BY CHRIS SLEE
MELBOURNE — Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members at five Southcorp factories here are in the second week of strike action, which began on October 11 in support a new enterprise agreement.
Southcorp has offered an average 15% pay rise over 33 months, the same as has been won by AMWU members during the union's Campaign 2000 round of industrial action. However, Southcorp has refused to backdate the rise to March 31, when the last agreement expired, proposing instead to backdate it to July 1. Management is also rejecting the union's claim for income protection and improved long-service leave.
Jon Zwart, a shop steward at the Coburg plant, told Green Left Weekly that there are also local issues at the five plants. At Coburg, which makes can lids, the company is seeking to introduce 12-hour shifts and to transfer some work from the warehouse to the factory, which workers suspect is aimed at cutting jobs.
The union wants common negotiations for all five plants, but the company is pushing for site-by-site negotiations and has offered very different pay deals to workers in different plants. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has ruled that common negotiations should occur.
The company has sent letters to all workers warning that the strike is illegal under the Workplace Relations Act, due to the union's failure to give three days' notice.
Zwart said, however, that the workers are not intimidated and described their morale as "phenomenal". Workers at other plants have been subjected to even more severe intimidation; injunctions have been taken out against some delegates. The company has also threatened to sue the union for $3 million.
The plant is being picketed around the clock. Supporters are welcome to visit the picket lines in: Charles Street, Coburg; Whiteside Avenue, Clayton; McNaughtons Road, Clayton; and Cherry Lane, Laverton.