Australia comes to a standstill

[chris]

Australia today has come to a stand-still with workers protesting against the industrial relations reforms. It's quite amazing to see how many people have turned out to the protests. :eek:

If this is any sign of things to come, the government here would be well advised to take notice of the warnings if it wishes to stay in government. We've had the opposition party declaring that it will tear down these IR reforms when it gets into government.

The main M4 motorway in Sydney has even been blockaded.

The biggest losers in the IR reforms are unskilled workers who basically will be exploited. Skilled workers by and large will get by without too many difficulties, since they'll just take their knowledge and go elsewhere (even overseas).

Also funny is how the government is saying these changes will create more jobs, but today we have the announcement that Telstra, Australia's most well known telecommunications provider will cut 10,000 jobs.

[Frank N. O.]

I don't really know about that situation, apart from what I just read but that sounds horrible :( 10000 jobs that an enormous amount imo and that reform sounds like upper-class snobby trash which I thought didn't exist in such amount in Australia, obviously I haven't done my research well enough yet.

I sincerely hope it won't go that bad, I hope the goverment will not push that thrue since that's just wrong imo. A danish politician actually said something along the lines that they should increase the gap between poor and rich in DK because it could give great income to the goverment that they could then transfer to the poor. I can calm people down and say that she got a "hat-full" since that just wasn't acceptable, even if it would increase the economy and that it would be returned to the poor, the social effects would still be too great.

Best wishes to Australia
Frank

P.S. I thought Telstra was a rebadged aussie Ford? Or maybe that's a Telstar?

[chris]

Well, America and Australia have one thing in common, we have ultra-conservative governments. Except America's is a religiously conservative one, but ours is economically conservative in the traditional style. It's hard to see which is worse, each is equally bad in many respects, both seem to do a great job of telling lies to the public.

Sadly, they lied in the election campaign on interest rates to get into government with a slender majority, and now they can ram these changes through un-opposed, unless National Party senator Barnaby Joyce "crosses the floor" and votes against these changes.

All Australian workers should lobby Mr Joyce to oppose these changes.

[VQ]

My sister went down to the city and protested, because they also want to reduce the minimum wage of juinor empleyees 35% of the adult wage, which means I wo is currently getting $10.55 an hour would go back to the amount I was getting before I turned 17 and got the raie, my sister who works at the same McDonalds would go down even more, it's outragous, because things for us kids ain't getting cheaper, they are costing us more and more.

[[MC]Heiliger]

What are these IR reforms about?

Well, few weeks ago the german Telekom announced that they'll cut 32,000 jobs, 13,000 of them are officials which came from past when Telekom was state.
And that's only one under a lot of those messages we been receiving here. Seems the time is fine that companies are moving more to east of Europe or to Asia. They 'collected' all the subsidy and low tax offers after the time of re-union on Germany, now that these things are going into the end they go ahead to more rentable places.
Also my dad became the news that he'll be unemployed in January, but I'm optimistic that he'll find a new one, lately until summer next year. I just hope that he may stay here in Germany, don't think he would like to work in Swiss or Austria... :p

I think the biggest problem are the politicians, they've been cared only about their own legislative period all the time, they are always afraid to make real deep changes in old laws, there are some which were made before the two world wars... ppfff. Since this time the economies and societies changed a lot! I wonder if they'll ever recognize what's going on out of the big limousines and parliaments.

Oh darn, the guys call their own faults globalization. :?

[chris]

IR = Industrial Relations.

It's basically workplace rights, your right to be entitled to paid holiday leave, and various other things like being paid extra to work overtime, etc, and also things like only being able to be dismissed for an appropriate reason, and not for some frivolous reason.

It's also about being about to have trade-union representation in matters involving yourself and your employer so you can obtain the best possible outcome.

These IR reforms seek to limit those rights. Although Howard says nothing will go wrong, companies are already trying to see how far they can go with restricting workers rights, and restricting union activities.

[[MC]Heiliger]

IR = Industrial Relations.
It's basically workplace rights, your right to be entitled to paid holiday leave, and various other things like being paid extra to work overtime, etc, and also things like only being able to be dismissed for an appropriate reason, and not for some frivolous reason.




Well, about paid holidays, I know few people who won't get any money during their holidays but that's kinda more a 'voluntary' decision by them 'cause that was one key why they have this job, less costs for the boss. But I think everybody should have the right to claim some money of their superiors during the holidays and if it were only less than the half of their salaries. About paid extra to work overtime, I only need to take a look to my parents, they never became any extra cash for working longer. So it seems that people still don't have the right here to ask for extra money related to law support if they may do that then it was not declared in the work contract. Dismiss people without an appropiate reason that sounds like during the time of the industrial revolution when factory owners act like they wanted and only took people who would work for almost nothing and without any additional costs like for assurances.



These IR reforms seek to limit those rights. Although Howard says nothing will go wrong, companies are already trying to see how far they can go with restricting workers rights, and restricting union activities.




Yes, I agree, they are seeking for restricting the worker's rights but why does that need a support from the government?

[VQ]

Because they are probably getting a lot of incentives from companys to push these through....

[[MC]Heiliger]

I know, but they should be remembered who voted for them in last election...

[VQ]

Yes, they have complete control of the senate, and it was our own fault!!

[chris]

I predict Australia will be stopped today after beating Uruguay once and for all. :D

[[RS]Alt]

IMHO (only), I see the good ol' USA going down the tubes - albeit a little bit at a time, but it IS happening. Way too many reasons other than our "so-called" democratic society isn't anymore. It's becoming more and more of a dictatorship and we, the little people, don't have much say in much of anything anymore.

Oh well, I'm in my mid-50's and even though I've improved my lifestyle with my surgery (Stomach-Stapling), I don't expect to live much more than another 25-30 years. I'm sorry to see where this country is headed and I hate to see what the younger generation is facing in another 50 years.

Life goes on &(

[chris]

You can always vote out the conservatives at the next election.

[VQ]

Well, Labour Party head Kim Beasly promised to abolish this stupid thing if he gets voted in next time, I hope to go that they do take majority, but not complelte control of senate.

[chris]

You can not go wrong with the Labour party, but the ideal solution would be a Labour/Green coalition.

A party run by someone who got himself arrested and locked up for protesting about something he strongly believed in deserves respect.

I don't consider myself traditional Labour voter, I'm interested in economic progress, but you can't ignore what keeps the economy ticking over, the workers. It's the workers who have the biggest impact on productivity and profits. If you look after the workers, they'll look after you.

When I vote in elections, I don't just vote on my interests, I consider what implications my vote will have for the youth of Australia, what opportunities will they have in the future. Will they have a stable country to live in, will they exist in a good environment that isn't suffering the effects of over-pollution.

That's why I firmly believe Australia not only should sign the Kyoto protocol, but exceed the requirements and lead the world on environmental protection issues.

[jtace]

Honestly in the US it's becoming near mandatory to have a secondary education of some sort, college, trade school, skill training or something. Unskilled labor is not a place I'd recommend being for anyone here. Factory jobs are decent, but you're still at the mercy of the economy more so then anyone else as it's a lot harder to take your skills elsewhere when things go bad if you don't have something marketable.

And yeah although many people don't like to admit it here in the US even, we are very much a religously conservative country still. But honestly I think that's a good thing as long as it doesn't go too far. Just my personal opinion. :)