By Chris Spindler
GEELONG — After six days on the picket line, 10 workers at the Geelong site of Metalcorp Recyclers won the right to be recognised as a union site and to take action on health and safety concerns. They achieved an enterprise agreement which includes pay increases, a redundancy package and protection for the permanent work force.
Workers faced deplorable and working conditions and an aggressive management. Many times workers were threatened with the sack for raising concerns over health and safety conditions that were clearly in breach of regulations.
These included excavation machines without proper protective glass and inoperable slew brakes, faulty brakes on trucks and forklifts, and inadequate equipment for lifting containers.
The workers sought support from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and served a log of claims on the company. Despite management's attempts to keep the union out of the workplace, including bribery of workers, physical obstruction and appeals to the "family" nature of the enterprise, the company was forced to deal with the union and workers as a unit.
Early in the negotiations, the company refused to take the workers' demands seriously. These included a pay "catch-up" for the safety net wage increases that had not been passed on for two years, a redundancy package to provide some security for long-term workers, payment of correct allowances for meal breaks and overtime, an agreement to run to the middle of 2000 to bring the site in line with the metal industry campaign next year and recognition and training of health and safety representatives.
Workers walked off the job on October 21 after management refused to budge. Support for the picket line was strong. Scaffolding and a tarp, a toilet, a fridge, a BBQ, wood and food were supplied. The media were contacted, and many workers and friends visited the picket with donations and messages of support.
Workers on other sites where Metalcorp scrap bins sit showed great solidarity by voicing opposition to using such a rotten company.
As the word spread, business for another Metalcorp company, Metalcorp Steel, started to dry up. After workers from the Geelong site visited a Metalcorp site in Brooklyn, the company decided to discuss the workers' demands.
By October 26, the workers had won an agreement to June 2000, with a $27 pay increase (about 5%), safety reps to be trained in first aid and granted allowances, proper award allowances for meals and overtime, reinstitution of afternoon smoko, a time limit on casuals and protection for the permanent work force, a redundancy deal worth two weeks' pay for each year of service up to 36 weeks, and action on health and safety concerns.