Members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) working for Brownes Dairy launched an 84-hour strike on May 17, after a 24-hour strike in April. Their last agreement expired in December.
The union is demanding wage rises, job security, better parental leave entitlements and greater contributions to their superannuation entitlement.
TWU delegate Bevin Judson outlined the problems to a picket outside Brownes processing plant in Balcatta. “[Wages] have definitely fallen behind in the last six years, since COVID-19,” he said. “We’ve gone through 12 meetings with Brownes to try and nut something out but so far it hasn’t offered us anything close to the rise in cost of living.”
Brownes has been put on the market by holding company Australian Zhiran Co. It is believed that management is holding out for the sale rather than deliver fair wages.
CEO Natalie Sarich-Dayton boasted to Dairy News Australia in May last year that the company had clocked a 10% jump in annual revenue and exports into new markets, including Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, were rising.
Workers are asking for a 5% pay rise in the first year of the new agreement and are refusing to accept a deal that does not match the consumer price index.
“This fight is about fair wages to keep up with the rising cost of living, for parental leave that’s humane and dignity in retirement. It’s about job security — nothing big, nothing extravagant,” TWU organiser Josh Narayanan told members at the picket.
The fight for such modest demands against a backdrop of rising corporate profits tells a bigger story.
TWU WA Assistant Secretary Shane O’Brien told the picket that “uninterrupted economic growth”, with the exception of the pandemic, had characterised the last 30 years. “Yet we’ve seen labour’s share of the GDP, your share of everything you produce go back to the level of the 1960s.”
The strike was called after a May 15 meeting at the Fair Work Commission ended without a counter offer from the company.
“They must have thought we were bluffing … or they didn’t know what to do next”, Judson told the picket.
It remains to be seen if the company will find a way back to the negotiation table. The strike runs until May 20, 4pm.
[You can show solidairty and visit the picket line at Brownes Dairy, 22 Geddes Street, Balcatta.]