Two thousand council workers went on strike for the first time in decades, on May 5, after trying to negotiate a new multi-employer enterprise agreement for more than 12 months.
It was organised by the Australian Services Union (ASU).
Library, cleaning, maintenance, parking enforcement and home care workers from Darebin, Greater Dandenong, Hobsons Bay, Hume, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Merribek and Yarra joined the 24-hour stop-work.
Wyndham City Council workers will be able to join industrial action from July, after voting recently to join the multi-employer bargaining. It is hoped that Melton and Whittlesea council workers will also join.
Victorian ASU secretary Tash Wark told the blue- and white-collar crowd that, for decades, such action had not been possible. She said changes to bargaining laws, “after years and years of grinding out individual workplace agreements”, mean that “power is being put back in workers’ hands”.
This type of enterprise bargaining follows the recent example set by council workers in Ararat Rural City Council and Central Goldfields Shire.
Workers are asking for a 22% wage rise over four years, protection of existing conditions and protocols for resolving disputes.
Wark said council workers’ wages have stagnated due to rate capping, a policy reintroduced under Daniel Andrews’ Labor government. Workers’ wages have been going backwards by up to 12% since 2021; their average salary is $70,000 a year, while home and community care workers’ average is significantly worse.
She said that rate capping must be “overhauled” and the government must allocate additional funds for wages.
While there were many veteran union activists and delegates present, it was the first strike for a large number of workers. Many speakers passionately described the work they do and the communities they contribute to, while demanding the right to fair wages and conditions.
Speakers recounted some of councils’ bullying tactics. Brimbank succeeded in getting rid of the union delegates who were on contracts before the ballot for multi-employer bargaining. Yarra threatened the jobs of delegates. Hume and Merri-bek used contract workers to undercut industrial action by waste workers, and both docked workers pay.
Merri-bek docked 66% of the pay of home-care workers for not vacuuming and docked 100% of the pay of home maintenance workers for not mowing lawns. This intimidation likely led to a bigger turnout to the strike.
