Bonds Wear strike

Bonds Wear strike

By Andrew Hall

WOLLONGONG — About 300 workers are on strike at the Unanderra factory of Bonds Wear in a bid for a 10% pay rise. At a mass meeting on November 11, the workers, mainly women, rejected an 8% pay increase and went on strike.

Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union organiser Michael Brown told Green Left Weekly, "It is time for the company to give. Over the years there has been a stable environment, but with the company cutting wages by 20% with a shorter working week, the workers have had enough of making sacrifices for the company."

Employee numbers have been cut from 1000 to 400 over the last few years. Dunlop Pacific, the parent company of Bonds, has moved factories overseas and in particular to China in order to exploit cheaper labour. "It is far more profitable to move overseas, without regard for workers who have made sacrifices for the company here, and then blame migrants for taking the jobs", Brown said. He predicted that Bonds Wear will move entirely overseas after a clothing contract for the Sydney Olympics ends.

The strike will last at least until November 18, when another mass meeting will consider the company's offer and decide further action.

From GLW issue 255