A six week-long battle at Swift Australia Meatworks in Brooklyn, Melbourne, has ended with 140 National Union of Workers (NUW) members keeping conditions that were lost by the plant’s 500 other employees two years ago.
Swift Australia locked out the picketers in early December after they took protected industrial action in the course of their enterprise bargaining negotiations. The strikers are mostly of migrant backgrounds, from all corners of the globe. Some are recently arrived refugees.
By the fifth week of the dispute, some picketers and their families were threatened with eviction. Others sold off what few assets they had as their money dried up.
The longer the dispute went on, the stronger the support from the community grew.
Emma Kerin from Workers Solidarity Network told Green Left Weekly: "The community spirit on the picket line was unbelievable, great to see. We had great support from a wide range of unionists and community groups. Food supplies were donated from local stores."
NUW organiser Darren Styles told GLW: "It was a very good result. Ninety percent of our members are happy. The other 10% wanted to keep on giving them [the company] a kicking.
“We did what the rest of the site couldn't do. We kept our penalty rates. We kept our eight-hour day. We kept our rostered days off. We got a two year agreement with a 3% wage increase per annum, backdated to August."
Kerin said: "I think we'll be back here in a couple of weeks because there are around 500 other workers wondering why they are so much worse off than the NUW members and they are starting to get upset about it.”