BY TERRICA STRUDWICK
ROCKHAMPTON — Consolidated Meat Group employees voted to return to work on April 27 after a five-month dispute over a new enterprise agreement. However, CMG has broken its promise to reinstate all employees who were working prior to the lock-out. More than half the original work force has not been rehired.
Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) officials told its members at a mass meeting on April 27 that all employees would get their jobs back.
On January 12, CMG told its 1350 workers that they no longer had jobs. On April 19, CMG sent letters to all employees, including night-shift workers who were put off last October, prompting them to re-apply for their positions. This was despite the fact that no employee was formally sacked, so legally they were entitled to have their positions back or at least be paid a redundancy payout.
It appears that most of the new work force is made up of people who originally applied for work while the AMIEU picket line was in place. CMG worker Krystine Tranberg told Green Left Weekly, "I don't know any of the faces I work with now".
In 2001, a seniority system was put in place for employing workers at the start of each working year. However, people who have only worked at CMG for six months are being employed before people who have worked there for more than six years. In one case, a woman who has worked at CMG for 17 years is still waiting for her job.
No union delegates were employed initially. Many now have to undergo medicals before they will be allowed to work.
AMIEU officials and CMG managing director John Hughes have been in negotiations to get all the workers re-employed. It is not known when an outcome will be reached. In the meantime, absolutely desperate workers wait anxiously.
Ann Smith worked at CMG for six years and was ranked 20th on the seniority scale. Smith was an outspoken representative for the boning and packing room, and she and her husband were heavily involved in the picket. She has received two days work but no permanent position, so it's back to the gate to wait.
"We're just waiting for [the banks] to come and take everything, you can't sleep at night because of the stress and then you have to go down to that hell hole at 5am and wait everyday", Smith told GLW. On May 9, Smith's husband was sacked because he had a migraine. There was no union delegate around to help him.
While the union has proclaimed the return to work a victory, the workers are not happy. Many have lost everything. Not only have they lost cars, houses, husbands and wives, but they have lost their dignity in the workplace. CMG management has stripped CMG workers of every last reasonable working condition.
As Krystine Tranberg explained, "I'll only be getting around $380 a week for working 12-hour days. I have to do the overtime to boost my pay and I think CMG will soon put a stop to that. I work in the cold room and they've taken the hourly five-minute breaks away and all the women have been waking up puffy".
Under the award, breaks are supposed to be taken frequently so that workers can get out of the cold, but so far CMG has only allowed the two normal 15-minute breaks, and half an hour for lunch.
From Green Left Weekly, May 15, 2002.
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