BY BEN COURTICE
MELBOURNE — How can you fight the boss for a pay rise when the boss locks you out of work for the next six months? This is the question workers had to grapple with at Brownbuilt, an office furniture factory in Oakleigh South.
After presenting a claim for a 15% pay rise over 33 months as part of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's industry-wide Campaign 2000, and implementing some minor work bans in support of this claim, the heavy-handed, anti-union management at Brownbuilt presented the workers with a six-month lockout notice.
After seven weeks being locked out without pay, workers have voted to accept management's latest offer which includes a 13% pay rise — 4% in the first year and 4.5% in the two following years.
The Adelaide-based Arrowcrest group of companies, which owns Brownbuilt, has posted profits of $53 million for the last year, is debt free and states it is looking for new acquisitions. The workers, whose labour has created these profits, are not doing nearly so well. The previous owners, Email, would only grant a 3.725% pay rise over one year, after workers had a four-week strike.
As there was no attempt to run the plant with scab labour, the workers had to find ways to pressure the owners in addition to the traditional picket of the factory. Other factories were visited for support, and visits were made to other Arrowcrest factories in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.
It was found that Arrowcrest management has taken an anti-union approach in all of their enterprises. When a small group picketed Adelaide Brownbuilt, they found many workers sympathetic to their cause. Arrowcrest management's record of anti-union action was plain in Adelaide: the plant was de-unionised after a lockout. The workers were divided, and casuals brought in.
Other actions conducted by the Brownbuilt workers included occupying the local management's office, picketing Officeworks shops (which Brownbuilt supplies) and imposing a picket on another non-union Arrowcrest factory in Melbourne. Other factories around Melbourne helped with levies, donations and solidarity at the picket line.
Following campaign, management's original 12% pay offer was increased by 1%. This represented a small victory, but the workers are very wary of the course that management may take. The example of the Adelaide factory, and of Kockum (another Arrowcrest factory in Melbourne) show what management may try next.
Kockum workers earlier this year went on strike for a pay claim and settled for 13.5%. Since then, about half the work force has been sacked. Workers at Brownbuilt are worried that similar treatment could be dished out to them, meaning that they would not be employed long enough to receive the extra 1% that they fought so hard for, as it is only included in the second and third increments of their pay rise.