BY TIM GOODEN
GEELONG — After five months of being locked out of their workplace with no pay, workers at the Geelong Wool Combing factory have been sacked. On September 23, the GWC board decided to close the plant on October 1, leaving 115 workers without jobs.
The GWC plant was set up 10 years ago by the Elders agribusiness corporation in partnership with a German firm, with the help of a $25 million government grant.
The lock out began on May 1, as a result of workers rejecting a 25% pay cut. GWC wanted a new enterprise agreement that put workers back on basic industrial award conditions of a five-day work arrangement with no penalties and unlimited use of casuals. Previously, GWC employees had worked a four-days on, four-days off, 12-hour shift arrangement, with an annualised salary.
Last Easter, many of the employees took voluntary leave to help the company get through a quiet period. A month later, GWC locked the workers out.
Glen Musgrove, a Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA) shop steward at GWC, said: "The company has shown their true colours, they've come to the end now. It's time to pay up the minimum redundancy entitlements to their employees and they're trying to skip out on that. They [GWC] don't want to recognise the lockout period as part of the redundancy entitlement.
"The employees are proud of the actions they have undertaken. They didn't succumb to the pressure and tactics of the company and are happy to move on and find employment with a bit of dignity.
"We had no alternative but to reject the bosses' offer. The cost of living and the wages being offered by the company were so far apart they would have to have handed the keys of their house back to the bank. They would have set a precedent in Geelong and Australia that would've undermined the efforts that workers have fought for since the year dot."
The locked-out workers have been supported by funds raised by unions and through street stalls. The Socialist Alliance helped set up the street stalls. Local ALP MP Peter Loney organised a fundraising auction and dinner and the TCFUA held several fundraising functions and raffles.
The Maritime Union of Australia donated $10,000 and Shell oil workers donated $20,000. Geelong construction workers levied themselves between $20 and $50 a week. The Australian Education Union donated $1000.
The company used all the usual tricks of intimidation and threats to try to get workers to accept worsened conditions. It hired security guards, sought court injunctions to move the protest line from the factory and attempted to sue individual workers.
GWC applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to have the previous and current agreements abrogated. If the GWC application had been successful, the workers would have lost their redundancy entitlements.
During the AIRC hearing, company documents showed that GWC had been planning the lock out for 12 months and was considering moving the factory long before the dispute began. GWC refused all compromise positions put forward by the TCFUA.
GWC is now attempting to pay out the workers' entitlements only up to the date when they were locked out. TCFUA has sought an AIRC ruling to have the workers paid in full up to the time that they were sacked. TCFUA Victorian branch secretary Michelle O'Neil said: "It's shocking that the company is still trying to pinch money from its workers by squeezing off five months of their accruals. It's not surprising given the callous and greed-oriented approach of this company though the whole dispute. We are having this arbitrated in the AIRC and we're going after every last cent from GWC for these workers."
On October 10, 300 unionists and supporters gathered at the Geelong Trades Hall to commemorate the courage displayed by the GWC workers in standing up to company's bullying lockout tactic and to protest its closure of the factory. Without the workers' tenacity in resisting GWC's demands, every employer in Geelong would have felt more confident that they could use lock outs to force their employees to accept wage cuts.
[Tim Gooden is assistant secretary of the Geelong Trades Hall Council and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, October 15, 2003.
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