Our great people …
Colleagues, teachers..
Federations and trade unions in our beloved Iraq..

At this stage, the ITU struggle along side the people of Iraq to consolidate the principles foundation of the democratic culture and practice in our beloved country. But the Iraqi political arena is experiencing a sense of confusion and deviation from the Iraqi constitution. The ITU is determined to continue with the task in galvanizing teachers, other trade unions federations and our society to shape public opinion that will stand as a wall against any breach or deviation from the Constitution and rule of the law, by the government of Iraq. The concept of the principle of separation of powers is facing blatant violations by the Iraqi executive as it is trying to swallow the legislative power. The current executive authority is moving to swallow up all civil society organizations and thus turning them into fronts for the executive and the ruling political power.

And today the Iraqi government and through its Ministerial Committee responsible for Governing Council decision No. (3), trying to swallow the unions in Iraq thereby flouting the constitutional principles and norms of democracy, and even violating the Governing Council decision No 3 despite the controversy and debate about its legitimacy.

The ITU view is that we must use this opportunity to galvanize our society against all these anti democratic cultural which is derived from a culture of authoritarian dictatorship that is unfortunately still rooted in the hearts of the champions the current crisis.

Most of the current Iraqi political parties are the product of the new Iraq but unfortunately their internal structure and their literature still fixed in the culture of different types of dictatorship (some still believe in the politics of the sole leader). The plunder of Iraqi wealth and the waste of public funds and the imposition of sectarian and ethnic polity are one aspect and product of a culture of dictatorship that still has root in thinking of the new Iraq.

Therefore the ITU appeal to the Iraqi people, Iraqi writers, and intellectuals and fraternal teachers trade unions around the world to unite in supporting the Iraqi trade unions movement. The ITU will use all available peaceful and democratic rights enshrined in the constitution to correct the current political stand with Iraqi authority and thus minimize the deviation from our constitution leading to a democratic culture in order to establish culture of accountability and control and the right to peaceful opposition, under the rule of law and justice.

The Iraqi Teachers Union

Baghdad

28 March 2008

You can help!  click on link on this page.

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=491

STOP the CELL OFF – NO PRISON$ FOR PROFIT$!

RALLY: 11.00am Thursday 2 April

Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney

Assemble 10.00am in Hyde Park (Archibald Fountain).

The NSW Government is planning to privatise the State’s prisons.

Minister Robertson claims there will only be two privatisations, but the Department has other plans. They have admitted the privatisations are a union-busting exercise and are using covert actions to undermine unions and ignore local communities, workers and their families.

Private prisons will hurt local communities. Jobs will be lost and safety will be compromised. Prisons should not be run for profit.

Help stop further attacks on our public services

Premier Nathan Rees told the Daily Telegraph on Saturday that the Labor Party’s policies on privatisation, which are directly breached by the proposed prison privatisation, “doesn’t reflect the modern economic environment”, saying “you have to crack an egg to make an omelette”.  It’s time to make our politicians listen to the community and make a stand against the fire sales of essential services.

Please support the correctional officers at in their campaign by coming to the rally next Monday, printing off the attached flyer and distributing in your workplace or neighbourhood, and encouraging others to attend and sign the petition.

Stop the Cell Off!

Sign the petition here.

www.stopthecelloff.org.au

New industrial relations laws passed by the Federal Parliament today are a major step forward for working Australians and the nation.

The laws will provide working families with stronger rights and protection in the economic downturn, says the ACTU.

They give employees strong collective bargaining rights and represent the beginning of a new era of industrial relations that promises to be good for both working families and the economy.

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the passage of the Fair Work Law marks an historic moment in restoring workers’ rights.

“After a decade of attacks on working people by the Liberal and National Parties the tide has turned,” said Ms Burrow.

“While the Liberal Party remains hopelessly devoted to WorkChoices, the Australian people want workers’ rights restored.

“Everyone involved in the Your Rights at Work Campaign and all those who voted against WorkChoices will be relieved to see the laws pass through Parliament.

“We can take pride in what we have achieved.”

Ms Burrow said the new laws would deliver:

• Genuine rights for workers to collectively bargain and be represented by their union.

• Unfair dismissal protection for all workers — with workers in smaller businesses having a longer qualifying period.

• A robust new safety net of awards and national standards, along with a fair and transparent process for setting minimum wages.

• An industrial umpire with the teeth to safeguard workers’ rights

THE Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has stared down the Opposition to secure a last-minute Senate deal that will guard the Federal Government’s industrial relations legislation and complete the dismantling of the Coalition’s Work Choices system.

In an intense Parliamentary tussle, the Family First senator Steve Fielding switched sides yesterday to back the Government’s Fair Work Bill after Ms Gillard agreed to his request to phase in new unfair dismissal laws.

The deal leaves Labor’s legislation intact, including the central sticking point, the Government’s insistence that special unfair dismissal rules for small businesses should only apply to employers with fewer than 15 employees. It clears the way for the legislation – which introduces 10 minimum employment entitlements, creates a single workplace regulator and increase legal support for unions and collective bargaining – to start coming into effect on July 1.

Ms Gillard said it showed what could be achieved when people who opposed “the disgraceful Work Choices laws” and were committed to fairness worked together.

“What has been starkly revealed in this debate is the complete political humiliation of the Liberal Party, which stood in the way of the Australian people,” Ms Gillard said. “The Liberals failed to move one constructive amendment and are now consigned to the political fringes, where their extreme workplace laws have always been.”

The Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, said he had taken “a strong and principled stand” on small business unfair dismissal rules. He said the new law would destroy jobs because small business owners would be less inclined to hire staff.

Under Labor’s bill businesses with fewer than 15 employees can sack a worker within 12 months of hiring them without redress. After 12 months they will not face redress if they follow a small business fair dismissal code.

Late on Thursday Senator Fielding, the Opposition and the South Australian independent Nick Xenophon used their Senate numbers to extend these rules to more employers by increasing the threshold to businesses with fewer than 20 employees.

But under yesterday’s deal with Senator Fielding the figure will revert to 15 employees. Until January 2011 this will be calculated in terms of full-time equivalent employees. After January 2011 it will be a headcount of employees.

Senator Fielding said the deal buried Work Choices. “Family First voted against Work Choices because it was a dog; it was a dog that bit Australians harshly,” Senator Fielding said.

Earlier yesterday Ms Gillard and Mr Turnbull traded bitter accusations in Parliament.

Mr Turnbull said she was trying to make a “pathetic political point” against the Coalition.

“We are here … because the Deputy Prime Minister is so callously stubborn, so vain, so determined to get the last bit of political value out of this,” Mr Turnbull said.

Ms Gillard said: “Yes, we are stubborn in doing what we said we would do because we believe in telling the Australian people the truth. I can’t wait to see the bumper stickers from the Liberal Party for the next election: ‘Don’t vote Labor, they are too stubborn in delivering what they promised.”‘

1. A new national safety net comprised:
o 10 National Employment Standards (38 hour standard week and no unreasonable overtime; parental, annual, personal, long service, and community leave; flexible work for parents; notice and redundancy pay; public holidays; and information on hiring) applicable to all employees regardless of their occupation, industry or level of seniority; and
o Modern awards that cover most (but not all) matters that have been traditionally regulated by awards in both the federal and State systems; and
o minimum wages for award free employees, set by FWA.
The laws guarantee that safety net will be regularly reviewed to ensure minimum wages and conditions are maintained and adjusted over time and adjusted having regard to economic factors, living standards and the needs of the low paid.
2. The restoration of unfair dismissal rights to employees denied them under WorkChoices, and the extension of unfair dismissal rights to other groups of employees, subject to employees having served either a 6 or 12 month qualifying period. FWA can look at the circumstances of the dismissal, including where the employer claims the dismissal was for operational reasons. In businesses employing fewer than 15 employees FWA will enquire whether the employer has complied with a new unfair dismissal code;
3. New rules regarding agreements and bargaining. The key features are:
o There will be collective agreements that cannot undercut the national employment standards and must ensure every employee covered by the agreement is better off overall that they would be on the award. There will be no new statutory individual contracts, although the phase-out rules allow existing AWAs to remain operative until replaced with a new agreement, even if they provide for conditions that do not meet the “better off overall test”. A union with a member can be bound by an agreement.
o Bargaining must occur in good faith. FWA can resolve disputes about the scope of agreements (ie who should be covered) and whether the majority of employees support bargaining for an agreement. FWA can make such orders as a necessary to ensure good faith bargaining occurs.
o Parties can bargain about a broader range of matters than under any previous laws, including matters that relate to the employer’s relationship with the employees or with a union that will be covered by the agreement, or about payroll deductions. Agreements must contain a disputes clause that provides for an independent party to settle a dispute, although the mechanism to resolve the dispute is left to the parties. There will still be restrictions on unlawful content. While the laws retain the existing uncertainty about whether a matter “pertains” to the employment relationship, FWA will not supervise this and agreements can be validly made that include (unenforceable) clauses about matters that do not pertain.
2
o FWA can facilitate multi employer bargaining for low paid employees. This includes requiring the employers, or other parties such as head contractors, who determine the employment arrangements of low paid employees to participate in multi employer bargaining. As a last resort, FWA can arbitrate wage claims in this stream.
o FWA can settle bargaining disputes where a party persistently breaches good faith orders, where low paid bargaining has failed or where harmful industrial action is occurring.
o There have been limited changes to the rules relating to industrial action, which can only be protected during bargaining, and only if authorized by a secret ballot. Secret ballots can be conducted prior to the expiry of the current agreement; and the acting in concert provisions have been removed. Pattern bargaining remains unprotected, but genuine bargaining at each enterprise for common claims is not pattern bargaining. Strike pay remains unlawful. Where the strike is unprotected employers must dock a minimum of four hours pay, where protected employers need only dock for the period of the stoppage.
4. New rights to be consulted and represented at work, and new protections against unfair treatment. Employees have a right to be represented and it will be unlawful to disadvantage an employee because they seek to be represented, to join a union, or are active in their union. Awards will provide for consultation and representation at work, and workplace agreements must provide for consultation and representation at work. Employees will have better access to advice at work as union right of entry cannot be overridden, unions regain the right to inspect non-member records to ensure the laws are not being breached and there are some new rules to prevent employers frustrating union entry
5. The establishment of a new independent industrial tribunal Fair Work Australia. FWA will: set and adjust minimum wages and awards; supervise good faith bargaining and industrial action; make workplace determinations in certain circumstances where bargaining fails; determine unfair dismissal claims and disputes regarding right of entry, stand down and transfer of business; and deal with grievances through mediation, or with the consent of the parties, through arbitration.
The new Fair Work Divisions of the Federal Court and Federal Magistrates Court will be given new powers to deal, in an informal manner, with breaches of awards, agreements and than national employment standards.

wages and conditions for Australian workers

New industrial relations laws introduced into Federal Parliament today will give working

Australians the fundamental right to collectively bargain for better wages and conditions.

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the Fair Work Bill turns the tide after a decade of attacks by

the former Coalition Government and marks an historic turning point in restoring workers’ rights.

“Workers will be able to stand together with their colleagues and not be picked off individually as

they were under WorkChoices,” she said.

“Workers and their families will be better off and so will the economy.

“The Bill is another step towards reversing the damage done by a decade of anti-worker

legislation by the former Howard Government,” Ms Burrow said.

“It will be a major step forward from WorkChoices, which removed workers’ rights and

undermined wages and conditions.

“Workers and activists campaigned like never before to scrap WorkChoices, and a year ago

millions of Australians said the Liberals and Nationals had gone too far with their assault on our

rights at work.

“We have more than 10 years of harm to undo, but we have turned the tide.

“Everyone who campaigned or voted against WorkChoices should take some pride in what has

been achieved so far.”

Ms Burrow said the legislation should deliver:

• Strong rights for workers to collectively bargain and be represented by their union.

• Unfair dismissal rights for all workers.

• A robust new safety net of awards and national standards, along with a fair and

transparent process for setting minimum wages.

• An industrial umpire with the teeth to safeguard workers’ rights.

Ms Burrow said these new collective bargaining rights will help protect the income and jobs of

working Australians in an uncertain economic environment.

“The legislation is a major achievement but does not mean the campaign for better rights is over,”

she said.

“Unions remain concerned that there are important areas of unfinished business.

“We will never stop pushing for improvements in the workplace and better mechanisms to

safeguard the jobs and living standards of working Australians.”

Mass rallies will be held in cities and towns across Australia and the world in support of Noel Washington, a CFMEU official facing the possibility of a 6 month jail sentence because of the ABCC’s extraordinary powers. Noel has been charge with refusing to attend an ABCC interrogation about a union meeting and faces court in Melbourne 2 December 2008

Look below for details of where you can show your support for rights on site and join the global day of action on 2 December 2008. More locations to come soon!