Chris Slee

  • Tax workers want pay rise without strings

    The Australian Taxation Office's insistence that staff must meet "corporate indicators" before receiving a pay rise will likely be a hot issue in negotiations on a new certified agreement for the agency. At a May 16-19 meeting of

  • Union and commission stand off

    MELBOURNE — On May 6, Anne Duggan, the Victorian training officer of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), was ordered by Commissioner Terence Cole to give the royal commission into the building industry the

  • Rallies to free Tian Chua

    BY SUE BOLTON & CHRIS SLEE On April 10, protests were held around the world to call for the unconditional release of six Malaysian government critics, including Tian Chua, the organiser of the Labour Resource Centre in Malaysia. The critics have

  • Building workers to defy Royal Commission

    MELBOURNE — In a combined mass meeting on October 24, 10,000 construction unionists have decided not to cooperate with the royal commission into the industry set up by the federal government and have backed a united industrial

  • Building workers protest Abbott's kangaroo court

    BY CHRIS SLEE& SUE BOLTON MELBOURNE — Between 8000-10,000 building workers marched through central Melbourne and converged on the Collins Street headquarters of the federal royal commission into the building industry on October 10, the day of the

  • Yallourn arbitration favours company

    MELBOURNE — The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has ruled that Yallourn Energy's draft enterprise agreement, known as EB2000, should be adopted as the award governing workers' pay and conditions, despite its rejection in

  • Tax workers to fight job cuts

    MELBOURNE — Community and Public Sector Union members in tax offices around Australia have voted to endorse a campaign against planned job cuts. In the last budget the federal government cut Australian Taxation Office funding by

  • Sri Lankan diplomat accused of violations

    MELBOURNE — Five hundred people protested on September 2 against a visit by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia, Janaka Perera. Because of the protest, Perera's meeting was shifted to another venue. Perera, a former

  • Unionists back new safety law

    MELBOURNE — One thousand shop stewards and health and safety representatives came together on August 23 for a meeting called by the Victorian Trades Hall Council in support of the state Labor government's planned industrial

  • Thousands of tax workers under threat

    MELBOURNE — The Australian Tax Office is preparing to sack thousands of its workers, following a 9% cut in the department's funding announced in the May federal budget. The tax office has taken on several thousand new workers in

  • SRI LANKA: People must unite to bring about peace

    The civil war raging in Sri Lanka cannot be ended through negotiations between the government and Tamils fighting for self-determination, a visiting Sri Lankan farmer activist has said. It is "the unarmed people of all ethnic groups

  • Socialist Alliance campaign takes to the streets

    BY CHRIS SLEE & GRAHAM MATTHEWS MELBOURNE — On June 30 Socialist Alliance activists took their campaign in the federal electorate of Aston to the streets to protest the first anniversary of the GST. The Aston by-election, to be held on July 14,