News

  • WA Unions debate June 28 actions

    Peter Short, Perth On March 21, the monthly Unions WA council meeting looked set to decide against organising an ACTU-proposed June 28 protest rally against the new federal industrial relations laws. However, several unions intervened to get

  • Port Hedland detention centre to close

    Julie Sprigg, Perth The Port Hedland Immigration Reception and Processing Centre is set to be mothballed by the end of June. All 52 detainees will be moved to South Australia's Baxter detention centre. Thirty-three detainees were moved in two

  • WA police break-up forest protest camp

    Chris Latham, Perth On August 17, 40 police broke up the six-week-old Forest Rescuers' protest camp in the Ludlow Forest near Busselton in south-west Western Australia, evicting 70 protesters. The move against the camp followed the granting of

  • Two-thirds favour Iraq troop pull-out

    Doug Lorimer Almost two-thirds of Australians want all Australian troops to be withdrawn from Iraq immediately or no later than May, a telephone poll of 500 randomly selected Australians conducted from March 10-13 found. Australia was one the

  • ACT teachers demand equal pay

    CANBERRA — On May 10, 4000 primary, secondary and Canberra Institute of Technology teachers participated in a stop-work meeting followed by a rally outside the ACT Legislative Assembly. The ACT branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU)

  • 'We got it wrong' on refugees says Labor candidate

    Nick Everett, Canberra "We got it wrong" on refugees, Kel Watt, the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro, told an August 12 public forum in the south-east NSW town of Braidwood, organised by the local branch of Rural Australians for

  • Justice for Palestine!

    Nick Everett, Canberra More than 60 people rallied outside the Israeli embassy on May 1, including supporters of Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine and a delegation of Palestine solidarity activists from Sydney. Anglican bishop of

  • CPSU fights IBM job losses

    Chris Slee, Melbourne The August 3 meeting of Australia-Asia Worker Links discussed how unions should respond to "offshoring" — the transfer of work from Australia to other countries. The feature speaker was Steve Cilia, a former IBM worker now

  • Victorian nurses impose hospital bans

    Sue Bolton, Melbourne Faced with intransigence from Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' Labor government, an April 20 mass meeting of public hospital nurses voted to reject the government's "offer" to remove previously won working conditions. The

  • ETU steps closer to 36-hour week

    Marcus Pabian, Melbourne On July 28, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) scored another victory in its ambitious campaign to institute a 36-hour week, improve working conditions and increase the number of apprentices in the Victorian power industry,

  • Boeing workers' defiance gets results

    Sue Bolton, Melbourne After Hawker de Havilland, a subsidiary of Boeing, unjustly sacked three union delegates at the Fisherman's Bend site in Port Melbourne, an August 17 meeting of workers voted to strike until the workers were reinstated. The

  • Answers demanded about Ranger contamination

    Jon Lamb, Darwin Ranger uranium mine workers, along with the residents of Jabiru and the traditional owners of Kakadu, remain deeply concerned about the recent contamination of drinking water and water systems surrounding the mine. The mine was