Toyota's way? Sack unionists

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and Electrical Trades Union (ETU) have established an ongoing protest embassy outside the front office of Toyota's Altona assembly plant to protest the dismissal of AMWU delegate Tony Carvalho and Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) representative Shane Blackney.

Blackney and Carvalho were dismissed for allegedly bullying two employees who are currently on stress leave. The charges from the two complainants were drafted by a prominent law firm and were directed at Toyota. But Toyota management suspended Carvalho and Blackney during an investigation, and ultimately sacked them on May 3.

The consultants whom Toyota engaged to conduct the investigation agreed with the AMWU that the process appeared to be unfair. The consultants were promptly dropped, and Toyota's lawyers continued with the litigation.

AMWU organiser Victor Jose told a mass meeting of Toyota maintenance workers on May 19 that when Carvalho was interviewed by Toyota's lawyers, the handful of allegations in the original letter had increased to 64 and went all the way back to 2005. Jose said that management appeared to be using the opportunity to get rid of an effective shop steward and an OH&S representative.

The decision to sack the two unionists was eventually made on the basis of the "balance of probability" that Blackney and Carvalho had threatened the complainants. This means that there was no evidence. As Jose put it, "Management decided that even if Tony and Shane didn't make the threat on the occasion specified, they believe that they said it some other time".

The AMWU metal division regional council meeting on May 30 decided to make the campaign to reinstate Carvalho and Blackney a priority, viewing it as part of the fight against Work Choices.

At its May 19 mass meeting, workers adopted a resolution that condemned Toyota for relying on "Work Choices to implement these sackings", and that "Work Choices' repressive anti-worker laws must be defeated at every opportunity".

Carvalho told Green Left Weekly the campaign should adopt the slogan "The Toyota way — the crap way" because the company had thrown out the window its so-called management philosophy of respect for people regardless of disagreements.

Toyota has a history of trying to get rid of unionists. When it relocated its Port Melbourne production facility to Altona in August 2006, it tried to sack another delegate, Tony Brooks. The workers were all offered redeployment at the same level, or redundancies, except Brooks, who was offered a lower-skilled job. When he refused he was sacked. He was only reinstated after maintenance workers went on strike for three days and a community picket line, supported by Union Solidarity, turned trucks away.

Community supporters are encouraged to visit the protest embassy at the front of the Toyota plant in Grieve Parade, Altona.

From GLW issue 712