Labour notes

The Brack's Labor Government threatened power unions with fines 
of up to $1 million if they further disrupt Victoria's 
electricity supplies. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the 
Australian Services Union (ASU) had placed work bans on the 
electricity grid during negotiations with five of six energy 
companies over an enterprise bargaining dispute. The unions are 
seeking a 36-hour week, a 15 percent pay increase over three 
years, more apprentices and a reduced emphasis on the outsourcing 
of company work to contractors. The provisions of the Electricity 
Act carry fines of up to $10,000 for individuals and $1 million 
against corporations or unions who fail to abide by the 
government's direction. The ETU said that it would not tolerate 
any threat of the Electricity Act when his union members were 
acting lawfully under the Workplace Relations Act. Under the Act, 
the work bans are "protected action".

* * *

Twenty five Information Technology workers have walked off the 
job in Sydney and voted for 24 hours of action in response to 
news that their jobs will be exported to Cairo, Egypt. The 
decision by Equant Sydney a subsidiary firm of French Telecom 
comes only months after an announcement that Telstra or its 
contractors would shift more than 600 IT jobs offshore to India.

* * *

Sydney's Wonderland theme park is set to close on April 26, and 
its predominately young workforce sacked. Their boss, Steven 
Galbraithe whose car boasts the personalised number plate of "CEO 
1" is refusing to pay the majority of the workforce any form of 
severance pay. According to the Liquor Hospitality and 
Miscellaneous Workers Union a vast majority of the staff are 
listed as casual but in fact were not. "They are using 
casualisation to deny 200 western Sydney workers any redundancy 
or severance payments. But these people work regular shifts, with 
a regular expectation of work, and set rosters. Many of them have 
been with Wonderland for years", said LHMU Assistant Secretary 
Mark Boyd. The company wants cap payouts to a maximum of eight 
weeks' wages for the 40 or so workers who it describes as 
"permanent". While Wonderland cries poor and callously throws its 
workers on the scrap heap, that company that owns it is pocketing 
a cool $52.5 million from the sale of the land to developers. One 
can only wonder what Steve's payout will be.

* * *

The workforce at the North West Shelf construction project in 
Western Australia have just completed a five-day stoppage over 
management's use of scab labour on site. Australian Manufacturing 
Workers Union Organiser, Tony Lovett said North West Shelf 
workers had given the companies "fair warning" that any use of 
"scab labour" would result in a five-day shut down after 
supervisors had been used to clean toilets during a cleaner's 
dispute last year. "We were faced with a situation where 
electricians had a dispute and management used scabs to do their 
work. It's not on", Mr Lovett said. The North West Shelf 
construction project is building infrastructure for the industry.