BY ROB MILLER

MELBOURNE — In its latest attempt to crush unions, Yallourn Energy is once again attempting to provoke a dispute that will threaten power supplies in Victoria, this time by walking away from an in-principle agreement reached with the maintenance unions last year.

The Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Australian Workers Union have been attempting negotiate a new enterprise bargaining agreement on behalf of about 65 maintenance workers employed by Yallourn Energy. But the company has now applied to the industrial relations commission to terminate the enterprise bargaining period, thereby making any further industrial action illegal.

A key issue in the dispute is the company's attempt to introduce forced redundancies. AMWU state organiser Greg Warren made it clear that unions had never, and would never, agree to forced redundancies and that the company was reneging on a promise not to make any workers forcibly redundant.

According to unions, Yallourn's application to terminate the bargaining period is an attempt to allow the use of legal sanctions against the unions, so as to force them to agree to throwing more Latrobe Valley workers onto the scrap heap.

Yallourn can be confident of the assistance of Steve Bracks' Labor state government. Its public position is that it will only intervene if there is a threat to electricity supplies. During a dispute in February the state government intervened to order workers back to work. Requests by the unions for the government to intervene in the current dispute to force Yallourn to negotiate in good faith have been ignored.

The industrial relations commission will hear Yallourn's application to terminate the enterprise bargaining period on January 2.

ETU state secretary Dean Mighell said the union would do all in its power to ensure that Victorian power supplies will not be adversely affected but that this could only be done if the company and the Victorian government ensured that agreements reached between the parties are implemented and the jobs of Victorian workers protected.

From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
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