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Retirement village staff walk out over unpaid wages

Staff at the Berkeley Living retirement village in Patterson Lakes, Victoria, walked off the job on September 15 after months of not being paid. Some staff returned the next day to look after residents on a voluntary basis.

Consumer Affairs Victoria is also investigating reports that the village operators owe money to former residents.

The daughter of a former resident backed up claims that staff had not been paid properly, but said they were providing the best care they were able to. β€œThey are feeding the patients out of their own pockets,” she told ABC News.

Case against Acland coalmine expansion grows

A new research report from the Queensland Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) has revealed that any move by the Queensland state government to approve the Acland coalmine expansion would represent an unprecedented and radical departure from recent tradition.

WSU staff strike for casuals, pay

Western Sydney University (WSU) staff went on strike on September 20 over stalled negotiations on their pay and working conditions. The half-day strike and rally, called by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), took place at WSU’s Parramatta City Campus.

University management has delayed the bargaining process by unilaterally removing core entitlements from the NTEU’s enterprise agreements, while resisting members’ key demands. Staff at WSU say they are concerned about looming job cuts, the downgrading of classifications, increased workloads and job insecurity.

CSIRO cuts jobs from key research labs

The CSIRO Staff Association has slammed the latest proposed cuts to jobs in vital research areas of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s premier public scientific body.

The union warned of job redundancies in minerals research and the Sydney laboratory that helped invent wifi internet technology.

Why marriage equality is union business

In the lead up to and following the announcement of the plebiscite, now survey, on changing the Marriage Act, unions have played a prominent role in promoting and resourcing the Yes campaign.

Senior union officials have been speakers at rallies, there have been large union contingents at protest marches and unions β€” especially peak bodies such as Victorian Trades Hall Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions β€” have been providing infrastructure to help build the capacity for the campaign to ensure maximum participation and support for the Yes side.

Media β€˜reforms’ will make dissent harder

The nationwide debate over equal marriage rights has brought a lot more people into contact with ΒιΆΉΣ³»­ Weekly.

Circulation of this β€œlittle paper with a big heart”, as a supporter once described us, is growing as more people look to alternative media sources for their information.

GLWΒ is now in its 26thΒ year of production β€” no mean feat for a not-for-profit newspaper in the most media monopolised country in the world.

End the genocide of the Rohingya

The following statement from the Australia Burma Rohingya Organisation was read by Habib to a solidarity protest in Melbourne on September 7.

* * *

Today we raise our voices on behalf of the oppressed Rohingya and Kaman people, who are facing ongoing genocide in the Rakhine [Arakan] state of western Myanmar [Burma].

We are also protesting the continuous wars being waged against minorities in the Shan and Kachin states.

Fact, not fiction, is the only way to deal with history wars

for being β€œirresponsible” for β€œpropagandising” about the colonial invasion and subsequent massacres of First Nations people.

He also takes issue with my support for the growing number of councils across Australia that are leading the debate on the so-called history wars and deciding against celebrating onΒ January 26Β in favour of something more inclusive.

Sydney rallies against Rohingya genocide

Up to 800 people rallied in Martin Place against the genocide of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma on September 17. The protest was organised by the Sydney Press and Media Council.

Hundreds and thousands of Rohingya, including women and children, have been displaced from their homeland in Rakhine, Burma and forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

The protest highlighted the mass killings of Rohingya community, including women and children, under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ang Sang Suu Kyi and the military regime in Burma.

Live Blog: Week of frontline action to #StopAdani

[This blog is no longer being updated. Here is an initial report that appears with photos in the latest issue of ΒιΆΉΣ³»­ Weekly.]

Saturday 23 September, 8am

Local activists posted a pledge on the :