Kamala Emanuel, Hobart
Workers at Tasmania's two casinos will stop work on July 14 in Launceston and on July 15 in Hobart, to consider their response to Federal Hotels' latest pay offer. This follows a resumption of negotiations with the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, which were forced on the company by a well-supported 24-hour strike on July 3.
LHMU state secretary David O'Byrne told Green Left Weekly that the union leadership would be "running a strong 'no' campaign". He explained that the most recent pay offer is hardly different from the previous one. The offer proposes to run the agreement over almost 17 months instead of 14. It would include a 4% pay rise from July 1, 4% in July 2005, a one-off $100 cash payment in acknowledgement of the protracted (three-month) negotiation period, and allowances Federal Hotels claims will amount to an average of 0.5% per worker, but which won't be available to all.
In a move O'Byrne says disregards both the negotiation process and the wishes of the majority of workers, Federal Hotels management said it will implement the terms it is offering, regardless of the response of workers. The LHMU plans to hold a secret ballot of members after the stop-work meetings, to undercut claims by Federal Hotels that opposition to its offer comes only from a "noisy minority".
Negotiations between the LHMU and management began more than three months ago, when the company promised that it would be a quick and smooth process. The July 3 strike at Launceston Country Club casino and Hobart's Wrest Point casino came when Federal Hotels refused to increase its pay offer above 4% over 14 months, despite the union's reduction of its initial claim of 8% per year to 5% per year over two years.
In June, the company's managing director claimed "uncertainty" in the face of changes to Tasmania's smoking laws as a reason to extend the existing enterprise agreement for 14 months, with no pay rise at all. According to O'Byrne, "Even if they lose 10% of their gaming revenue in the first six months after the smoking ban comes in, they will still be $22 million ahead of their 2000-01 takings, just from gaming, just from the two casinos".
For years, Federal Hotel's workers have been making sacrifices for the profits of the company. One woman at the July 3 strike in Hobart — an employee for 26 years — described to me a pay cut the work force had accepted during an airline dispute, when they surrendered a day's work per fortnight.
Housekeeping staff — on as little as $13.80 an hour — have been subjected to a "time-and-motion" regime, requiring them to clean nine rooms in four hours. This is impossible to perform without cutting corners. A former delegate explained that in the previous enterprise agreement negotiated in 2001, there had been a pay cut, argued for by Federal Hotels on the basis it was "haemorrhaging" money.
Federal Hotels' claim that it can't afford the pay rise rings hollow in the face of Tasmania's twin tourism and gambling booms and the wealth of the empire's owners. Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on July 8 showed a hotel occupancy rate of 74.5% in Tasmania (compared to a national average of 61.6%) for the March quarter, and a 34% growth in visitor numbers to Tasmania in the March quarter (compared to national levels of 1%).
The state Labor government has just granted Federal Hotels a 20-year extension of its 30-year monopoly on "gaming" machines (pokies). The 2004 edition of Australian Gambling Statistics, released by the Tasmanian Gaming Commission on July 8, showed a $10 million increase in gambling losses, from $260 million in 2001-02 to $270 million in 2002-03. Most gambling revenue is derived from gaming machines.
Federal Hotels is privately owned by the Farrell family, listed by Business Review Weekly as Australia's 34th richest in 2003, with an estimated wealth of $130 million. In addition to owning the state s two casinos, they own Strahan Village and Gordon River Cruises on Tasmania's west coast, and are building a new resort at Coles Bay on the east coast's Freycinet Peninsula. During the term of the current enterprise agreement, Federal Hotels has bought 16 new properties.
[Kamala Emanuel is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Denison.]
From Green Left Weekly, July 14, 2004.
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