A STRIKE wave is erupting in Australia, with airport firefighters and guards walking out in the lead-up to Christmas.
An industrial dispute between a major security provider and the union representing its guards has escalated, with strikes planned for Brisbane, Gold Coast and Canberra airports.
The United Workers Union (UWU) is organising rallies to support guards due to strike on Friday in Canberra, and on Monday – the last before Christmas – in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.
Airport firefighters are also planning to strike over the busy holiday period, when large numbers of business travellers fly in and out.
A Brisbane Airport Corporation spokesman attacked the strikers, claiming: ‘We are concerned that hard-working Australians, many of whom have been unable to see family and take a restriction-free Christmas holiday for several years, could end up being collateral damage in this wage negotiation.
‘The date of the industrial action is in the middle of the holiday rush, and the time chosen covers the peak period of the day, when we are at our busiest.
‘Tens of thousands of families and everyday hard-working Australians will have their travel plans potentially thrown into chaos if this industrial action takes place.’
He questioned whether ‘a full workforce stoppage at several of Australia’s key airports at peak holiday time is proportionate action for a wage negotiation.’
Elsewhere, more than 50 UWU members from Pampas who began strike action on Monday 21 November following the company’s refusal to provide direct hire, permanent jobs coupled with a wage offer that fell well short of inflation are maintaining their hard fought struggle.
Some workers from the site have worked for an agency on casual contracts for up to 20 years, missing out on benefits such as sick pay, annual leave and long service leave.
The strike is impacting the supply of fruit mince pies to Bakers Delight along with Pampas branded frozen pastry and other popular Australian brands such as Helga’s wraps.
Pampas is wholly owned by the billion-dollar food manufacturer Goodman Fielder, which is in turn owned by Wilmar International, a Singapore-based agribusiness which largely generates its billion-dollar profits through palm oil cultivation throughout South East Asia.
Wilmar’s chief executive, the notable Kuok Khoon Hong, worth US$3.1 billion (approximately $4.7 billion), is Singapore’s eighth richest person and nephew of Robert Kuok, one of the world’s wealthiest people.
In contrast, Pampas workers are on $27.61-per-hour and are seeking to increase that rate to $29.26 in order to keep up with Melbourne’s soaring inflation which is currently tracking at more than seven per cent.
UWU National Secretary Tim Kennedy said the union was used to a bit of adversarial action during industrial disputes but said local Pampas bosses have crossed a line.
‘During the course of the protected action we have seen local Pampas bosses write to residential neighbours encouraging them to ring the police on the peacefully striking workers,’ Kennedy said.
‘We have seen those same bosses tie up emergency services by calling the firies (firefighters) on contained barrel fires that had been burning over the course of a week without issue, tying up our valuable and already stressed emergency responders.
‘But worst of all, they have completely disrespected the workers from the Pampas plant by refusing permanent employment for people who have worked on the line for up to 20 years.
‘It’s time Goodman Fielder and the big bosses at Wilmar stopped letting this dispute spiral out of control and intervene before local bosses do something else stupid.’
The AWU (Australian Workers Union) has called on the government of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to put a stop to spiralling energy prices.
Over the past decade Australian industry and households have seen energy bills skyrocket to unsustainable levels as multinational exporters forced them to compete against China and Japan for access to Australian gas and coal.
The plan announced by the Prime Minister last week will introduce an enforceable code of conduct on the energy market, cap the price of domestic gas at $12 a gigajoule, and enlist the states and territories to cap the price of coal at $125 a tonne.
Households will also receive direct compensation towards their electricity bills.
‘Up until last week we were the only major gas-producing nation in the world that did not have a mechanism in place to protect domestic users from unreasonable price hikes,’ AWU National Secretary Daniel Walton said.
‘The AWU has been calling for a decade to rectify this gross anomaly. The Albanese government is to be applauded for finally taking steps, to ensure Australians have access to our own gas and coal at an affordable price.’
The AWU has championed a better deal for gas users for more than a decade, but the crisis came to a head in May this year when a number of supply factors – the Russian invasion of Ukraine, failures in electricity markets, and record-setting cold weather – saw many Australian manufacturers forced to pay spot prices of up to $800 a gigajoule.
‘Multinational gas exporters used the global situation to cream astronomical mega-profits from Australian gas while potentially forcing Australian factories, smelters and plants to the wall,’ Walton said.
‘We saw dozens of manufacturing businesses that had their gas contracts torn up and replaced with price increases of up to 300%.
‘And we were seeing coal companies short the supply of coal to electricity generators, and in doing so pushing up electricity prices for households and industry.’
In July, delegates at the AWU National Conference expressed their alarm at projected east coast gas shortfalls and condemned the gas companies for ‘price-gouging Australian manufacturers and profiteering from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.’
The conference also noted Australia was already in an energy crisis prior to this year’s gas price spike.
- Hundreds of Apple workers in Australia are preparing to go on strike ahead of Christmas to demand better working conditions and wages, union leaders and staff said, a move likely to hurt the iPhone maker’s sales and services in the country.
The two-day strike by about 200 of Apple’s roughly 4,000 employees in Australia comes as the US tech giant faces disruptions due to worker unrest in its main iPhone plant in China.
Members of Australia’s Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) are asking Apple Inc for fixed rosters, known hours of work, weekends of two consecutive days and an agreed annual wage rise.
‘This Christmas strike is a way for our members to take back their time with family and friends while management continues to refuse to give workers the most basic minimum rostering rights,’ RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan said.
Efforts to get management to the bargaining table failed earlier this week, with Apple refusing to meet until February.
Striking workers will walk out of Apple’s retail outlets at 3pm on December 23rd and stay away throughout Christmas Eve – which is usually a peak time for sales of Apple iPhones, watches and other products.
The action will be nationwide, with the greatest impact at two retail outlets in Brisbane, and one each in Adelaide and Newcastle where RAFFWU have the most members.
- Australia’s industrial relations umpire, The Fair Work Commission, last week intervened in the protracted dispute between tugboat operator Svitzer Australia and three maritime unions after the company declared its intention to ‘lock out’ staff in a bid to force a resolution – either by the unions caving in or by the commission using its powers to arbitrate outstanding matters.
Svitzer and the unions began negotiating a new enterprise agreement in late 2019. The company wanted changes to the agreement made in 2016 to give it greater flexibility in hiring staff. The unions opposed these changes on the basis they would lead to greater casualisation.
Svitzer, a subsidiary of Danish shipping giant Maersk, employs about 600 staff at 17 Australian ports. Its tugboats guide the arrival and departure of container ships carrying about 75% of Australia’s trade. The lockout would have prevented ships entering or leaving port.
Last Friday the full bench of the Fair Work Commission ordered a six-month suspension on any industrial action by Svitzer or the three unions – the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU), the Australian Maritime Officers Union (AMOU), and the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers (AIMPE).
