Howard versus Obama

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Nurses Vote to Campaign on IR Laws

NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) members in more than 100 public hospitals and health facilities across the State have voted to run a campaign, in the lead up to the March 24 State election, on the impact of State and federal industrial relations laws on the nurse shortage.

The campaign, entitled Nurses Rights at Work: Worth Fighting and Voting For will include public events during March, in many NSW cities, towns and suburbs, aimed at highlighting the negative impact laws such as John Howard's new industrial relations laws would have on recent, successful efforts to overcome the nurse shortage in NSW public hospitals.

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AMWU: Thales campaign

The French-based multinational giant Thales is taking advantage of the new anti-union legislation enacted by the government of John Howard. It is telling some workers that the company will not re-negotiate collective agreements. It is trying to weaken those agreements in other cases, or is stalling talks. The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) is asking for our help to send a loud and clear message to Thales. Again, it will only take you a few seconds and it will make a difference.

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Launch of the MACQUARIE CAMPAIGN

Launch of the MACQUARIE CAMPAIGN

[download A4 flyer]

You are invited to the launch of the Macquarie Campaign to be held on

Sunday 11th February
10:30am – 2:30pm
Lithgow Workmen’s Club
3-7 Tank Street Lithgow

Across the Macquarie electorate there are community members from the Lower Blue
Mountains out to Bathurst actively involved in the Your Rights at Work campaign.

The time has come to get together and work through some of the key goals for the
Macquarie Campaign and meet those also involved in the fight to restore
fairness back into the workplace.

Morning Tea and Lunch will be provided.

Please confirm your availability for catering purposes by filling out your details and send off this slip to Daniel Walton
Unions NSW - Level 3, 4 Goulburn Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
email: dwalton@unionsnsw.org.au or fax: 9261 3505
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Name:
Address: Suburb: Postcode:
Contact Number: Contact Mobile:
Email:

There are a limited amount of positions available so please confirm asap to guarantee your seat. For more information about the event please contact Daniel Walton on 9881 5999 or 0413 232 018.

Tristar: Howard's law in operation

Labor’s IR spokesperson, Julia Gillard, has met the 35 Tristar factory workers still waiting for a fair outcome after new workplace minister Joe Hockey failed to secure their entitlements in a meeting with company director Andrew Gwinnett last week.

In an embarrassment for the government, Mr. Hockey was unable to get the company to agree to pay the workers their entitlements and was forced to admit that its tactics of paying workers to do nothing for months on end until their entitlements expire were perfectly legal under his IR laws.

It is cheaper for the company to pay its workforce to do nothing until next year when their collective agreement will expire, leaving the workers, some with more than 40 years service, with redundancy packages as low as $8 000 under the new laws.

The company has insisted that it must remain open and has new work on the way, despite the fact that most of its machinery has been removed and the Marrickville factory has stood idle for months.

Julia Gillard said that Labor would rip up John Howard’s IR laws and ensure this situation never occurred again.

“A Labor government will never allow a company to treat hard working Australian families so unfairly again.”

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