Industrial disputes & news - 30 October 2024
Industrial disputes & news - 30 October 2024
Aesop; Perfection Fresh; Churches of Christ; SA Parliament; Qantas; Graincorp; FRV; Sydney Trains; NSW nurses & midwives; WA Police; Komatsu; Healthe Care; Vic Police; HR Nicholls Society
RAFFWU - Aesop
Aesop workers, RAFFWU members and supporters rallied in Melbourne last night over the sacking of a worker. The union claims the worker was sacked for having a “very common neurodivergent condition”. RAFFWU members are also busy organising across Aesop stores in Victoria. They are calling for Aesop to honour its 2021 promises of living wages, union rights, dignity and respect; and working towards a majority support petition. If you have any friends or family who work for Aesop, make sure to link them up with RAFFWU.
UWU - Perfection Fresh
Last week, UWU released a joint statement with Perfection Fresh advising that a settlement had been reached “in relation to incidents of sexual harrassment, which occurred at the Como Glasshouse facility in Two Wells in 2020 and 2022.” The 12 courageous women who were complainants have received compensation, and the union has reached an agreement with Perfection Fresh around right of entry and union representation in disciplinary matters and workers’ grievances. Hopefully, this will ensure a safer workplace for Perfection Fresh workers going forward.
ANMF Victoria - Churches of Christ Aged Care
ANMF members at two aged care facilities - Arcadia and Oak Towers - commenced industrial action last Thursday (24/10). In addition to a range of workbans, workers held 3 hours stopwork meetings on Monday (Arcadia) and Tuesday (Oak Towers). The EBA expired in 2020, and Churches of Christ has been stalling and delaying. There is now renewed urgency to get an agreement finalised as Churches of Christ are selling their two Victorian facilities. The prospective buyer does not want to participate in negotiations, and the best offer Churches of Christ would make is a “1.5% administrative wage increase” - and that was on the condition that industrial action would be suspended. Without an EBA, workers will have no security over their wages and conditions when the facility is transferred to new owners. The ANMF has set up a petition which they are asking community members to sign in the hope of putting some additional pressure on Churches of Christ.
Australian Employment Alliance - SA Parliament workers
The Australian Employment Alliance, which describes itself as “two older semi-retired gentlemen” and also as “non-political, cost effective, accessible” is acting as bargaining rep for some workers at SA’s state parliament, and will be leading them in a stop work meeting this morning (30/10) at 11am. I’m unsure how many workers will participate, or which union/s have traditional coverage of those involved. The media reports say that it will disrupt catering, Hansard and building services - so could be PSA(SA) coverage, and/or other unions. Workers are demanding a 10% pay rise in the first year, followed by 6% and then 5% (21% over 3 years). The government’s offer in August was 11% over 3 years. Any workers from SA Parliament reading - get in touch to share any insights.
AMWU/ETU/AWU - Qantas Engineers
Qantas engineers held a 24 hour strike last Wednesday (23/10) in a continuation of their campaign for a fair pay deal. The engineers rallied at Brisbane and Melbourne airports. This action was backed up by a rally outside Qantas’ AGM in Hobart on Friday (25/10) in concert with engineers walking off the job around the country. The unions have said their campaign will escalate if their claims for a fair deal are not met.
AWU NSW - Graincorp
Workers at Graincorp commenced industrial action yesterday (29/10). Approximately 200 AWU members will participate in random 1 hour stoppages over the next month. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 - workers only received 2% annual wage increases, below inflation. Meanwhile, Graincorp made profits of $139 million, $177 million and $250 million over the same 3 years. In 2022, the union wrote to Graincorp asking to pay workers more due to inflation and the cost of living, Graincorp’s solution was for workers to work more overtime - but then proceeded to cut available overtime work. AWU NSW State Secretary Tony Callinan said “This situation has been bubbling away for months and GrainCorp have been avoiding the tough discussions. Now it's harvest time and the window for talk is fast closing, unless GrainCorp come to the party workers will send a strong message by simply stopping work while the trucks are lined down the road waiting to unload.” Stay tuned.
UFU Victoria - Fire Rescue Victoria
The long running dispute between the UFU with Fire Rescue Victoria and the State Government continues. UFU members rallied in Melbourne’s CBD on Wednesday (23/10) over growing frustrations with wages; management at FRV; maintenance of vehicles and treatment of firefighters with occupational illnesses. FRV has said the industrial action was unprotected, and workers who attended during rostered work hours will have their pay docked. The UFU and FRV are still in an intractable bargaining process, but the UFU is showing no sign of backing down. Bright yellow banners reading “Allan Government Burns Fire Rescue Victoria” are now adorning fire trucks, with Peter Marshall claiming at the rally that they will remain until the “situation is rectified”.
RTBU NSW - Sydney Trains
Last Thursday (24/10), RTBU members held a short stoppage in the early morning which had flow on effects throughout the morning peak. The protected industrial action was part of the RTBU’s EBA campaign.
NSWNMA - Public sector nurses and midwives
While negotiations over their Award continues, the NSWNMA have instituted “pollie watch”. Decked out in scrubs, nurses and midwives have been sitting in on NSW Parliament question time “to remind the government we are not going away”.
WAPU - WA Police
As mentioned in last week’s report, the WA Police Union has voted down a second government offer. 75% of WAPU members voted down the proposed agreement. Also voted down by membership was WAPU President Paul Gale who lost his re-election bid after one term to his deputy, senior vice president Dave Flaherty. Gale described himself as “somewhat dismayed” by the loss. Flaherty will become the 5th president of the branch in less than a decade. Regardless of leadership, it is likely industrial action will escalate.
ETU NSW - Komatsu
Workers at the Komatsu factory in Moss Vale commenced industrial action last Wednesday (23/10). Workers are fighting for a decent wage to keep up with the cost of living. Negotiations have been underway for sometime, with the boss putting forward a subpar agreement in September that was rejected by workers.
HACSU Tasmania - Healthe Care
Nurses at the North West Private Hospital in Burnie walked off the job for one hour yesterday (29/10). The HACSU members have been in a long running dispute with their employer Healthe Care who refuses to address issues such as insufficient staffing levels and excessive workload. The nurses are also paid less than their counterparts on the mainland, and many public sector nurses. ANMF members at the hospital commenced industrial action at the hospital in late September. Workers want Healthe Care to come back to the negotiating table and provide a fair offer with decent wages and conditions.
TPAV - Victoria Police
Police Association members in Victoria continue to take industrial action - including bans on “voluntary duties” as special events. According to media reports, in Geelong, some cops scabbed last week and performed voluntary duties at the Geelong Cup. Senior Officers apparently put Police Association pamphlets in the scabs’ lockers and read their names out over the station’s loud speaker.
Workers Everywhere - H.R. Nicholls Society
The H.R. Nicholls Society held their annual conference on last week (24-25/10) in Melbourne. The H.R. Nicholls Society is an almost 40 year old group, co-founded by Peter Costello, with a narrow agenda of deregulation and what they would call industrial relations reform, and what you and I would call smashing unions and enabling the exploitation of the working class. Last year, former Victorian Liberal MP and IPA director Louise Staley took the helm of the Society in an attempt of reinvigoration by the board in the face of the Albanese Government’s industrial relations legislation. This year’s conference - “Turning the Tide - Returning Australia’s Prosperity through Workplace Reform” - featured speakers including Professor Judith Sloan; Liberal pollies Angus Taylor and Michael Sukkar; former Victorian Liberal leader Michael O’Brien; former Chair of the Productivity Commission Michael Brennan; Robert Gottliebsen AM; CEO of the MBA Denita Wawn; AREEA Chief Executive Steve Knott; former cop and ABCC boss Nigel Hadgkiss; and Executive Director of the IPA Scott Hargreaves. Unsurprisingly, the content of the conference was pretty disgusting, and included proposals to abolish awards; reintroducing individual agreements; limiting access to unfair dismissal; attacks on right of entry; removing unions as bargaining representatives for agreements and for the Productivity Commission to determine the minimum wage. The ACTU was quick to post on socials condemning this threat to working people. However, the peak body did not comment on Angus Taylor’s remarks that if elected the Liberals would “make “sure the CFMEU is gone” adding that administration was not enough, and that the union should be deregistered. Nor has the peak body commented on MBA boss Denita Wawn’s claims that the MBA in fact opposes deregistration as “administration is the best process for the control of the CFMEU”. Are the bosses perhaps doing solidarity better than we are?
That’s all I’ve got this week! I am going to take next week off from the report to enjoy some much needed downtime and a cheeky long weekend, but I will be back on 13 November. I am slightly concerned that the last time I took a week off the CFMEU was placed into administration, but let’s not get too superstitious! If anything momentous happens while I’m away, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram.
In solidarity, Sarah