Niko Leka, Newcastle

After nine months on strike, 25 specialist maintenance workers at Boeing at Williamtown returned to work on February 24. This followed a February 17 NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) finding that the dispute could be resolved and that Boeing had not been able to provide a sound rationale for refusing to agree to a collective agreement.

The day before the workers returned, however, Boeing obtained from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission a restraint on the NSW IRC recommendation. The NSW IRC then declared that Boeing had had ample time to lodge the dispute in the AIRC and it would proceed with its hearings. So far, three hearings have been scheduled and Boeing management hasn’t turned up to one.

On March 15 at the AIRC, the Australian Workers Union lodged objections to three main conditions that Boeing is pushing for. These are: the lack of wages transparency, whereby Boeing workers find it impossible to know what they are being paid — or not paid — for; the confidentiality clause in Boeing’s proposed contracts, which would prevent workers from telling each other how much they are paid; and Boeing’s “right” to change conditions of employment without consulting the workers. Boeing was given until March 16 to answer in writing.

Since returning to work, the strikers have been on full pay while they are “retrained” — including a management-run session on “ethics”! It continues to be a long road of struggle for the Boeing workers and their union, but they are determined to keep fighting.

From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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