The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 10

10 THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1997 it Big tops just right for our five-ring circus Network strategy linked to strength of unions By HELEN TRINCA Workplace writer Unions have been urged to concentrate on building power in individual workplaces rather than hoping for a return to a centralised industrial relations system if they want to survive. Professor Roy Green, of the Employment Studies Centre at Newcastle University, says in a recent paper that the decline in union membership and power is not terminal, but that organised labour must adopt "strategic unionism" to win back the numbers. Professor Green said the end of centralised wage-fixing had delivered a shock to the system, producing a growing gap between well-paid core workers and low-paid, casual labour. But the implications for trade unionism had not been understood. Australia's traditional arbi -TV- NY ft rj(fA V' 7 i ii iiww Luawiri' I By MALCOLM BROWN A metre-long brown snake made an unwelcome bid to enter Australia's Olympic history this week hen it interrupted construction of some big tops expected to be hired out for the Sydney Olympics as temporary accommodation.

Geoffrey Lennon, 36, father of two children destined to become the seventh generation of Lennons in the circus business, is a clow and lion tamer, but found neither skill much use in dealing with a brown snake. The serpent as dispatched to an uncertain future outside the Janlin Circuses Pty Ltd tent factory in Mount Druitt as the three big tops, methodically sew and heat-welded, took shape. Mr Lennon's companion at the sew ing machine, Robert "Red" Cocker, 29, is a former taxi driver and meatworker who has been in circuses six years. Janlin runs Lennons, Stardust and Burtons circuses and, until a few years ago, supplied Australia's 15 circuses ith most of their big top needs. Mr Lennon, whose family started in circuses after great-great-grandmother Mary took a horse-drawn dray, acrobats and ponies across the Blue Mountains in 1893 to perform out west, said that with Olympic and other demands, the big tops may be good business.

The tents 84 by 60 metres, 62 by 36 metres and 66 by 34 metres are made of polyvinyl chloride and nylon, making them extremely aterproof and durable. Each costs about $150,000. Janlin is confident that hen the Olympic organisers invite tenders for big tops for catering, concerts and exhibitions, its tents ill be ready and tested. "We have discovered there is a market for these very large tents," said Stardust's ringmaster, Mr John McDonnell. "The Olympics will want big tops but they ant them in colours that don't make them look like circus tents." The largest will be finished next eek in time for a Brisbane concert on January 14.

Then, all three new tents ill be erected in Sydney for Australia Day. Olympian task all sewn up tentmakers Robert Cocker, left, and Geoffrey Lennon at work. Photograph by PALANI MOHAN IgM path spread. angers residents over widler area mm royal XB (SMS RUG ssraa VyjNlf.yM GALLERY ff ACN 072 666 829 JJM tiii iiii i 1 1 1 1 flit i I i ni i i Ii UwLZ By DIANE STOTT in Canberra Complaints about aircraft noise have skyrocketed since new flight paths were introduced at Sydney Airport, with residents in northern suburbs furious that the Government has failed to deliver some respite. Residents of Paddington who seldom complained before are now in second place behind Summer Hill for the number of complaints about aircraft noise since the flight paths changed.

The area north of the airport had to endure 30 per cent of flights in the first two weeks of the operation of new flight paths introduced on December 4, compared with 33 per cent in the previous fortnight, and despite the Government's promise to reduce this to 17 per cent. Suburbs to the west of the airport have been largely spared aircraft noise, receiving just 6 per cent of flights, compared with a target of 1 5 per cent, largely at the north's expense. Complaints totalled 2,534 during the eight days for which information was collated an average of 317 calls each day compared with 84 each day over the previous fortnight. Of these, two-thirds were from residents in the northern suburbs. Residents to the north of the airport were more vocal in their complaints, despite fewer aircraft flying overhead.

The biggest number of complaints came from Summer Hill (164), then Paddington and Dulwich Hill (both with 153), Hunters Hill (150), Ash-field and Marrickville (96), and Croydon and Hurlstone Park (both with 88 complaints). Airservices Australia was so inundated with calls it was unable to compile figures for the entire fortnightly survey period on time. A spokesman for the Transport Minister, Mr Vaile, said the figures came as no surprise, with the use of new flight paths subject to weather conditions and subject to the acceptance of pilots and air traffic controllers. The new flight paths were designed to "share the noise" by spreading aircraft over Sydney in a "spaghetti" pattern. Maroubra residents were now shouldering two-thirds of the air traffic movements which were headed east or west, taking pressure off flight paths tracking over Coogee and Randwick.

The Maroubra path has aircraft taking off northward on the parallel runway, then banking hard right over Eastlakes and Maroubra. Fewer flights were heading northwards just 17 per cent taking the pressure off the "Bennelong At the same time, more flights were to be directed over residents to the east and west of the airport, taking 15 per cent and 13 per cent respectively, compared with just 1 per cent using the parallel runways. On the second day of the new flight paths, weather conditions, dictated that the north-south runways be used almost exclusively, channelling 422 movements over northern suburbs. Over the first fortnight of the new flight paths, Sydney Airport had an average 836 movements each weekday, with a peak of 888. Authenticity Guaranteed tration system had encouraged the formation of strong State and national unions but stultified the development of union organisation at workplaces.

But the shift to a workplace-based system of industrial relations did not mean unions would automatically flourish. Instead, the future of unions whose coverage of workers had fallen from 51 per cent to 35 per cent in the past two decades depended on many factors, including their ability to build networks of delegates at workplaces. More than 75 per cent of union members were now concentrated into 12 large unions with an average membership of 166,000. Over the past two years there had been a 4 per cent decline in membership overall for the 20 largest unions, even as the labour force grew by 4 per cent, although some unions increased while others fell. But the recent Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey by the Department of Workplace Relations found that workplaces where a delegate was present had a lower decline in union cover and that workplaces which had acquired a delegate in the 1990s recorded an increase in union cover.

Professor Green said that in the 1960s in many countries, trade unions had entered centralised wage restraint agreements with governments and employer organisations to head off unemployment and avoid a confrontation with the State. "Purchasing centralised influence in this way, however, proved to involve heavy costs because it undermined the effectiveness of unions in protecting their members' vital economic interests," he said. In Australia, there had been a favourable political climate through the Accord process, yet union coverage had fallen. It was "difficult not to conclude that centralised wage restraint, which substantially reduced real wages undermined one of the main reasons for joining a union improvements in conditions of employment" The development of workplace bargaining as a second tier to wage-fixing left weaker groups without the traditional protection of the flow-on of award wages. To these workers, the ineffectiveness of trade union organisation at the workplace level was then "ruthlessly Professor Green said.

Strategic unionism should reinforce the shift to workplace industrial relations, linking reform of working practices to payment of fair wages, he said. It should also address the fundamental dilemma for unions that the great technological changes in workplaces meant the union, even at the enterprise level, had much less capacity to monitor and adapt to change than did the workers. PERSUS TABRIZ 50 SILKOITUSE Size 2Mn MP. S.U.000 Our Price PERSIA TABRIZ 60 SILKOinJM Size 3-60n 2.5-tm RRP. $44,000 Our Price $14,900 PERSIAN BIDJAR WOOL AXD COTTON Sizel.0mxl.19in RRP.

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Abbott, 35, is believed to have masterminded the break-out, during which he and four other inmates blasted their way to freedom after using angel wire to cut through cell bars. The other four have since been recaptured. Western Australian police have not yet confirmed if Abbott was the armed robber responsible for that State's biggest armed robbery last Friday, when $450,000 was reportedly stolen from the Commonwealth Bank in the Perth suburb of well as thre armed robberies on the Gold Coast two weeks after he escaped. There have been several unconfirmed sightings of him in Melbourne and Adelaide, and many reports in Perth in recent days. A police spokesman, Mr Brian Swift, said Abbott was difficult to trace because of his nondescript looks and ordinary bearing, and because he frequently changed his appearance.

The Australian Bankers' Association and the Queensland Government have posted rewards of $100,000 and $50,000 respectively for information leading to Abbott's recapture. Abbott was arrested in 1986 and jailed for 10 years for what was then Western Australia's biggest armed robbery. He was jailed for a further six years for his part in a bloody riot at the Fremantle jail in 1988. He escaped in 1989, dressed in workmen's overalls. Police warn that he is dangerous.

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One of Robert Berthe's hands from his excellent Step by Step series is a shining example, the habit in focus being "second hand low" by the defence: East dealer; EW vul; imps. WEST A AJ8 AQ K63 109652 EAST A Q7 K742 A1052 KJ4 DICK CUMMINGS Opening lead: S4. It's no time for second-hand low from dummy because, if SQ holds, the A-J combination with West will be intact and North can't lead the suit if he gets in next. So, correctly, you put up SQ and it does hold. What now? Seven tricks are immediately available: two spades, three hearts and two diamonds.

Clubs is the obvious suit to develop for the contract. While doing so, you don't mind having North on lead because he can't profitably continue spades. Conversely, having South on lead to play through SA would be unpleasant. The hand will be a Cakewalk if North has CQ but is there a chance if South has that card? The best practical move is to handle the clubs on the first round in such a way that South is unlikely to win the trick. Highly recommended is the Three $1QC Big Nights fromXOC SOUTH A 1053 10963 J84 Q73 If you strike the 100th South who rises with CQ, either hold your cards back or look for an easier game.

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