BY TIM GOODEN
GEELONG — Unionists have rallied together to support 100 workers from Geelong Wool Combing who have been locked out for 13 weeks, fearing that such employer tactics are becoming more common. The first lockout notices were issued on May Day, a traditional day of workers' struggle.
The company, which is 41% owned by Elders, is demanding workers accept a 25% pay cut and reduced working conditions. Workers, through their union, the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA), have attempted to negotiate, but the company has made it clear that it wants all or nothing. So far, workers have refused to accept this.
The company has run the dispute as if following a textbook written by federal minister for union bashing Tony Abbott. It has hired security guards, installed cameras, sought injunctions against workers and their union and threatened to sue workers. It has applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to have the current enterprise agreement overturned and put workers back on award conditions — setting them back 10 years.
Although the locked-out workers have received lots of support on the continuous "protest line", and several events have netted tens of thousands of dollars to support them, some workers have been forced to sell their homes, defer wedding plans and stop sending their children to kindergarten.
Geelong Trades Hall Council has made an offer to the TCFUA to bring unions and community supporters together for a meeting on August 30 to review the dispute and its impact on Geelong workers.
An all-unions shop-stewards meeting on August 7 was held to discuss the issue. As well as hearing from the locked-out workers, the stewards were addressed by Victorian Trades Hall secretary Leigh Hubbard, who explained that lockouts were being used more often by bosses, and for longer periods of time. This dispute was important to win, he said, in order to deter bosses from using the tactic.
The shop stewards resolved to raise funds to keep the locked-out workers going, and to call for a combined community-union rally at noon on August 27, in Market Square, Geelong. With a cry of "No more lockouts", stewards pledged full support for whatever the workers and the TCFUA needed to win.
John Kranz, the secretary of Geelong Trades Hall, told Green Left Weekly that "workers in this town are rock solid. They understand what's at stake here, and they will not stand by and watch other workers lose their homes for greedy bosses. We will do whatever it takes to defend these workers and their families."
Almost immediately, funds began to roll in. At one construction site, workers knocked back their organiser's proposal of a $20 levy, voting to impose a $50 levy instead.
The community is contributing $1000 dollars each weekend, through campaigning stalls. Individuals have been stopping at the protest line and handing over a couple of hundred dollars at a time.
The big support, however, is just starting to come in as the bigger factories begin holding members' meetings. Workers at the Shell refinery passed the hat around after listening to a speech by locked-out shop steward Glen Musgrove, and handed over $20,000.
The dispute has now made the national media. Labor leader Simon Crean visited on August 4, a week after Australian Council of Trade Unions president Sharan Burrow.
From Green Left Weekly, August 13, 2003.
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