Howard: safety underminer!

John Howard wants the states to change occupational health and safety requirements so responsibility for mine accidents are not focused solely on mine managers, as he says is presently the case in some jurisdictions.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) president Tony Maher says Mr Howard's claim that mine managers are solely responsible for accidents is false, and that any changes would lower safety standards.

"What Howard says in his letter is wholly false," Mr Maher said.

"The legal liability does not solely rest on mine managers.

"The legal liability is placed on all employees, and employers in the industry.

"That's proven by the fact that companies are prosecuted, managers are prosecuted, those lower in management ranks have been prosecuted, and ordinary rank and file mine workers have been prosecuted.

"It's all well and good to put your arms around the Beaconsfield survivors, and shed crocodile tears about mine safety.

"But the laws that we have around the country have been built on the backs of the deaths of over 4,000 Australians.

"There'll be lower standards if they are changed. Basically he'll have blood on his hands. More people will die. More people will be injured."

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Voter penalty rates: Howard Out!

The Christmas press is full of examples of people forced to work over Christmas without any extra payment because of Scrooge Howard's industrial relations laws. There are warnings too, that Howard's days as PM are numbered as this excerpt from a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald reveals:

"justice will be delivered at the next election. This is not dog-eat-dog America and we are not going your way, Mr Howard. It's Australia and the workforce is sick of overpaid chief executives shoving decent, ordinary working people around. Retribution is just months away now - it's going to be sweet. There are more of us than there are of you. You should have done the maths before you decided to treat us with contempt.

And mate, I voted for your party last time and the time before that. Without the industrial relations laws I would have voted for you again. You are screwing hard-working people and we are not going to take it".

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Iran: Osanloo freed by union campaign

Mansour Osanloo (file photo)

(kosoof.com)

And he is, in part thanks to the thousands of LabourStart readers who sent messages of protest to the Iranian government. (Photo: IASWI).

Click here for the latest news on his release on 19 December.

Loggers lies exposed

If we are going to take a firm step in tackling climate change, it is important to read, understand and acknowledge the science that has been conducted over the past decade on climate change, and the role native forest and woodland ecosystems play in ameliorating the process, and what happens when we log and clear them.

For example, research conducted (and peer-reviewed) by independent scientists from the Australian National University, Melbourne University and Monash University show that almost 10,000 hectares of Victoria's native forest and woodlands were logged last year, and this process released about 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. This is the equivalent to an extra 2.4 million cars on Victoria's roads for a year.

An important part of this analysis is that it accounted for all the carbon that could have theoretically been stored in wood products, generated from the logged timber.

The 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide released came from other elements of the native ecosystems being logged, including carbon found in the stems, litter and the soil.

Not surprisingly, these carbon emissions are never accounted for by the native forest industry in their reports, or in their opinion pieces.

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Qantas "fry the flag" sell off - sell out

After years of trying to outsource every skilled job from maintenance work to pilots, while still claiming to be Australian, Qantas finally shows it's true flag the flag of convenience, the surrender to the global asset strippers with shonky money sloshing around for another slice of what the taxpayer and employees built up over generations.

One striking aspect of this modern craze of "debt financed" takeover is that the $11 billion buyout will increase the Qantas debt from $4 billion to $18 billion! Tax dodging writ large, yet Howard says his government "will not take sides".

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Acting National Secretary Dave Oliver said the take-over bid by Macquarie Bank and Texas Pacific Group was not in the national interest and would make the loss of jobs and a decrease in safety standards more likely.

“Qantas is an Australian icon and the service, safety and standards that it is famous for are all down to the Australian workers who make up the Spirit of Australia.”

“It is against the national interest for the Prime Minister and Treasurer to sign-off on this take-over bid.”

“We are extremely concerned of the likely approach Texas Pacific will take going from their previous willingness to sack workers and send the jobs overseas.”

“For example their take-over of airline catering company Gate Gourmet in the UK led to the sacking of 3000 workers, and when they took over German Grohe Water Technology they commissioned a study that recommended sending production to China and then sacked around a fifth of the workforce.”

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Unions are also troubled by the fact that the Howard Government's new IR laws have made the take over of Qantas a more attractive proposition because they allow major cuts to workers' wages and conditions in a number of ways. Qantas has already started the process of cutting workers' pay through the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements.

In the likely event the company is restructured, it is also possible under the IR laws for workers to lose all their terms and conditions including entitlements to public holidays, leave loadings, penalties, allowances and redundancy pay - receiving only $13.47 per hour and four other minimum conditions.

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More important than the future of Qantas is the whole phenomenon of "private equity" and where it's likely to take us. Private equity is negative gearing for companies. No wonder wise heads are warning it will end in tears.

The company's desire - under present or proposed owners - to continue enjoying the profits flowing from government protection as the "national carrier", while continuing to cut costs and reduce service.

In this it's a typical Macquarie Bank acquisition. Macquarie has roamed the world seeking to control government-granted monopolies that have been privatised and inadequately regulated. Wherever politicians screw up, there is Macquarie clipping tickets.

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