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SRSLY SHAMELESS: Jackson admits her $270K salary is “obscene” but will she return the loot?
HSU boss, ALP political hack and property millionaire Kathy Jackson’s latest extraordinary public performance involves a concession that her $270,000 per annum ($5000 per week) salary is “obscene” but then brazenly blames someone else, her NSW nemesis Mike Williamson, for her largesse.
It’s all a bit rich for someone who rather patronisingly describes herself as a champion of the working poor, many union insiders believe. They have also been chuckling to themselves about Jackson, a regular ALP safe-seat preselection contender, Admin Committee factional hack and 20-year party member, decrying Labor party involvement in the union as Jackson has never actually worked in the health industry covered by the HSU and got her job at the union through ALP poltical connections, which have spanned from its far left in the early 90s to its ‘Taliban’ Right most recently. Folk like the SDA state secretary Michael Donovan have recently and rightly disavowed any connection with Jackson recently, in light of the corruption allegations engulfing the HSU.
Ms Jackson was also silent on the question whether she’d return these inappropriate payments and failed to explain how it might have been that she was forced to accept payments she now concedes as “obscene” against her will.
This week, we have explored the Jackson side of the HSU scandal, including her receipt of what VEXNEWS believes was an amount well in excess of $200,000 from her NSW nemesis Mike Williamson to fund her sock puppet Marco Bolano’s 2009 HSU election campaign in the Victorian branch. We have also revealed that Jackson gifted Williamson’s wife Julie $3500 worth of jewellery from luxury store Bulgari and even provided her with a valuation of the gift, in a display of vulgarity that would cause much tut-tutting in the corridors of Freehills, which usually provide clients to Ms Jackson’s new legal counsel, Stuart Wood SC, a high-priced boss’s lawyer who has agreed to act for “Wacko Jacko” on a pro bono basis. It really is hysterical, and that’s not a reference to Ms Jackson’s medical condition.
That Jackson feels free to acknowledge her salary is “obscene” and to blame someone else for it is a credit to the power of chutzpah and perhaps medically-enhanced self-delusion. One of Australia’s sleaziest businessman once told us “You cannot get what you do not ask for.” Jackson is the living embodiment of this shameless philosophy.
Union insiders say this makes Jackson and her NSW opposite number the highest paid union officials in Australian history. One of the nation’s most prominent union leaders, Paul Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, for example, tweeted this week that his salary was $140,000. That’s considered about average. Oddly, not many union secretaries disclose their salaries but they are not generally anywhere near the soaring heights of greed and self-indulgence achieved by Jackson.
Of course, VEXNEWS has already revealed that Jackson negotiated this “obscene” salary with Williamson as part of the NSW-Vic amalgamation talks that formed the HSU East branch. She fought hard for every penny, we are reliably informed. Sources within the union say her implication that other officials are on comparable salaries in an effort to justify Williamson’s is simply false. It’s Wacko Jacko and Iron Mike on the big bucks alone, we are told. In addition, Jackson drives a luxury Volvo SUV, that it is owned by the union and paid for by members’ money that cost $140k plus. Sources say Jackson’s choice of luxury union vehicles long preceded the merger with the NSW branch and was prompted by her desire to compete with other elite private school Botoxed mums. The obscenity is staring right back at Katherine Jackson in her gilded mirror.
One unionist pointed out the obvious yesterday when we asked them about Jackson’s big bucks high-life hypocrisy lifestyle:
“If Jackson’s salary is obscene, then could she please return the money? Like, today. It’s just not enough to agree to a pay-cut, members will want their money back, what’s left of the Victorian HSU is on the verge of becoming a smouldering ruin because of the indulgence of a few, including Jackson. No-one familiar with the Jacksons in the Victorian HSU are buying Kathy’s act. This is a fraud on a grand scale, those buying it are going to look very silly, very soon.”
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You know after reading all this tripe over the last few weeks, indeed months, the really sad thing is that NO ONE is giving two hoots about how all this negative publicity is affecting the over 60 000 HSU members. Kathy Jackson, (and I know you will read this) please, stop with your public campaign and keep all your bile to yourself. Indeed, if you think people have done the wrong thing than by all means, report them (as you have done) to the appropriate authorities and than await the results of those investigations like the rest of us. Do you know how much discomfort you and indeed any of the HSU exec who comment in the media are causing its members and their families. Please, I beg all of those within the HSU, you have all now aired your dirty laundry on each other, and maybe more will come out, but let it now come out in the right location, “a court or hearing” and not in a media release in a very old fashioned way of making those who do it out to be the “hero” of the people. The fact is the more you raise your dirty laundry in the public the more the members (who pay you exorbitant salary ) actually despise you and want you gone.
270K is peanuts for the service she has provided…or is that dis-service?
Is the $270 thou figure real, I always thought it was made up by vex to distract from the corruption of the NSW right. If it is, Jackson has zero credibility, and should also resign.
HSU members and taxpayers pay the Lawler-Jackson household 400k plus 270k plus 80k hesta boards.
Disgusting
Jackson’s plea to the NSW liberals to regulate union elections is significant.
The NSW Liberal’s have already used their large majority to restrict union funding to the ALP in elections.
Legislation that restricted resources in union elections would dismantle more of the NSW right’s network of control.
It may also open up the way for employer-backed independents candidates.
We can also expect that a future Abbott Liberal government would extend any NSW reforms.
The HSU bickering will affect the whole union movement in the long run.
This HSU fiasco plays right into the hands of those who wish to de-unionise Australia.
The NSW Right have much to answer for. Bleat and carry on as they might it is evident that some of Workchoices aimed at curtailing the behaviour of unions was very necessary. I am most bemused by Kathy’s new beak, here is a bloke who is going to get a good closeup look at how a NSW Right union operates and he is going to learn much that I am sure will be in legislation in the future. Frankly, as much as I hate to say it this will probably be a good thing. Anything that stops deadheads and losers getting their hands on unions can only be good. There are far too many people in unions wreaking destruction, putting themselves above the members, parasiting off the members money. Bloc voting to stop any good initiatives just for the sheer thrill of it, clowns who cannot think for themselves and are happy to be in the thrall of some absolute bloody lunatics. The faster the ‘mafia like’ web of corruption in NSW is unravelled the better for all unions, it will take a Liberal government to legislate against all of the corrupt practices, the union movement will be in a world of pain for a very long time to come I would imagine. The Howard era will pale into insignificance with what comes next. I would hope that in the future we will see union practices like the boss paying the union dues, RTO’s paying union dues, phantom members and other practices that just destroy unions in the end will be legislated against. Most of the bollocks and bullshit that goes on in unions is all related to the ALP and specifically the ‘Right’ of the ALP, it has destroyed democracy in both the ALP and in unions, a mutually destructive parasitic relationship that has to end for the good of the union movement and the members that have always deserved far better.
Dean Mighell puts all these officals to shame.Best car allowance in australia.his own personal safe with money collected on jobs as levy’s.$140,000 plus super.6 house’s bought through money stolen from the union.eg bar fridges,first aid kits,swags,light bulb scam,levy money,2 million illegally borrowed bought equipment skimmed the profits.not bad for Dean who told 3AW he does not have a union Credit Card.a pathological liar,thieve and [deleted - profanity]……
jimmy | April 14, 2012, 12:59
I think you have the wrong union mate, are you sure you are not confusing the ETU with the Plumbers?
If Kathy is enlisting the HR Nicholls Society to be her mentors , she must remove herself from the Union payroll. One cannot promote unionism and in the same breath enlist advocacy that seeks to destroy it. One cannot live of the HSU membership teat for years in a leadership capacity and then suddenly condemn it’s practises as if they came to light recently. One cannot directly benefit from board memberships , enjoy membership paid travel study trips abroad ,negotiate and enjoy a salary package that defies reason , and then suddenly become astounded by the “stench” of corrupt practises. One cannot preach the core values of unionism and the right for workers on minimum wages to organise and then enlist the very organisation that promotes the wholesale destruction of unionism.
1- Can anyone tell me why Kathy Jackson when she is overseas always takes a photo of her self in front of a hospital building??????? Example: Paris….England….China….USA….Hong Kong….. India…… and…. and….. and…….
2- Who paid for her overseas trips??????? Example: Airfares….. Accommodation…. Expenses…..
3- Can someone examine the statements of all her Union credit cards since she started to work there???? take my word to the bank….
4- Kathy Jackson is on the board of Hesta Superfund…. can anyone reopen the case of the Gigolo her estranged husband Jeff Jackson and find out how Kathy illegally helped him with false claim to get a big payout…..by pretending he had a permanent disability…but soon after pocketing the money he start working for the HSU!!!!!!!!!!! very soon I will release the secretly recorded tape where Gigolo Jeff Jackson explaining how he did it and how Kathy committed the crime with him……and of course lets not forget the doctor’s report….
The NSW Right have much to answer for. Bleat and carry on as they might it is evident that some of Workchoices aimed at curtailing the behaviour of unions was very necessary. I am most bemused by Kathy’s new beak, here is a bloke who is going to get a good closeup look at how a NSW Right union operates and he is going to learn much that I am sure will be in legislation in the future. Frankly, as much as I hate to say it this will probably be a good thing. Anything that stops deadheads and losers getting their hands on unions can only be good. There are far too many people in unions wreaking destruction, putting themselves above the members, parasiting off the members money. Bloc voting to stop any good initiatives just for the sheer thrill of it, clowns who cannot think for themselves and are happy to be in the thrall of some absolute bloody lunatics. The faster the ‘mafia like’ web of corruption in NSW is unravelled the better for all unions, it will take a Liberal government to legislate against all of the corrupt practices, the union movement will be in a world of pain for a very long time to come I would imagine. The Howard era will pale into insignificance with what comes next. I would hope that in the future we will see union practices like the boss paying the union dues, RTO’s paying union dues, phantom members and other practices that just destroy unions in the end will be legislated against. Most of the bollocks and bullshit that goes on in unions is all related to the ALP and specifically the ‘Right’ of the ALP, it has destroyed democracy in both the ALP and in unions, a mutually destructive parasitic relationship that has to end for the good of the union movement and the members that have always deserved far better.
Posted by Rancid corruption | April 14, 2012, 12:48
HERE HERE, beautifully put.
A Volvo SUV costing $140,000????
Bullshit. Perhaps the Editor is confused with some limited edition Volvo Super Sports Car of which a few hundred are made for Arab Oil Sheiks and elite professional soccer players?
A Volvo SUV would be similar in cost to a Ford Territory or a range of (unsexy) Japanese or Korean SUVs.
Spare us the crap please.
I wonder if Ruth K is providing some vicious and jealous commentary here.
That would be the Ruth K who has a big cocaine problem, smokes so much weed that she’d require an entire forest of cannabis plants to keep her going…
and claims to be in frequent discourse with the dead.
Yes she claims to be a clairvoyant.
Stunning self assessment that, cocaine addicted paranoid schizophrenic would be an alternate and sensible analysis.
Michael Lawler has been struck dumb by going in and out of Kathy Jackson’s Volvo, which is kept very neat.
Volvo SUVs only cost $80-90 grand new. Not sure that explanation will help with the members though. The sense of entitlement in the HSU is eating it like a cancer. Time to cut out Williamson & Jackson and all other rorters before it’s too late.
Why isn’t the mainstream media on to Jackson’s own rorting? Anyone know?
Media endgame is to unseat labor. To this the duplicitous Kathy fingerpointing Craig scores more readership points then years of Jackson pillaging the hsu. Never has there been a bigger political and industrial fraud then Kathy Jackson inc
I have been writing about Australias must dysfunctional union for years go to denisevans.com
Now a good lawyer genuinely interested in members would act pro bono on behalf of members in a Breach of fiduciary duty case! I can see a lot of this coming up. This would sober some of the grimy, rorting bastards up, sober some of them literally I would say:
See: http://www.dcpswatch.com/saunders/040430.htm
All union officials need to be well paid
http://denisevans.com/2011/10/02/kathy-jackson/
Having been exposed until very recently only to Williamson’s depradations on his union I have been appalled to learn from this website, the Evans site and various pieces of video of Victorian meetings that Jackson herself stands accused of much the same behaviour! If just half of what is being said about her is true then we are all being sold a disgraceful lie by the mainstream media. Any investigation of Williamson would clearly be incomplete without an accompanying investigation of the Jacksons et al and all who have profited from their patronage including lawyers paid for out of union funds. If what is being said is true then we are relying on some sort of back to front bizarro world journalism and are in big trouble.
fresh election for all branches freddy says
Hello … does anybody remeber us … you know – the workers who pay our union membership fees!
I’m sick to bloody death of all this shit. Whether its the HSU, HEF or a hospital union by any other name, IT’S SUPPOSED TO WORK FOR THE MEMBERS – Job Security, Wage security and reasonable increases to reflect productivity, shift rates to compensate for the evenings, nights and early mornings we work instead of enjoying family life, allowances and penalty payments for harsh or disgusting work environments and protecting our Occupational Health and Safety and compensation rights.
Officials that rip off union members like Williamson and Jackson and their cronies should forfeit the benefits of their ripoffs. The forfeited money should be put in a trust until we can elect new officials who will work for us or carved up and provided to whatever unions the members choose to join with the proviso its used for the benefit of ex HSU members.
As a Victorian I know Jackson’s real performance in addition to her “obscene” salary, plus allowances, plus expenses, plus other perks that haven’t come to light yet. She might say she deserved it – its expensive to go on all those overseas (shopping)trips … but wait a second, they were funded by the Union IN ADDITION to her salary, allowances and official perks!
Meanwhile, we have shit EBAs because Kathy and crew were just tooo “busy” to worry about us.
We are not backdrops to Kathy’s PR campaign and we are not Liberal Party stooges. We are workers, we work hard for our money. We belong to the union for protection and a fair go. And we don’t deserve the shit we are being put through.
To real wage worker. I really feel for you. It must be particularly galling when the person now posturing as your champion and saviour has neither your support or endorsement and apparently has a history of exploiting both your money and your trust. She can’t be allowed to do it again under cover of honest whistleblower. It’s a situation which would be risible if it wasn’t so sickening. Its about time the mainstream media developed a conscience about all this and, as you say, show some regard for the working people who creeps like Jackson are using to play their self serving power games. It’s no virtue to expose corruption if your hand are dirty and your motives self serving.
This is what Denis Evans said about Kathy Jackson:
Kathy Jackson the controversial federal secretary of Australias most dysfunctional union the Health Services Union deserves no praise attributed to her in the media as being the “whistleblower” who has come forward to expose the corruption endemic in the organisation.
In April of 2009 the secretary of the H.S.U #4 branch Dr Rosemary Kelly disgusted with what she saw as the excesses of members of the federal executive arranged a petition of her members which included health professionals working in the hospital system.The petition directed to Fair Work Australia alleged that members of the executive had used the services of prostitutes, fine dining and the purchase of personal goods on the unions credit cards.
Among the first accused was now federal member of parliament for Dobell Craig Thomson, Thomson had been federal secretary of the health services union from 2002 to 2007
In 1995 the then secretary of the Victorian branch of the union Jeff Jackson entered into an agreement with the unions accountant denis ….to have it shown on the books that he would only be paid for a 4 day week and the 5th day should show that Kathy Jackson nee Koukavaous
would be paid as a consultant for the extra day
Jeff and Kathy had been involved in a relationship after Jackson had left his wife Donna and her two children .
Media reports indicate that this arrangement was some sort of tax rort to minimise their taxable income .Lets be blunt it was more than a tax rort,it was a blatent attempt to minimise the family maintenance payments Jackson had agreed to pay to his wife and children . Kathy Jackson was implicet in the rort.
The unions accountant smelt the proverbial “rat” and reported the request to senior officials who wisely put a full stop to the scam immediatly.
In the latest allegations refered to police controversy surrounded one particular
“Kathy is a person of integrity” David Feeney.Did his wife Liberty Sanger purchase a property in Seddon from the said Kathy Jackson? Is his wife Liberty Sanger also partner of Maurice Blackburn lawyers who do all the legal work for HSU , and also her own personal best friend as quoted by Kathy?
minimising tax & child maintenance for her partners through tax rorting ensuring her kids attend the best private schools, international travel frequent flyer, keeping the Linc afloat for years with union tabs,$3500 bvlgari gifts to ensure she can negotiate a $270k salary package,Volvo prestige union paid car. A hero of the working poor?
Members of unions may not realise some of these organised c**me gangs running unions actually do nothing for them. Most of them have no qualifications in Labour law. If you look at their financial statements you can see as a union member you are paying them exhorbitant money to sit on their fat asses to do absolutely nothing, and to make a few jingly advertisements to scare your ass off.The money they charge for the shocking service members receive tells us this. If a member has a problem these highly paid asses contact lawyer firms specialising in labour law for advice on labour law. This is where Julia worked.Its got to the stage where people might as well organise their own strikes and hire their own labour lawyers and cut out this middle mob!!!
Gee that was a messy room…
I predict evil empires will crumble in 2012
Alas, if only patriots had succeeded in 2009 in electing Diana Asmar and her team to the HSU leadership. Then none of this would have happened.
Numpty has been edited
I’d like to know how much of the Centurion Card 30K a month was laundered back to the NSW Branch of the ALP? As they have been referred to here these organised crime gangs have been very good at keeping the coffers full albeit most of the previously extorted will be very glad that the NSW ALP has been rolled and they no longer need to ‘contribute’. In NSW ALP politics cash is king, it’s how they have kept control over those pesky pollies and those seeking preselection. There must be more than one very nervous union boss and politician praying that this fire is contained quickly.
Jackson’s bringing charges against Williamson. Trusting but gullible workers have been enlisted to help her – see cleanuphsueast. These dupes need to be told about her history of exploitation in victorian branches before it’s too late. Her only activity as union leader is to usurp the power of others under cover of championing the members. Then she stands triumphantly among the ruins looking for another takeover target. It’s all there in her in her history. There are no other acievements for her to boast about which have actually advanced the interests of her members. Dracula dressed as Joan of Arc is about to take over the blood bank. Won’t somebody do something?
No wonder Kathy didn’t really go for preselection for Northcote when Mary Delahunty retired. And lest anyone think it was because she’s really, truly committed to HSU members, what she said at the time to people in the HSU building was that she was going to run to stop Fiona Richardson getting Northcote (who btw has actually done an excellent job as a local member and staved off a very serious challenge from the Greens at the last election). But that’s Kathy – always constructive, never destructive (ha ha). But she must be v happy, because as a State MP there is no way she’d be on the kind of $ she’s on at the Union where she’s taking $ from real battlers (HSU members), rather than spreading her take across all taxpayers.
***if just half of what is being said about her is true then we are all being sold a disgraceful lie by the mainstream media***
Don’t worry, it isn’t. The BS about Kathy driving her $140K Volvo to her $2M sprawling compound is just a putrid smear.
But let me ask you something. If Jackson invites an investigation into the HSU, knowing that she also has skeletons in the closet, does that make her more or less admirable?
I have just picked up a copy of the Sunday Herald Sun (I’ve been too busy, you know, working, before today to read it) where I see that the Jacksons sold a property to Victorian Senator David Feeney. Does anyone else think it’s strange that the Jacksons own a place in Balwyn and they had another property in Seddon??? What else do they own???? I am a member of the HSU and I don’t want Kathy Jackson representing me, thanks very much, so I’ll be joining a lot of my other fellow workers here and becoming an EX-member of the HSU. Oh, and Senator Feeney, although I’ve only ever voted for the ALP, for the first time ever I’m thinking of voting Liberal at the next election. I’m sick of being taken for a ride.
I take 2 trams to get to work in the morning, sometimes it’s really hard to get there if there’s something wrong with the trams, or if it’s really early. There’s no car for me, and definitely not an imported one. We were going to take the kids away in January to the beach (not overseas), but my partner’s been sick and we needed to pay some doctors bills. I’m not complaining, but I am comparing how I live and how the person who represents me seems to live. I could use the money I pay to the HSU in other ways, and I’m not sure the Union is giving me good value for the money I sweat – literally – to earn.
Expoliting the “poorest” of the “working poor” is hard work too.
Well there’s
-shopping at Bvlgari for $3500 earrings (hard to find a car park there)
-private schooling $30k a pop for the most expensive private school doesnt come easy
-Frequent international travel, it’s tough work lugging around to new international shopping hotspots, you try it for a week or two
-running up big tabs at the Linc hotel with my mates , that plastic took a hard workout over the years
- managing property portfolios , in the poorest areas off course , balwyn , seddon etc…
-reading scripts written by my partner and repeating “the working poor” over and over like it really matters.
-driving a modest volvo luxury car, and negotianting a $270k because i’m worth it.
-Taking photo’s in front of hospitals , all over the world, pretending i have given a modicum of interest in hospital workers
PS did i mention “the working poor”
Ms Jackson could have at anytime advised the Union Council that she felt 270k a year was to much for a salary and I am sure they would have agreed to a lessor amount for her.
Leave Kathy alone, none of this has been proved, it’s not easy being a working mother.
Proved, Anonymous??? Where have you been? She’s ADMITTED to it. Leave Kathy alone??? She has taken members money to live her lifestyle, while being a hypocrite and pointing the finger and saying “look over there”.
She is trash.
leave Kathy alone!!!!! She is the one running to the spotlight every time it seems to be dimming and no one is paying her enough attention!!! she wanted the publicity now she has it.. you can’t throw accusations around and not expect people to look closley to you.. Any one who thinks they are untouchable is living in their own delusional world. As for being a single mum on $270K it would be alot easier than the $45K I am on as a single mother of 3 and 2 mine are still in primary school not high school like her’s.
Kathy has only ever cared about the members
Long live Kathy
If Kathy has only cared about her members and not herself why was she meeting members in NSW while the Vic EBA’s were bing finalised, where was she when they needed her!! get a life and start thinking for yourself and not just regurgetation what the puppet master has to say. You are lucky you have not needed her to be with you in a fight for your working rights and conditions.
Australias union leaders have often been articulate intelligent and capable (Mundey, Hawke, Combet, Crean e.g). Whatever the truth buried in the HSUs financial records, Jackson’s media appearances suggest she is none of these. Her ambitions appear to have taken her far beyond her abilities – unless the abilities required to get that far In the Victorian HSU simply amounted to a capacity to shriek loudest.
She just shrieks the loudest, shrieks the longest and hopes everyone belives what it is she is skrieking is the truth.
Spot on , Birds eye view. Everything about her smacks of a staged performance , heavily scripted , and ersatz conviction. A careerist union hack would be paying her a very big compliment, and to those that complain she has shredded her Labor values along with those missing files , i would not even class her in that League , more someone believing their own BS for too long and now turning the bile on everyone to deflect her own mismanagement and complete anihilation of a once strong union. Her proud legacy to the members who paid dearly.
Will trades hall and ACTU & ALP continue to support a union leader who openly enlists the support of HR Nicholls Society Stuart Wood as advocate? andrew bolt as personal friend ?and Tony Abbott’s favourite free kick?
Does anyone else notice that it is always “someone else’s fault” or she “didn’t know anything about it” or “why is everyone picking on me I’m just the whistleblower”. Is everyone else tired of these same old quotes, maybe she should get a new script writer.
Marco’s head already hurst i dont think he has another script in him
This is a farce, Kathy has done nothing wrong, you attack her because she is a working mother exposing the truth about the boys club.
OMG you are so blinded to what she is doing to NSW membrs. Even people who were once friends of Kathy Jackson’s are even turning their back to her cos they dont want to get covered in the shit when it starts falling on her. I am sure by your comment i can tell you have never meet her. i have spoken to a number of Vic members and even they are sick of her crap.
Kathy is under no investigation nor is she facing any allegations at all, god bless Kathy
yet
The future: Kathy was a part of the recent FWA “investigations” and she and her old Victoria branch were/are part of the internal Temby investigation as much as the old NSW branch was/is. Supposedly there were inconsistencies in the health professional victorian accounts of some nature that Temby is investigating. The dirt will come out, she is covered in it, its just a matter of how long it will take.
***she has taken members money to live her lifestyle***
Has she got a Centurion card?
***the dirt will come out, she is covered in it, its just a matter of how long it will take***
Fair Work Australia have already taken longer than the Nuremburg Trials, what’s your guesstimate of time frame?
all smells very fishy to me.. maybe KJ should use some femme fresh and Bolano should wash his face…its very brown due to being that far up her arse!
I absolutely agree with Birds eye view’s comments. People need to wake up to Kathy Jackson’s intention.
The whole thing seems to be a bucket of rotting fishguts! What we need is fresh Union elections, with a complete new management regime. As an HSU member, I know we pay more Union fees than equivalent health unions. With some better management, they may be able to reduce our fees, particularly for part time workers who now often cannot afford to actually join. With the right team, we can fix this. (Members: be very careful who you vote for!)
“they may be able to reduce our fees, particularly for part time workers” Do you pay part time car or house insurence fees because you work part time???
@ HSU Member, you dont live in your house part-time, and you can get car insurance that covers you for some days of the week – and other unions offer part-time membership at reduced rates.
Not sure why you chose to concentrate on that rather strange point….
The reality is, fresh elections will happen, but the same puppeteers will be behind the scenes.
The only other comparative health union organisation in NSW are the Nurses, and to my knowledge they don’t offer part time rates and have different rates based on occupation, some being higher than HSU fees (I dont know or care about Victoria). Part time rates just lead to people lying about the hours they work, and if a significant amount of people are paying lesser than the regular fees obviously the full time fee rates are going to be increased to compensate.
The posters here are a bunch of fanistists! Kathy will save the day as usual.
I am really quite proud of myself. These days am getting the occasional root without cash chnaging hands.
Oh dear……. Kathy Jackson ‘whistleblower’ secretly paid Craig Thomson $160,000 and kept it secret for 2+ years!
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/thomson-received-secret-payment-of-160000-after-he-left-hsu-20120419-1xa41.html
@ Sandy – I dont know about NSW or care! Well that isnt true, I do care.
What HSU (NSW and Vic) have failed to do is focus on their main role, representing health workers. Instead they have focussed on the ALP and themselves.
If they had focussed on members, they would have retained their membership and recruited more. It simply isnt fair to expect someone working 2 days a week on $18.00 an hour to pay the same rate as a full time employee. The effect isn’t that the full timer subsidises the part time membership fee, its that the part timer does not join at all!
There is no one in the Vic side of HSU East standing up saying “enough”, and to my knowledge no one in NSW either. While in normal circumstances such an approach may be a suicide mission for a union employee, no way will they risk sacking someone for genuine integrity at this stage.
To consider Kathy as the potential saviour of HSU is a joke.
“It’s time” as they say – for a rank and file takeover, but without an internal leader they have no hope of success. It is time for existing HSU staffers in NSW and Vic to stand up – are you there for the members or the trough???
Anyone remember Zora?
Dear Armed against the Enemy,
You have taken the words right out of my mouth and finally someone is speaking about the reall issue and not about how much Kathy and gained personally from this union and in fact its workers, and similarly that goes for Michael Williamson also. Both these people must go as one is as bad as the other and all the two of them are doing is destroying the HSU and in turn adversley affecting all its hard working and underpaid members. Enough is definately Enough !!!
Thomson says Jackson signed off on his defamation settlement from the HSU – effectively, it seems, a de facto admission that she defamed him (though the HSU picked up the tab). Yet she publicly continues to pursue him. The only reason she can have it both ways like this is because the HSU membership picked up the tab on the defamation. Talk about a disgrace!
Kathy is only doing it for the members
Even Kathy’s mother doesn’t like her – I’ve seen them yelling at each other on the street, and it’s been going on for years. Kathy’s mother is always looking after the kids, or Jeff (who was a very friendly neighbour). Not sure Kathy sees much of her kids.
Some media is reporting that Thomson’s defamation payment was made while Jackson was overseas – the inference being she didn’t know about it and that there was something sinister about the payment. Surely it’s not too hard for a responsible journalist to actually find out the truth given the implications. If she signed, then, given her professed concern for the ethical use of the funds of the working poor, one would imagine she honestly believed she and or the HSU had defamed Thomson. If she did so believe, then why is she persisting with the same allegations post-payout? And if she didn’t agree to the payout, did she sign off anyway as Thomson alleges? And if so, Why? On the other hand, if she didn’t sign, then Thomson isn’t telling the truth. But in the end, why can’t we get some responsible journalism around the issue. Is it that they are all looking forward to both a Union and a Labor Party corpse to pick at?
New version of events.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/hsu-says-no-defamation-payment-to-mp/story-e6frf7jx-1226334451599
Brown seems like an honest man. The reporter who set the hares running (McClymont, SMH) might have some explaining to do. Don’t anyone hold their breath though.
Do we want to deal with the alternative ? Asmar and Fegan! Best we deal with the clowns we know!
Best we find a new set of clowns and through the old one out!!!
Yeah an election is a problem , you will have Williamson, Jackson, asmar and Fegan all runing tickets, no matter what we members want nothing will change
Nobody says you have to vote for thoes D***heads.
Any member has the right to put their name in the hat and run a campaign. Just need someone with the guts to do it.
Fedup, tell me how you would find the money to run in a union election?
“stop kidding yourself”, the poor name both Jackson and Williamson has, no one who truly wishes the good name of the HSU to return, one day down the track once all this shit is over, would NEVER vote for either of those two. So Fedup is right. All that is needed is someone, ( not connected to either Jackson or Williamson) to put their hand up and do a siimple male out to members who are des desperately looking for new leadership
The shortcons will decide the outcome of the election, no HSU member will even get a look in.
Well,
at least I started the conversation going in the right direction. What we as members need to do is find candidates that will move the union to one that works for the members. Those candidates will be available: we just need to find the trustworthy ones who will work in the interests of the members & that includes using money responsibly.
Remember, get rid of the Armani suited shiny bums, & get the real honest workers there. We will need them judging by the way politics is moving.
regards Doug
***I’ve seen them yelling at each other on the street, and it’s been going on for years***
If it’s been going on for years, it’s probably not as bad as it sounds.
Amazing story in the age about Kathy Jackson failing to turn up to court yesterday over her noisy pool pump
Anyone that turned up to Court to waste their time responding to an idiotic council running idiotic matters in a reckless waste of ratepayer monies, would be a dickhead.
No contempt there, in fact the Council’s actions are, as mentioned, a contemptible waste of ratepayers money. I think the Magistrate’s comments alluded to that.
‘What Contempt’ you’re a wanker.
***amazing story in the age about Kathy Jackson failing to turn up***
Yeah breathtaking, there hasn’t been a bigger case since the Lindbergh kidnapping. Hey, how’s that FWA investigation into Thomson coming along? Fairfax printed the news yesterday that he scored an extra $160K from the HSU. They make the Centurion cards out of titanium alloy, what’s the next one up, for Craig and Mike – kryptonite?
Thanks , I have just been looking for information about this topic for ages and yours is the best I have discovered so far. However, what about the conclusion? Are you sure about the source?|What i do not realize is in reality how you’re no longer actually a lot more smartly-preferred than you might be right now. You are so intelligent.