SPC Ardmona bullies Aboriginal workers

Sue Bolton, Melbourne

A mini-bus of workers from the SPC Ardmona cannery in Mooroopna, central-northern Victoria, were joined by other Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members in a protest outside the company's headquarters on November 30.

The protest was organised by AMWU food and confectionary division state secretary Bronwyn Halfpenny and assistant state secretary Ray Campbell against the racist bullying of Aboriginal, Maori and Fijian workers at the Mooroopna plant.

SPC Ardmona worker Gary James told Green Left Weekly that the two worst offenders in the company were the human resources manager and the afternoon shift supervisor, but that they have also taught others at the company that it's acceptable to bully.

The AMWU has lodged a case with the Federal Court alleging racial discrimination. Campbell told GLW that in one instance a manager referred to one of the AMWU organisers as a "black bastard" and said that "black bastards think that they are protected" but that he would get them one by one.

In another instance, a manager told a Fijian woman that she should work more quickly because he was German and "had destroyed her kind during the war".

Sex discrimination has also taken place at the plant, according to the union. A Fijian worker was told that she would not be given a full-time job because she was a single mother and her children needed her more than the factory.

According to the workers, the company could easily victimise workers they didn't like on racial or other grounds because SPC Ardmona was a major employer in a region where there are few full-time jobs.

From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 609