Unions fear more job losses at Perry

BY BRONWEN BEECHEY

ADELAIDE — Unions covering workers at Perry Engineering are not confident that the new owners will re-employ staff who lost their jobs when the company closed. The firm went into receivership earlier this year, and workers are still to receive their entitlements.

Engineering firm Air Ride has signed a contract to buy Perry Engineering and is hoping to close the deal by the end of September.

Jim Watson, an organiser with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, told Green Left Weekly that he believed Air Ride was looking to expand its current premises rather than to re-establish Perry as a viable firm.

"Air Ride is not a heavy engineering firm, and my feeling is that it is more of an establishment purchase, possibly with the aim of subdividing the land", he said.

More than 100 workers who were employed at Perry Engineering have still not received their entitlements, because the state government has refused to participate in the federal government's Employee Entitlement Scheme.

The AMWU is calling for the establishment of a trust fund into which employers will be required to pay all workers' entitlements, so that they are protected in the event of the company going into liquidation.

Watson said that AMWU members would be using the United Trades and Labor Council's annual Labour Day rally to raise this and other demands about job losses in the industry. The rally will be held at noon on September 29, at Victoria Square.

From GLW issue 422