Labor Day Success for LHMU

The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union rallied together in Brisbane yesterday for the 2009 Labor Day March, led by Premier, Anna Bligh.

Starting on the corner of Wharf and Turbot Street, the union members and their families carried on through the streets of The Valley and resided at the RNA showgrounds.

Upon completing the crusade, LHMU members and supporters were met with a BBQ lunch, live music and rides and activities for their children.

Aside from celebrating the success of their unions, LHMU wanted their Labor Day celebrations to be focused on community togetherness and family.

Kerry Tomlinson, Branch Assistant Secretary of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, was very pleased with the turnout and believes family involvement is key to what LHMU do.

“We try to encourage them (workers) to bring their families along, because without the support of unions, often times families don’t get a fair deal.

“We try and make it a family day so that workers can bring their kids so the kids can get a better feel for what the movement is about.”

Though family was a key theme of this year’s Labor Day, job losses also played a part.

Training Officer, Ron Simon, said that LHMU wanted to take a positive step towards fixing workplaces and to sell the unions as being ‘proactive’.

“There’s always the perception that unions are bad, we’re not.

“We’re a collective of workers who get together and just protect what we’ve got.

“We’ve got some very good relationships with bosses in certain areas and bad ones in others but it’s just about trying to get a fair days pay for a fair days work.”

Simon said that he believes the Unions were celebrating for the right reasons yesterday, though is unsure about whether or not the message will go out to the populace.

ANZAC Honour

Sunshine Coast residents paid their respects this weekend to honour those who served as ANZAC’s.

The dawn service and major service were both held on property owned by Buderim Mountain State School.

During the ANZAC Day march, Veterans paraded down the main street of Buderim, residing at the Buderim War Memorial Hall.

Private Matthew Jones, selected to drive five WW2 veterans, was given the responsibility of laying a wreath on behalf of the Australian Army Wing of the defence force.

Jones said he was ‘terrified of screwing up’ and dishonouring the day and those who gave their lives for the country.

“When it came time to perform my duties, I switched to the job at hand.

“Not letting yourself becomes over-burdened with emotions, and living up to any sense of duty is all part of the job.”

Internet woes, no worry

Griffith University has changed the internet provider on its residential colleges, much to the dismay of returning students.

The new ISP has limited downloading capacity and is more expensive than its predecessor.

Strong DC, the popular file transfer program used by the students has also been taken away from the students.

New students living on college believe these changes are ‘unfortunate’, but not unbearable.

Scott Taylor, a Software Engineering student new to college says he was only slightly disappointed about the LAN network being taken away.

“A local area network would be awesome…but I hadn’t heard of it (Strong DC) until I came here.

“I’m still excited about staying at BK (Bellenden Ker College), even if the internet isn’t the same as last year.”