Yallourn Workshop Embassy : Melbourne Indymedia

Yallourn Workshop Embassy

Sunday 1st October at 11am
At the Embassy
Mechanical Engineering Services
Yallour Power Station Old workshop.
Off Old Yallourn North Rd.
look for the signs

Mechanical Engineering Services have locked out 48 workers for a period of 3 months from the Yallourn Workshop in the Latrobe Valley. The company has used Howard’s Treacherous IR laws against these workers. The company has tried to take away workers rights and intimidated workers

Come to our family day to support the Yallourn Workers. Defend them and their families against exploitation by this company.

Brief Background
On the 31st March the company put a letter on the notice board stating it was going to terminate the current agreement. The company deliberately avoided the unions in regards to negotiating an agreement so union members put forward a draft model to the workgroup. This approach did not work.

Finally, the company rejected the claims of the workforce and refused to budge. The workers instructed the union to move forward with a ballot to take protected action. The AMWU applied to the Commission to get an order to conduct a ballot and to put bans in place for overtime, temporary upgrades and temporary shift work.

On the 12th September the company advised workers and the union that they would be locking them out for up to 3 months or until an agreement was reached or until the company advised them otherwise. more…

More info: 0428 528 255
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http://gippslandtlc.com.au/

Those elusive exclusive bretheren again....

Howard Blesses His Brethren

New Zealand will change laws that allow Exclusive Brethren businesses to bar unions from their premises, while John Howard caters to his supporters in the fundamentalist sect.

Unions have welcomed a statement by NZ's Labour Minister Ruth Dyson that the government will review the Brethren's exemption from laws allowing unions into workplaces.

Businesses owned by Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand have special status in regard to union access on the grounds they "conscientiously object" to unionism.

But the law was outdated and employees had a right to receive information, regardless of the religion of their employers, said Andrew Little, national secretary of the NZ Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

In 2004, the union clashed with an Exclusive Brethren business which threatened to sack workers who spoke in their native languages in the tea-room.

That business then barred access to union officials who tried to contact the workers, Little said.

In Australia, the Howard Government has introduced special laws to allow Exclusive Brethren businesses to ban unions from their businesses.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that since 2002 every one of the more than 30 employers who claimed a "conscientious objection" exemption to union access belonged to the Exclusive Brethren.

The sect, which has 40,000 members based mostly in New Zealand and Australia, doesn't allow its members to access media, vote or wear shorts. But it has been linked with dirty campaigns here and across the Tasman against left-wing political parties.

Prime Minster John Howard has admitted to meeting with members of the sect, which has been accused of running smear campaigns against the Greens, and was recently implicated in malicious rumour-mongering against New Zealand's Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark and her husband.