NT power and water unions hold firm

By Sally Mitchell

DARWIN After two months of negotiations which ended in a deadlock, on August 25 Power and Water Authority unions took their wages dispute with the government to the Industrial Relations Commission.

Work bans have been suspended while the dispute is with the IRC.

The PAWA unions the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Miscellaneous Workers Union which are fighting for a separate enterprise bargain, had submitted an ambit 25% wage rise claim for 450 workers.

The NT CLP government cried poor and refused to budge from its offer of a 3% pay rise for 1995 and 4% for 1996. PAWA workers have registered a 27% increase in productivity over the past five years and created $22 million in profits for the company.

Peter Chambers an ETU organiser, told Green Left that the government was trying to brow-beat and bully the unions with letters to workers and their families, and had threatened to privatise the service.

The government's offer will not even keep up with inflation rates, Chambers said. This government is broke, and they are seeking to steamroll the blue collar worker. This is a political dispute. It's not about productivity.

We've rallied on the work floor and agreed to take the government on and see it through.

From GLW issue 200