THE Coalition has called an end to its 12-year crusade to break union power in the workplace through individual contracts.
Ms Bishop confirmed yesterday that the Coalition would not seek to block the Rudd Government's plan to purge the contracts from the industrial system.

more info on The Age newspaper
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/libs-give-up-on-12year-ir-crusade/2008/02/19/1203190822590.html
Written by Misha Schubert and Ben Schneiders

I as a trade unionist am happy it is gone but while I know we will have a better system on the way I remain concerned.
That national system will be drawn up at a time of full employment and in fact a time when some workers just have to come on 457 visas.
Will the new laws be good enough for bad times?
While we wait Howard's laws still are in force nothing can change in an instant.
Of great honest concern is the right of entry I as a trade union official have is still under control needlessly.
And , [no point in lieing]my members are fear driven because of it.
Last week safe work practices went out the door in one of our biggest civil construction firms site.
Real danger existed for workers and motorists on one site.
Thursday saw me get a promise it would stop Friday saw it far worse.
I was unable to see a safety sheet drawn up for that task without 24 hours written notice.
Clearly out side the existing laws but it took more than 24 hours to prove it.
The new laws must be fair and balanced.

Part one
The truth is that without the hard work from the Sharan Burrow, Jeff Lawrence and the Rights at Work campaign team we could not win the battle against Howard's new IR.
Bellow I publish the email I receive from the Union about the Coalition's very public backflip on IR.

Coalition's very public backflip highlights your campaign's power

Dear Antonios,

Which was your favourite headline from Wednesday's papers?

Was it Coalition in IR backflip? Nelson rolled on IR strategy? Or Coalition's 'flip, flop, flap' on AWAs?

Or perhaps you enjoyed the cartoon in The Australian the most. It showed a sad Brendan Nelson standing over a coffin labelled "WorkChoices". He says mournfully, "It was the only thing less popular than me."

That's right, as of Tuesday afternoon, the Liberals have decided not to block Labor's Transition Bill getting rid of AWAs in the Lower House.

The Age said, "WorkChoices and AWA's are now political poison." They sure are. The Coalition is, to put it bluntly, freaking out. Brendan Nelson's support for AWAs was one of the factors that gave him a 9% approval rating - the lowest since Newspoll began.

We've campaigned on this together for the past two years. This week alone your stories filled the letters pages of newspapers. Your emails filled the inboxes of Coalition MPs.

They were running scared and this embarrassing backflip is the result. What an achievement!

Naturally we can't afford to get too excited. Coalition Deputy Julie Bishop didn't promise the Senate would pass the Transition Bill. She refused to rule out bringing AWAs back at future elections. And what of the main, substantive Bill - the real bulk of Labor's Forward with Fairness policies? Ms Bishop promised to let the Transition Bill through getting rid of AWAs. But worrying questions remain.

Where does the Coalition stand on vital issues like the right to be protected from unfair dismissal, and the right to bargain collectively if the majority of workers want to?

Continue on part two

Part two

It's not just a question of policy. On a gut level, we all know that the Liberal and Nationals always were zealous fans of WorkChoices and the WorkChoices ideology. Brendan Nelson's three senior staff are all alumni from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Remember Peter Hendy, who helped Peter Reith wage war on the waterfront? He's Mr Nelson's Chief of Staff. The Liberals and Nationals remain committed to furthering the interests of big business rather than those of workers, and their about-face today is motivated not by a genuine change of heart but by political tactics.

The fight for Rights at Work is far from over. But it's only appropriate to mark the great achievements you and your fellow supporters have made.

Who would have thought this time last year we'd see headlines like "The day they brought old WorkChoices down" in the papers?

We helped create history on November 24. And the events of this week show our capacity to shape Australia's future is immense.

Let's make 2008 the year we achieve all our campaign goals - and restore Rights at Work for good.

Many thanks,

Sharan Burrow, Jeff Lawrence and the Rights at Work campaign team

Where is the Julie person now with her 'assurance' that the Opposition would oppose the scrapping of Workchoices in the Senate? Somewhere out there feeling pretty silly, I hope.

It will be interesting to see how Rudd Labor treats workers. I remember the Hawk and Keating Governments as not being kindly disposed towards workers. The union movement and the Rann Government in SA are deadly enemies. The old warm and fuzzy feeling between labour and Labor is a thing of the past since Labor leaders have had the opportunity to go into politics with nothing and leave it as millionaires.

Putting that aside, though, don't get too carried away by the new Liberal penchant for bipartisanship. That sort of thing can knock democracy right on the head if it's overdone, which it could be by the routed Opposition and it's dill of a leader.

Can anyone tell me if Generale Howard can watch news, can read newspapers, can understand what the ALP is doing? Poor Howard, everything you created for so many years, soon will be demolished, because your policy was against people's interests, against workers interests, against migrants interests, against women interests, against human rights and human integrity, against our future, against the future of our world. Generale you was very weak as politician and you created big problems to Australian people. We apologized to Aborigines, including the Liberal Party. Australia signed the Kyoto protocol for environment protection and return back to the big international family which care for the future of next generations. Soon, very soon your top work, THE DIAMOND of your whole political career, the WorkChoice will be in the rubbish been of the history. Even your political party even it recognized that the WorkChoice is a monster against Australian labors. Generale Howard you can not understand how much I love and respect you. No one else could damage so much the Liberal Party as you did. Last days the popularity of Liberal Part is bellow 9%, it could never happened without your great support.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide