Worker/Community at Moreland City Council : Melbourne Indymedia

Moreland City Council is set to make a decision at a special council
meeting on who will run the Coburg Leisure Complex.

Special Council Meeting
6pm May 22
Coburg Town Hall
Bell St Coburg

Community members at a public meeting in Brunswick last night (Wed 17 May) unanimously passed a motion urging Moreland City Council to bring a local leisure complex under council management. The complex is currently tendered out to a non-government organisaton. Workers and the union representing them believe that the only way to guarantee wages, conditions and high quality service to the community is direct council control of the facilities.

In the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne workers at council owned but privately run recreation centres earn roughly 25% less than employees at council managed centres for doing exactly the same work.

The leisure industry is notorious for poor conditions and a high-staff
turn over. In recent years the Australian Services Union has achieved
modest gains in improving conditions. A tender process that sees private companies undercut each other for control over community owned assets however undermines these gains.

We urge all supporters to attend the Special Council Meeting. We request that you print out and ask the following questions at the meeting. Please take the time to contact the elected Moreland City councillors.

6pm May 22
Coburg Town Hall
Bell St Coburg

check http://www.unionsolidarity.org for updates.

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Motion passed at meeting:
This meeting:
1. Urges the Moreland City Council to reject the executive recommendation that the preferred tenderer be selected to operate the Coburg Leisure Complex.

2. Urges the that Moreland City Council enters into negotiations with the Australian Services Union over a mechanism to bring the Coburg Leisure Centre back "in-house".

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Contact details of local councillors.
Cr Kathleen Matthews-Ward | 0428 573 785
kmatthewsward@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr John Kavanagh | 0427 550 935
jkavanagh@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Mark Higginbotham | 0438 384 574
mhigginbotham@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Milad El-Halabi | 0428 575 017
mel-halabi@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Anthony Helou JP (Mayor) | 0419 515 593
ahelou@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Andrea Sharam | 0428 999 606
asharam@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Mark O'Brien | 0428 372 692
mobrien@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Daniel De Lorenzis | 0429 162 266
ddelorenzis@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Jo Connellan | 0428 348 447
jconnellan@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Joe Caputo JP | 0419 173 122
jcaputo@moreland.vic.gov.au

Cr Alice Pryor | 0427 505 582
Email: apryor@moreland.vic.gov.au
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Some questions to ask councillors

1. Will the current conditions enjoyed by the workers at Coburg Leisure
Complex be maintained by a change in the tenderer. If so why was this not sated in the executive recommendation to council?

2. How will the council ensure that conditions currently enjoyed by
workers are maintained over the life of the tender?

3. What will the council do if wages, employment security and conditions are reduced by any future tenderer?

4. How will staff contact council if wage and conditions are reduced?

5. What mechanisms are in place to ensure that elected workers delegates and OH&S representatives receive adequate training and security of employment?

6. In case of an industrial dispute how will the council prevent any
private tenderer from taking advantage of Howard’s anti-union IR laws?