Force Cochlear to listen to its workers!

The reactionary Howard Government in Australia has legislated to give employers the right to impose un-Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) on the workforce.

It dishonetly maintains that no worker can be forced to go onto an AWA - individual contracts between workers and employers that strip away most Award benefits. As the Cochlear dispute shows, the bosses have all sorts of ways to try and force workers onto AWAs.

Cochlear, the manufacturer of bionic ear implants that help hearing-impaired people around the world, is simply not listening. Twice its workers have voted to reject management offers -- and now management is saying it will impose individual contracts in a bid to smash the union.

A strike now looms and your support is needed more than ever. Thousands of you from all over the world have been flooding Cochlear with messages urging the company to negotiate with the union. The company is in the international forefront of production of bionic ear implants and is very conscious of its international image. We need thousands more messages to be sent from overseas, as well as from within Australia.

If you've not yet done so, please go right now to this page and send your message.At the bottom of this message there's a link to forward this email on -- please use it to tell others about this important campaign