BY CHRIS SLEE

MELBOURNE — Workers at five factories here owned by manufacturing company Southcorp returned to work on October 23 after a 12 day strike, having won several of their main demands.

The workers, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, won a 15% pay rise spread over three years, as well as income protection insurance and restrictions on the use of casual workers and contractors.

The union's claims for improvements to long-service leave and additional shop stewards' rights have been “reserved”, meaning further negotiations will occur during the life of the agreement. Shop stewards are confident of a good outcome from these negotiations.

The union believes that an agreement common to all five plants is a victory in itself. The company had attempted to impose very different agreements at the different plants, with markedly different pay outcomes.

The company took a particularly hard line at the Laverton and Clayton plants, where the AMWU only covers maintenance workers and not production workers. At these plants the AMWU members have won the same gains as their colleagues at other plants.

The unity of the workers at all the plants proved crucial to the outcome. The company gave in when the dispute threatened to spread nationally. A telephone hook-up of shop stewards from Southcorp plants around Australia had resolved to call a 24 hour national strike if the dispute was not resolved.

Workers also managed to stare down Southcorp's use of legal action against the union and individual officials and shop stewards. The company obtained a Federal Court injunction against picketing, and issued writs against officials and shop stewards in preparation for suing them. The company has agreed to drop all such legal action.

Jon Zwart, a shop steward at Southcorp's Coburg factory, told Green Left Weekly, “We took on the might of the Workplace Relations Act, and won”.

“The dispute has unified us”, he said. “At Coburg it has strengthened our position as a union shop, and the same is true elsewhere. It has also strengthened unity between the different sites, not only in Victoria but nationally.”

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