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The union movement in Australia has fought hard to protect Australians' rights to equal pay for equal work, without discrimination. However the Howard Government's Work Choices legislation seems to have undermined this.
The Coalition's election campaign portrays union officials as industrial thugs. But far too often, they are the only support mechanism standing between stressed Australian workers and human tragedy.
Work plays an immensely important role in personal, family and community relations. We can expect that the Federal Government's Work Choices legislation will have a significant impact on its election prospects.
The Australian character is set against that of the European nations from which the 'new Australians' arrived after World War II. For them, Australia offered "considerably safety and little menace", but heavily curtained windows rather than dancing in the streets they were accustomed to.
Keith Harvey is a National Industrial Officer for the Australian Services Union and has worked in the union movement for almost 35 years. Over this time he has been a close observer of interplay between Christian social teaching and industrial law, and especially since the advent of the Federal Government’s WorkChoices legislation.
The Government’s "fairness" Bill provided that new agreements should compensate employees for loss of particular award conditions. Since individual agreements remain the cornerstone of the Government’s laws, the fundamental right of employees to bargain collectively and be represented by their union remains absent.
It’s an ordinary day at the Citizenship Traditional School. Citizenship questions are about Australian values – fair go, mateship, correct use of English, etc. Take the questions home and memorise the right answers.
Mr Howard is a master of talking over people he doesn’t want to hear from. By going on talkback, politicians can appear to be available in an open and unstructured forum, reaching out over the heads of the media to constituents.
A NSW Labor Senator predicts that Kevin Rudd’s leadership of the ALP will be sophisticated and incisive in identifying the trigger points that will defeat the Howard government.
Union officials and ministers of religion have much in common. No-one rings a union to tell them that they’re being treated well and paid decently. People only ring the union when they’re in trouble, and usually, by the time they get around to doing so, they’re in lots of trouble.