The tour
The Communications Union has launched its campaign against the further privatisation of Telstra with an unlikely hero: "Mobie The Mobile" will be dancing up a storm to Elvis's "Don't Be Cruel" at several rural and regional points of New South Wales from the 27 August to the 5 December 2001.
"This is Mobie's first public appearance, and for the next eleven weeks he will visit almost 60 rural and regional towns" said Jim Metcher, Secretary of the Communications electrical Plumbing Union (CEPU) Postal and Telecommunications Branch".
"It is vital that people understand the impact that full privatisation will have. Already the community is fed up with talking to computers every time they ring Telstra, they are fed up with the way the service standards have dropped. It will only get worse with further privatisation" claimed Mr Metcher.
"Telstra has cut thirty thousand jobs across Australia, meanwhile the savings have been soaked up by Senior Managers most of who wouldn't have any idea about how a phone actually works other than to order a pizza or a case of champagne" said Mr Metcher.
This campaign aims to highlight the issues surrounding the privatisation of Telstra. It focuses on the thousands of lost jobs and the drain in the skilled workforce, which has resulted in a communications network, which is on the verge of collapse.
"Some rural areas have reached the point of no return, we demand that the Howard Government or a future Beazley Government as the major shareholder reverse this trend. Australia deserves better," said Mr Metcher.
"Millions of dollars have been wasted on training people who have then been made redundant. As soon as they are trained they are forced out the door, it's little wonder the organisation is haemorrhaging. Somebody has to be made accountable for this type of gross mismanagement." said Mr Metcher.
Campaign itinerary
Send a message to Canberra
You too can send a message to Canberra by calling the CEPU Office and asking for a copy of the petition, or simply printing it from this website, asking your family, friends, neighbours and co-workers to sign the petition and return it to us so we can pass it on to Canberra.
Campaign material
Following is the itinerary of the "Save Telstra" campaign across NSW:
27/8 10am Batemans Bay Orient St Car park 2pm Moruya in the Main St 28/8 10am Bombala in the Main St 29/8 10am Cooma at Tourist Information Centre Main St 30/8 10am Queanbeyan Campaign Office 130 Monaro Street 31/8 10am Goulburn Call Centre Auburn Street 3/9 12 noon Raymond Terrace outside Community Care Centre 4/9 10am Forster outside Telephone Exchange, Wallis St 5/9 10am Taree outside PO, Albert St 6/9 10am Port Macquarie, Cnr Horton and Clarence Sts 7/9 10am Kempsey Telstra Call Centre, Elbow St 9/9 8am Coffs Harbour Markets 10/9 10am Grafton Market Square 11/9 10am Ballina Top end Main St East Ballina 12/9 10am Murwillumbah Main St 13/9 10am Tweed Heads, Tweed City Shopping Mall 14/9 10am Lismore Molworth St 24/9 10am Lithgow outside Main St PO 25/9 10am Mudgee Mideira Road 26/9 10am Orange PO Summer Street 27/9 10am Bathurst Sales Centre Howick 3/10 10am Narellan outside Campaign Office Narellan Shopping Centre 4/10 10am Telstra Springwood Exchange #143 McQuaris Road 5/10 10am Windsor outside Windsor Mall 8/10 10am Muswellbrook Market Place 2pm Scone Liverpool St 9/10 10am Maitland Green Hills Shopping Centre East Maitland 10/10 10am Nelsons Bay Outside PO Magna St 11/10 10am Cessnock outside Coles Centre 12/10 2pm Dungog outside Telephone Exchange 23/10 10am Bourke outside Telephone Exchange 24/10 10am Dubbo outside Telstra Shop McQuarry St 25/10 10am Parkes Clarinda St 26/10 11am Forbes outside PO 5/11 10am Gunnedah Connadilly St (behind the PO) 6/11 10am Narrabri Doyle St (behind PO) 7/11 10am Moree behind PO 8/11 10am Inverell outside PO 9/11 12noon Armidale Telstra Shop Dangar St 10/11 10am Tamworth outside PO Cnr Peel & Fitzroy Sts 16/11 10am Gosford Erina Fair off Karalta Rd Erina 15/11 10am Newcastle Telstra 317 Hunter St 14/11 11am Wollongong 90 Crown St 13/11 10am Nowra Call Centre Berry St 26/11 9am Tumut Main St 27/11 10am Albury outside Country Wide Cnr Swift & Kiewa Sts 28/11 10am Finley outside Newsagents Murray St 29/11 10am Deniliquin outside Steve Barlow Pharmacy 17-21 Napier St 30/11 10am Griffith Griffith Plaza Yambil St 1/12 10am Leeton Main St Shopping Centre 3/12 11am Wagga Wagga Telstra Shop 182 Bayliss St 4/12 10am Young in Main St Shopping Centre 5/12 10am Bowral The Corbett Plaza Bong Bong St
The "Save Telstra" campaign will be reaching out to a large number of people across New South Wales and CEPU Officials, accompanied by Mobie the Mobile, will be handing out petitions for people to sign and return to the CEPU office.
These documents are in Adobe Acrobat format.
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