Jacob Kovco: after the shot, a sickening silence

So now we privatise our war dead, do we? Even some poor bugger who died in circumstances they insist they're not exactly sure about, except that it was a "tragic accident". What other sort is there when someone ends up dead?

And was this why John Howard stayed silent about Jacob Kovco's death until three days after he died? Because the circumstances of Australia's first military death in Iraq look a bit smelly? A young soldier only a month in Baghdad dies with a bullet in the head in the same room as two army comrades, yet nobody "knows" what happened? Come off it.

Then the army repeats the unbelievable. It loses his body.

A friend emailed yesterday: "We talk about a values debate in Australia? F--- me dead! A billionaire media mogul like Kerry Packer, who celebrated his tax minimisation, gets a publicly funded state memorial service, and a Private Kovco, who offered his life for his country and paid the ultimate price, gets treated like a piece of meat." His bitterness only reflects national outrage. How can this be?

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Songs of Chris Kempster: National Folk Festival launch

One of the highlights at the National Folk Festival this year was the "Songs of Chris Kempster" double CD launch. For two years the Chris Kempster Project team had worked to raise funding, to find the thirty tracks we were to use, to get copyright clearance, to write and organise the design of the booklet and finally to produce as professional a CD as we could muster.
There were many near misses, including the possibility of no CDs to launch, but there were many more hits. We had great support from the folk community from day one, we had crucial support from institutions like the National Library and the ABC, with their invaluable archives. We had support from audiences at the fundraising concerts and from the NSW Folk Federation. We had support form Cornstalk and Trad&Now. We had support from folk festivals from unions and from New Theatre. Most importantly we had the budgetary support for the project from our thirty odd sponsors. From our lists of contacts and supporters we worked out that over 100 people "out there" were helping to push this project along.

The Chris Kempster Project team met maybe six or seven times over the two years and a huge amout of our work was done by email, well over 500 emails bouncing back and forth to sort things out, correct wording and historical facts, and finally agree on the content of the CD and its booklet. We ran a website [ chriskempster.net ] to keep people informed of our activities and our fundraising. Such a 21st Century endeavour!

The launch itself was incredible, such a high level of entertainment, such a keen and generous audience, such rapport, such a meeting of minds and souls. Launched? That CD took off like a blooming rocket!

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Asbestos is the World's Biggest Industrial Killer - Ban it Now!

This year, on International Workers Memorial Day, April 28, unions nationally and internationally are mobilizing to promote government action for a global ban on the production, import, export and use of all asbestos products, government support for a transition to safe and sustainable jobs, and justice for the global victims of the deadly fiber.

Asbestos is the world's biggest industrial killer, claiming at least 100,000 lives annually. IUF members in every sector are exposed to asbestos in a variety of situations - in agriculture, food processing, hotels, restaurants and catering enterprises, where asbestos and asbestos-containing materials were and are used as insulation and fire-retardants products, in wallboard, paint and other construction materials, pipe and furnace insulation materials, shingles, tiles, and machine installations.

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State laws key to IR test case

The actions of a South Australian company which retrenched two apprentices under new federal workplace laws could be illegal under state law.

In a landmark case heard by the Grievances and Disputes Mediation Committee at the Adelaide Town Hall yesterday, SA Unions said it thought it was illegal, even under federal legislation, to sack an apprentice.

Third-year apprentice electricians Robert Elkson, 19, and Greg Garrard, 20, were fired without notice by Kadina electrical and plumbing company Mildwaters Trade Centre on March 27 - the same day the Federal Government's new workplace laws came into effect.

Unions SA representative Janet Giles said a positive outcome in the case could send a firm warning to SA employers.

"It is very important to have protective legislation at a state level," she said.

"To sack someone at a trainee level is a double-whammy.

"It takes away their job and their training.

"We need to safeguard our trainee system."

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Your Rights at Work: soccer to 'em

This weekend the NSW ETU takes it a step further, with the launch of a sponsorship deal of the Nepean and Central Coast Soccer Associations.

This Saturday night at the newly named 'Your Rights at Work' stadium at St Mary's, the Central Coast Lightning and Penrith-Nepean United will lock horns in the State Super League - both teams wearing 'Your Rights at Work' logos on their jerseys.

The sponsorship deals go all the way down the junior grades and also covers women's sides - if you or your family play soccer in the Federal seats of Lindsay and Dobell - the Your Rights At Work brand will be in your face each and every week of the season.

Will it overthrow a government? Not on its own, but it's the sort of presence that can get inside your mind and ensure that when you do exercise your democratic rights you will not be easily swayed by the latest morsel the government throws in your way.

Those in government hoping the union campaign will run out of steam should be rightly concerned. We are kicking on.

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