La Trobe valley workers locked out for 6 weeks ! : Melbourne Indymedia

La Trobe Valley workers locked out for six weeks

20/11/2006

Forty eight workers in the La Trobe valley have been locked out for six weeks by a company because they refuse to accept an agreement that cuts their pay and many of their conditions.

The company, Mechanical Engineering, notified the workers that they would be locked out as soon as the workers notified their intention to take some low-level protected industrial action to try and get the company to negotiate a new agreement with them.

AMWU Victorian organiser, Steve Dodd, said the union has been trying to negotiate a new agreement with the company since the expiry of the old one in March this year.

“We had indicated to them that we wanted a new agreement. They kept putting us off and then, on March 31, the company put a notice up in the workplace saying that the agreement was terminated and there was a new ‘agreement’ in place that was unacceptable to the workers,” he said.

The company’s so called ‘agreement’:
• Cut apprentices’ pay
• Reduced redundancy to the minimum
• Removed paid meal breaks for shift workers
• Paid shift workers annual leave at day rates only
• Cancelled all RDOs
• Cut annual leave to two weeks

“It’s been an unbelievable six months with the company using every dirty trick in the book to get us to sign up to their demands. They have consistently refused to meet and negotiate with us,” says Dodd.

There has been a community protest on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since the first day of the lock-out and people from all over the La Trobe valley have come to wish the workers well and to lend their support.

Dodd says that he is moved by the solidarity shown by workers in the valley as a result of the dispute.

“It’s not just their families who are sticking by them. Workplaces all over the valley are raising money and lending their support.

“The workers are very determined and the bloody-mindedness of the company has made them all the more determined to stick together and see this though.”

The company has even gone so far as to advertise the workers’ jobs several times, each time under a different name.

“This dispute is another example of how Howard’s laws fail working people. It’s just the law of the jungle and there is no legal requirement for the company even to talk to its own employees”, said Dodd.

“The company is trying to starve us out”, said Dodd, “but I don’t think they’ve counted on the commitment and courage of these workers”.