Boeing Strike Ends

After 262 days, Australia's longest running strike has ended at last, with workers at Boeing's Williamstown RAAF base voting to return to work on Monday. The decision was made on the recommendation of the AWU after the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW was deemed to have the jurisdiction to hear the case, which regards Federal awards. The Federal IRC has been unable to resolve the case.

This is no doubt a huge relief to the families of the 25 workers who have been lobbying for the right to bargain collectively - a right, let's not forget, which is enshrined as a universal human right by the United Nations - but which shall be severely restricted whenever the Federal Government gets around to introducing WorkChoices. Don't forget that even the Liberal Party admits that in Victoria, where the State IR system has already been handed over to the Federal Government, the rate of days lost to industrial action is by far the highest in the nation. So much for `higher productivity'.