Scallywag of the Year

This week on Workers Power we celebrate the end of a very long and interesting year by going through the year's winners of our world famous scallywag of the week awards, ending with the announcement of the scallywag of the year, who was decided through a poll by you, our dear listeners.

Week 1 - McDonald’s Australia's corporate relations director James Rickards
Week 2 - Scomo
Week 3 - Smit Lamnalco
Week 4 - Campbell Newman
Week 5 - Domino’s
Week 6 - Rio Tinto and Sodexo
Week 7 - Jennifer Howard Ipswich MP
Week 8 - Scomo
Week 9 - NAB
Week 10 - Sydney pub tsar Justin Hemmes
Week 11 - Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter
Week 12 - Government Services Minister Stuart Robert
Week 13 - CHEP Director of Australian Operations Graham Wrigglesworth
Week 14 - McDonalds CEO Andrew Gregory
Week 15 - Coles Liquor
Week 16 - Kevin Jackson, the CEO of Sanitarium
Week 17 - GRLC CEO Patti Manolis
Week 18 - SDA
Week 19 - Australia Meat Industry Council Chief Executive Patrick Hutchinson
Week 20 - Anthony Albanese
Week 21 - Today Host Allison Langdon
Week 22 - The cop who killed George Floyd
Week 23 - Gordon Cairns Chairman of Woolies
Week 24 - Scomo
Week 25 - Sydney pub tsar Justin Hemmes
Week 26 - Tony and Viki Franzone who run an Adelaide Hotel Chain
Week 27 - Coles
Week 28 - Fair Worker Ombudsman Sandra Parker
Week 29 - owner of A1 trees, Lee Winwood
Week 30 - Alan Joyce
Week 31 - Peter Tompkins, CEO of Spotless
Week 32 - Golden Circle
Week 33 - Education Minister Dan Tehan
Week 34 - Mark Zuckerberg
Week 35 - Gladys Berejiklian
Week 36 - Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate
Week 37 - Adani
Week 38 - Senator Michaelia Cash
Week 39 - Annastacia Palaszczuk
Week 40 - INPEX President & CEO: Takayuki Ueda
Week 41 - Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate
Week 42 - Scomo
Week 43 - Senior Constable David Giddins
Week 44 - Serco Australia Chief Executive Officer Mark Irwin
Week 45 - Lactalis and its CEO Rob Walden
Week 46 - Mining Billionaire Andrew Forrest
Week 47 - Gerry Harvey, CEO of Harvey Norman
Week 48 - Gladys Berejiklian
Week 50 - Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter
Week 51 - Coles

Coles Xmas Lockout

This week we chat with Debbie and Craig from United Workers Union about the Coles Smeaton Grange struggle. These are workers who have kept our shelves filled with essentials during the pandemic. Hear about their plight as they stand up and fight back. There is also plenty of workers action around the globe to report, Bill gives us another rant against the IR Omnibus Bill and of course the world famous scallwag of the week.

We are also coming up to our highly anticipated announcement of the scallywag of the year next week! We have chosen a shortlist of scummy bosses from the winners over this year who've either won more than once or done something particularly grubby. This year we are putting the power in your hands to make the decision. To have your say take a look at the previous post. And if you want to make an endorsement, or just complain about your boss, send us an email at workerspower4zzz@gmail.com

And, as a Christmas gift for us, Workers Power has sick new intro, a huge thanks to Chris Bingham from The Starvation Orchestra for creating it.

Who will be scallywag of the year? You decide.

Who should win scallywag of the year?

Rio Tinto – Destroying caves sacred to First Nations people.

Justin Hemmes, Merivale group owner - $126 million dollar wage theft, 100 hour work weeks.

Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO – Wage theft, thousands of redundancies, COVID unsafety.

Serco – Running the refugee concentration camps.

Christine Holgate, former AusPost CEO - $7mil bonuses while firing workers, running a public asset like a business.

Coles – Putting workers at risk of catching the coronavirus, screwing over workers replaced by automation.

Maccas – putting people to work in 50 degree heat, putting people to work in a pandemic.

Billionaire Andrew Forrest – In charge of cashless welfare card policy.

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Blood on their hands

This week we are joined by Jayden and Hayden from Anti-Poverty Network to talk about the recent announcement that the cashless welfare card is being extended for another two years, and about the actions being taken to stop the card and help each other in the face of it. Bill also goes on a rant about the recent omnibus laws that undermine the BOOT test.

Beginners' mistakes: the roots of social democracy and the Labor party in Australia

On this week's history episode we are joined by Jeff Rickertt, president of the Brisbane Labour History Association. He is an active trade unionist, a librarian and a labour historian with research interests in the history of working-class movements and socialist politics in Queensland. We're going to be talking about the history of the formation of the Labor party, from strikes to armed conflict to utter defeat, and finally to its position as yet another servant of capital.