Editorial: Revenge of the Footy Dads
The release of the second wave of ACTU TV advertising last weekend continues to take the debate around industrial relations into the broader community and specifically the nation's footy grounds. At the heart of the ads is the plight of a footy Dad, being given no option but to trade off his weekends and regular hours, leaving his kid to kick the footy alone. Who are the footy dads? They can be blue collar or white collar, they can even be Mums! What drives them is that they want to have a life
that extends beyond the workplace.

They have built a decent job and life for themselves and want to be good parents. In coaching the local footy team, or running the organs on the sideline, they are committing to their kids and the kids of
their neighbours - they are putting in 'social capital', because they know this is what community is all about.

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http://workers.labor.net.au/283/editorial_editorial.html

ACTU 25 September 2005
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has launched its second round of television advertising to highlight the impact the Federal Government's proposed changes to the Workplace Relations Act will have on working families.

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said that the ACTU was committed to a long-term campaign against the preposed changes to the industrial relations laws, which if passed would reduce employee rights and removeunfair dismissal protections.

"The Governments laws will strip away rights at work, they will drive down wages and remove core conditions such as penalty rates, overtimeand the right to unfair dismissal protection.

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http://www.actu.asn.au/work_rights/news/1127610433_11888.html

Editorial: Highway To Help
After five weeks, five and half thousand kilometres, and 40 regional town meetings attended by thousands of regional workers, the bright orange Rights at Work bus has finally come to rest. Like the state's roads, there were good and bad moments, providing a real insight into the challenges and opportunities in building unionconnections in rural and regional communities.

<>Across the State we found working people engaged with the issue, particularly up on the north coast, where people put their hands up totake on the responsibility of leading local campaigns. Some of these campaigns had come off the back of months of ground work, others had sprung up recently but were buoyed by an enthusiasm and aresolve to stop the federal government's agenda. <>What was common was a thirst for information about the changes, deep-seated suspicions of the Howard Government's industrial relations agenda, and a special appreciation that the dilution of work rightswill undermine community structures.

Rural communities, more than the big cities, rely on their human capital, and speaker after speaker on the road trip made the point that changes to work were making it harder for them to commit regular time to communities. The unifying theme was that the loss of rights was yet another step in the State's walk away from regional Australia.

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http://workers.labor.net.au/282/editorial_editorial.html

Australia s biggest rail freight operator, Pacific National, has obtained orders from the Federal Court stopping a national strike in the industry set down for tomorrow.

Members of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union RTBU were set to walk out over stalled negotiations for a new enterprise agreement.

RTBU national secretary Bob Hayden says Pacific National has cancelled talks over the dispute and is now resorting to the courts to stop the latest action and to seek damages for a 24-hour stoppage last month.

Pacific National chief executive Stephen O Donnell says there will be no negotiations while the threat of industrial action remains.

We certainly did cancel meetings last week but there s been a series of outbreaks of industrial action over the last few weeks and we will not, as a matter of principle, negotiate while there is a threat of industrial action, he said.

Court order stops national rail freight strike. 22/09/2005. ABC News Online
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1465711.htm
Australias biggest rail freight operator Pacific National has obtained orders from the Federal Court stopping a national strike in the industry set down for tomorrow Members of the Rail Tram an

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