Protesters storm Grand Chancellor Hotel
HOBART — US ambassador Tom Shieffer was met on February 7 by protesters chanting, "Drop the debt, not the bomb". Shieffer was in Hobart to speak to a luncheon of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association.
Protesters angered by the US-led war against the Third World stormed the Grand Chancellor Hotel where the luncheon was being held and demanded to meet with Shieffer. However, police ordered protesters to vacate the premises or face arrest.
Bus strike wins entitlements
BRISBANE — Bus workers gained substantial entitlements for a fellow worker, sacked while on workers' compensation, after a six-hour strike of more than 1000 bus drivers on February 7. The worker had been a bus driver for 19 years.
Labor mayor Jim Soorley enraged bus drivers by describing the snap strike as "terrorism". Soorley also called the Scottish-born state secretary of the Bus, Tram and Rail Union, Owen Doogan, a "foreign import".
The council agreed to withdraw the McKean's termination notice and allow him to resign from February 5, with continuing compensation payments and an ex-gratia payment of $8000.
Solidarity with Argentinians
SYDNEY — About 80 people assembled on February 9 near the office of the World Bank and the US embassy to express solidarity with the people of Argentina. They banged pots and pans, chanted, "The people united will never be defeated", listened to speakers and sang revolutionary songs from Argentina. The action was followed by a lively march to the Argentinian embassy.
TWU targets clients of rogue companies
BRISBANE — Clients of rogue transport companies, some of which are major retail stores, will be picketed by the Transport Workers Union as part of the union's campaign to make trucking industry safer.
In January, about 40 TWU members protested outside the Harker Transport depot. The company is at the centre of a Queensland government investigation, prompted by the jailing of a former Harker driver who admitted to being asleep at the wheel of his truck when it ploughed into the back of another vehicle, killing two British tourists. The TWU is adamant there should be a full independent government inquiry into the long-haul trucking industry.
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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