Officials of the Victorian branch of the AMWU - no strangers to pickets and strikes, as many a manufacturing employer could testify - are today unable to enter their own offices due to a dispute involving clerical employees.
The Yallourn Energy bargaining dispute spilt into the Victorian Supreme Court, Federal Court and IRC this week, as the three main Latrobe Valley power stations launched damages claims against the CFMEU (mining & energy division) and individual workers, and the power unions failed to stop the Commission issuing orders terminating the Yallourn bargaining periods.
The CFMEU (mining & energy division) has pinpointed metalliferous mining as a possible expansion target under the ACTU's "use it or lose it" coverage principles.
Employers nominated for next Wednesday's ACCI Work & Family Awards have given their workers significant control over their working hours, according to one of the five judges of the awards.
The CPSU has attempted to stop Telstra going ahead with the vote on a new enterprise agreement for its 49,000-strong workforce, claiming the corporation is breaching the Workplace Relations Act's anti-coercion laws by putting the deal to members before the union is happy with it.
The AI Group has undergone a significant shift to the Right under the leadership of Bob Herbert and is now almost ideologically indistinguishable from the BCA and Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith, according to AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron.
NSW's 14,000 police officers are currently voting on a deal struck between the Police Association of NSW and the State Government that pays 16% over 4.5 years - the standard now in the NSW public sector - and commits both sides to examining a range of changes, including introducing casual work, during its term.
