Industrial action/disputes page 40 of 82

The AMWU says a decision by the RBA's money printing arm, Note Printing Australia, to lock out workers in response to a planned one-hour stopwork leaves members free to employ an element of surprise in future actions in support of a new deal.

Worker blew last chance "in spectacular fashion"; Alcoa mine and refinery workers down tools; Foreign pilots visa designed to drive down salaries: Union; Emergency services commissioner resigns over bullying.

BlueScope is seeking to bolster a proposed three-year agreement at its Port Kembla steel operations with a guaranteed $4000 pre-payment from a new profit share scheme.

The union leading the campaign against prospective job losses at a major brewery is at risk of being sidelined after the FWC found it "reached the line between [unacceptably careless disregard] and. . . deliberate non-compliance" in failing to communicate restraining notices to members.

The ACTU's triennial Congress has endorsed a proposal for state and federal governments to enact industrial manslaughter laws, after maritime union leader Chris Cain told delegates that employers who recklessly kill workers should face $20 million fines and 20 years behind bars.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has today mounted a spirited defence of solidarity among union members, saying that calling a strikebreaker a "scab" is "an accurate description", while the peak body's new president said she experienced the power of unions when as 14-year-old waitress, members helped her fight back against sexual harassment by a supervisor.

The FWO has launched a challenge to last month's Federal Court order for the MUA to pay a $38,000 fine for a single contravention of the prohibition on unlawful strikes, when the watchdog was seeking $3.6 million for what it says was more than 500 breaches during industrial action against stevedore Hutchison Ports.

Protected action should be available to workers without the need for a secret ballot, according to the draft IR policy to be put to the ACTU's triennial Congress next week.

An order requiring the NTEU to give a university more than the statutory three days' notice of protected industrial action has been quashed by an FWC full bench that found a tribunal member wrongly presupposed that any such action would be suspended by the Commission if it interfered with student exams or graduation.

The CPSU has expressed dismay after Bureau of Meteorology workers voted by a knife's edge to accept management's latest offer for a new agreement despite union opposition.