Laundry staff to earn more than PM

Laundry staff on $420k a year | News.com.au

LAUNDRY hands and cooks employed on offshore construction projects will potentially earn more than $420,000 a year, according to employers who claim the extraordinary rates will have a flow-on impact on mainland resources projects.

New analysis by the Australian Mines and Metals Association finds the most recent wage agreement registered for offshore construction workers contains maximum annual pay packages for a four-week-on, two-week-off rostered employee of $423,000 for a laundry hand; $445,000 for a cook; $450,000 for a tradesperson; and $498,000 for a barge welder, The Australian reports.

If the employee works a three-week-on, three-week-off roster for a year, the AMMA said, the maximum remuneration was $317,734 for a laundry hand; $334,408 for a cook; $337,484 for a tradesperson; and $373,701 for a barge welder.

Steve Knott, the association's chief executive, said the pay rates were a "worrying precedent", particularly for Queensland employers competing for a dearth of skilled workers.

"There is a very real risk to resource employers. As offshore rates and allowances flow across to the onshore construction sector, many projects will face the risk of significant wage blowouts," Mr Knott said.

"I think most fair-minded people would start to think something is fundamentally wrong when a barge welder earns more than the Prime Minister, whose salary is $350,000.

"And Queensland's Chief Justice, Paul de Jersey, on $395,000, is only earning slightly more than a ship's laundry hand or cook."

via ScribeFire

the faces of the anti-cuts protest

Nurses, lawyers, students, teachers: the faces of the anti-cuts protest | Society | guardian.co.uk

Protesters converged on London with one clear message for David Cameron's coalition – the people are not happy

ELAINE BRIGGS
Operations manager, 52, from Cornwall

In Cornwall we've had 40% cuts. They've removed our £3m budget, leaving more than 1,000 vulnerable clients without support and more than 120 staff redundant – and that's just one service. We provide support to assist those who are vulnerable, to maintain their tenancies, get the benefits they are entitled to and to empower them to live independently. I'm out of a job next week and it's absolutely heartbreaking.

SASHA SIMMONS
Youth worker, 27, from Hackney

I'm concerned about my job, but I'm more concerned about the people we're working with. We need to make sure young people are safe in their communities and make sure they have the options of working and finding economic security. We're hearing very scary rumours about the cuts that will leave young people in a very scary position. We need a slower and steadier approach.

KATE ROTHWELL
Psychotherapist, 47, from St Albans

I'm furious. I've worked for over 20 years as an arts psychotherapist and myself and seven others have been made redundant. It's devastating. We work with extremely disturbed offender patients to help them make the transition to low-secure units and eventually out into the community. The government said they had to make cuts and save money, but it's a false economy because they'll just end up warehousing patients.

FIONA BATH
Teacher, from Leeds

I'm a teacher in special education and 3% of the population are taking 25% of the cuts and it's the weakest and the poorest. We have to tell the people in power that they are totally unfair and out of touch with ordinary people in society. I want the government to see that the public care about their country and they don't want the NHS taken apart. We don't want education taken apart and we don't want it all privatising.

ROBIN VAN MICKWITZ
Student, 19, from Huddersfield

I want to study engineering in a few years and I know I'm not going to be able to afford the tuition fees. I want to know why they're cutting all our services but not cutting Trident. There's a big movement, I think, it's definitely building. People are calling for revolution and I think it's possible now more than ever. I'm an anarchist, so I want to see a complete breakdown of state rather than politicians simply working for their own means.

KATE EWING
Lawyer, 31, from London

We're here to oppose the attack on public services. It's an assault on education, on childcare, on the provision of services that children need and on families. The effects on a young family like ours, the cutting of Sure Start centres, the loss of flexible working arrangements, makes a massive difference and it's going to lead to huge inequality. The atmosphere today is great, it's really positive. I think the point is to show the strength of feeling against the cuts.

Anna Chapman: Agent provocateur

Anna Chapman: Agent provocateur | World news | The Observer

When she was arrested in an FBI sting in a Manhattan coffee shop last June on charges of espionage, it looked like Anna Chapman would disappear into obscurity in Russia. Less than a year later she's the darling of the country's media, has her own TV show and is tipped as a rising star of the political right

we are all just folk

Whites will be a minority in the U.S. by 2050 as black and Hispanic birth rates soar | Mail Online

Whites in America will be outnumbered by 2050 by rising numbers of ethnic minorities, according to official figures.

Hispanic, black and Asian people accounted for 90 per cent of all births in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010.

In 40 years’ time they will comprise more than half the population due to their higher birth rates and immigration.

Operation Odyssey Dawn?

 - Swampland - TIME.com
Operation OdesseyDawn dish washer

Remember how the late musician Frank Zappa named his kids Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen? Have you noticed how the Pentagon's names for its wars have become more bizarre since the Mothers of Invention front man left us in 1993? Perhaps his spirit has touched the Defense Department. You can imagine them in the Pentagon basement a couple of weeks ago. "War with Libya coming -- we need a nifty name!" one chief deputy under-secretary for nomenclature said to his chief assistant. "How about naming it for a minivan and a dishwashing detergent?"

"Operation Sienna Palmolive?"

"Not quite."

Anyway, here's the true story of how the Pentagon names its operations. "It is evident that the military has begun to recognize the power of names in waging a public relations campaign," Army Maj. Gregory Sieminski wrote back in 1995, "and the significance of winning that campaign to the overall effort."