Workers act against ACI lockout
By Chris Slee
MELBOURNE — Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union are picketing the ACI glass mould manufacturing plant in Box Hill. The workers have been locked out since December 20.
The union put in a claim for a new enterprise agreement in early 1998, asking for a pay rise while retaining the conditions under the current enterprise agreement and award. But the company is pushing for dramatic changes to the agreement, including the freedom to order any worker to perform any task, regardless of classification and without extra pay.
The company wants to cut the work force and increase the workload of those who remain. Workers would have to look after more than one machine and would have to perform a range of different tasks, such as maintenance and quality control, as well as their machine-operating functions.
AMWU delegate Pedro Ramos told Green Left Weekly that the workers are not against multiskilling, but want to ensure that this does not result in excessive workloads and that workers are paid appropriately for their increased responsibilities.
The company refuses to negotiate in good faith, insisting on absolute management prerogative to make such decisions. It wants to ignore the award, which specifies a competency-based classification system to determine workers' pay.
Robert Bisinella, another AMWU delegate, told Green Left Weekly that the company has been issuing common law orders to workers to do jobs other than those they normally do. This is an attempt to bypass the award and the current enterprise agreement.
Bisinella said that the company's proposed new agreement would mean de facto casualisation. Workers could be sent home without pay if they are not required.
The company has been deliberately provocative, ordering many workers to change shifts with a week's notice. It began standing down workers on December 16 and closed the plant on December 20. It has refused to pay annual leave.
The AMWU went to the Federal Court and obtained an injunction ordering the company to reopen the plant on December 29. The plant did reopen but, at the end of the day shift, the company issued a new lockout notice. The workers occupied the plant overnight, but agreed to leave in the morning and set up a picket line outside.
Several workers told Green Left Weekly they believed that this is not just a dispute with the local plant management, but a test case for the ACI group as a whole. If the company can get away with imposing unfettered management prerogative at one plant, it will extend it to others.
Other companies might also follow the ACI precedent. Some workers suggested that workplace relations minister Peter Reith may have played some role in instigating the dispute.
Some of the company's tactics have been quite bizarre. It tried to put all the senior Queen's counsels in Melbourne on retainer for the day of a court hearing to prevent them from being employed by the union. Fortunately, the union was able to speak to one QC shortly before the company got to him.
The workers have received strong support from local residents and AMWU members at other workplaces. Supporters are welcome to visit the picket at Lexton Road, Box Hill.