BY JODY BETZIEN
MELBOURNE — More than 500 workers from the five western suburbs sites of carpet maker Feltex Industries have ended their industrial action, after the company was forced to withdraw legal action against workers and union officials.
The workers, all members of the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA), began strike action on October 24, after the breakdown of negotiations with management begun in December over a 6% pay rise and a trust fund to guarantee workers' entitlements. The company responded to the strike action five days later by enacting a lockout.
In early November, Feltex Australia raised the stakes, initiating legal action against the union, two union officials and 39 Feltex workers. The legal proceedings could have seen the union and workers held financially responsible for the losses incurred by the company.
Predictably the recently re-elected federal government backed the company, with minister for industrial relations Tony Abbott stating that he believed Feltex was "entitled to take legal action".
But the Industrial Relations Commission recommended on November 13 that all industrial action by both parties cease, that legal action by both parties be withdrawn and that, in the event of work resuming, there be no victimisation by either parties.
Workers then voted to accept the recommendation to return to work and continue negotiations on an enterprise agreement.
However, Feltex then refused to lift its legal action — an unusual move many unionists feared was intended to create a test case for future disputes. If the case was successful, they feared, the threat of legal action could be used to deter unionists from taking action, even in a dispute that was justified.
In response to this escalation, left-wing unions mobilised their members to ensure effective community pickets.
On November 19, more than 1500 workers from a dozen unions, primarily in manufacturing and construction, rallied outside the Braybrook site in an awesome display of union strength. The result was a shutdown for several hours of many of the large industrial plants in Melbourne's west.
Militant union leader Craig Johnston, Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, declared to the assembled workers, "We beat [Feltex boss] Sam Magill in 1995 and we'll beat him again" and pledged his union's solidarity.
According to one picketer, so effective have been the community picket lines that, in the last four weeks, Feltex has moved only 10,000 metres of carpet compared to the usual 50,000 metres a day. Feltex has claimed that they've lost $200,000 a day.
On November 22, the company withdrew legal action against all workers and the union, and the following day workers voted to go back to work on November 26 and continue negotiations.
TCFUA secretary Michelle O'Neil said the company's backdown was "a really significant victory not only for these workers but the rest of the union movement who have backed them so strongly this week".
Describing it as "only one step in ending their dispute", O'Neil said she hoped for a result from negotiations within the next two weeks.
From Green Left Weekly, November 28, 2001.
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