By Marce Cameron
MELBOURNE— Forty owner-drivers sacked by the courier firm IPEC have set up a picket line at the company's Campbellfield distribution depot demanding to be reinstated.
The dispute began when clerical workers at the depot, who are covered by the Australian Services Union, struck for a 2.5% pay rise. Owner-drivers who refused to cross the ASU picket line in solidarity with the clerical workers were then sacked. The drivers are members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
All Mayne Nickless yards were closed down by a 24-hour solidarity strike on December 3. IPEC is a subsidiary of Mayne Nickless.
Meanwhile, IPEC is redistributing freight from the Campbellfield depot to other subsidiaries such as Jetsroad and Wards Parcels. Last week, IPEC hired private security guards and scab labour to move freight from the depot. It is rumoured that scab drivers have been recruited from Sydney and are being paid up to $1000 a day. Up to 30 police descend on the site twice each day to assist the security guards when trucks cross the picket line at high speed.
In a blow to union solidarity, the clerical workers, having won their pay rise, have returned to work and are crossing the TWU picket line.
This dispute is an important one because "workers in most industries rely on TWU members not to cross picket lines in order to help win their disputes", said TWU publicity officer John Halloran. "Both the right to picket and the right not to cross picket lines is at stake."