Category Archives: News

More Canberra events from Don Dwyer

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APRIL

until Sunday 29 April: Weber’s Circus, corner Isabella Drive & Clive Steel Ave, Monash.

until Sunday 29 April: Heritage Festival.

until Sunday 19 August: National Library, UK Suffragettes Exhibition.

18 April to 6 May: Palace Cinema, Spanish Film Festival.

Thursday 26 April to Sunday 20 May: The Spiegeltent.

Friday 27 April: 12 noon to 5 p.m., Queanbeyan Library Comic Fest. RSVP 6285-6255.

Saturday 28 April: 10 a.m., Workers Memorial Rally. Near the Carillon on the War Memorial side of King’s Avenue bridge.

Monday 30 April: 9.30 a.m., National Library, John Bell in conversation with Genevieve Jacobs in association with the Canberra International Music Festival.

Tuesday 1 May: 12.30, May Day Rally, corner Childers Street & University Avenue, Civic.

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What’s happening at Centrelink?

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Amy Knox from the CPSU attended the Vintage Reds’ April meeting for a quick update on outsourcing and labour hire at Centrelink, part of the Turnbull government’s reckless privatisation of public service jobs.

Serco has been given a contract to staff Centrelink call centres, with another 1000 staff just announced. This is to address the crisis in unanswered calls to Centrelink (55 million in 2017); but rather than employ more trained, accountable public servants with job security and fair pay and conditions, there are instead casualised staff earning roughly half of what Centrelink staff get for performing the same work.

Amy reminded the meeting that only five years ago all service delivery work was done by employees of the Department of Human Services, and there were no casual employees in the department.

The CPSU is campaigning to scrap the arbitrary staffing level cap put in place by this government, which forces the privatisation of work out to consultants and contractors. This is a fight across the public service and help is needed.

Photo by Amy Knox, CPSU: Vintage Reds line up to fight privatisation of Centrelink.

More from Don’s autumn calendar

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More events to keep you busy:

April 2nd to 25th: Palace Cinema, Seniors’ Film Festival.

Fri. & Sat. 13-13 April: Canberra History Bookfair, Curtin shops.

Tues. 17 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, the Beatles in “Yellow Submarine” (1968).

Wed. 18 April: Hellenic Club Comedy Night, “Straight out of Compo”.

Wed. 18 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, “Storm Boy” (1976).

Thurs. 19 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952).

Fri. 20 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, “Fantasia” (1940).

27 April to 6 May: Canberra International Music Festival.

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New Vintage Reds flags

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Vintage Reds are building a flag stockpile; here is a new one making its debut recently at a picnic by the lake.  It goes nicely with the “Change the Rules” T-shirt.

Photo: Penny Lockwood

Canberra Hospital cleaners win pay increase

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2018-3-7_hospital_cleaners_win.jpgFor six years, while the demands at work steadily increased, wages for cleaners at the Canberra Hospital were essentially frozen.

But after a long struggle, the hospital cleaners have won a pay rise from the contractor, ISS.

ISS, a global multi-national, claims to have made a profit last year of almost half a billion Australian dollars.*

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The size of the cleaners’ pay rise is under a dollar, and the union is still working to bring their wages up to the ACT public service minimum of $24 per hard-working hour. But even this small pay rise couldn’t have happened without the solidarity of cleaning staff and their union. Cleaners have been active and noisy and have run campaign after campaign to get their voices heard. The photo at right shows a “Let them eat cake” stall in November last year outside the hospital.                                                    Photos: United Voice; Bill Rowlings.

*www.au.issworld.com/news/2018/02/22…

Japan Airlines picket at Narita Airport

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At the end of a family holiday we reached Narita airport in Tokyo looking forward to a trip home under the care of JAL, a reputable airline. Or so we thought. But that was before we met a group of sacked JAL employees distributing leaflets in front of the departure gate.

Photo: “JAL’s unfair dismissals: Not good! Bad for air safety!”

JAL went bankrupt in 2010. But Japan’s corporate support system protected JAL and helped it to reorganise; staff were persuaded to take pay cuts, and pension payouts were halved. JAL was able to make a profit in the same year it had gone bankrupt. Despite this, on New Year’s eve, 2011, JAL sacked 165 people. A year later, its profit margin reached 17%. Of the cabin crew fired, a large majority were union members. And having fired 165 people in 2010, JAL then hired 940 new employees in 2012. 

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Penalty Rates at Southern Cross Club

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Photo: Kasey Tomkins, United Voice.

Vintage Reds members joined United Voice in protesting outside the Southern Cross Club in Woden recently.

The club has managed to procure a new agreement which will cut Sunday penalty rates for some of its lowest paid workers from next year.

A Canberra Times reporter quoted Lyndal Ryan, United Voice union secretary: “We think clubs that hold themselves up as virtuous and community bastions should start making a decent commitment to those workers who don’t deserve to have their wages cut.” (9 June 2017)

It was also noted that the Southern Cross Club made over a million dollars profit in the financial year 2015-16.

Don’s October Guide

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Don Dwyer’s pick of what is on offer in Canberra this month is the National Film and Sound Archive’s film, “My Year with Helen“, which details Helen Clark’s gallant campaign for the position of UN Secretary-General. Part of the Canberra International Film Festival, which has a wide range of films to suit most tastes!

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ICAN wins the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

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The Vintage Reds congratulate the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons on being awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

The prize is for ICAN’s “work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.

ICAN has worked for over a decade to get to this remarkable victory. Here’s a link toThe Conversation‘s short article on the organisation’s history.

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ICAN members photographed at Trades Hall, Melbourne (photo: Chris Hopkins, The Age)