BY TIM GOODEN
GEELONG — After two months of fruitless attempts to negotiate a pay increase, workers at Geelong Windows decided that only industrial action would make their boss see reason — and got what they were demanding after a week of picketing the plant.
Geelong Windows agreed to the workers' demands on June 29. The workers will now receive a pay increase from $12 to $14 per hour plus 13.5% over the next three years, income and trauma protection, full redundancy entitlements, a paid picnic day, clothing and footwear issued for the first time and they will be paid for lost time during the dispute.
This amounts to a staggering 25% increase in pay and conditions.
A jubilant Rick Mayher, the furniture division organiser for the workers' union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, told Green Left Weekly, "this is just another dispute that shows workers united in a union and standing up to the bosses will always win".
The conditions in the workplace which prompted the action were appalling. Geelong Windows regularly breached the award and the Workplace Relations Act by denying workers their entitled breaks during overtime, making cash payments to avoid paying annual leave and other entitlements and refusing to ensure the workplace was safe.
The picket received support from local unionists from the construction and furniture divisions of the CFMEU, the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.