Naarm/Melbourne

Maurie Mahoney, Textiles Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA) delegate at Wangaratta’s Bruck Textiles, is being targeted at work with disciplinary action that could result in dismissal, after speaking out against Work Choices laws allowing the company to pay some workers less then the federal government’s Fair Pay standards. Bruck management informed Mahoney that he had breached his terms and conditions of employment. He was directed that he must not speak about the matter with anyone other than his wife, who is one of the Bruck workers currently being paid under the Fair Pay standard.

A peaceful community assembly was held on Friday September 21 outside the Melbourne headquarters of Incitec Pivot Limited. Of the three Australian companies importing phosphate from Morocco sourced in Western Sahara, IPL has the largest share of the superphosphate market.

Labor has retained the seats vacated by former Victorian premier Steve Bracks and deputy premier John Thwaites. The results of the recent Williamstown and Albert Park by-elections confirmed the ALP’s Wade Noonan (a former Transport Workers’ Union assistant secretary) and Martin Foley (former state secretary of the Australian Services Union, who is chief of staff to Victorian police minister Bob Cameron) as respective successful candidates.

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review on September 17, Jeff Lawrence, the new secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), said that under a Rudd Labor government, unions would seek to engage constructively with businesses and employer groups. “There won’t be any targeting of employers who have used AWAs [individual contracts] … I specifically rule that out”, he said.

“Each night we wonder whether we will see the morning, or if a tidal wave or tsunami might wash us away in the night”, Bernard Tunim of the Carteret Islands community in Papua New Guinea told a public meeting on September 19 organised by Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Oxfam Australia.

On September 9, 300 people met in a community hall in the east Melbourne suburb of Scoresby to show their support for three Tamil community members who were arrested in May under the “anti-terror” laws.

Workers employed by the Bruck Textiles, Australia’s largest maker of woven fabrics, at its main manufacturing plant in the Victorian town of Wangaratta have twice voted to reject management’s non-union agreements that would significantly reduce their entitlements and have instead requested the company negotiate with their union, the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA).

Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby said on August 21 that he will only extend his government’s contracts with Yarra Trams and rail company Connex until the end of 2009, after which there will be a world-wide tender for private operators of Melbourne’s public transport systems.

Established in December 2001, the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) was set up with the stated aim of regulating and promoting the teaching profession in Victoria.

A spirited demonstration outside Toyota’s Melbourne headquarters on August 28 highlighted the company’s abuse of workers’ rights in the Philippines.

On August 30, footwear workers formerly employed by Michaelis Bayley Holdings Pty Ltd — maker of the Homy Ped shoe brand — staged a protest outside the company’s Footscray offices. According to Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA) secretary Michele O'Neil, the company has sought to avoid redundancy provisions contained in the enterprise bargaining agreement it had committed to honour two years ago.

Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA) Victorian secretary Michele O’Neil was so furious when she heard the Labor Party’s reworking of its industrial relations policy that she penned an open letter to Labor leader Kevin Rudd and deputy leader Julia Gillard in protest [see page 8].