Stuart Martin

  • Carr tries to escape protests

    WOLLONGONG — Labor Premier Bob Carr has studiously avoided Wollongong since June 27, when a mass meeting of Illawarra workers declared that they would demonstrate outside his next appearance in protest against his government's

  • BHP's outsourcing still on hold

    WOLLONGONG — At an August 20 hearing of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Australian Workers Union succeeded in again delaying BHP's attempt to sign outsourcing contracts

  • Hundreds of jobs under threat at BHP

    WOLLONGONG — Determined to outsource maintenance work at its Port Kembla steelworks, BHP executives announced on August 7 that 436 jobs in the general and rail maintenance crews are to be axed and the contracts for them handed to

  • BHP facing strike action

    PORT KEMBLA — Unions representing workers at BHP Steel have been angered by a decision by Serco to reduce staffing at a number of ambulance stations, including two 24-hour stations. Serco also plans to replace some stations

  • Socialist Alliance plans campaigns

    WOLLONGONG — "If the Socialist Alliance is going to gain the confidence of working people, we have to make a firm commitment to our policies. It's not enough to have a great platform, we have to be supporting these campaigns."

  • Unions to fight for call centre workers

    WOLLONGONG - Unions have launched a campaign to improve pay and conditions for call centre workers, protesting outside the Stellar call centre on July 12. The campaign is in part a response to the continuing victimisation of

  • Council workers strike for better pay

    BY TYRION PERKINS & STUART MARTIN WOLLONGONG — Council workers have struck for two days here after Wollongong City Council refused to increase its pay offer in negotiations on a new enterprise agreement. Employees originally called for a 15%

  • South Coast to fight on against Carr

    WOLLONGONG — In stark contrast to the vague talk from officials in meetings elsewhere, the South Coast Labor Council's June 27 stopwork meeting on the campaign to save WorkCover debated a definite course of action — and was

  • Reith comes to rescue of outsourcers

    BY STUART MARTIN& MELANIE SJOBERG Workplace relations minister Peter Reith is yet again planning to tinker with his own draconian industrial relations laws, this time with the aim of ensuring that employers can cut the pay and conditions of workers

  • Protests for refugee rights

    BY SUSAN PRICE& STUART MARTIN More than 200 people rallied outside the Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne on August 26 in support of refugees' rights. The facility is run on behalf of the Australian government by Australian Corrections

  • Jobs threatened by market testing

    Jobs threatened by market testingCANBERRA — The announcement the Liberal government to market test every public sector function with the intention to outsource to the private sector threatens thousands of jobs. The first jobs

  • Union rank and file ready for elections

    CANBERRA — Members First, the rank-and-file group challenging the incumbents in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), believes it is ready for the union's national office bearer election, which opened on May 5 and run