Picketer run down by forklift

BY TIM GOODEN

GEELONG — A picketing worker at the Godfrey Hirst factory here had his ankle crushed when a manager reversed a forklift through a crowd of protesters on September 13.

Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Electrical Trades Union have been staffing a 24-hour protest line at the factory for over four weeks because Godfrey Hirst will not negotiate a new enterprise agreement and is attempting to outsource maintenance jobs.

The picketer was taken to Geelong hospital and later released. The police and WorkCover were called to the incident, but police claimed that, because it was an industrial dispute, it was not their problem. The WorkCover inspector turned up four hours late but failed to conduct a full investigation.

Picketers at the site told Green Left Weekly that the forklift was not registered and that the manager was not licensed to operate it.

Meanwhile the Federal Court had issued a six-week injunction preventing the outsourcing of jobs and ordering both parties to enter mediation.

The third major union at Godfrey Hirst, the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, has given the company until September 18 to accept its claims for an agreement or its 800 members will walk off indefinitely.

From GLW issue 421