care to people who need it. We’re going to educate our kids. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, rebuild our economy,’’ he said. “That’s my commitment and I’m looking forward to making it happen with you over the next eight years.” USW members worked the phones, leaßeted work sites and canvassed neighbours to educate voters on the issues and combat a Republican campaign that stoked false rumors that Obama was an un-American socialist with terrorist ties. The USW was part of a larger movement to elect Obama. The AFL-CIO, the largest US labour federation, estimated that all up more than 250,000 volunteers made 76 million phone calls, knocked on 14 million doors and passed out 29 million ßyers.

Reaching out on race There had never before been an African-American candidate for president and the USW and other labour unions made unprecedented eﬀorts to reach out to those members who may have 

Opposite page: Already a national icon, a poster of US President-Elect Barack Obama as Superman appeared on November 5, 2008, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, California – one day after Obama won the November 4 election.

“We’re going to change this country. We’re going to change this world. We’re going to put people back to work. We’re going to give health care to people who need it...” theaustralianworker 13

US ELECTION Below: United Steelworkers activists door-knocked members identifying the key issues confronting their nation and how their vote could change things for the betterment of all.

been resistant to voting for a Black candidate. In the end, many USW members put trust in their union and, by supporting Obama over Republican John McCain in numbers higher than Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry received in 2004, knocked down the last remaining racial barrier in American politics. The USW and other unions in the AFL-CIO embraced a strategy of emphasising economic over social issues to unite union members behind Obama. As a result, Obama won among white men who are union members by 18 percentage points, while losing white male votes overall by 16 points, according to an election-night survey for the AFL-CIO by Peter D Hart Research Associates. The survey also found that Obama won among union gun owners by a 12-point margin while losing to gun owners in the general population by 25 points. Obama also won among union veterans by a 25-point margin, while losing among veterans in the general public by nine points.

American voices Ruelle Parker, USW Local 13-423, Port Arthur, Texas

We definitely need a change. For the last eight years, the labour movement has been getting killed by the Bush administration. We get no help from the Department of Labor or anybody else. Companies feel like they can do anything they want to you. We definitely need a change. We need a president who cares about working people and who will appoint people in the Department of Labor who will give us help instead of working against us. Robert “Big Red” Rankin, USW Local 1981, retired, SOAR (Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees) Coordinator, Carson, California

I supported Barack Obama because of American jobs, American jobs and American jobs. I know that sounds simplistic, but that’s important. Where I live, in fact in the whole country, factories are shut down, buildings are gone. The place where I used to work before I retired, it’s gone. We need a president who believes

14 theaustralianworker

“We always said that we were the Þrewall that would prevent a McCain victory in rust-belt states, and we delivered on that,” said Karen Ackerman, political director for the AFL-CIO.

Spreading the word The USW strategy included calling and speaking to more than 100,000 union members in key states from August to election day. Nearly Þve million pieces of persuasive literature were mailed from USW international, district and local union oﬃces. “We Þgured out the best ways to talk to our members,’’ said Chuck Rocha, the USW’s political director. “We talked to thousands of steel workers and asked, ‘what do you care about?’” Volunteer Al Smith, who spent an estimated 65 hours a week working from a cubicle at a USW phone bank in Pi!sburgh, viewed his extraordinary eﬀort as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help the next generation. “We got to reach into folks’ homes and talk

American workers were all set to embrace change – and that change came on election day.

that American jobs are the most important things in the world. And I believe Barack Obama will put American jobs first. George Bush has not done that. John McCain will not do that. We can’t have this giving [tax] credits to companies for shipping jobs overseas. It’s the most obscene thing. American jobs are number one, but we need a health-care plan that covers all of us, from little children to people like me. Barack Obama believes in that. I know he does. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with him and I feel very good about what he will do. We need a president who will recognise the importance of working people. I’m talking about average people like us. We need to do more to take care of our retirees and honor the service that they’ve given to our country. They shouldn’t be just tossed out like someone’s trash. They have given their lives, their wellbeing. Barack Obama – I believe that he will place an importance in that. John McCain? I feel good about his service record. He gave time to our country. I applaud that. The votes he has made as a senator I don’t believe have been in the best service of working people. He’s never been on our side.

Robert Avery, USW Local 12, Gadsden, Alabama

Barack Obama is going to be great for the working people in this country. Without Barack Obama, I think working people will probably have to just pack it in, particularly with what’s been happening over the last eight years with the Republican Party. All of our jobs have been going overseas. The generational and the financial gaps are getting wider. I think Barack Obama is going to reverse those trends and keep jobs here in America. I respect John McCain. He’s an American hero, but at the same time he would continue the Bush policies. George Fomby, USW Local 9448, Texarkana, Texas

I supported Barack Obama.The whole country is at stake. The economy is in shambles. We’re at war. We’re in debt. China owns a big portion of our debt, and we are going downhill. I don’t see it stopping unless we change the leadership. John McCain is as anti-labour

a presidential candidate as I’ve ever come across. He voted 90 per cent – plus against labour and that to me is the main reason to go against him. Carolyn Cornell, USW Local 1543, retired ﬁnancial secretary, Jacksonville, Florida

I started off with Hillary Clinton and I worked for her. But after it was decided that Barack Obama was the candidate, then it was time to back him. I’m very disappointed that Hillary didn’t get the chance, but that’s the way things go. Obama made a good choice with Joe Biden for vice-president. Things are looking real bad for, frankly, the world. It just seems like everything is going wrong and I’m worried. We’ve got real big problems with the economy, the banks and the debt we are incurring in Iraq. The war is a big thing. Wall Street is dropping. Everybody is going bankrupt. There is no alternative. I can’t vote Republican. Frankly, it’s the Republicans who got us in this mess.

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It’s ofﬁcial – Australia loves Obama The leaders of the AWU’s two fraternal unions in the USA received congratulatory letters from Paul Howes, the AWU National Secretary, straight after Barack Obama’s victory in the US elections. “I wrote to Leo Gerard, the leader of the Steelworkers and Tom Buffenbarger, the leader of the Machinists Union, because I know that both of these unions worked hard for the Obama win,” Paul

Losing the race Race is and always has been a huge issue for American society. This year’s US election was the first time voters had been asked to cast ballots for an African American as president and they did so overwhelmingly. But the election of a Black president must mean that the racial divide is, at last, closing. And unions are taking a leading role in getting the message across – that there is no place for race hate in American life. US labour leader Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, has a message on the issue. In a well-received address to the United Steelworkers’ 2008 Constitutional Convention that he later repeated at union halls nationwide he said, “There’s no evil that has inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism – and it’s something we in the labour movement have a special responsibility to challenge.” In a fiery style of oratory honed as president of the United Mine Workers of America, Trumka cautioned that trade unionists cannot afford to “tap dance around the fact that there are a lot

said. “The US labour movement played a major part in delivering this win, not just for Americans but for working families across the globe. “According to a global poll by Reader’s Digest magazine 16 out of 17 nations surveyed gave Obama their vote – 76 per cent of Australians would have voted for Barack Obama!”

of folks out there” who may not vote for Obama because of race. “A lot of them are good union people,” he averred. “They just can’t get past this idea that there’s something ‘wrong’ with voting for a Black man.” Trumka reminded delegates that the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, the forerunner to the USW, was founded on the principle of organising all workers without regard to race. To those cautious about backing a person of colour for president, he said Obama would stand up for working people concerned about holding on to their jobs, their health care, their pensions and their homes. Union activists, Trumka said, have a responsibility to challenge racism. “We’ve seen how companies set worker against worker – how they throw whites a few extra crumbs off the table and how we all end up losing,’’ he said. “But we’ve seen something else too. We’ve seen that when we cross that colour line and stand together no one can keep us down.”

This picture: Leo Gerard at an Obama Address Convention; Below left: Richard Trumka President of the AFL-CIO makes an impassioned address about workers and racism; Below right: USW rally for Obama.

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to them directly about issues they are concerned about,” Smith said, on a break during the Þnal days of the campaign. “This may be a cubicle to some folks, but to me it’s my chance to be part of history.” The phone banks, neighbourhood labour walks, job-site gate leaßeting and mailings to local union members all “had a major impact on what people were talking about during the campaign,” George Griffin, president of USW Local 8566 in Laconia, New Hampshire, said. “We made sure our members were talking about the facts and how everything relates to their jobs, health care and retirement security.” Over the last eight years of the outgoing Bush administration, hundreds of thousands of USW members have been thrown out of their jobs. Many lost their homes. Many lost health-care coverage and many are suffering in other ways. In Bucksport, Maine, paper workers represented by the USW endured lay-offs and plant closures during the economic downturn that hit the country during the campaign. “These hard times brought people out to campaign like never before,’’ said Dan Lawson, vice-president of Local 4-261 and a union safety coordinator at the Verso Paper plant.

There’s more to do Now that the election is over, the USW intends to keep its activist network operating and help Obama implement an agenda that will help the country’s working people. That agenda includes passage of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which aims to restore the rights of workers to form or join a union without fear of employer intimidation. A fair and balanced trade program, universal health care for our families, a program to develop alternative sources of energy and create well-paid green jobs are also on the labour agenda. “We had our shot,’’ Gerard told the USW staﬀ a"er the election. Our parents and grandparents built a union that gave us an opportunity to have a voice and to Þght,’’ he said. “It’s now our obligation to strengthen our union and to give more voice to our members so they can give a be!er future to their kids and grandkids. To me, that’s what this is all about.”  theaustralianworker 15

US ELECTION

Los Angeles California ,

Australian journalist Chris Ryan took a whistlestop tour across the US during the build-up to that country’s election. What he found was a potent cocktail – take a big splash of hope, a slug of anxiety and a dash of bigotry then shake it up, baby. So how did it taste? Like sweet victory!

Los Angeles, California The US was on the brink of a historic turning point. A week before the election, it was sure to be bubbling with excitement, and I wanted to be a part of it. Shortly after I land at LAX airport, Heather, a shuttle-bus driver, sets me straight. “There’s a lot of anxiety about this election,” she says. She reels off the disasters that could happen; McCain’s scare tactics earn him narrow victory, the election is stolen, or, “People won’t say it aloud, but Obama wins and gets shot.” At O’Brien’s, an Irish pub in Santa Monica, most people are absorbed by sports on the television. A group of college students turns away from the TVs, and discusses politics. A mix of Republican and Democrat voters, they all agree Palin was a horrible choice. This, I’m told, is an election where vicepresidents matter, because McCain could die in office, and, “Nobody wants to say it, but…” In the same bar, I meet a marine who explains how he’s killed people in Afghanistan, and it meant nothing to him. He could kill me, he says. He twists me around, gets me in a headlock and demonstrates how easily he could snap my spine. I leave LA on a Greyhound bus the next day, rubbing a sore neck, and thinking about the unforeseen consequences of war: almost as worrying as the people who are killed are the killers you create.

When Obama takes the stage, the crowd goes wild. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation on the full-on-don’t-stop-for-nothing week I’ve spent here so far that makes me feel like I’ve heard it all before. The rapt faces in the crowd are sold, though. The only people not absorbed are the police, silhouetted on the roof of the stadium, scanning the crowd through binoculars. After the speech, a red-haired woman speaks on her mobile as she heads out of the stadium: “It was the same speech he’s given the last couple of days, but he was right there Mom, he was right there.” She sounds in bliss – like a child, telling mum she’s seen Santa. She goes on, “An old man asked me, ‘Was it worth the wait?’ I said I would have waited 10 times as long, and he said to me, ‘I’ve been waiting 60 years.’” I head along Martin Luther King Drive back to my dive hotel, wondering whether anything will happen to me walking through the neighbourhood. Fear can be contagious. At the hotel bar, a clock reads November 13, 1987. A guy counts his money at the bar and sorts notes into piles, before returning to the car park to conduct his business. I step over condom wrappers in the stairwell on the way to my room and find cigarette butts in the toilet bowl. Past midnight, engines idle in the car park, doors slam, and there’s screaming and swearing. “Hope” is a word that’s not usually uttered in this neighbourhood.

“Listening to Obama’s acceptance speech in the huge crowd, it’s impossible to stay cynical. A Black man is on his mobile to a friend: ‘In our lifetime! In our lifetime!’“

Las Vegas, Nevada

Cincinnati, Ohio

Nevada is a swing state, but there are few signs of the hard-fought campaign on the famed Vegas Strip. People look like miniatures as they trudge through the heat, in the shadow of the vast casinos built with losers’ money. Instead of volunteers handing out campaign material, touts hand out cards for call girls. On an overpass, one bloke is selling Obama T-shirts. A young blonde woman heading into the New York, New York Casino tells her friend, not quite under her breath, “I hate Obama, but you can’t say that to them. They’ll probably shoot you.” I never realised shirt vendors had such a reputation for violence. I meet Linsey, a union activist, who has been helping with Obama’s campaign. She recalls talking to one Democrat who worries that Obama “might be one of those sleeper cells”. At the same time, she’s door-knocked and met people who seem typical Republicans, “Like the kind of guy who’d have a gun in one hand and a Bud in the other, and he tells me, ‘Yep, I’ve already voted for Obama.’” She says it’s an amazing time and exciting to be a part of history, and yet she admits there is that unspoken fear – the fear that no one I’ve met can resist speaking about.

Cincinnati, Ohio I fly into Cincinnati, to see an Obama rally at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium. After two hours in line, and three waiting, I get a spot on the field, 10 metres from the podium.

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Indianapolis, Indiana

On election day at the Obama campaign office in Indianapolis, there’s a scrum of enthusiasm and good-natured chaos. Out the front of the building, a man tells how keen he is to pitch in. “I’ll stand on a corner and yell Obama,” he says. “Though I’m a little drunk; I might yell, ‘Yo Mama’.” I decide to be a part of history, and help with “visibility”. I stand on a corner outside a polling station, waving an Obama sign. A shabby bearded man with thick-rimmed glasses comes out from voting. “I’ve heard a rumour,” he says conspiratorially. I ask for the scoop. He leans towards me. “If he wins, he’s going to get shot.” I’m tempted to tell the bloke to piss off. I’m sick of hearing the fearful prediction. I decide to leave Indianapolis, and spend election night in Chicago. On the way to the bus station, I meet Rachel Boyd. She’s on a street corner, holding a placard asking people to vote for Obama, so her husband can come home from Iraq. Not everyone has sympathy she tells me, and she’s copped some heckling.

Chicago, Illinois The Greyhound bus to Chicago has the usual mix of characters on board: a bloke trying on a gas mask; a woman who stands in the aisle and announces, “Take a good look at me, so you can give the poh-leece a description.” A trio of teenage girls join the bus in Lafayette. Two of them haven’t told their parents they’re heading to Chicago, but want to be there, because, “It’s the Woodstock of our generation.” I get off the bus and join the stream of people flowing towards Grant Park. Listening to Obama’s acceptance speech in the huge crowd, it’s impossible to stay cynical. A Black man is on his mobile to a friend. “In our lifetime! In our lifetime!” he says, as if repeating the mantra helps him believe that an African American has actually been voted president. After the speech, people linger, wanting to savour the moment. A man wanders through the crowd following his wife and child. “We’re a free country again,” he says, with reverential wonder.

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A big, burly bloke marches through the crowd yelling, “No more Bush! Bring our vets home!” He hits a bottleneck, and shouts, “Two tours of Iraq: I’ve earned the right to yell ’til I lose my voice.” As the crowd gets moving, he says, “This is real! This won’t be some Jack Daniels blackout. We’re going to wake up in the morning, and it’ll still be real.” In Miller’s Pub, I meet a couple of blokes who’ve been following Obama across the country. They drove 15,000 miles in two months, selling shirts and posters on the campaign trail. An odd couple, David is from a blue-collar background and a Democrat. “This country has an opportunity to head in a new direction,” he says. “For the good of everyone who’s not making big money, let’s hope we get there before it’s too late.” His conservative friend, Paul, claims he had to force himself to pull on one of the Obama jumpers they’re selling. “He won’t be president for too long,” he says, another to raise the spectre of the unthinkable, but without the dismay most people have voiced. Dave shakes his head with a mixture of dismay and disgust. He retreats to the bar for a Jagermeister, and buys me a shot. We toast to victory, a new future, and yeah, “Hope”. Because for tonight, at least, it really feels like more than just a word. ◆

Chicago, Illinois

s, Indianapoali Indian

Good riddance to Bush: President of the most anti-worker administration in US history The outgoing administration of President George W Bush can’t go too soon. The Bush years are widely regarded by the American labour movement as the most anti-worker administration in US history. The abuses heaped on workers by Bush and his conservative allies and cronies could fill an encyclopedia. In the interest of brevity, here are a few examples.

Jobs The American middle class was built on well-paid manufacturing jobs. But manufacturing employment fell by more than 3.5 million jobs, or roughly 20 per cent, during the Bush years. As the current financial crisis began to ripple through the economy, unemployment sky-rocketed in October to a 14-year high of 6.5 per cent. Ignoring the impact of unfair international trade has led to severe consequences in domestic manufacturing, harming workers, their families, the communities in which plants close, as well as America’s economic future.

Union membership Bowing to pressure by big business, conservatives in government made it as difficult as possible for working people to join unions. Bush packed the regulatory National Labor Relations Board with anti-worker, anti-union cronies who have done little to discourage the illegal firing, harassment against and discrimination of workers. In 2006, the Bush NLRB changed

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the definition of a “supervisor” to disqualify millions of low-level employees from forming unions. Almost 60 per cent of American workers say they would join a union if they had the chance. That’s because workers in the US who have unions earn almost 15 per cent more than workers in comparable jobs without unions. They are more likely to have company-paid health insurance, a pension and paid time off. Bush and his business allies oppose the labour-backed Employee Free Choice Act, proposed legislation that would level the company-dominated playing field and restore the freedom of workers to organise and bargain for better wages and benefits.

Pay gap In the Bush years, Americans worked longer hours just to get by. At the same time, the income gap between working Americans and the wealthiest few exploded. The top-earning 300,000 Americans collectively control as much income as the 150 million Americans in lower-earning categories. The average CEO makes 262 times the pay of average employees.

Health care The Bush administration allowed the American health-care system to be taken hostage by the insurance industry, which determines what they cover and who gets paid. Access to health-care services and the quality of services is increasingly based on ability to pay. From 2001 to

2006, the number of people who were uninsured jumped from 41.2 million to 47 million, including 8.7 million uninsured children. Employers are increasingly shifting costs to their employees in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments.

Government oversight In eight years of the Bush administration, the Department of Labor (DOL) turned into an agency that enabled corporate give-aways and cheated American workers. The DOL impacts everyone in America who works for a living. It oversees a wide variety of employment laws and is charged with improving working conditions, advancing employment opportunities, protecting workers’ health and safety and strengthening collective bargaining. Under Bush, though, the DOL put less emphasis on activities such as worker health and safety and more emphasis on tactics designed to harass and stifle unions. Budgets and staff were cut to the bone for both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA). While those budgets were cut, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao sought dramatically increased funding for an agency that oversees union financial disclosures.

Labor Board, human rights Millions of workers saw their rights to

organise eliminated or severely restricted by the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Under Bush, the board allowed greater leeway for union-busting lockouts, weakened already weak remedies for violations of the National Labor Relations Act and under-utilised its strongest law enforcement tools. As a result of some of the board’s outrageous rulings: 45,000 disabled workers lost their right to organise, 51,000 teaching and research assistants lost their right to organise and two million temporary workers had their right to organise severely limited. In another case with severe implications for labour unions, the board set a new standard for determining who is a supervisor in a case involving nurses who assign fellow hospital workers to particular tasks. Under federal law, supervisors do not have the right to join a union. The Bush board also denied non-union workers the right to have a co-worker present during a disciplinary meeting, even though all workers – union and non-union – have the same right to concerted activity under federal law. In yet another disturbing decision, the Bush board ruled in 2004 that it was acceptable for a company to fire a female worker for asking a fellow employee to support her charges of sexual harassment in testimony before a state agency.

theaustralianworker 17

FINANCIAL CRISIS

the

after fall Tumbling worldwide markets do not bode well for global employment. And this means that Australian workers need to be on their guard for their own financial prospects and entitlements, but there are ways to help to avoid collateral damage. WRITTEN BY TOM SCAHILL PHOTOS GETTY IMAGES

Employee Entitlements Cover More than 6000 Australian companies become insolvent every year, with 4000 of those put into the hands of receivers and liquidators. Insolvency can create a crisis for employees who are not only losing their jobs, but also the entitlements they have worked years to gain. These entitlements can include: • unpaid wages; • accrued annual leave; • long-service leave; • payment in lieu of notice; • redundancy or retrenchment payments; • superannuation contributions. Fortunately, there’s some protection should your employer go belly up. Called Employee Entitlements cover, it’s offered by organisations such as IUS (www.ius.com. au) and is taken out by employers and made available via workplace agreements. However, payments are made directly to employees by the insolvency practitioner. This usually happens within 30 days of the practitioner’s appointment. It is also worth noting that the Government’s General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) helps employees who have lost their job due to their employer’s liquidation or bankruptcy. But, it only covers capped unpaid wages, annual and long-service leave, payments in lieu of notice and capped redundancy pay.

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arkets across the world have been in freefall on the back of banking incompetence and subsequent plunging investor conÞdence. In the 12 months to October 31, 2008, global share markets have lost a whopping 39.2 per cent while the struggling Australian market (S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index) is in the red to the tune of 38.3 per cent. Commercial property markets have also taken signiÞcant hits in excess of 40 per cent, although the Australian housing market looks a bit brighter with values holding up over the last few months. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to cut interest rates plus the federal government’s announcement of increased grants for Þrst-home buyers seems to be starting to help. For many workers the market fallout means signiÞcantly smaller superannuation nest eggs than 12 months ago. Of yet more concern are the ominous warnings from some pundits that the market malaise has

the Australian economy teetering on the brink of long-term economic depression. Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital Investors, says Australian economic growth is likely to slow sharply over the year ahead in response to the global credit crunch, but that it’s not panic stations yet. “Global economic growth is slowing sharply in the US, while Europe and Japan are most likely already in recession,” explains Oliver. “China is also being hit hard. Business and consumer conÞdence has already taken a hit in Australia and demand for our exports is likely to slow over the year ahead.” Mark Delaney, deputy chief executive and chief investments oﬃcer at AustralianSuper, adds that the slowdown in China has in turn reduced the demand for Australian resources. “That said, we’re still in a be"er position than many other economies,” he conÞded. Opinions remain divided on the causes of the global market meltdown, but most blame global banks who purchased 

“Spending less than you earn is a simple solution to ensuring you stay afloat throughout the current economic downturn, but there are other ways to manage your finances.”

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Financial markets across the world have been in freefall on the back of banking incompetence. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a long climb back.

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theaustralianworker 19

FINANCIAL CRISIS

Facing retirement If retirement beckons now, you will have less money than 12 months ago. AustralianSuper’s Mark Delaney says you need to be adjusting your strategy as you approach retirement. “This might include moving more of your money into more conservative asset classes such as cash or fixed interest – but not all.” Keeping part of your money in shares is the best way to ensure your money grows and stays ahead of inflation. Cash in particular barely stays ahead of inflation. Indeed, over time, inflation will eat into a cash nest egg leaving you with less money to fund retirement. It is usually best to get some financial advice before making a move and your AustralianSuper membership gives you access to commission-free, fee-for-service financial advice through Industry Fund Financial Planning (www.iffp.com.au). Check out AustralianSuper’s web site at www.australiansuper.com

“If we don’t have a banking system, we don’t have a free exchange of money and the economy can’t function. No one can buy homes, use credit cards, there’s no superannuation system, nothing.”

“sub-prime” or low-grade home loans in the United States. These were then packaged up as Þnancial securities which could be traded on markets in a similar fashion to shares or bonds. Delaney explains, “These securities were Þnanced with borrowed money. However, the banks discovered the securities weren’t worth as much as they had anticipated. They lost money and cut back their lending.” As a result, he says, it’s going to take time to rebuild these organisations, many of which went to the brink only to be saved by taxpayer-funded government bail-outs. On the vexatious issue of whether governments should play white knight and bail banks out of trouble, Delaney says it’s a nobrainer. “If we don’t have a banking system, we don’t have a free exchange of money and the economy can’t function. No one can buy homes, use credit cards, there’s no superannuation system, nothing.” “The choice facing policy makers was supporting organisations in the US and UK which have not shown due prudence, or allowing the economy to be hammered,” Delaney explains. “It’s not a pleasant choice. But you have to look a#er the economy – people’s jobs and livelihoods

Investment tips for workers Spending less than you earn is a simple solution to ensuring you stay afloat throughout the current economic downturn, but there are other ways to manage your finances. Here are some investment tips which will help to build up extra money to increase mortgage repayments, start a savings plan and get rid of credit card debt. Have a plan and budget to control your money and manage cash flow to ensure surplus income. Manage debt, especially high-interest credit cards, and minimise tax legally. Think of superannuation as a long-term investment, because most people can’t access it until they retire. Remember the value of investments today or 12 months ago is less important than their value at your retirement. Shares are volatile, but produce the greatest return in the long run. AustralianSuper deputy chief executive and chief investments officer Mark Delaney says, “To get the best long-term returns, some volatility is unavoidable.” Salary sacrifice will act like “dollar-cost averaging”. For instance, monthly super contributions are used by funds to buy shares. The more the market falls, the more shares are bought, and as the market moves up the number of shares purchased reduces. It evens out in the long run.

1 2 3 4 5 6

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depend on it. Then we can sort out the lack of regulation in those industries once we have stabilised the economy.” Shane Oliver agrees that government intervention is critical, although the AMP economist points out that the Australian government has not been forced into a corporate bail-out yet. “Where a possible failure by a key Þnancial institution is likely to cause big problems for the wider economy, and hence result in higher unemployment, it is best for the government to step in and head oﬀ those consequences, providing it is done in a way that minimises the risk to the taxpayer,” Oliver says. “It also shouldn’t bail out shareholders of a troubled company or its key executives who may have taken excessive risks in the Þrst place.” He adds, “By and large, this is what we’ve been seeing so far [with the bail-outs] in other countries.” www.awu.net.au

Left: The economic woes mean that the cost of living will rise and workers should also expect to see more expensive overseas travel and prices for some imported items as a result of the fall in the Australian dollar.

Interestingly, Oliver points out that it was partly due to the failure of governments to prevent banking collapses that the Great Depression created such massive unemployment – around 29 percent of Australians were out of work in the 1930s. “As a result, thousands of banks failed around the world taking their depositors’ savings with them,” Oliver says. “This made the Depression that much worse. So it is far be"er for governments to step in to avoid these sorts of consequences,” That might be so, but the outlook for jobs isn’t exactly rosy! The Olivier Job Index Australian

Market Report says job advertisements were down 4.42 per cent in October 2008 with NSW hardest hit, recording a fall of 8.04 per cent. “This fall is across almost every industry, and the rate of decline is accelerating,” Olivier Group director Robert Olivier says. “This will inevitably ßow through to the oﬃcial unemployment rate.” AMP’s Shane Oliver says ordinary workers will feel the initial hit of the banking meltdown through lower superannuation balances. “However, beyond this, deterioration in the job market will likely mean increased lay-oﬀs and increased uncertainty along with a slowdown in wages growth and broader pressure by companies to cut costs,” Oliver warned. “Workers should also expect to see more expensive overseas holidays and prices for some imported items as a result of the fall in the Australian dollar.” Higher unemployment is also on Delaney’s radar. “We will be very lucky to get through this cycle without rising unemployment. In the US, it’s already risen to 6.5 per cent and is rising quickly.” Shane Oliver is predicting unemployment in Australia will rise to 6 per cent during 2009 and to around 7 per cent the following year. At the time of writing, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the unemployment rate stood at 4.3 per cent. While the tidings could be be"er as we move into the New Year, Shane Oliver says home-loan interest rates are likely to fall sharply, which is one piece of good news, particularly for those with mortgages. He adds, “It’s also hard to see the lower Australian dollar resulting in big price rises – if anything, they’re more likely to fall as some companies cut prices in the face of weakening demand. This means be"er bargains at sales.” ◆

“We will be very lucky to get through this cycle without rising unemployment. In the US, it’s already risen to 6.5 per cent and is rising quickly.”

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Work and financial pressures The number of workers struggling to cope on their household incomes has risen by four per cent in the past year, University of Sydney’s Workplace Research Centre found. Almost all (85 per cent) of workers have debts to pay and one in five struggle to make debt repayments on time, research for its study, 2008 Australia at Work – Working Lives: Statistics and Stories Report, found. (The report can be downloaded at www.wrc.org.au/index.php.) The study is tracking 8000 workers over five years to give a picture of Australian working life. Other findings include that workers are overloaded, they work long full-time hours and one in three is not fully protected by Australian labour laws, lead researcher Dr Brigid van Wanrooy says. “All workers face trade-offs between control over working hours, security of employment and quality of work. We found that high earners are susceptible to long and unpaid hours; more so for those not covered by awards.” Many employees are unsure how their pay and conditions are set. “While the ABS reports 40 per cent of employees have their pay set by enterprise agreements, only 23 per cent of employees perceive this to be the case,” she says. Many workers said they relied on awards for their pay and conditions, however “awards are unlikely to exist as we currently know them under Labor’s [Forward With Fairness] proposal,” Dr van Wanrooy concludes. This Australia at Work report was launched on October 29 at NSW Parliament House.

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LEAVE ENTITLEMENTS

absent with leave

If you thought leave entitlements were good in Australia, you might be surprised to learn that we’re lagging behind a lot of other industrialised nations. And to think – just over a year ago, John Howard wanted to rip what little you had away too! WRITTEN BY LAURA MACFARLANE & KYLE RANKIN PHOTO GETTY IMAGES

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here are you going for your holidays?” while that question is music to our ears, it was only halfway through last century that the concept of paid annual leave became a reality in Australia. The history of our paid annual leave entitlements dates back to 1936 when it was Þrst introduced into the federal award system. At that time “holiday pay” for one week became a norm for Australian workers. From then, the union movement has fought a long and hard battle against Þerce opposition by employer groups and governments to steadily increase the amount of paid leave we enjoy. When the Queensland Labor Party split in 1957 it was over Premier Vince Gair’s refusal to back an AWU push to increase annual leave from two to three weeks. Finally, in the 1970s, the current amount of four weeks’ holidays was achieved followed by the introduction of “leave loading” by the Whitlam Labor Government in 1974. Applied Þrst to the Metal Industry Award, it then subsequently carried over to other awards.

Winning and losing It has been a constant battle for unions to protect and advance the leave entitlements of Australian workers. It wasn’t long ago that John Howard, in a move reminiscent of the draconian pre-industrial revolution era, wanted to rip what leave entitlements we have away under his government’s loathed WorkChoices legislation. The Howard Liberal government made amendments to Australia’s labour laws which came into eﬀect in March 2006. Leave entitlements were set out by the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. This standard comprised a set of Þve minimum statutory entitlements for wages and conditions introduced as part of WorkChoices. Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) were implemented in place of collective agreements and overwhelmingly eroded leave entitlements. Sixty-four per cent of AWAs removed leave loading and only 59 per cent retained declared www.awu.net.au

public holidays. A further 27 per cent modiÞed public-holiday payments.

Top of the wish list – maternity leave Under WorkChoices, a mother’s maternity-leave entitlements could also be reduced if the father took leave related to the birth (for example, annual leave) by the amount of leave he had taken. However, with the election of the Rudd Labor government last year, there have been some exciting changes afoot. In February this year a bill was introduced into Federal Parliament by Julia Gillard, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, called The Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008. The bill was passed on March 19, 2008, and included transitional arrangements aimed at beginning the process of phasing out the Howard government’s WorkChoices legislation and amendments to the acts, one of which includes parental leave entitlements. The Parental Leave Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 was passed on August 5, 2008 and, after 30 years of campaigning, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) says it looks as if Australian women are Þnally about to win a universal paid maternity leave scheme – Australia is still one of only two of the 30 OECD countries – the other being the United States – that has no form of paid parental leave. Compare this to the United Kingdom, where under laws that came into eﬀect on October 1, 2006, women are entitled to a year’s maternity leave regardless of how long they have worked for a particular company. The laws also introduced “keeping in touch days” enabling women to work for up to 10 days during their maternity leave without losing statutory maternity pay. In September the Australian Productivity Commission released a model for a proposed 18-week taxpayer-funded scheme and the 

TAKE IT… OR LEAVE IT If you thought four weeks’ annual leave a year was good, you might be surprised to learn that we’re lagging behind a lot of other industrialised nations. In Europe, for example, many countries have at least five weeks’ paid annual leave, while in Germany workers are entitled to almost six weeks. But over in the USA, there are no laws requiring firms to provide paid leave. It will be interesting to see if the new President-Elect Barack Obama pursues this issue with his proposed industrial relations reforms. But while entitlements may be in place, an interesting report in a paper published in 2004 by Richard Denniss, entitled: Paid annual leave in Australia: an analysis of actual and desired entitlements, revealed that in Australia (and elsewhere) the percentage of employees entitled to annual leave benefits has been in steady decline since the 1980s, due to increased numbers of people working as casuals or on contracts. The paper also makes the point that it is important to distinguish between the amount of leave provided and the amount actually taken. For example, according to the Japan Institute of Labour, Japanese workers only took 48.1 per cent of their leave entitlement (generally 10 days per annum after six months of commencement of service) in 2001. This trend is also occurring in Australia. So, how much leave do you have up your sleeve?

“On average, full-time workers in the European Union have more than five weeks of annual leave per year, while those in Germany are entitled to almost six weeks.” theaustralianworker 23

LEAVE ENTITLEMENTS Productivity Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald said that a parental leave scheme in Australia is “… a workplace entitlement. It is not a welfare measure.” Then, in November, the Commission held a session in Brisbane which heard that the scheme should be based on the federal minimum-wage rate, with unions saying employers should top up employees’ paid parental leave entitlement to the level of their ordinary earnings and that the current economic climate is not a reason to delay the introduction of the scheme. The ACTU says that the proposed scheme is a great start but it isn’t perfect. The Commission outlines that employers will continue paying nine per cent superannuation on the paid leave and the scheme should be available to all working mothers who have worked at least 10 hours a week on average over the previous 12 months, with the same or various employers. Fathers and same-sex partners would also be eligible to claim part of the 18-week scheme if the mother went back to work within the Þrst few months after birth. But unions want to see some Þne-tuning, including ßexibility on when new mothers can take the leave. For example, a woman taking 14 weeks of employer-funded maternity leave at half pay over 28 weeks would go over the six-month (26 weeks) deadline to access the additional 18 weeks paid leave oﬀered by the government and therefore miss out. The commission is scheduled to deliver its Þnal report to the government in February 2009. In the meantime, on 25 November 2008, the Rudd Labor government’s Fair Work Bill was

introduced into Parliament bringing with it sweeping changes to the industrial relations landscape paving the way for the rebuilding of fairness and justice for Australian workers. This bill comprehensively addresses the right to request ßexible working arrangements and the protection of annual leave, parental leave (and related entitlements), as well as personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave, community-service leave and long-service leave. For more information about the Fair Work Bill and what it means for your workplace entitlements, see our story on page 6.

Other leave entitlements Nearly all developed countries around the world have labour laws that require employers to provide workers with a mandatory minimum number of paid days oﬀ per year. Most Aussie workers are paid for public holidays, except contract workers and casual employees who are paid for the hours they work. Other paid leave for workers, except those mentioned above, should include annual or recreation leave, sick leave and long-service leave. Apart from the four weeks’ paid annual leave per year, Australian workers are currently entitled to 10 days’ paid personal leave (including sick leave and carer’s leave), with provision for an additional two days of unpaid carer’s leave, per occasion, and an additional two days of paid compassionate leave per occasion and 52 weeks of unpaid parental leave (including maternity, paternity and adoption leave). ◆

Global round up International labour laws differ greatly from Australia’s. In New Zealand for example, four weeks’ holiday only became the legal minimum annual leave as of April 1, 2007. In the UK, the statutory holiday entitlement is changing – it increased to 4.8 weeks (24 days if you work a five-day week) from October 1, 2007 and will further increase to 5.6 weeks (28 days if you work a five-day week) from April 1, 2009, pro-rata for those working part-time and is inclusive of bank holidays. In nearly all Canadian provinces, the legal minimum is three weeks, while in most of Europe the limit is significantly higher. Interestingly, the United States has no laws which require employers to give a set mandatory vacation time, but in the free-market labour system in the US, many employers offer paid vacation, typically 10 to 20 days’ work days per year as an incentive to attract employees, and under US federal law, an employee whose employment terminates generally must receive compensation for any accrued, but unused, vacation time. The vast majority of American employers also provide for paid national holidays. However, there are movements attempting to remove vacation time as a factor in the free-market labour pool and instead, require mandatory vacation time for American workers. Currently, there are no federal legal requirements in the US for paid sick leave either. For companies subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) the Act does require unpaid sick leave. FMLA provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain medical situations for either the employee or a member of the employee’s immediate family. In many instances paid leave may be substituted for unpaid FMLA leave.

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“Apart from four weeks paid annual leave per year, Australian workers are currently entitled to 10 days paid personal leave (including sick leave and carer’s leave).”

Sweet time off A worker at the Victoria Sugar Mill and AWU rep from Ingham in North Queensland, Denis King says his annual and other leave entitlements mean a lot to him and his family. Denis spent his holidays this year in Phuket, Thailand, and a month in the Kimberleys with his wife and daughter – a police officer stationed at Port Hedland – and son in law. At 57, Denis reasons that the “piece of string” that is his life is getting shorter every year and that his holidays with his wife Carol and their children and extended families are “precious moments”. He and his wife often travel to Melbourne from Townsville to be with his son and his family. His response to finding out that US workers are not entitled by law to paid holiday or sick leave was, “We don’t want to go there… there’d be blood in the streets.” Because the sugar industry is seasonal, Denis can’t take holidays between June and December but says that they are “not just restricted to Christmas” and he enjoys that freedom.

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VOLUNTEERING

love your work The Indigenous Community Volunteers are slowly changing the lives of indigenous communities across Australia. But they need help. Do you have what it takes to help someone else? The rewards are many – and feeling pretty good about yourself is but one of them. WRITTEN BY JULIA RICHARDSON PHOTOS DAVID HAHN/ICV

A re-awakening is happening in some indigenous communities where an exchange of experience and skills is enriching lives.

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ne day in late October, a phone call changed the course of Rob Radley’s life. At the time he was a semiretired public servant, living in the peace and quiet of the Blue Mountains to Sydney’s west, picking up a few regular days work at a local service station, just to keep things interesting. A few short weeks later he was in Titjikala, a community located about 120 kilometres south of Alice Springs. “Which to me is remote, but which to them is almost in town,” Rob laughs. The call had come from Lee Willis, a project oﬃcer with ICV or Indigenous Community Volunteers. Rob had registered his details with ICV years before, including some information on his management experience, but this was the Þrst time he’d been contacted. Lee explained that the community at Titjikala had decided that they wanted some advice on how best to manage their arts centre, including setting up formal systems of minute-taking and decisionmaking. According to Lee, the project was a perfect match for Rob’s skills. Days later, Rob was attending a volunteers’ workshop in Canberra, and just a few days after that he was on a plane, Alice-bound. ICV was set up in 2000 by the federal government in an eﬀort to channel the overwhelmingly successful volunteer movement of the Sydney Olympic Games into programs that would beneÞt Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It was originally conceived as a skills-transfer program and operated under the auspices of the Department of Employment and Work Relations (now the Department of Education, Employment and Work Relations). Australians like Rob who were keen to volunteer registered their details with ICV and were

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matched with a project that required their particular skills. The underlying concept was that volunteers would be training members of the local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community as they worked, developing the skills that would improve future job prospects for the participants. Between 2000 and mid 2008, ICV was involved in hundreds of projects with hundreds of volunteers, working to help and train hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. But despite all those good intentions, there were limitations to what the group could achieve. As new chief executive Gregory Andrews puts it with necessary frankness: “Skills transfer or training or education are really not going to be effective if you’re born with foetal alcohol syndrome.” Gregory was appointed to the position in July of this year. He comes to ICV with close to two decades’ experience of working on development projects with the likes of the federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, AusAID, the Northern Land Council and most recently the federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Under his leadership and with the full support of the board, ICV is expanding its role to become what’s called a “community and human development organisation”. This new direction is founded on what Gregory refers to as an “evidence-based approach”, suggesting that development

Getting involved If you’re tempted by the idea of volunteering with ICV, here’s what you need to know. Projects can be short or long-term. Some projects come and go in less than a fortnight. Others could last six months or more. It’s also common for projects to be continuous, with the volunteer asked to commit one night a week for a matter of months, or a week or two a couple of times a year. Projects can be in remote locations or close to home. ICV is dedicated to the often-overlooked challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in urban and regional centres. As Gregory Andrews explains, the infant mortality rate is three times higher for indigenous Australians than it is for non-indigenous Australians. More shocking still is that the rate is five

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projects stand a better chance of succeeding when they address the disadvantages being faced by the community involved. In other words, if a community is to move forward, its people must be safe and healthy and properly housed, its children must be well fed, well cared for and well educated, and there must be a sense that the community’s past and future is respected and valued. Gregory is emphatic that ICV volunteers will continue to take part in skills transfer projects. But he is equally emphatic that skills-transfer alone cannot hope to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia. To emphasise the point, he describes a recent project in a remote Aboriginal community. The community was suffering from the destructive impacts of endemic petrol sniffing. In a six-month period, sniffing had led to over $100,000 worth of criminal damage and the deaths of two young men. Community leaders had a deep-set belief that their young people would really rather get involved in meaningful, productive activities than waste their time petrol sniffing – if only those activities were accessible. With the help of a youth worker, they established a youth-diversion program that gave young people the opportunity to get involved in music or sport in their spare time. In the Þrst 18 months of the program, the community suffered no petrol sniffing-related deaths 

times higher for urban indigenous Australians than non-indigenous Australians. The organisation is keen to commit to projects in urban and regional areas – which could mean that you are asked to participate in a project taking place just down the road. On the other hand, your skills and circumstances might see your participation being sought in remote locations, including the central Australian deserts. All sorts of different skills are sought. You might be called upon to help a community establish a fruit and vegetable garden so that it’s no longer necessary to drive hundreds of kilometres to reach the nearest fresh produce. Or you might be asked to train community members to run an aged care facility so that local Elders aren’t compelled to relocate into the nearest town centre when they’re in need of care. Or you might be required to share your experience as

Above: Volunteer Ray Davies, right, with a Tiwi Islands Community member.

“Community leaders had a deep-set belief that their young people would really rather get involved in meaningful, productive activities.”

a chef to help establish a community-owned café in a tourism facility. When a community initiates a project, ICV will source the most suitable volunteers. Your basic expenses will be met. As a volunteer, you will be giving freely of your time, but ICV will cover your costs in relation to travel, insurance and accommodation. You might be able to involve your partner and family – ICV is a proudly family-friendly organisation, an attitude that extends to both staff and volunteers. If the project is suitable and the community is comfortable, you’re welcome to take your partner or family along to share the experience. Getting in touch is the first step. For more information about ICV or to register your details with the volunteer database, visit www.icv.com.au, email info@icv.com.au or call 1800 819 542.

theaustralianworker 27

VOLUNTEERING and only one incident of criminal damage. If there was a weak spot in the program it was located right on the youth worker’s driveway. His car was the only car in the community that was not stored in a lock-up cage, so it continued to provide sniﬀers with tempting access to petrol. The community asked for help in installing a car cage. Their request was initially knocked back on the basis that the project didn’t involve a transfer of skills. Showing initiative, the community reapplied for help, adding that they had community members who wanted to be trained in the techniques of car-cage building. In due course a volunteer arrived and built the car cage and, not surprisingly, no members of the community showed up for training. The community had been compelled by need to act deceptively – and the volunteer left with the feeling that his eﬀorts had not been appreciated. As Gregory observes, the experience could have been a triumph rather than a disappointment if only a more honest, and more

open-minded approach had been applied. “If people had said: ‘Actually, you know what? The community isn’t really interested in welding up cages to protect their cars from petrol sniffing. They’re interested in getting rid of the petrol sniffing. So could you come out and spend a morning building a cage and then knock off for the afternoon and hang out with the young men and women and play some basketball or some pool or whatever you might be interested in?’ That way the volunteer would have had a more meaningful time, and the reality is that by making friends with them, some of the young men and women probably would have asked him ‘What are you doing over there?’ and they might have said ‘I’m interested in learning how to weld…’ and so there might have been some skills transfer as well.” This holistic approach to development is a challenge to bureaucracies. It requires ßexibility, sensitivity and responsiveness where big management systems are characteristically structured and authoritarian. 

“The community isn’t really interested in welding up cages to protect their cars from petrol sniffing. They’re interested in getting rid of the petrol sniffing.”

Ray Davies and members of the Kartetye and Walpiri Communities in the Northern Territory at work building a memorial to the victims of the Coniston Massacre of Aboriginal people that took place in 1928.

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Well done! Dandaragan in Western Australia is a long way from mildmannered Hobart. Tasmanian builder Sid Abraham experienced that difference when he spent some time with the local Aboriginal community in Dandaragan to the north of Perth, helping them to set up a nursery and hothouse. Sand mining has been going on in the area for almost two decades. A few years back the local community was approached about running a seed-collection program. The idea was that the community would source seeds from native plants, germinate them, coax them into seedlings and then prepare them for planting as part of the rehabilitation of local mine sites. For that they needed a series of buildings, including a hothouse. Something of a jackof-all-trades himself, Sid was happy to arrive on the scene and help out where he could. “These guys knew a lot,” he says of the local people already at work on the construction project. “Motivation was probably a bit of a problem, but there was a lot of knowledge there already.” Sid shared his welding skills with the group as they installed steel-framed benches throughout the hothouse, then ventured into the basics of glazing, reframing and plasterwork when he became aware of some housing repairs that needed attention. And all the while he and his then partner, who was herself sharing her experience in submissions-writing with the community, were accommodated in what Sid remembers as surprisingly comfortable digs. “TV, phone: it was all laid on,” he says. “There was absolutely no inconvenience.” The project was a success and Sid immediately put his hand up for more ICV action. He’s obliged to time his volunteering stints so that they fall between building contracts, a complication that saw him “miss out” on a recent project in central Australia much to his disappointment. But don’t worry. He’ll be back.

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theaustralianworker www.awu.net.au 29

VOLUNTEERING

Above left: Nina Boydell and the ladies of the Wirrimanu community in Balgo WA, doing their Beanie Knitting Skills Transfer project; Above centre: Geoff Boadle and Community members of the Dhuruputjpi Community in North East Arnhem Land installing a solar electricity system; Above right: Ray Davies and members of the Kartetye and Walpiri Communities survey a site for the construction of a memorial to the Coniston Massacre victims.

“Volunteers need to realise that they’re going to see Third-World conditions... It’s not a beat-up from the white media. It’s real.” 30 theaustralianworker

Rob Radley, a new recruit to the world of aid and development and volunteering, has already been made conscious of this innate tension. Indeed he’s seen it at play in his own efforts to support the Titjikala Arts Centre. “I’m out here trying not to be prescriptive and it’s hard,” he says with the utmost candour. “How can I help you without telling you what I think should be done? Now, if you take that to a government level – I think it’s almost impossible.” Rob is conÞdent, though, that in its new role as a light-footed community and human development organisation, ICV has the potential to work with communities in a way that is productive and dexterous and equitable. “Everything else I see with indigenous communities is a top-down approach,” he says. “This is almost bottom and sideways. It’s getting into a community and trying not to be prescriptive and trying to understand what’s going on. And I think just by virtue of being there, it’s got to help – just a little bit – in breaking down barriers.” In Dubbo, ICV project officer Lee Willis is passionate about the future for the organisation under Gregory’s innovative leadership and emphasises the point by saying that he’d reluctantly turned down ICV jobs in the past because he “couldn’t afford” to take them. “When you work for ICV, you work for love!” he laughs. In the past two weeks Lee has found volunteers to work in no less than 15 different projects around the country. He’s matched Rob to Titjikala and sent a Perth-based graphic designer out there too. He’s also found a bookkeeper for an indigenous boxing association, a businessperson

for a new horticultural nursery, an experienced submissions writer to assist an indigenous sporting group … and plenty more. “Our volunteers are smart people,” he says. “They’re very smart and they’re very switched on.” And that’s why, according to Lee, volunteers should approach their role with conÞdence rather than self-doubt. “It’s imperative that they maintain who they are when they go into our communities otherwise they’re just going to be one more do-gooder,” he says boldly. “We really need these people in our communities to impart their skills and knowledge to us.” At the same time he urges volunteers to take a realistic view of the state of some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. “They need to realise that they’re going to see poverty. They’re going to see Third-World conditions. Not in all our communities, but in some of our communities. It’s not a beat-up from the white media. It’s real.” Rob Radley is optimistic and yet pleasantly undecided about exactly what his contribution might prove to be. He admits that his greatest fear before he arrived was that his eﬀorts might ultimately bring no beneÞt at all. Now, on day three of his Þrst volunteering project, he wonders if there is some beneÞt attached simply to being here. “I don’t know much in life,” he says quietly, “but I know that the only way you can Þx a broken relationship is by getting closer to the other person, not further away. You’ve got to get closer. And maybe this is a step in the right direction.” ◆ www.awu.net.au

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REALITY ON FILM

real to

reel

Going to the pictures. Taking in a movie. However you say it, films offer an avenue of escape from our daily lives. But there have been many films made that actually bring us back to reality – and with startling clarity. Author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank looks at some of the movies and documentaries about workers and their fight to protect their jobs and their working rights. WRITTEN BY ANNE BROOKSBANK PHOTOS ARCHIVAL/ MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA/TOM ZUBRYCKI

he history of Þlm has long been dominated by whatever production studios and distributors think will draw people to the cinema and make money. This, most reliably, has been some form of escape from the day-to-day ordinariness of life – a hundred or so minutes on the screen in another absorbing, convincingly portrayed world for the price of a ticket. But often writers, directors and certain producers want to do more with the undoubted power of Þlm to move, involve and widen an audience’s understanding of the world. Despite the economic barriers to such Þlms, many stories that involve dispute and conßict between workers and those who would seek to exploit their labour or impose unfair conditions have made it to the big screen to move viewers and change the societies they lived in. One such Þlm, made in immensely diﬃcult circumstances in 1954, was Salt of the Earth. Its writer Michael Wilson, director Herbert J Biberman and its producer had all been 32 theaustralianworker

blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives and could no longer work in Hollywood. Any Þlm they made, anywhere, would be certain to attract diﬃculty in being shown. But they agreed to proceed with a story based closely on a strike of mine workers at a zinc mine in Grant County, New Mexico. Before he wrote the script, Michael Wilson lived there for a while and listened to the stories of the striking miners while staying with their families. The Þlm centres on mine worker Ramon Quintero and his wife Esperanza, who narrates it. Ramon sets a fuse in the local mine, but with no second man working along with him to check it, it explodes prematurely and he is nearly killed. In a meeting at the pithead, the workers demand of at two the mine owner and manager Hartwell that men should in future work together on 6 blasting, as in the other “Anglo” mines owned by the company. The demand is refused and the men go out on strike. The o future is bleak for Esperanza: they have no money and her third child is almost due. For months the men picket the mine while meagre union resources run out. her Then a court orders that the men must either leave the area or return to work. The sheriﬀ and his deputies can arrest them if they don’t. But since there is no court order against them, against the men’s opposition, the women insist on taking over the picket line. One of the women is run over by a deputy’s car and shots are Þred, but still they persist. Esperanza gives birth on the picket line, where no

1: Melbourne film enthusiasts at work, at the Realist Film Association. Frame enlargement from WWF Newsreel No.1; 2: Workers at a meeting. From the WWF Film Unit’s November Victory; 3: Workers acting out an upper-class banquet scene in WWF Film Unit’s The Hungry Miles; 4: Dick Hackett as Bill Smith, just after his fall. From the Film Unit’s Bones of Building; 5: Waterside Workers’ official Stan Moran on the shoulders workers, at a demonstration in Sydney in January 1955, from The Hungry Miles; 6&7: Salt of the Earth - scenes from the film that outraged American bosses and the FBI in the early 1950s.

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doctor will attend her, then pickets carry her baby. The women identiÞed as ringleaders of the strike are locked up in the local gaol along with their children. Evictions begin, but the people gather and silently resist. Towards the end Ramon and Esperanza quarrel over what will happen, and she yells at him, “I don’t want to go down Þghting! I want to win!” Even to Þnd a cast for the Þlm – shot in heroic black and white and inßuenced in its appearance by the Russian classics – was diﬃcult. Actress Rosaura Revueltas was found in Mexico, but when shooting was due to begin Biberman was still without a male lead. Juan Chacon, the union’s real president, was the Þnal choice. His is a remarkable performance, as a good man full of pent-up anger and frustration at his circumstances. But an insight allows him to accept what the women have done in their resistance, and even, Þnally, as he hangs out nappies, to recognise the true worth of women’s labour beside his own. At the end of the Þlm, when all the strikebreaking action has failed, Hartwell says, “I think we’d better settle this, for the present,” which says that nothing is ever Þnal and the struggle will go on. However, it is good to note that in the case of the real strike the women, who wanted better sanitation for their houses, did get running water in the end. Word got out about the Þlming of Salt of the Earth and the FBI hired helicopters to buzz the location and wreck the sound. The Þlmmakers were warned by angry locals that if they did not leave by noon the next day, they would do so in www.awu.net.au

black boxes. But still the Þlming went on, even when Rosaura was collected by immigration officials and deported back to Mexico. Some Þnal shots and her voice-over narration were carried out in Mexico and smuggled back across the border. At length, the Þlm was completed and had some showings in America, won recognition overseas and remains a classic of its kind. Some of it may look a little dated and awkward now in light of modern expectations, but the passion with which it was made – in a collaboration between the Þlmmakers whose livelihoods were under threat along with those of the striking workers – make it still a remarkable effort. There have been many others. The impact of Harlan County, USA, which I saw back in the late 1970s, about the strike of coal miners against a power company, remains with me. The Þlmmakers spent literally years with the miners in the Þlm, putting together their story about their battle for safer work conditions and for reasonable pay – a battle that led to the murder of a popular union man and his family, and gunshots being Þred at the Þlmmakers one night that were caught on celluloid. The Þlm won the Academy Award for best feature documentary in 1979. Documentaries may not have the wide appeal of drama, but they can nonetheless make an important point and record our social history, and many are seen again over the years. In this, the work of Australian Þlmmaker Tom Zubrycki is notable. His Kemira: Diary of a Strike traces the effects on workers and their families of a strike in Wollongong in 1982 against BHP, when 400 workers were laid off despite the company 

“Word got out about the filming of Salt of the Earth and the FBI hired helicopters to buzz the location and wreck the sound.” theaustralianworker 33

REALITY ON FILM

“There have been many other movies made around the world about workers in conflict with powerful business interests. Some are frauds, like On The Waterfront, starring Marlon Brando.”

having made huge proÞts in the preceding year. it was. Set in the late 19th century, it is about Kemira documents the failed court action, the a group of dissident Irish-American coalminers march on federal parliament that followed it and and the detective sent to inÞltrate and betray how, though a settlement had apparently been them, and about how his sympathies change. reached, the lay-offs continued. It is chießy about the Hoffa sees Jack Nicholson impressive as the aftermath, about how marriages ended and men hard-working-yet-ßawed leader of the American were still without work or had to go elsewhere to Teamsters Union. The Þlm, really a gangsterÞnd it. It was about painful and continuing damage, genre ßick, is brilliantly directed by (amazingly) its social cost and the calm endurance of both Danny de Vito. Norma Rae, starring Sally Field, men and women in the face of it. is about a single mother in the American South Another Australian Þlm, Sunday Too Far who sets out to unionise the textile factory where Away, which came out in 1975, concerns in part she works in health-threatening conditions. the events leading up to the shearers’ strike in Bread and Roses, directed by Ken Loach, is 1956, when the “prosperity bonus” of a few pence about two Latino women who clean offices in Los per hundred sheep is withdrawn and the Angeles and their efforts to get other workers to shearers go on strike. It ends at the point at which unite and take joint action against the low pay Foley, played by Jack Thompson, and his and poor conditions. The title Bread and Roses is shearing mates confront the scabs who have taken from the suffragette protest song, which arrived to take their jobs. But, with a classic script includes the lines: “Our lives shall not be sweated written by John Dingwall, it reveals and deepens from birth until life closes/ Hearts starve as well understanding of that dispute. as bodies. Bread and roses, bread and roses.” Brassed Off, a British Þlm depicting the Another Ken Loach Þlm, The Navigators, closure of collieries and the laying off of miners is deals with the privatisation of a railway line, and another favourite. It deals movingly with the the ruined lives of the workers corrupted and trials of the colliery’s brass band and its struggle to brutalised by the change. survive as jobs go and workers move away. Made Yet, even we in the Þlm industry have our as a small picture, it was not expected to do well, strikes. Recently, the Writers’ Guild in the US but its humour, wonderful music and the wider struck for a small residual payment for release of resonance of its anti-Thatcher themes found it audiences Unique in the history of film in Australia was the establishment of the Waterside Workers’ everywhere. Federation Film Unit in Sydney by Jock Levy and Keith Gow in 1952. Third member, Norma There have been many Disher, joined a few years later. other movies made around The unit worked on a shoestring from an office on the docks, travelled in a Combi van, which they could darken for the screening of films, and made a dozen films on important union issues – the world about workers in about workers’ pay and conditions, pensions, proper housing for workers and the need for conßict with powerful solidarity in dealing with the bosses. Most were documentaries, but they drew some actors from the New Theatre as well. business interests. Some are The Hungry Miles, about the history of Sydney’s waterfront, recreated with hundreds of actual frauds, like On the waterside workers scenes from the Depression years that many of the workers themselves had Waterfront, starring Marlon lived through – of mass unemployment and fighting for job tickets. Another of their films, Pensions for Veterans, made in 1952, pleaded the cause of returned soldiers. Brando, whose plot was The unit also made films according to briefs by other unions, and for these years, until 1958, changed by the studio heads when it was disbanded because of economic pressures on the Waterside Workers’ Federation, it showed people that, in a time of Cold War, deep social conservatism and boasts of prosperity to make the villains for all, not everyone was warm and happy and well fed. Most of all it showed waterside workers communists, and The Angry and other unionists their own lives and their own day-to-day problems and enhanced a sense Silence, which was brilliantly of community and common purpose among them. Perhaps in these days of low-cost video cameras and easily circulated DVDs that can be sold, made and vividly anti-union. if need be, by mail order, some form of film or film unit is something that federated unions might But The Molly Maguires, for yet find the funds to consider. There could still be a place for such a unit, run on a shoestring like that of the Waterside Workers’ Federation’s, and plenty of filmmakers lacking work in these tough instance, with Sean Connery, economic times who would might well be interested. Something to think about perhaps. is a good Þlm that tells it how

Films by workers for workers

34 theaustralianworker

www.awu.net.au

Above & Below: Film stills from Tom Zubrycki’s documentary Kemira: Diary of a Strike, which chronicles the bitter dispute involving Wollongong coalminers back in the early 1980s.

writers’ work in “new media”, which included DVDs. Over the four months the strike lasted the losses of American production companies ran into millions and during it, as expected, they looked to Australia for writers. I was one of the writers approached and there was one job in particular I would love to have accepted. But the Australian Writers’ Guild is an aﬃliate of the American Guild and none of us could or would strike-break. As far as I know, no Þll-in writers were found here for the time the strike lasted. It is close to impossible these days for independent Australian Þlmmakers to get features up without the involvement of overseas sales agents and distributors, whose representatives usually want to play it safe, if only to protect their jobs. Films considered to be the safest tend to be escapist and not serious social drama. However, the Commonwealth Þlm-funding bodies have been reorganised this year into one, called Screen Australia, and its new head Ruth Harley has said that she wants to see Australian Þlms made for Australian audiences. Since unionism and the battle for fairness in the workplace is such an important strand of our history, we may even see more of this tradition in our Þlms in years to come. Let’s hope so. ◆

“It is close to impossible these days for independent Australian filmmakers to get features up without the involvement of overseas sales agents and distributors.”

3 4 1: Norma Disher and Keith Gow; 2: A typical scene from the Sydney wharves of the 1950s, from Pensions of Veterans; 3: John Levy and Keith Gow at work on The Hungry Miles; 4: Men voting on the Sydney docks in the film The Hungry Miles; 5: A wharfie loads pig-iron into a ship in the film The Hungry Miles.

www.awu.net.au

theaustralianworker 35

FRONTLINE NEWS NATIONAL

National News Read about what YOUR union is doing for YOU...

■ Alcoa calls off

expansion plan More than 1700 prospective job opportunities at aluminium producer Alcoa’s refineries in Australia, which would have been the benefits of expansion of its Western Australian Wagerup facility, have been hit by the global financial crisis, AWU representatives said. The company recently announced it is shelving its $1.5 billion expansion of the refinery due to present global financial-market volatility. “The Western Australian economy and the aluminium industry as a whole will suffer a major setback because Alcoa has decided they just can’t afford to go ahead,” AWU National Secretary Paul Howes said.

Alcoa managing director Alan Cransberg said the action taken was necessary given the current difficult economic environment. “Alcoa of Australia is a strong and high-performing business but, like many companies, we are facing unprecedented economic challenges that require us to reign in capital expenditure and reconsider the timing of our capital projects,” he said. “When market conditions improve we will revisit implementation of the project.” Once operating, the expanded Wagerup refinery would have created

more than 250 permanent jobs, as well as having created work for around 1500 people in the phases of its construction. Paul Howes said that Alcoa’s announcement was a disappointment for the AWU, whose members were eager to see growth in the number of jobs, and an expansion of opportunities for working families in the industry. “This announcement underlines the pressure that the aluminium industry in Australia now faces,” he said. “The federal government needs to ensure that all [of] their economic policies are drafted so as to ensure they do not have an adverse effect on these key industries. “The federal government needs to ensure that all (of) their economic policies are drafted so as to have no adverse effect on these industries,” Paul concluded.

Left: AWU National Secretary Paul Howes talks to Alcoa workers. Paul said that Alcoa’s announcement “was a disappointment for the AWU.”

“This announcement underlines the pressure that the aluminium industry in Australia now faces.”

AWU lets rip on Ripper in WA The AWU has called on the leader of the Western Australian Labor Party, Eric Ripper, to fall in line with federal ALP policy on uranium mining. Resource-rich Western Australia has, until recently, had a long-term ban on uranium mining in the state. After the WA state government’s decision to lift the uranium ban, the AWU is now calling on state Opposition leader Ripper to amend his policies so that they mirror those of the federal ALP. AWU National Secretary Paul Howes said that in their state election, Western Australians have already shown that they would not object to

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lifting the ban on uranium mining by the new Premier, Colin Barnett. “Federal Labor abandoned the three-mines policy at its national conference last year, in an important step for the party,” Paul said. “I think that WA Labor should take heed of that decision by the federal party and support it.” “Economically it makes no sense and politically it makes no sense because there was a very clear message from the electorate at the last state election that this is not a major issue for Western Australians.” Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has rejected Mr Ripper’s argument that

expanding uranium mining to WA would inevitably lead to nuclear power stations in Australia, as well as increase nuclear and terrorist threats to the country. Paul Howes has supported the federal minister’s accusations towards Mr Ripper about his irresponsible scaremongering of Western Australians. He is a strong advocate for the economic benefits of uranium mining, as well as the new job opportunities open for the members of the union. “AWU members are eager to support opening up the new opportunities that uranium mining offers for Australia’s economy, as well as the opportunity to win good new secure jobs for our union’s members,” Paul said.

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FRONTLINE NEWS NATIONAL

AWU not sheepish in defending shearers’ rights The AWU is rounding up support in a bid to defend the work rights of sheep shearers. It is concerned that under the guise of modernising the award for shearers across rural Australia, the farmers’ lobby is pushing for significant changes to shearers’ working conditions. National Secretary Paul Howes believes that rural shearers need to rally together in an effort to defend their rights at work. “The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) are circulating a wish list which they will [have] put before the Industrial Relations Commission … to wind back some cherished conditions,” Paul said. “Shearers need to meet now and contact their local union office to find out if a town meeting is to be called, if they don’t want to

lose long-cherished work rights,” he said. Under the proposed new awards, shearers say they will no longer have defined start or finish times to their working weeks, with working at night permitted. They will lose the right to refuse to shear sheep that are wet, straight from the grass, or even sheep that have diseases that are communicable to humans. Under the new proposed awards, shed hands will not be paid by the run but rather by the hour, and will also no longer be entitled to a full day’s pay if work goes beyond lunch. “Some employers are trying to use the process as an excuse to reduce workers’ conditions to the lowest common denominator or are cherry-picking clauses from existing awards that favour the employer,” Paul said.

“The AWU is standing up for employees and up to employers, and telling the Commission that the process must not disadvantage existing or future employees covered by the modern awards. “I’ve got our shearing-industry organisers talking to union members and circulating information to all rural workers to ensure that by the time we appear in the commission we have a good case to defend our members’ rights,” he said. Paul said that over the next couple of months, the AWU will be meeting with key players in the pastoral industry and negotiating positions that promote the needs of the union’s members. The AWU will then make submissions to the AIRC on the content of the modern pastoral industry awards.

■ The climate’s changing but jobs will remain The global climate may be changing, but if the AWU can help it, its members’ jobs will stay. That was the theme of a speech given at the National Press Club in Canberra by ACTU President Sharan Burrow, praising the AWU for the way it is advocating for its members and their jobs in the current climatechange debate. In the speech, Sharan discussed the need to act responsibly on the issue of climate change, as well as the need to grow hundreds of thousands of green jobs. Yet she acknowledged the necessity to protect existing jobs. “Unions are not prepared to give up on any job in our energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries,” Sharan said. And she asserted to assembled media that the ACTU supported the AWU’s claims for compensation for workers in carbon-emissions-intensive www.awu.net.au

industries exposed to the global market. “Aluminium, cement, steel and other products will be made somewhere in the world and we want to see them made here.” Sharan suggested in her speech that for sustainability, and not to simply watch taxpayers’ dollars and jobs disappear, “tough love” for business was essential. “An emissions-trading system will require that compensation to these industries be available, but the quid pro quo is that there must be a plan that drives rapid transition by big business to a low-carbon future, that also positions our economy for global competitiveness,” she said. The AWU’s campaign to protect members on the front line of the greenhouse debate received praise when Sharan was asked about its demand for climate-change job

insurance for union members. “The [climate-change job] insurance scheme is a creative idea that has merit but we do want first and foremost to have insurance that those companies will be here, those jobs will be in those communities, and that they will be a strong part of our economy,” she said. “We absolutely support compensation for vulnerable industries, particularly those that are exposed to the world. The AWU has been a fantastic advocate for its members and indeed for the industries in which they work, and we share their aspirations to see those jobs in 30 years’ time, not just tomorrow. “National action, global action, is vital and urgent and everyone needs to do their bit. The ACTU and the unions with business and the community must all be part of the solution on climate change,” Sharan said. 

“Unions are not prepared to give up on any job in our energyintensive, tradeexposed industries.”

theaustralianworker 37

FRONTLINE NEWS QLD ■ AWU wins fight to protect

Aramac Hospital employees

Queensland News Read about what YOUR union is doing for YOU...

■ AWU member rescues drowning motorist Police have praised Gold Coast City Council AWU member Cameron Wilson, who was one of three men who rescued a driver from his sinking vehicle in the Nerang River on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Cameron heard the commotion as a car swerved into the water from Remembrance Drive, Surfers Paradise. He rushed to the scene in his truck and called for help on his two-way radio before jumping in the Nerang River, ignoring razor-sharp, oyster-covered rocks, to save the 30-year-old man. “We were taking turns diving, but you couldn’t see two foot in front of you, you just had to feel your way in,” Cameron said. Cameron has since been the talk of the council depots, and Gold Coast City Council Mayor Ron Clarke paid tribute to his quick reaction, with the Council awarding him a certificate for his bravery.

“Gold Coast City Council’s hero” and long-term AWU member Cameron Wilson (left) shows off his certificate of bravery to AWU delegate Rod Ball (right).

“Gold Coast City Council Mayor Ron Clarke paid tribute to Cameron’s quick reaction.”

“This certificate of bravery highlights the heroic and selfless act of Mr Wilson,” Cr Clarke said. “He has risked his own life to help the driver. It was extremely courageous and all of the council and city must take pride that we have someone who would do that.” Acting police superintendent Jim Keogh has confirmed police would recommend Cameron and fellow heroes for awards for their part in the rescue.

The AWU has prevented Queensland Health from relegating the Aramac Hospital to a “primary health-care facility” for 12 months. An injunction was issued in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission stopping the closure or downgrade of Aramac Hospital after AWU members were told that their hospital would be “downgraded”. Staff had been told of the move, that would have reduced its employee numbers from 22 workers to three. Yet Queensland Health is legally obliged to consult with employees and the AWU before any major change takes place. This failure to consult is the latest in a string of confrontations between the AWU and Queensland Health. Deputy President Adrian Bloomfield of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission said in his ruling: “…there can be no excuse when the failure to comply with the provisions of a certified agreement becomes significant, pronounced and systemic.” AWU State Secretary Bill Ludwig said thanks to the AWU’s action, the Aramac Hospital will now remain in its current form for at least the next 12 months.

AWU delegate proﬁle – Paul McClintock – Birribi Intellectually Handicapped Unit, Rockhampton. Paul McClintock works at Birribi, a unit for the intellectually handicapped in Rockhampton where his 25-year-old son has been a resident for the last 18 years. Paul, who has worked there for eight years, played an active role during this year’s Queensland Health collective-bargaining campaign, including featuring in a newspaper article in his home town’s paper. He did so for a very good reason. “We have about 30 residents at Birribi. The staff here deliver a high standard of care. The government was talking about

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getting someone off the street to replace us.” But, Paul asks, “Would they be able to care for the residents as well as we do?” The Queensland government has announced plans to privatise state government aged-care facilities, and Paul is concerned that this will mean Birribi is privatised too. “We fall under the aged-care umbrella within Queensland Health. What will it mean to the residents and their families if Birribi is privatised? Will I have to pay for Aaron to stay here?”

Paul is also concerned that privatisation would mean an increase in casual staff, which would undermine job security for workers there. “But for me, it’s not just job security – I fear for my son and the other residents if there is an increase in the casualised staff. They won’t know the needs of the residents as well as we do, as well as any permanent workers. They aren’t there for a long enough span of hours to develop a real relationship with the residents, a relationship which is key to their well-being.”

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FRONTLINE NEWS QLD

Serious safety risks found at Australian-owned multinational AWU officials discovered numerous safety risks during a routine health and safety inspection at a large, Australian-owned multinational company based in Queensland. For legal reasons, the company can not be named but its breaches included extremely serious hazards that placed workers and visitors to the site at serious risk of loss of life or serious injury. They included: • Bald tyres being found on a number of forklifts in operation at the site, along with

instrumentation that proved impossible to read. • Blocked access to workplace fire extinguishers. • Disconnected safety switches on electrical equipment. • Failure to provide emergency showers and eye flushing in areas of high risk. This latest inspection has highlighted a disturbing trend at this company. It revealed several serious breaches of basic safety process, and an apparent ignorance of safety

requirements on the part of key personnel. Despite a policy of no smoking on site, it also had a dedicated smoking area set aside, suggesting that company management was prepared to breach its own policies. It is suggested that this encourages employees also not to take health and safety seriously. This inspection once again highlighted the vital role that union membership plays in site health and safety. Without unions, these breaches would never have been uncovered.

B forklift tyres, Bald a live electrical ccable running through a water th ppuddle, and fire extinguishers ex impeded. im

■ AWU Qld sponsors local Australian amateur boxing team The 2008 amateur boxing titles took place in Townsville North Queensland on November 26, 27 and 28 with the AWU Queensland branch sponsoring the Queensland team. Boxers from Tasmania, Victoria, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland were to contest this year’s title, and with 48 boxers registered to fight over the three days, Queensland was fielding its largest contingent ever. An AWU organiser in Queensland’s Northern District and vice-president of its Queensland branch, Cowboy Stockham, and his son Bobby coach fighters at their Stingers boxing club at Majors Creek, south-west of Townsville. Bobby, a member of the AWU, is also a veteran of the ring and an Australian title holder in his own right. The Stockhams acquired Stingers after www.awu.net.au

long-time AWU member and legendary boxing trainer Bob Miles hung up his training gloves following a protracted asbestos-related chest illness. “I can not speak more highly of a man, a unionist, ALP supporter and boxing trainer, than I can of Bob Miles,” Cowboy said. “He turned out more Queensland and Australian champions than anyone can remember. He trained Michael Fry in the sand ring at his home in Townsville. “Michael fought the great Jeff Fenech in an elimination fight to go to the Olympics, which he lost on points. Losing on points to Jeff Fenech is no small achievement,” Cowboy said Cowboy was co-trainer for five years in the old gym and now he and Bobby run the show, more by accident than by choice. “The bloody club is an AWU affair,” Cowboy said.

“I can not speak more highly of a man, a unionist, ALP supporter and boxing trainer, than I can of Bob Miles.”

Northern District Secretary Bob Boscacci is the secretary of the Stingers club, Bobby Stockham is the vice-president and Cowboy is the treasurer. Stingers will have three boxers contesting the titles: Peter Ericson, Matty Ericson and Sam Friend. All three are AWU members and strong medal chances. Peter stopped the very talented Lachlan Hinchcliffe with a body shot last month in Mackay. “Pete hits like a horse kicking you,” Cowboy said. The contest was taking place at exactly the same time as this edition was going to press. “Hopefully in the next edition of The Australian Worker we’ll be reporting three gold medals from Stingers gym and big successes from the Queensland team, proudly sponsored by the Australian Workers’ Union,” Cowboy said.  theaustralianworker 39

FRONTLINE NEWS QLD/NSW ■ Little hospitals make

big difference

So long, Ted

While it has been the big hospitals getting the attention, smaller hospitals have been playing their part in this year’s collective-bargaining campaign. You might not have heard about it, but AWU members in hospitals such as Jandowae, Chinchilla, Miles, Warwick, Dalby, Stanthorpe and Oakey have also been putting on work bans and have been just as involved in this year’s campaign as workers at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the Princess Alexandria Hospital. The list of bans might not be as long as those in metropolitan hospitals, but they are just as important in sending the message to the Queensland government that AWU members are serious about all Queenslanders getting the best quality of health care. AWU delegate David Bradford at Chinchilla Hospital said workers at the hospital were proud to play their part in the campaign, while Dalby Hospital AWU delegate Diana Mahnkopf added, “We don’t get as much attention as the big metropolitan hospitals, but we’re just as involved in the campaign. “Our list of work bans might be smaller, but our commitment to getting the best health system for all Queenslanders is just as big.”

AWU Far Northern District Secretary Ted Brischke has announced his retirement. Ted has been a loyal servant of the members of the AWU for 33 years, and the staff and members of the AWU wish him well in his retirement. Ted started work on the railways at age 14, before moving to the Cairns Port Authority, where he joined the AWU. He became an organiser in 1975, a job

he describes as a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week commitment in a town where the AWU covers everything from sugar mills to pastry cooks. Ted became District Secretary in 1985, holding the position for more than 23 years. He is not sure how he’s going to spend his retirement, but he has purchased a campervan and is already planning trips. Darryl Noack will succeed Ted in the role of District Secretary. Good luck, Ted!

■ Gladstone Regional Council EBA a first of its kind

“We don’t get as much attention as the big metropolitan hospitals, but we’re just as involved.”

AWU members have signed off on an historic collective agreement in Gladstone Regional Council. The agreement, which covers workers from the old Gladstone City Council, Calliope Shire Council and Miriam Vale Shire Council has brought the pay structures of both the indoor and outdoor workforce into one pay scale. Council workers will now receive a pay increment every year, as well as a 5 per cent a year pay rise during the life of the agreement. The increment will be worth from 1.5 to 2 per cent for each worker, meaning the pay outcomes from this agreement are among the best in the state. AWU members stood firm in the face of WorkChoices against an extreme employer intent on using the full force of that legislation against their employees.

■ AWAs at United Group Workers at United Group in Gladstone were forced onto AWA individual contracts that dramatically stripped away many award conditions. As the AWAs expired, AWU members refused to sign new ones, opting to wait for the result of the federal election before making a decision. With the company trying desperately to force workers onto new AWAs before the election, AWU members stuck together and were able to force the company to sign a new union collective agreement. This agreement contained significant improvements from their old AWAs for workers, including reintroduction of award conditions that had previously been stripped away. AWU members are to be congratulated on their strength that ensured their working conditions were not lost forever.

Work bans pay off as government backs down on contracting out After more than one month of industrial action, including more than 3000 individual work bans, AWU members in Queensland hospitals have finally forced the state government to back down on contracting out. The AWU now has an in-principle agreement with the government that will maintain the provisions of the current agreement relating to contracting out. The government has also agreed to maintain current filling-of-vacancy provisions from the last agreement and the provisions requiring union members’ consent before changing rosters. The government has offered a pay rise of 4.5 per cent in the first year, and then 4 per cent for the next two years, or $34, whichever is greater. It

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will also increase allowances for operational workers. AWU State Secretary Bill Ludwig said the in-principle agreement was a great achievement by AWU members. “I’m proud to say that it has been the hard work of AWU members which has forced the government to see sense on contracting out. “We’ve been saying all along that health can’t operate without our members, and they’ve proved that to the government by the work bans they’ve put on,” he said. “Everybody involved in this campaign knows that without the work AWU members did, the government would not have backed down, and would not have increased their wage offer.” Workers will now participate in a ballot to decide whether or not they wish to accept the in-principle agreement.

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FRONTLINE NEWS NSW

NSW News Read about what YOUR union is doing for YOU...

Around the shops ●

●

Major Australian conglomerate CSR recently announced its profit for the year had fallen 51 per cent due to additional provisions for asbestos liabilities of $48 million and a downturn in the building industry. In these difficult times, AWU NSW Secretary Russ Collison expressed concern that the results may mean job losses. But, he said, “We will ensure that job losses are minimised. Health and safety implications must be considered as workers are operating in dangerous industries and job losses can expose remaining workers to possible unsafe practices.” A shearer concerned over weekly workers’ comp payments asked AWU organiser Terry O’Connor at the Wagga office to investigate and was delighted when Terry retrieved over $10,000 in underpayments. Workers on workers’ comp should stay in contact with their delegate or organiser who can ensure they receive their full entitlements. Swift Australia purchased Prime City Feedlot at Tabbita, NSW, and has agreed to negotiate its first enterprise agreement. AWU Organiser Harry Goring said, “Even though negotiations are tough, it’s pleasing to be negotiating a union collective agreement, a rarity in the industry.” Zinc and lead prices have fallen 56 per cent over the period November 2007 to November 2008 resulting in Endeavor Mine at Cobar reducing its workforce from 384 to 115. The AWU has always argued that redundancy rights were always better protected under collective agreements. Redundancy provisions were slashed under many mining AWAs. Transpacific Industries was fined $22,000 by the Federal Magistrates Court for failing to consult with the AWU when making an employee redundant

www.awu.net.au

●

while on workers’ comp. It was a breach of an award requirement not to consult with the AWU. NSW Roads and Transport Authority workers have achieved a 4 per cent per year increase over the next three years that required fewer trade-offs compared to the general public sector standard. AWU members at Simsmetal have signed a two-year agreement that gives workers a one-off, up-front payment of a 10 per cent increase. The settlement includes the introduction of a new weekend shift but no existing employee will be forced onto the shift. AWU organiser Ted Mitchell said, “It’s unusual to have a one-off up-front increase, but this two-year agreement gives the benefit of a 10 per cent increase from day one.” D&D Traffic Management, a traffic-control company, concluded enterprise negotiations resulting in a wage increase of close to $2 per hour and drivers being paid a $40 a day allowance. The trafficcontrol industry is competitive and unscrupulous operators had implemented low-wage AWAs before they were banned. We welcome the 50 workers who joined the AWU during the negotiations. AWU success continue at Monarch Group, manufacturers of security doors and roller shutters. An enterprise agreement was successfully completed with 4 per cent per year wage increases. Union membership on site also increased greatly. Tieman Industries, which services and builds truck-loading platforms, has signed a three-year agreement with the first increase of 9 per cent and the following two years at 4 per cent per year. Workers maintained their 52-week accident make-up pay but had to trade in their half-hour travel time to the first job. Workers felt the first year increase justified the trade-off as they begin their official start time at the commencement of their first job of the day.

■ Importance of the union

in economic downturn Over the past 12 months, The Australian Worker has been reporting on the numerous redundancies occurring across many companies. Anecdotal evidence showed job losses were gaining momentum and the economy was in trouble but official figures in early 2008 were still showing unemployment falling. Russ Collison, AWU NSW secretary, had already ensured some two years ago with Chifley Financial Services and MIG Consulting that appropriate services would be on offer for members in case of redundancies occurring. He said, “You don’t want to think about the bad times, but as a union, we must ensure members have access to job support programs and valuable financial advice.” Now, those earlier fears of job losses are coming to fruition. A recent announcement at Viridian Glass (a division of CSR) saw the closure of a 70-yearold glass-making factory in Alexandria. Management and the AWU have established a closure committee, meeting regularly reviewing safety, morale, and support services for the 50 workers losing their jobs. AWU senior site delegate Wally Naumovski said, “It’ll be a sad day when this place closes as I’ve spent 40 years of my working life here. The AWU has built in great redundancy provisions into our agreement over the years. The Union now continues to support us as we prepare for the closure.”  theaustralianworker 41

FRONTLINE NEWS NEWCASTLE/VIC Financial advice is being supplied by AustralianSuper and Chifley Finance. CES has made presentations. John Gilles from MIG has recently been appointed to offer a 12-month service to help employees find work and in resumé writing and interview-skills training. Another company experiencing decline is Doric, producers of door and window products, which had approximately 140 employees five years ago and has since reduced its staff to 60. It has been hit by factors including a fire five years ago, a building industry downturn and now low-priced imported products. Ms Phouvy Sithideth has worked with Doric for the past seven years and was made redundant. Phouvy said, “Christmas is coming and it’s going to be hard to find a new job over the next few months. We will struggle through Christmas since we have to continue to pay the mortgage and look after two children.” Ms Somboun Keovilayvong, also made redundant at Doric after three years of service said, “The redundancy payout will be used up quickly. I’m currently renting and the bills won’t stop just because I’m not working.” Russ said, “We, as a union, are placed in a difficult position. We believe in full-time positions for workers but many need a job now, to pay the bills. Businesses are reluctant to put new people on while there is a fear about the global economic crisis.” The AWU has had discussions with various labour-hire agencies and believes businesses such as Work Force International and Advance Recruiting offer better quality of service and treat each of their clients with respect and dignity. Both firms allow access to the AWU to ensure pay and conditions are being met for the workers. They also allow it to ensure health and safety practices are maintained for all workers. Russ said, “More than ever, workers need the union to ensure their rights are protected in case of redundancies, opportunities are presented to workers, and that workers are treated with dignity.” 42 theaustralianworker

Newcastle News Read about what YOUR union is doing for YOU...

■ Road safety for construction workers

“More than ever workers need the union to ensure their rights are protected.”

The Newcastle Branch is continuing its campaign to make road construction and maintenance sites much safer. This campaign has two important elements. Firstly, enforcing limited-speed zones through road-maintenance and construction sites. There is overwhelming evidence that over 70 per cent of vehicles exceed the speed limits in construction zones. In most cases the only barrier between speeding traffic and road workers is a line of witch’s hats, which is hardly an impenetrable obstacle. The only thing that will stop vehicles speeding through roadwork sites is a definite loss of points on a licence and a hefty fine. The branch has had an initial meeting with the former NSW Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal to discuss this, and is now talking to

new Roads Minister Michael Daly. The other major concern lies with traffic-control operators, the organisations which set up safety systems for road workers. This industry is poorly regulated and whatever regulation does exist is certainly not policed. The criteria for selecting a trafficcontrol company by the RTA or other major contractors is normally that lowest price wins. Invariably, the companies who offer decent wages and conditions and which have well-maintained plant and equipment and well-trained people lose out to companies that offer substandard wages, conditions and plant and less-well-trained employees. The AWU, if need be, will take drastic measures if the NSW government does not take seriously its concerns.

Life membership for legends At the Newcastle Branch executive meeting held on November 11, three “legendary” former job delegates and branch executive members with a total of over 120 years’ membership and service between them were awarded their Life Membership badges and certificates by AWU National Secretary Paul Howes. Des Clerke worked for BHP then OneSteel in Newcastle No 2 Bar Mill. Joe Carstairs worked originally for Alcan at the Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter,

which is now owned by Norsk Hydro. “Barney” Morrow finished his working life at the RTA depot at Port Macquarie. The honour of Life Membership is only awarded to members and or delegates who go above and beyond the normal duties as a job delegate. These three great men have made contributions to our union and the legacy of those contributions is still enjoyed by our members today. We wish Des, Joe and Barney all the best in their retirements.

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FRONTLINE NEWS VIC

Victorian News Read about what YOUR union is doing for YOU...

■ Working to improve return-to-work outcomes The AWU Victorian Branch is heavily involved in the trial of a groundbreaking return-to-work audit tool. AWU Victorian Branch secretary Cesar Melhem said the AWU was pleased to have secured funding from WorkSafe to run a worker-support program alongside WorkSafe’s pilot of the tool. “Unfortunately, the return-to-work experience often adds great insult to injury for workers and their families,” Cesar said. “We want to play a role in trying new ideas that could lead to a better outcome for injured workers.”

The audit tool – known as the Consensus-Based Disability Management Audit (CBDMA) - was developed in Canada by its National Institute of Disability Management and Research. As part of the CBDMA, workers and employees are brought together in one room and required to agree on scores for all aspects of the return-to-work procedures and experience at the individual workplace. WorkSafe will pilot the CBDMA tool in several yet-to-be-announced workplaces over the next 18 months. The AWU will raise awareness of the

“We want to play a role in trying new ideas that could lead to a better outcome for injured workers.”

tool among workers at four AWU workplaces involved in a CBDMA audit, and provide support to worker representatives who will be involved in the consensus phase of the audit. The project also aims to: ● Research how unions can best raise awareness and support workers in organisations which are undertaking a CBDMA audit. ● Develop an awareness program and information sheets that can be provided to all workers at a site prior to a company undertaking an audit. ● Ensure the AWU becomes a union leader in the understanding of the CBDMA model. Project officer Rebecca Eagles and project manager David Cragg will be running the AWU project. For more information, please contact Rebecca on (03) 8327 0806 or at rebecca.eagles@awu.net.au

EBA wins Hundreds of AWU workers have received substantial pay rises with no loss in conditions after the AWU Victorian Branch finalised EBAs at several of its biggest sites in late 2008. More than 700 members at BlueScope Western Port will receive a wage increase of 14.5 per cent over three years. All allowances will be increased at the same rate as wages. Importantly, all of the BlueScope members’ existing conditions will be protected as theirs is a transitional EBA, which means it won’t have to be brought into line with the Howard government’s WorkChoices laws. The successful outcome came after more than six months of negotiations with local management, involving a team led by AWU assistant secretary Michael Borowick and plant delegate Robbie Rudd. At Alcoa Point Henry, 400 members will

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share in wage increases of 4.75 per cent and 4.25 per cent over the two-year transitional agreement. AWU Geelong organiser Gavin Penn said the workforce was 100 per cent supportive of the agreement, which contained no trade-offs in conditions. “The focus now will be on a national AWU campaign in the aluminium industry to increase employer-superannuation contributions,” Gavin said. “Over the years, we have managed to get our members a super contribution that is 5 per cent above the compulsory level, but we want to have a red-hot go at improving that further.” At OneSteel Geelong, 80 members will share in a 14 per cent wages increase over three years, as part of a three-year transitional agreement. AWU State Secretary Cesar Melhem said these EBA outcomes highlighted the position of

strength that comes from never giving an inch. “Sometimes, employers will try to intimidate workers into signing below-par agreements by indicating that their job is on the line,” Cesar said. “At BlueScope Lysaght, our members were presented point-blank with an EBA that had a wages outcome 1.5 per cent lower than their counterparts at BlueScope Western Port,” he said. “We understand that some of our members were told that if the agreement was not voted up, they would face ‘restructuring’. “Our members responded to that threat in the good old-fashioned union way by voting down the agreement. “We will keep fighting for a better outcome – and next time around the company may think twice before it spends resources knocking up an agreement which insults our members,” Cesar said. 

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FRONTLINE NEWS VIC

AWU secures water supply The AWU has warned protestors against a $750 million water pipeline that they had better keep away from AWU members building the project. AWU State Secretary Cesar Melhem said the protestors against the 70km Sugarloaf pipeline – which will secure Melbourne’s water supply by linking the Goulburn River near Yea to the Sugarloaf Reservoir in Melbourne’s north-east – must not take out their anger on AWU workers. “While we respect the democratic right of people to protest, we won’t just stand by if our members’ safety is put at risk by the behaviour of protestors,” Cesar said. Up to 1000 construction workers are expected to work on the project, which is covered by an EBA between the AWU and John Holland. Cesar said the agreement delivered excellent benefits to workers, including higher-than-standard rates of pay and site allowances, a 14.5 per cent wage increase over three years and higherthan-compulsory superannuation contributions. “Our biggest challenge on this job – and

AWU Sugarloaf delegate Frank Galati and a member discuss the progress of the Sugarloaf project with (from left) AWU organisers Kahu Tapara and Dick Stomps.

on every construction job – has been getting access to our members on site,” Cesar said. “The ABCC [Australian Building and Construction Commissioner] restricts us at every turn – they can go to hell.” Cesar said the AWU was very proud

to be involved in another project which, just like EastLink, was so crucial to the state’s prosperity and liveability. “Without a constant water supply, thousands of good AWU jobs would be in jeopardy,” he said.

■ Gas and oil contracts – a fair go for Aussies The AWU is calling on the federal government to introduce regulations which give Australian companies a fairer go when it comes to securing oil and gas contracts. The call comes as the Aussie 1 – an accommodation and pipe-laying barge financed and built by two Australian companies (Australian Portable Camps and Trident Australasia) – makes its way to Australia. Built and commissioned in Singapore, the Aussie 1 will be put to work in the eastern Bass Strait for Nexus Energy to install a 12-inch, 19km sub-sea pipeline connecting the Longtom Field 44 theaustralianworker

to Santos’ Patricia-Baleen plant. AWU organiser Terry Lee said about 130 AWU members would have the opportunity to try out the Aussie 1 on its first project. “We are expecting that our members will be pretty impressed with the Aussie 1, as the facilities are above standard,” Terry said. “The AWU has been pretty involved in discussions with the project managers about the facilities our members would like to see. Those discussions have resulted in some great improvements, including the provision of two-person cabins with ensuites, instead of the four-person cabins our members are used to,” he said. Terry explained that it was disappointing,

“We are expecting that our members will be pretty impressed with the Aussie 1.”

however, that the Aussie 1 had missed out to overseas companies on other projects in Australian seas, despite its tenders being competitive. “Overseas companies are plundering our seas for gas and oil, and taking the profits with them. At least when Australianbased companies secure the work you know that they will be re-investing some of the profits back into our community,” he said. Terry added that the AWU was pushing for the federal government to bring in regulations that required oil and gas companies to give more consideration to Australian-owned content when tendering contracts. www.awu.net.au

FRONTLINE NEWS VIC ■ Keeping it local The AWU welcomes announcement by the Brumby government that it will favour local manufacturers over their foreign competitors when awarding government tenders. AWU State Secretary Cesar Melhem said the AWU had invested a lot of energy into convincing the government of the value of backing local manufacturers. “We are happy that the Brumby government has decided to go forward with a policy that rewards local manufacturers for investing in the skills

of Victorian workers,” he said. “We would have liked to have seen the government go even further – as we were pushing for the government to require 50 per cent local manufacturing content and up to 20 per cent price advantage. “Independent modelling conducted by the AWU demonstrated our position would have been cost-neutral after you take into account matters such as payroll tax and saved welfare payments,” Cesar said. “The government’s stated aim of

“Members who build trains for Bombardier Transportation in Dandenong would be among the big winners.”

40 per cent local content over the life of the contract (which also covers the maintenance of the product) is less than what we are after, but we recognise it is a step forward. “We will be continuing our discussions with the Brumby Government, with the aim of making sure that local manufacturers can compete on a level playing field,” he said. Cesar said AWU members who build trains for Bombardier Transportation in Dandenong would be among the big winners from the lift in local content.

By the book Unions and workers need to have greater powers to check company books, following the liquidation of mismanaged Ballarat company John Valves. John Valves was placed in administration in mid October and its 130 workers stood down without pay, and owed a week’s pay and thousands in other entitlements. AWU State Secretary Cesar Melhem said the creditor’s books subsequently showed the business was badly mismanaged. “The AWU and the AMWU attempted on at least half a dozen occasions from April 2008 onwards to meet with the company director and look through the books,” Cesar said. “We had our concerns about what was going on, but were knocked back again and again. “Unions need to have a right written in stone to look over a company’s books, rather than having to rely on the goodwill of the employer to allow it.” Cesar said the workers picketed the foundry for more than five weeks in a bid to secure their jobs and entitlements. With the company then placed into liquidation in mid November, most of the workers’ entitlements (including annual leave and redundancy payments) will be picked up by the federal government’s General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERs). As outstanding superannuation payments are not covered by GEERs, the AWU will push hard for outstanding superannuation payments worth $300,000 to be given priority ahead of other creditors. Cesar said the AWU remained hopeful that the business could still resume under a new owner. “We do believe the core business, which includes manufacturing giant Caterpillar amongst its customers, was very viable,” he said. “We are pleased with the proactive role played by the Brumby

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government – they have been in talks with potential buyers about the opportunities to pick up some government work.” Cesar said the workers had been heartened by the groundswell of community support they had received during their picket. “Strangers regularly rolled up with food and cash, which just goes to show the community support which exists for hard-done-by workers,” he said, adding that AWU delegate Charlie McAdams (pictured, far left) had represented his members with heart during a tough period. Six-year-old Abby saved up her pocket money to buy coffees for workers picketing the John Valves foundry. 

Cesar Melhem and the picketers thank six-year-old Abby who saved up her pocket money to treat the picketing workers to a cup of coffee.

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FRONTLINE NEWS SA/WHYALLA-WOOMERA

South Australian News ■ WorkChoices’ last gasp The Greater South Australian Branch of the AWU recently found itself fighting a similar battle to that already won by the AWU Queensland Branch against Etheridge Shire Council. This time, it was South Australia’s Kangaroo Island local council that was trying to claim “constitutional corporation” status in the hope it would be able to lodge its collective agreement under the federal jurisdiction rather than the more sensible South Australian industrial relations system. It was an attempt by the Council to cling to the remnants of John Howard’s infamous WorkChoices. As SA Branch Secretary Wayne Hanson explained, “Kangaroo Island local council is a small offshore council in South Australia being urged on by a redneck regional council’s cheer squad who wanted to cling to the concept of perpetuating WorkChoices, notwithstanding the fact that WorkChoices is dead. “The people of Australia don’t want it, and they sacked John Howard because of it. Working Australians don’t want it. Trade union members don’t want it. The unions don’t want it, even the federal leader of the Opposition said that WorkChoices is dead. And of course the Australian government doesn’t want it either.” The Kangaroo Island council was making its position very clear: until such time as there was a decision from the High Court of Australia, it would maintain it was a constitutional corporation. After discussions with the Local Government Association and with the added strength of the Queensland 46 theaustralianworker

Whyalla News ■ OneSteel agreement

Branch’s victory as support, the Greater South Australian Branch was able to persuade the Kangaroo Island Council to accept the merit of dropping its intention to register the collective union agreement in the federal industrial relations system. “Here was a council CEO who was on an ego trip – maybe she wanted to be the mayor one day – [but] she was misguided by very ordinary legal advice and was prepared to reject a decision from a Federal Court judge. She was encouraged by a fan club of regional councils that was cheering her on,” Wayne said. “I think she actually wanted to remain a dinosaur. But as soon as the pressure was applied and common sense prevailed she slid down the wall like a lump of jelly and her fair-weather friends went missing. “Having the collective agreement lodged under the South Australian state industrial jurisdiction helped put AWU Kangaroo Island council members in a much better legal position; their EBA now had proper legal status. This is all our members wanted. The Council knew this but wanted to squeeze the very last gasp of diminishing life out of Australia’s most unpopular industrial laws. “Our members stuck together, they accepted the good advice from their union and supported a position that the most appropriate place to have their agreement registered was in the South Australian state industrial jurisdiction, not in the federal industrial jurisdiction where the agreement may have no future legal status,” Wayne concluded. Like the dinosaurs, WorkChoices is dead but not yet buried.

Meetings of OneSteel employees and officials from the unions were held on Tuesday November 18 in Whyalla at the sports and recreation centre and at the Iron Duke mine site. At those meetings the OneSteel national wage offer was discussed and voted on. The offer is 14 per cent over three years, or 15 per cent depending on CPI in the last two years. The result was an overwhelming acceptance of the national offer, with only 28 votes against. The union didn’t achieve its claim of 18 per cent but in light of the current economic uncertainty, forecast reduction in interest rates, planned reduction in employee numbers, overtime restrictions, and so on, the view has been taken that it is better to lock in the increases offered than pursue a campaign of industrial action for an improved offer. The OneSteel Whyalla union collective agreement proposal was rejected on the grounds that the dispute-resolution provisions contained within it are inferior to the previous award and disputeresolution clauses in agreements at other OneSteel sites. The issue of sick-leave entitlements on pay slips was raised. Management restated that OneSteel will not put this information on the pay slips. It said the information was available from supervisors. The outstanding SMR agreement was discussed, with mine management committing to a revised company offer by the end of November. Outstanding issues with the new trades model have been resolved and are ready to be taken to members for endorsement once the new union collective agreement has been signed off. The union told OneSteel that it will not recognise the results of any ballots currently taking place on changes to shifts and the company has responded that it will enter directly into consultation with it.

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FRONTLINE NEWS TAS/WA

Tasmanian News

West Australian News

■ Feeling energetic

■ Urgent attention needed on OH&S

Hobart’s big Nyrstar smelter, employing over 1200 people, many of them AWU members, is under threat from the federal government’s proposed emissions-trading scheme to be rolled out in 2010. The AWU in Tasmania is actively seeking recognition that high energy users in downstream metal processing in Tasmania should be exempt from the proposed scheme. AWU Tasmania Secretary Ian Wakefield said, “Unlike high energy users in other Australian states, the energy in Tasmania is principally sourced from renewable energy, such as the Tasmanian hydro dams.” Nyrstar has estimated that under the proposal in the government’s green paper the company could face a carbontax liability of approximately $70 million for its Hobart smelter operations, which would wipe out its operating profit. “The AWU has lobbied both federal and state Labor MPs to pursue changes to the proposed trading scheme. They know the AWU feels strongly about this issue. The Tasmanian Premier has endorsed our union’s position, acknowledging Tasmania’s renewable energy source. This means that unlike other states, energy generation in Tasmania does not contribute to greenhousegas concerns. “The AWU will continue to work to protect the livelihoods of those employed directly by Tasmania’s smelters and those that indirectly rely upon these operations,“ he concluded.

The AWU is pushing for the new West Australian government to appoint an occupational health and safety ombudsperson to supervise workplace-safety rights. AWU West Australian Secretary Stephen Price is urging the state’s newly elected Liberal Premier Colin Barnett to take action against unsafe work practices that are going unchecked. “Occupational health and safety in West Australia is a time bomb waiting to go off,” Stephen said. “The evidence is clear that the current OH&S authorities are under-resourced and struggling to attract staff, like every other business in the state. The result is that unsafe work practices on the ground are going unchecked.” Stephen argues that at present, the best protection for workers in transport, shipping and mining is to contact their union about their OH&S concerns. “Because of the resource boom in West Australia, there are special considerations which need to be taken into account,” he said. “If workers have special OH&S information, they should speak up now. If they feel their company won’t listen, then the union will.” In the case of big businesses, Stephen is concerned that OH&S standards are being overlooked. “Big companies cannot wipe their hands of the problem. They must pour back some of their big profits into proper training and proper OH&S standards,” he said. Stephen asserts that West Australia is in desperate need of a well-resourced OHS ombudsperson to monitor the situation and provide decisive leadership.

“We must have regulatory strength to ensure workers and their families can be secure.”

Alliance organisers visit the Wilcraft In a bid to hear first-hand accounts from offshore workers, MUA-AWU Alliance organisers travelled to Wilcraft, the drilling rig in the Timor Sea. In what is hoped to be the first of many offshore visits to rig workers, Rebecca Malysz and Glen Williams flew to hear from the workers stationed at the rig. They held meetings throughout the day and night, allowing them the opportunity to speak with workers on all shifts and hear their views first-hand.

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After speaking to as many workers as possible, the strongest message that the MUAAWU received was that people aren’t very happy with the latest individual agreements, some of which are being signed under duress following pressure from employers. Research shows that individual contracts have seen lower wages, with the casual loading reduced from 20 per cent to 5 per cent. Rig workers are not receiving payment for travel days, and are facing reduced redundancy

and superannuation provisions. Many other conditions have been found either to have been watered down, or removed altogether. Rebecca and Glen found that as with workers on other rigs, many of the workers on Wilcraft spoke of their desire to have a collective agreement similar to the construction and production sections of the offshore industry. Winning the right for workers to negotiate collective agreements is the main objective of the MUA-AWU Alliance campaign.

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MEET THE OFFICIALS

Name

Job

And…

Kevin Midson

Organiser, Tasmania Branch

A proud unionist who is also keen to keep the island’s prime recreational fishing areas a State secret!

he Beaconsfield mining disaster in Tasmania created an indelible memory for many Australians. The Tasmania Branch of the Australian Workers’ Union played a big role in advocating for the workers at the mine, but that is not all the branch does, as Kevin Midson, a born and bred Taswegian and branch organiser attests. “The Tassie AWU branch covers many areas other than mining, such as fishing and aquaculture, silviculture, local government, civil construction, forestry and metal work, building production and food processing,” Kevin says. “I am responsible for looking after members in the south of the state in many of those industries, he says. “At present, the union is continuing to participate in the national growth campaign for new membership.” “We are also currently involved in asbestos issues across the state and have sent a survey out to members and delegates getting them to check their asbestos registers,” he says. According to Kevin, the issues in Tasmania are not of the same magnitude as those in the recent James Hardie case. “However, there is a small town called Railton, a cement-industry town, where some people are making claims to do with asbestos,” he says. “Along with those issues, the inquest into the Beaconsfield rock fall has just been completed and is due to bring down its findings in early 2009. But work continues on site at Beaconsfield mine, and we conduct regular site visits dealing with members’ issues and concerns.” Kevin, who is 25, began working for the AWU four years ago, starting as a recruitment officer and working his way up to his current postition.

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Kevin Midson

His interest in unionism is, he believes, in his blood. His parents, a public servant and a teacher’s aide, are both active union members and one of his uncles was a union official. “When I was studying at uni I worked at KFC then Village cinemas for five years. I became the union rep at Village, then when I got out of uni I applied and got the job at AWU.” An active member of the Labor party since he was 17 and a keen AFL and rugby follower, Kevin studied arts at the University of Tasmania majoring, appropriately, in public policy and political science. But life for Kevin is not all work and no play. “I’ve just bought a house in Moonah, Hobart, and next August my fiancée, Anita, and I are getting married,” he says. Kevin reckons he’s not feeling too jittery about the pending nuptials and gets away from it all at times by going fishing. “Tasmania is a great place to live,” Kevin says. “We like to keep all the beautiful places a secret from mainlanders!”

Left Fishing is just one of the industries covered by the AWU Tasmania Branch.

“The inquest into the Beaconsfield rock fall has just been completed and is due to bring down its findings in early 2009.” PHOTO TOURISM TASMANIA

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MEET THE DELEGATES

Name

Job

And…

Pam Boyle

AWU Delegate at Pleasantville Nursing Home in Wynnum, Queensland

Mum of two, grandmother of two, an avid traveller and owner of two beloved and spoilt terriers.

leasantville Nursing Home sounds like an idyllic, fictitious place in a Hollywood movie about cantankerousbut-lovable elderly people, but it really does exist. It’s in the Brisbane suburb of Wynnum – and it has been Pam Boyle’s workplace for the past 24 years. “I started working there part-time in the kitchen when I was 16 and still at school. Mum worked there and she got me the job,” Pam, who at 46, is the mother of two grown-up children and a grandmother of two, says. A stint as an office worker after leaving school made Pam realise that office work wasn’t for her and she went back to Pleasantville to work in the kitchen. “And I’ve been here ever since,” she says. “I am now a part-time supervisor for laundry and cleaning services, but still work shifts in the kitchen too.” Pam joined the AWU “back in the nineties” when enterprise-bargaining agreements were introduced in Queensland. “Kevin Court was the organiser who came to see us at that time and found that everyone was being underpaid. I joined the union then and there and have been the delegate here ever since,” says Pam. Pleasantville is run by BlueCare, which is owned by the Uniting Church, and during that time when EBAs were being negotiated, it was, according to Pam, “obligated to allow the unions to come in.” “During that time it was really easy to get the staff at Pleasantville to join the union – there was a mass joining; they all wanted the pay rise,” she says.

PHOTOS TOURISM TASMANIA & STEVE LOVEGROVE/GETTY IMAGES. AS TOLD TO LAURA MACFARLANE

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Pam Boyle

“Kevin Court was the organiser who came to see us at that time and found that everyone was being underpaid. I joined the union then and there and have been the delegate here ever since.”

BlueCare is presently finalising new EBAs with the employees at Pleasantville, who Pam says were never expected to switch to Australian Workplace Agreements during the Howard Government’s WorkChoices era. “There haven’t been any problems since the pay problems were sorted out with the EBAs years ago,” Pam says. “BlueCare is a good employer and we have just finished major renovations here at Pleasantville, which was stressful. But things are getting back to normal now.” Working with old people has its ups and downs. Pam says she has learnt not to get too attached and after 24 years of working in the area she accepts that death is inevitable. However, she says she does have occasionally to “counsel some of her colleagues who get upset when one of the oldies passes away”. Life for Pam is not “all in the kitchen at parties”. She is an avid traveller, who earlier this year took a cruise with some friends to Hawaii. “We had a ball,” Pam says. She is currently planning her next trip, which she hopes will be to Las Vegas, “… depending on the Aussie dollar. We were lucky with last trip; the dollar was getting US95 cents.” She is also kept busy with her two beloved Shitsu Maltese terriers, the aptly named Snowball, and Bowie – named after David. “They are just sooks, those two,” she says, and, “yes, they do sleep on the bed!” Pam plans to stay at Pleasantville for the time being, “I’m used to it,” she says.

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CHILD CARE CRISIS

whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holding

the baby? Staring down the barrel of a $26,000 per annum child-care bill, a first-time mum-to-be wonders when children became the latest luxury item and finds that other mums feel the same way. WRITTEN BY DILVIN YASA PHOTOS ACP DIGITAL LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES

ecently, I discovered two very important things about myself that were to change drastically the way I live in the foreseeable future. One is that I was pregnant with my Þrst child. Perhaps even more shockingly, I am apparently also rolling in cash. The Þrst surprise I was prepared for since I had been actively trying for a child. The new-found wealth was a li!le harder to countenance considering the lack of zeros at the end of my bank balance and the bundle of Aldi receipts in my purse. Despite my protests that I wouldn’t exactly be rolling up to Centrelink in my Benz anytime soon, the lovely lass at the Family Assistance Office sighed and assured me this was true. In the eyes of the government, my husband and I earn too much money to be eligible for any of the beneÞts that go hand in hand with raising children and paying for child care. “Darl,” she said before pu!ing down the phone, “You’d be be!er off just qui!ing your job and staying home to collect your beneÞts.” A$er this particular phone call and various others to child-care centres where they alternated between turning me away from their three-yearlong waiting lists, or promising to post applications for centres that cost in excess of $100 per day, I realised one more incredibly important thing about myself. With a baby on the way and no affordable child care in sight, I, along with many women in my position, am completely stuffed. So here lies my child-care question. As a nation, where have we gone wrong? Countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark award women up to 96, 52 and 50 weeks of paid leave respectively, yet not only is paid maternity leave not compulsory in Australia, we also have affordability, eligibility and quality-of-care issues to contend with – and that’s if you can even get a spot. Sure, the government has increased funding for extra places and they’re making a song and dance about their beneÞts and rebates, but when you consider that the cost of child care has been rising at an annual rate Þve times higher than the cost of living*, and that demand is outstripping www.awu.net.au

supply – particularly in rural and inner city areas (hence the cost) – it’s hardly an incentive to “have one for your wife, one for your husband, and one for your country”. In fact, researchers from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling found that in the 12 months to September 2004, the cost of child care increased by 10.3 per cent. What does this mean for us mums? Affordability and accessibility aside, gone are the days where we could be picky about quality or ßexibility. This is something Joyanne Higginbo!om, 40, knows all too well about. She pays $107 a week for her son Paul, aged four, to a!end a child-care centre and it’s more than half what she earns at her part-time job as a support officer at a hospital. “I get the Child Care Rebate and $140 a week from Family Tax A and B beneÞts, which helps, but for what they [child-care centres] charge, their standards aren’t very high and that’s what concerns me most,” she says. She also concedes that if she wasn’t what she calls a “basic mum” who buys at markdown prices and prepares all her own meals, she’d be struggling with the cost. Affordability is important, says mother of three Michelle Douglas, but her greatest concern is ßexibility, or lack thereof. Currently unemployed, she was offered the perfect job recently but had to turn it down. “I was required to start work at 7am but as most child-care centres don’t open until at least 6:30am, it would have been impossible for me to get there before 7:15. This was deemed to be unacceptable so I’m back to looking for another job.” Michelle gets a parenting payment, Family Tax B, and the Child Care Rebate, which has slashed the cost of her child-care costs for her seven-year-old daughter Michaela from $100 a week down to $20. But, she says, regardless of the cost, the government needs to look at the childcare needs not only of women with office jobs, but also of those who work in industry, construction and factories. “These women all start work at 5 or 6am and, like most women, tend to be primary care-givers for their children – what are they supposed to do about Þnding child care that caters to their hours?” 

“As a nation, where have we gone wrong? Sweden, Norway and Denmark award women up to 96, 52 and 50 weeks of paid leave respectively.”

Childcare centre checklist We’ve all heard the horror stories of babies being accidentally locked in centres after hours, so how do you know the centre you’re looking at is a quality business? By visiting the centre to check that it is clean, safe and secure, and by asking questions such as these:

Is the centre accredited? How will my child be supervised? What activities will my child be doing in sunny and rainy weather? Who’s responsible for providing food and drinks, and is it adequate and nutritious? What happens if my child is sick or needs medication? How will I be informed of my child’s eating, feeding, toilet and sleeping habits? What are their rules on breast and bottle feeding? What is the staff-tochild ratio? Do you have to pay during Christmas holidays, or if your child is sick?

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CHILD CARE CRISIS So what am I entitled to?

Top: Joyanne Higginbottom

pays $107 a week in child care and it’s more than half what she earns at her part-time job; Above: Michelle Douglas had to turn down the perfect job offer due to the lack of flexibility in child care access.

If you’re currently expecting a baby yourself, there’s no need to panic just yet. You could be eligible for one or more of the following beneÞts. The Child Care BeneÞt is available to families w who use approved and registered child care, but tto get the maximum rate of $3.47 an hour for one cchild, your family income must be below $36,573. T The higher your family income, the scaled rate rreduces until it pays you nothing. This beneÞt is n not payable once your family income is over $$126,793 (Þgures for one child). The Child Care Tax Rebate covers 50 per cent o of out-of-pocket expenses for approved child care w with a rebate of $7500 per child per year, and even if you are assessed as being eligible for child-care rebate but you receive a zero rate due to high income, you can still eligible for this. You could also be eligible for Family Tax A, Family Tax B beneÞts, and the Baby Bonus. Visit www.familyassist.gov.au or call 13 61 50 to discuss your personal circumstances.

Long-day care Depending on where you live and how many days a week you require it, day-care centres can be expensive and the waiting lists can be long. But if you do get a spot, experienced care is always available during opening hours, your child gets to socialise with other children and the centre will have a structured program with routine and activities. Other negatives to consider include your child being exposed to illness, travel to and from the centre and less individual care.

Cost: $55-$105 per day Family day care Providing a relatively cheap child-care option, family day care is held in a safe home environment where your child can interact with children of varying ages and the hours can be arranged to suit your schedule. The downsides? Back-up care will need to be arranged if the carer is ill or on holiday, the variety of toys and activities a day-care centre has may not be available and the carer may not have formal qualiÞcations.

Cost: $4.50-$7.50 per hour

Keeping costs down •

•

When comparing costs, remember to factor in peripheral expenses such as the cost of travelling to and from care, and whether they provide food and nappies themselves. Shop around. Sharing a minder might work out to be a lot cheaper than your local day care centre if you look at all options closely. Pool resources with other mums in your area. If you work parttime on different days to a friend, share the load between you. Get cash back through child-care benefits (if eligible) and rebates. Check with your company if you are able to salary sacrifice child-care costs.

* Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Child Care Index

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What are my options? Minders O$en thought of as prestige symbols, minders or nannies can actually work out to be a lot cheaper than a child-care centre if you share with another family. BeneÞts include your child receiving one-on-one care, ßexible hours, li!le exposure to illness, and no disruptions to routine. The downsides are that you will have to arrange back-up care if the minder is ill, your child can miss out on daily social interactions and it can take time, patience and eﬀort to Þnd another family you’re compatible with.

Cost: From $10 per hour per family Au Pair Less expensive than minders, au pairs are usually tourists on a working visa who live with you and help out with the children. They’re great because your child will be exposed to new cultures and languages and your child enjoys the same beneÞts as having a live-in nanny. However, the consistency of care may not be up to your standard and they may have li!le experience or interest in children.

Cost: $80-$120 pocket money per week

Grandparents If you’re lucky enough to have your parents on hand to help out, this is the cheapest form of child care there is. Your child is in a familiar se!ing and will remain in a routine, but there will be li!le or no socialising with other children. Also parents, as they so o$en can, may go against your wishes, causing family conßict.

Cost: $0 Babysi!er A ßexible form of child care perfect for short periods where your child stays in the home environment. The downside of using babysi!ers is that their experience may be limited, they may have li!le or no qualiÞcation and they may not be available for longer care.

Cost: $10-$25 per hour ◆

Useful web sites Looking for child care for your little ones? These clever web sites all have search tools to help you find the best solution for your family in your local area. • www.ncac.gov.au • www.careforkids.com.au • www.familydaycare australia.com.au • www.findababysitter.com.au • www.nannyshare.com.au

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COOL MACHINES

chopping Welcome to a world of mind-blowing machinery that will redefine the way you look at motorcycles.

Above right: Jerry Covington’s Customs in USA, “Psychodelic” bike.

“Nothing is hidden on a chopper. There is no ‘interior’ requiring the slaying of vast cattle herds for their skins; nor is there the installation of million-watt sound systems with speakers the size of golf greens.” 54 theaustralianworker

BLOCK WRITTEN BY BORIS MIHAILOVIC

ad someone told me a decade ago that one of the world’s most popular and widely syndicated television shows would depict three immensely well-fed and dysfunctional American men arguing about welding and metal fabrication and how it relates to the building of ridiculously impractical motorcycles, I would have laughed and wondered what medication they were on. I am not laughing now. American Chopper, which started in 2003 and now has Þve seasons under its belt, as well as video-game spin-oﬀs and a multimilliondollar merchandising line, is, by any measure, a show-business phenomenon. Its cast, Paul Teutul Snr, and his sons Paul Junior and Michael, have travelled the world and been fêted by heads of state, featured on The Late Show with David Letterman and appeared in TV shows (My Name Is Earl), movies (Wild Hogs) and music clips (Nickelback’s Rock Star). And all because they build motorcycles – or “choppers”, as these metallic masterpieces are known. But the Teutuls are neither the Þrst nor the

best at building this type of motorcycle. They are merely the best-known, thanks to their publicity machine and the power of television. Choppers have been around for at least Þve decades and have gone from being a purely United States invention to a truly international design spectacle. The term “chopper” itself comes directly from post-WWII US, when thousands of demobilised GIs were happily spending their accumulated war pay on things like motorcycles and looking to get their kicks on highways like Route 66. Unhappy with the performance (and appearance) of standard motorcycles and with a clear concept of how power relates to weight, these blokes were soon “chopping” bits and pieces oﬀ their bikes in a bid for more speed and better handling. That era also saw the birth of the hot rod, and while there are similarities in the philosophy behind building choppers and building hot rods, the diﬀerences are vast. Nothing is hidden on a chopper. There is no “interior” requiring the slaying of vast cattle herds for their skins; nor is there the installation of million-watt sound systems with speakers the size of golf greens. A chopper’s purity is far more profound and requires nothing beyond the imaginative www.awu.net.au

juxtaposition of an engine, two wheels and the metal that bonds these disparate elements to make them work – both as a functioning motorcycle and as a work of art. That wasn’t so much the case in those post-war years, where function ruled over form, but the 1960s changed all that and chopper builders suddenly began opting for form over function. One reason was the sudden incursion and rapid expansion of Japanese bike manufacturers into the US, who very quickly made bikes that went faster, handled better and were far more reliable than the HarleyDavidsons, Indians and British marques that had been the staple diet of American chopper builders. Why would you need to hack 50kgs of extraneous steel off your Harley to make it go faster and steer better when you could buy a Honda that did all that straight off the showroom ßoor? And thus came about the Great Motorcycling Schism of the 60s, with the greater number of riders opting for the thrill of the ride itself over the pleasure of creating a one-off masterpiece that was, literally, a pain in the arse to ride, but looked so amazing it was impossible not to be impressed

Below: Wildstyle in Czech Republic, Snake Dream bike.

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with the single-mindedness it took to create such a beast. Chopper lovers very soon decided it would be fun to assemble many such machines in one place, sit in judgement upon them and call these events “Bike Shows”. Throughout the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, bike shows were the province of outlaw motorcycle clubs, or crowd-pleasing adjuncts to major events such as the Daytona motorcycle races, or the Sturgis motorcycle rally – and were pretty much an all-American thing, although there were small and somewhat more amateurish bike shows in “chopper-aware” countries like Australia, New Zealand, England and parts of western Europe. Then along came the internet, and suddenly legendary chopper artisans like Arlen Ness, Indian Larry, Dave Perewitz and Jerry Covington – previously only known to and worshipped by the initiated – had a much broader and highly attentive audience. Television saw the potential in choppers and the men who build them and after the amazing debut and success of American Chopper, began creating such programs as Biker Build-Oﬀ. Suddenly, big, loud, tattooed blokes waving spanners and breaking things were held to be interesting. Immense and professionally run international bike shows, like the World Championship of Custom Bike Building, also came into being as a result of the increasingly broad appeal of choppers – and as a result, machines of surreal and otherworldly beauty have now become the norm, rather than the exception they once were. One can only now wonder where the limit for these spectacular machines is – and hope that there actually isn’t one. ◆

all hail the ‘chopper’! Here are some of the hottest Chopper motorbikes of the moment…

Above: AT American Cycles in Germany, Stage-II bike.

Above: TGS Motorcycles in Germany, Seppster-2 Ice Racer bike.

Above: Team Sable in Spain, The Paisa bike.

Above: Jerry Covington’s customs in USA, S&S 50th bike. Below: Thunderbike in Germany, Open Mind bike.

FUTURE FOOTY

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g’day

CHINA! C WRITTEN BY AIDAN ORMOND PHOTOS AIDAN ORMOND & PERES CENTRE FOR PEACE

hina. The name conjures up stunning images of Great Walls, ancient civilizations and, more recently, a sporting jamboree known as the Olympics. But lately, a dash of Aussie sporting culture may have worked its way into this vast nation. Tianjin-based, Ballarat-raised Andrew Sawitsch’s mission is to discover AFL talent, train them up and, along the way, convert the People’s Republic of China into passionate, one-eyed footy fans. Well, that’s the plan anyway. Andrew is the AFL’s Þrst, and only, Chinabased development oﬃcer. He’s perfect for the job as it fuses the two loves of his life: Chinese culture and footy. “Having grown up in Victoria, I’m a passionate footy fan,” explains Andrew, who studied Chinese at high school and later spent a year studying in Beĳing. “The thing I really missed [in Beĳing] was my footy. That’s when I became interested in AFL internationally, and then its future in China.” So, what’s an average week for this unusual

foreign posting? Andrew spreads the footy gospel at schools and universities around Tianjin, Beĳing and occasionally Suzhou, where he sets up games and training. “We also get our standout Chinese players at training on Sundays for the Beĳing Bombers, who I also play for.” Essendon AFL club has become a partner with the Beĳing side but Andrew’s task at the coalface isn’t easy in a country where AFL doesn’t actually exist. Weather can be diﬃcult while soccer pitches become makeshift AFL arenas for nine v nine (AFL is 18-a-side) games. Occasionally, two grounds are used to replicate the larger AFL pitch but even then it may only be 15-a-side. “To use the old footy cliché, I take it week by week,” he laughs. “The hardest part is that AFL in China is at such an elementary stage without much structure or recognition of what it actually is, so it can be diﬃcult to get supporters and helpers on board.” However, speed has become a vital part of the modern AFL game and Andrew sees that f f as a crucial plus in his scouting role. “We’ve

“Andrew is the AFL’s ﬁrst, and only, China-based development ofﬁcer. He’s perfect for the job as it fuses the two loves of his life: Chinese culture and footy.”

33 theaustralianworker www.awu.net.au

It hasn’t yet conquered the Commonwealth, but Australia’s home grown footy co home-grown code is making a big impact in more “enlightened” A parts of the world. Aidan Ormond gam that sees investigates the game young players in Asia putting on the boots – and even plays a role in global peace keeping!

Opposite page AFL’s Beijing-based development officer Andrew Sawitsch with Zhao Yong Gen, captain of the Red Dragons – China’s national AFL team.

AFL vs the world!

The AFL’s annual International Cup last September drew together 16 fledgling AFL countries such as India, Finland and, for the first time, China’s Red Dragons. For Andrew Sawitsch, after years of planning just having his boys at the annual event was reward enough. But it got better. After some heavy losses, the team’s historic first win (a 14-point win over India) felt like a grand final triumph on that one day in September. “It was without doubt the single proudest moment, personally, I have had in Australian Football. “And for 30 young Chinese boys, they had the opportunity of a lifetime.”

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FUTURE FOOTY

“It’s said Chinese gold miners in the late 1800s enjoyed a kick of the footy in the Victorian goldfields.” 58 theaustralianworker

recruited mainly young, athletic players with a background in soccer or basketball, and I really try and encourage these guys to use their pace. “Handballing and kicking may take some time to master, but AFL is heading towards high speed and if you can outrun your opponent and get your hands on the ball before them, then that is one advantage you can exploit.” Andrew adds there is a curiosity factor from locals who assume once they see the ball he’s about to demonstrate American football. “So I see my role as breaking the pre-conceived ideas. Then once the basics have been introduced and they get into seeing or playing a match, they really do enjoy it.” Andrew has been the prime mover behind China’s debut appearance at AFL’s International Cup (see “AFL vs the world!”). Having their own team is vital in making Chinese fans and players take ownership of this foreign footy code. The Red Dragons’ preparations were helped by Melbourne footy club, who invited some Chinese players to train with them in the preseason earlier this year. Red Dragons captain Zhao Yong Gen was star-struck alongside Demons David Neitz and Russell Robertson even though some “lost in translation” moments hampered communication. Actually, this AFL-China link isn’t entirely new. The Saints and Demons undertook pre-season visits to Guangzhou in recent years while in 2002, Hawthorn published its membership material in Chinese and broadcast some games in Chinese on 3CW. And with China’s proximity, vast population and trading links with Australia, it all hints at a future where the two nations can foster closer ties through AFL. Perhaps one day China will play Australia? If that sounds far-fetched, Andrew Sawitsch can take inspiration from a chapter in Australian history. It’s said Chinese gold miners in the late 1800s enjoyed a kick of the footy in the Victorian goldÞelds. In fact, in 1908, Wally Koochew, whose father was Chinese, played four games for Carlton in the VFL. For inspiration, Andrew can also look to

another sport brought into China. US-based basketball superstar Yao Ming is a modern-day hero for Chinese fans. His success comes after years of the sport’s development in China. For Andrew Sawitsch, it’s provided inspiration for his own footy template. “As the world becomes more intertwined, AFL needs to evolve along with it. One day I think there will be an AFL player from China,” he predicts. “It’s probably a long way oﬀ but it will happen.” And if that day comes, a hearty “Xie xie” (“thank you”) will surely go out to this pioneer whose passion for Australia’s indigenous footy code is breaking new ground in an ancient land. ◆

A peace of the action “It started as a dream,” says Tanya Oziel, the executive director of the Australian chapter of the Peres Centre for Peace. She’s talking about the Palestinian-Israeli Peace team which played in this year’s AFL International Cup. This unique collaboration between Tanya’s organisation and Palestine’s Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue created an opportunity for understanding through footy. And with minimal preparation, the side even won a few games, but there was a wider victory. “It proved they can work together,” says a proud Tanya. “The reality surpassed all expectations.”

Top: The Palestinian-Israeli Peace Team have a bond that brings hope to a troubled region – and a bond with far-flung Australia’s favourite game. Above: Two peoples, one team, together in harmony – peace can and will happen!

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Products issued by Sunsuper Pty Ltd ABN 88 010 720 840 AFSL No. 228975 RSE Lic No. L0000291 RSE Reg No. R1000337. You should read the Product Disclosure Statement before making any investment decisions. For a copy call 13 11 84. bcm:sun 0257

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KIDS

kidding around

Families enjoying Lake Alexander – East Point.

There are some top family activities around our wide brown land that won’t break the bank. This issue, we explore what’s kid-friendly in the Darwin-to-Alice region. WRITTEN BY JAYNE D’ARCY PHOTOS TOURISM NT/MAGNT IMAGES 1. Lake Alexander

2. Stokes Hill Wharf

This crocodile-free artiÞcial seaside lake is perfect for kids who need a good salt-water swim or play but don’t want to dally with dangerous box jellyÞsh or crocs. The 3.5-hectare lake is Þlled with water from Fannie Bay and its bo!om can be a bit slimy, but that bodes well for a “wash it oﬀ later” slime Þght. If they’re lucky, the kids will probably have li!le Þsh accompanying them while they paddle, and once on dry land they can keep a look out for members of the local wallaby colony. The facilities are good and include a huge, shaded playground to muck around on, toilets and a bunch of free barbeques so you can make a day of it. Sunset is lovely at nearby Dudley Point. when: Open 24 hours. where: East Point Road, Fannie Bay. There’s no public transport directly to the lake and it’s a 3km walk from the Dick Ward Drive turn-oﬀ on bus route 4. contact: (08) 8930 0583.

Take a stroll to Stokes Hill Wharf, pick a waterside seat near the “barra burger” food outlets and wait for the sun to go down. That’s when the dolphins, crocs, sharks and Þsh begin competing for a bit of tucker. No doubt ba!ered Þsh and chips is not the ideal food for wild marine life, but when evening comes, diners seated on the wharf’s edge throw over their le#overs and everyone watches the ensuing Þsh-eat-Þsh entertainment. The start of the wet season is a great time to visit; watch lightning ßickering on the horizon and dolphins diving. To ensure good viewing, the water under the wharf is lit by underwater lighting, but there are areas with no rails, so hold onto the young ones or they might become Þsh food, too. when: Every evening. where: Stokes Hill Wharf, Darwin. It’s a 1km walk south-east of the centre of town, or catch a taxi. contact: (08) 8981 4268.

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3. Berry Springs Nature Park This was set up as a recreational park in WWII for the armed forces personnel who lived nearby. These days it’s mostly locals and travellers (and still the occasional soldier) who you’ll Þnd swimming in the beautifully clear three-tiered swimming hole. Goggles make Þsh-spo!ing easier, although if you forget them the kids and non-goggle users will still have fun spo!ing bigger Þsh from the water’s edge. Steps and rails help make it easy to enter the water, and there’s a great shallow area where younger ones can splash around. Once you’ve played “spot the Þsh”, had a waterfall massage and cooled oﬀ under the shady palms you can take a loop walk from the picnic area through monsoon rainforest and woodlands. There’s a café near the site and plenty of shaded parking. The visitor centre has displays showing what lives in the region. when: Open 8am-6.30pm daily but may be closed during the wet season. where: Turn oﬀ the Stuart Highway about 50km from Darwin then travel 10km down the Cox Peninsula Road. contact: www.nt.gov.au/nreta/parks; (08) 8988 6310.

4. Wycliffe Well Caravan Park This roadhouse is the self-proclaimed UFO capital of Australia, and you’ll spot the resident ßuorescent green alien family from the highway. Happily, they’re contained behind a small fence, as is their silver UFO, but there are many more li!le creatures from outer space on the restaurant’s roof and in the camping ground. Take the kids for a walk around to see larger-than-life statues of Elvis and TV characters including a grizzly looking Incredible Hulk and the Phantom. Murals seem to cover every inch of the park’s walls; even the indoor pool has been infected with mural fever, and they’re not all of UFOs. A small working railway has tracks that curl around the site, complete with train crossings. Behind the restaurant there’s a decent-sized collection of noisy emus and birds and a couple of much quieter bunnies to chat to. And then, of course, there are the UFOs. The restaurant has a bunch of UFO-sighting articles, and if you keep the clan awake and spot one (almost guaranteed if you stay awake all night, apparently!), you can add your sighting to the guestbook. when: Daily until 6pm. For a charge you can camp overnight. where: 375km north of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway. Long-distance buses stop here. contact: www.wycliﬀe.com.au; (08) 8964 1966.

5. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) There’s a massive crocodile here, but unlike Darwin’s resident crocs, it no longer lives and breathes (but still has the capacity to scare!). “Sweetheart” is a 5.4-metre saltie who ate outboard motors around popular Þshing spots in Darwin until capture led to his death in 1979. He’s a big part of the action at this free museum and now rests on a ramp under a video of his life and capture. In February 2009, he’ll be joined by a replica two-metre-long skull of a 12-metre “supercroc” in a new croc exhibition. When it opens, youngsters will have the chance get “hands-on” and interactive with crocs in the museum’s ground ßoor discovery centre. For now, there’s more heart-stopping action at the Cyclone Tracy exhibition, where you step www.awu.net.au

inside a dark room and get taken back to the roar of Christmas 1974 when the cyclone destroyed 70 per cent of Darwin’s buildings (this may be a bit too scary for tiny tots). If you’ve got a budding ranger on your hands, and you’re in Darwin for a while, kids aged 9-14 can actually register with MAGNT to become Junior Rangers. These rangers get to take part in activities in local Darwin parks from March to October. when: MAGNT is open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, weekends 10am-5pm. where: Conacher Street, Fannie Bay, Darwin. Bus route 4 stops a short walk away at the intersection of Conacher Street and East Point Road. contact: www.nt.gov.au/magnt; (08) 8999 8264.

1&5: Fishing – Stokes Hill Wharf – Darwin Wharf Precinct. 2: Berry Springs Nature Park. 3: Wycliffe Well Caravan Park. 4: Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin.

theaustralianworker 61

SCONES WITH A SECRET

cooking with Russ! Scone-mufﬁns

THE RECIPE makes approx. 12 prep time 10 minutes n 210°C, cook time pre-heated ove s. cook approx. 20 minute

ed 3 cups self-raising flour, sift ingredient!) ret sec (the de ¾ cup lemona 300ml thickened cream, dried fruit handful of chopped dates or k, plus 1 tbspn 1 whisked egg or a little mil sugar, for glazing cream, for serving Optional: jam and whipped 1

Russ Collison is a bloke with a hidden talent – and we’ve blown his cover! AWU members all know that the hard-working NSW Branch Secretary spends a lot of time sorting out workplace issues and defending workers’ hard-earned rights. But Russ, a one-time rigger, actually started his working life as a pastry chef. He didn’t pursue the trade but put a cook near a kitchen and, well, here’s what happened... PHOTOS DAVID HAHN

Russ enjoying the fruits of his labour along with a well-earned cuppa!

2: Pour the sifted flour, cream and lemonade into a bowl.

1: Chop the dates coarsley. I like to do this first as it proves a great time-saver for later on at the mixing stage.

RUSS’S

TIP

Adding lemonade: This secret ingredient makes the scone mixture really light and airy.

3: Next add in the dates; alternatively, to save time, buy pre-chopped dates.

62 theaustralianworker

4: Combine mixture with a spoon. There’s no need to use a food mixer.

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RUSS’S

TIP

5: Spoon out the mixture onto a floured board and gently pat it out until the mixture is about 2.5cm in thickness.

Sticky hands: Sometimes the mixture can get quite sticky. If this happens, add a little extra flour to the board – and your hands. And try and keep your hands as cool as possible

6: Make sure you’ve pre-heated the oven to 210°C. Grease the muffin tins, or use a small amount of cooking spray on non-stick tins.

“The finished article tastes great and they’re so quick and easy to make I often cook them up on a Sunday afternoon to have with a cuppa.”

RUSS’S

TIP

If you don’t have a cookie cutter: if you find that your cookie cutter has broken or gone rusty rendering it useless fear not! Improvise with a tumbler glass ensuring that it cuts the scones to the appropriate size for the muffin tins.

7: Using a pastry brush, gently brush on the whisked egg or milk then sprinkle with sugar.

8: Bake for approx. 20 minutes or until golden and the top springs back when lightly touched. When cooled slightly, ease the scone-muffins out the tins with a sharp knife.

9: Whip the extra cream. Serve the scone-muffins with a generous amount of your favourite jam, whipped cream and nice hot cuppa. Enjoy!

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theaustralianworker 63

Illustration Myles

KIDSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; PAGE

64 theaustralianworker

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indi & Ringer had both heard of the Aboriginal workers and their struggle for justice against a powerful cattle baron. Now they are hearing the story first-hand from a Gurindji stockman who was involved. It is a piece of history we must always remember and now, From Little Things Big Things Grow, a wonderful children’s book has been published telling the Gurindji people’s story and their battle for justice. We have three copies to give away, so for a chance to win one colour in the picture of Bindi, Ringer and the stockmen, send it to us, and the three best entries will win a copy of the book. See the box below for details on how to enter. Send your completed entry with your name, age and postal address, in a stamped envelope, to: From Little Things Big Things Grow Competition, The Australian Worker, ACP Magazines, Custom Media Department, 54 Park Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Unity in song, word and spirit The smash-hit song From Little Things Big Things Grow triggered an awakening of reconciliation among Australians from all communities. The song tells the story of the proud Gurindji mob, their leader Vincent Lingiari and their stand against the might of the British aristocrat and cattle baron, Lord Vestey. It is a story of hope and optimism. Now, Queensland artist Peter Hudson and the kids from Gurindji country have illustrated the inspirational story immortalised in the song that moved a generation. From Little Things Big things Grow, published by One Day Hill and Affirm Press, while a children’s book, will appeal to all ages. The book tells the story of the 1966 walk off by the Gurindji from Vestey’s Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory. What began as a strike over

wages and conditions ended as a battle for land rights that pre-dated Mabo. And The Australian Workers’ Union was proud to be associated with the book. At the launch Patrick Dodson, Chairman of the Lingiari Foundation, made special mention of the union

movement giving Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji mob a voice heard across the nation. The union movement in the Northern Territory played a key role in backing the Gurindji people in their struggle. In the first months of the strike, the Gurindji moved

camp to Wattie Creek, in the heart of their traditional land and waited. They knew they had right on their side and would win out. They just had to be patient. Years later, in August 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam arrived and poured the sand into old Vincent’s hand, symbolising the return of their land to the Gurindji, the traditional owners. Today, 700 Gurindji live in the towns of Daguragu, on the banks of Wattie Creek and Kalkarinji, formerly known as Wave Hill. By buying a copy of From Little Things Big Things Grow you will be helping these proud people keep their culture alive so future generations, the descendants of the strikers, know their important place in history. Money raised from the book’s sales will be channelled to the community by swimming legend Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth. The foundation empowers children, improving their education and health

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY 1). Instructions on “How To Enter” form part of these Conditions of Entry. The competition is open to all Australian residents. Employees of the promoter and their immediate families and agencies associated with this promotion are not eligible to enter. 2). Promotional period begins Thursday, 18 December, 2008 and closes last mail received Monday 2 February, 2009. To enter simply colour the picture on page 64, include the name, age and address details of the entrant. Send your

completed entry, in a stamped envelope, to From Little Things Big Things Grow Competition, The Australian Worker, ACP Magazines, Custom Media Department, 54 Park Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Only one entry per person permitted. 3). The contests will be judged by a panel appointed by the Promoter. Judging will begin on 3 February, 2009. Each entry will be individually judged based on originality and creative merit. This is a game of skill and chance plays no part in determining the winner. Prize winners will be notified by mail using contact

details provided in their entry. The judge’s decision in relation to any aspect of the competitions is final and binding on each person who enters. No correspondence will be entered into. The best 3 entries as determined by the judges, will each win a copy of the children’s book From Little Things Big Things Grow valued at $19.95 each. Total prize pool valued at $59.85. Prize does not include any ancillary costs associated with redeeming the prize. These are the responsibility of the winner. The promoter accepts no

responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail or for any prizes damaged in transit. All entries become the property of the promoter The collection, use and disclosure of personal information collected in connection with this promotion is governed by the Privacy Notice (see contents page). All prizes valued in Australian dollars. Prizes not transferable or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. The promoter is neither responsible nor liable for any change in value of a prize occurring between publishing date and date prize

Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s remarkable song, From Little Things Big Things Grow has inspired a wonderful children’s book based on the story of the famous Wave Hill Gurindji strike.

www.awu.net.au

Ian Thorpe with Kev Carmody, Jock Vincent (son of Vincent Lingiari), Patrick Dodson and Gus George at the launch of the children’s book From Little Things Big Grow.

from the youngest age. Through the Literacy Backpack Project in remote Aboriginal communities, the foundation also aims to help kids read and enjoy their own stories. So when you purchase a copy of the book, you’ll not only help to keep an extremely important historical event alive, you’ll be lending assistance to some special kids at the same time. Doing good doesn’t get much better than that!

is claimed. The promoter is not responsible for any prizes damaged in transit. The promoter shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever which could be suffered (including but not limited to indirect or consequential loss) or for any personal injury which may be suffered or sustained in connection with this promotion, except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law. The promoter is The Australian Workers’ Union, Level 10, 377-383 Sussex Street Sydney NSW 2000. ABN 28 853 022 982.

From Little Things Big Things Grow is available at good bookshops for $19.95 or on-line from One Day Hill Publishers at www. onedayhill.com.au

theaustralianworker 65

GRUMPY BASTARD

IT’S A

D’oh!gay, gay world Whatever happened to words? Check the dictionary and you’ll find that any new word entries are rarely more than three letters long and pronounced as grunts. Kevin Airs, who rants for Australia, has something to say about this – in words longer than three letters! WRITTEN BY KEVIN AIRS ILLUSTRATION MYLES

HO the hell comes up with this “new word” crap? Each year more words are added to the dictionary, yet fewer are being used – and they’re all ge!ing shorter. Welcome to the monosyllabic world of so-called grown-ups. The latest addition to the lexicon is “meh”. I’ll repeat that. It’s so small you may actually have missed it. Meh. Someone has taken the indiﬀerent noise you make when you’re asked what you think of the new Bond movie and given it a spelling, then called it a word. Meh. It follows hot on the heels of another recent addition, courtesy of The Simpsons – “D’oh”. Yes, d’oh. Don’t forget the apostrophe – it’s all part of the con job to get it into the dictionary by pretending to be complex and have foreignlooking punctuation for added style. In reality though, it’s just the exasperated noise you make when you realise you’ve done something a bit bloody stupid. But guess what? THESE ARE NOT WORDS. They are sounds. Grunts. We stopped using grunts to communicate 15,000 years ago. We swapped them for words. Proper words with more than three bloody le!ers. We’re devolving into Neanderthals and we boast about it by including them in our encyclopaedias of knowledge and issuing a ßurry of press releases to chart our decline. Our low a!ention span now extends to the very words we use and the sentences we speak. We can’t even be bothered to use more than three le!ers at a time. The English language boasts close to one million words in its vocabulary. Yet the number one insult for, well, EVERYTHING today seems now to be “gay”. The former insult of choice – “lame” – has one le!er too many, clearly, so a new three-le!er word was needed, and ‘gay’ must have put in the cheapest tender. Or, erm, something. One million words – and kids today can’t see past calling something “gay”, an insult that has all the intellectual challenge of Þnger-painting or Þlling a nappy. We used to worry about our kids saying four-le!er words. These days you’d be proud of a child that advanced. If your 66 theaustralianworker

kid calls someone a “dickhead”, double the uni fund... he’s clearly going to be a PhD student. This whole Þasco is pathetic and it’s time to expose it. So, by this time next year I want to sneak at least one of the two following words into the next edition of the Macquarie Dictionary. The Þrst is “FuF” (note the second capital F – classy, huh?). It is what you say when you are disgusted by something, best spoken out the side of your mouth, preferably with a wave of the hand. Secondly, “kep”, a word-sound expressed at someone’s stupidity. It perfectly recreates the sound of a palm slapping a forehead as you shake your head in disbelief. Either can be used as a youth-friendly three le!er alternative to “gay’ (“man, that is just FuF” –”That idiot is so kep!”) and have every bit as equal claim to being words as meh or d’oh. Right now, the internet says they are not real words so if we can get ‘em into the Macquarie Dictionary, we can show how bloody stupid this whole process is. FuF! ◆ www.awu.net.au

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