Telstra workers vote to continue action

MELBOURNE — At a mass meeting and protest rally outside Telstra’s main shop in Melbourne on May 5, Telstra workers voted unanimously to continue their campaign of strikes, bans and other disruptions, aimed at winning a new enterprise agreement and defeating Telstra’s attempts to discriminate against its unionised workers.

Marching through the Melbourne CBD, the workers, who are members of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) communications division, demanded equal pay with the non-union workers in Telstra.

The rally called on the Australian Council Trade Union and the entire union movement to back the Telstra workers.

Victorian CEPU communications division secretary Len Cooper said: “The union's Telstra members are determined to fight on and, as a result, Telstra's day-to-day operations will be affected detrimentally.”

The alternative is for Telstra to stop its discrimination and settle the long-running dispute.

From GLW issue 836