BY SUE BOLTON

MELBOURNE — After taking strike action for the first time in more than 10 years, 500 workers employed by the Swedish-owned auto components company Autoliv have won major concessions from the company.

The mostly female and mostly migrant workers shocked the company when they walked off the job on October 9. The workers were provoked by the company reneging on an enterprise agreement with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

At the 11th hour, Autoliv's headquarters in Sweden had told its Australian subsidiary it should not agree to an EBA which included a bank guarantee to ensure the payment of all entitlements to workers in the event of the company closing down.

With 30% of the shop-floor workers being casual, Autoliv, which makes seat belts and air bags for Ford, had not expected the strike to be successful.

The company sought the approval of its Swedish parent to sign an agreement in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission stipulating that the Swedish parent would back up a bank guarantee of all entitlements.

In addition, the workers won permanency for 100 casual workers, a limit of 20% on the number of casual workers on the shop floor, a redundancy agreement which guaranteed the last-on-first-off principle, a 14.5% wage rise over three years, no youth wages, a 37-hour week, and improvements in maternity leave and income protection.

From Green Left Weekly, October 15, 2003.
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