BY NICK FREDMAN
CONDONG — "Standin' on the picket line, cross the road from the mill/The war ain't over till the fat man pays the bill", local singer Steve MacDonald sang to cheering sugar mill workers and supporters on November 18. Pickets have been set up at mills across northern NSW to protest Sunshine Sugar's attempts to cut pay and force compulsory work on public holidays.
Negotiating over a new enterprise bargaining agreement, the company is refusing to grant its workers more than an 8.5% pay rise over three years (well below expected inflation) and is also demanding workers agree to work if needed on all public holidays, including Christmas Day.
When workers refused the "offer", Sunshine Sugar management broke off negotiations and locked out 350 workers at the Condong, Broadwater and Harwood mills and the Harwood refinery on November 5.
The workers are calling for an 8% rise over a two-year agreement. But according to Jim Salna, Condong Mill delegate for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the workers are less concerned about the pay cut (in real terms) than they are about losing the little control that they currently have over their working hours. "If they want people to give up their lives for the dollar man they should make it voluntary", Salna told Green Left Weekly.
During the crushing season workers often work 60-70 hours per week and are on call for 24 hours per day, so a few assured public holidays a year are extremely important.
Another major concern for the workers is that the new agreement would remove seniority provisions for deciding which casual seasonal workers gain permanency. "They want to smash the unions in the mills, they've been trying for 20 years", Australian Workers Union delegate Gordan Neely told GLW. Neely pointed out that increased control by the company over permanent placements would be used to discriminate against union members, and also argued that the company had hired "human relations experts" to help weaken the unions in the dispute.
Another "hidden agenda", according to Salna, is that Sunshine Sugar is planning to set up a joint venture with Delta Power to open power plants burning sugar cane waste and other material at each of the mills. These would require guaranteed 24-hour per day, 365 days per year operation for maximum profitability.
After the lock-out failed to compel workers to agree to Sunshine Sugar's enterprise agreement, on November 16 the company announced the plants would re-open and rang workers urging them to return to work. However, with no concessions on the part of the company or even a return to negotiations in sight, mass meetings at all mills on November 17 voted to strike, with votes in favour from 96-100%.
At a picket barbecue at Condong on November 18, workers and supporters were addressed by CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson, who promised that the NSW Labor Council would offer full support. Greens Senate candidate in the federal election, Kerry Nettle, also visited the picket offering her party's support, and Socialist Alliance members pledged to collect donations and distribute information in support of the strikers.
From Green Left Weekly, November 28, 2001.
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