Qld meat industry crisis deepens

By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Meatworkers, locked out of the Beaudesert plant of the Australian Meat Holdings Ltd (AMH) after they struck in opposition to a non-union enterprise agreement, are continuing their picket. The enterprise agreement involves a 10-hour day and compulsory Saturday work. Workers say the company has told them to accept the new conditions or leave. Beaudesert meat slicer Stephen Vaughan said that a 10-hour day "was just plain dangerous" as "People were breaking down with fatigue and injuries". On October 18, the federal government ordered the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to investigate the dispute, after allegations by the meatworkers union of harassment, threats of dismissal and bullying in abattoirs operated by AMH at Beaudesert, Rockhampton and elsewhere. outs in several Queensland abattoirs over the past year.

From GLW issue 208