Two thousand council workers took strike action, for the first time in decades, on May 5, after more than 12 months of failed bargaining for a new multi-employer enterprise agreement covering decent pay and conditions.
It was organised by the Australian Services Union (ASU).
Librarians, cleaners, maintenance, parking enforcement and home care workers from Darrebin, Greater Dandenong, Hobsons Bay, Hume, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Merribek and Yarra joined the 24 hour stop-work and rally.
Wyndham City Council workers will also 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, the power is being put back in workers hands”.
This type of enterprise bargaining follows the recent example set by council workers in Ararat and Goldfields Shire.
Workers are asking for a 22% wage rise over four years, protection of existing conditions and conditions and protocols for addressing disputes.
Wark said council workers’ wages have stagnated due to rate capping, a policy reintroduced under Daniel Andrews Labor. 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 allocate additional funds for wages.
Many veteran union activists and delegates attended, but it was the first strike for large proportion of workers. Many of the speakers elaborated on their passion for 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 against their workers. 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 would have led to a bigger turn-out to the strike.
