Setback for ETU in steel dispute

Stuart Martin, Melbourne

Electrical Trades Union (ETU) members have received a minor setback in their fight for an enterprise agreement with BlueScope Steel at the Western Port facility in Hastings, Victoria. On January 17 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) placed orders terminating the bargaining period and preventing further industrial action.

The ETU and BlueScope have been in dispute since June 2004, when BlueScope refused to negotiate a separate agreement with the ETU to cover its members who were directly employed by the company. Instead, BlueScope has attempted to employ its maintenance workers under the same pay increases and conditions as the production workers covered by the Australian Workers Union.

The main claims of the ETU membership have been for the gains won across the maintenance industry, principally the introduction of the 36-hour week. To achieve this, ETU members have been implementing work bans and strikes to disrupt maintenance at the site. BlueScope's management claim that since September 2004 there have been "more than 50 strikes" held by the ETU members in support of their claim.

Because BlueScope refused to negotiate beyond the 4.5% per year wage increase and the ETU membership action was stopping maintenance work and affecting production, the dispute was taken by the company to the AIRC on January 17.

BlueScope paved the way for its win in the commission through a dishonest media campaign from early January, aiming to demonise the ETU members as "industrial vandals" and force the ETU to accept the company's offer. Full-page advertisements in the Age and the Herald Sun and media releases claimed that automotive and manufacturing industries were about to stand down thousands of workers because of steel shortages. This was lapped up be the media who ran articles almost word for word from the BlueScope statements.

The Australian went so far as to fully endorse the company view and claim that the ETU could not be contacted for comment, a claim that acting ETU state secretary Alex McCallum denies. However, no car factories closed down, Toyota sourced steel from overseas temporarily and Holden admitted to the Age that the dispute did not disrupt production.

In addition to the media barrage, the company initiated a harassment campaign against the ETU stewards. BlueScope stood down ETU steward Mark Farrell in December for wearing a black ETU safety helmet instead of wearing the company-issued orange helmet. The company claimed that Farrell's helmet was "intimidating".

From Green Left Weekly, February 2, 2005.

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From GLW issue 613