Postal workers in Australia vowed to strike Sunday after Australia Post agreed to deliver 30,000 packages of Olympic tickets in Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra. Courier company TNT, which had handled previous deliveries of souvenir tickets throughout Australia, refused to make deliveries Sunday because it didn’t receive the tickets early enough to prepare for distribution.
Also thousands of hotel workers are expected to walk off the job Sunday because they want a special allowance to work during the 2000 Olympics.The liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union is pressing for an industry-wide Olympic bonus of $550 (Aus.), about $310 (U.S.).
New figures from the Department of Fair Trading show the rental price for a one-bedroom unit jumped 4.5 per cent in the pre-Olympic March quarter. Tenancy advocates warn that any further rise in Sydney rents would push the city’s accommodation to crisis point. The Tenants Union of New South Wales said it was likely 50,000 homes had been affected by rental price changes during the four-year lead-up to the Games.
A 14-kilometre river of lighting linking the Olympic stadium and the Sydney Harbor Bridge will trigger a giant fireworks display to mark the end of the 2000 Games. The final seconds of a fireworks display at the closing ceremonies at the Olympic stadium will start the long fuse. The fuse will take about 2-1/2 minutes to trigger the fireworks on the bridge. And eight city buildings on both sides of the harbour will also shoot fireworks while a row of boats under the bridge will unleash giant Roman candles.
Kevan Gosper, IOC Vice President, has convinced IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to withdraw his invitation to two Afghan observers to attend the Sydney Games because of claims by Taliban leaders that the invitation amounted to IOC recognitiion of their regime.