On January 12 Lakes Creek Consolidated Meat Group (CMG), owned by Kerry Packer, broke the news to Rockhampton 1350 meatworkers that it was closing its doors and they no longer had jobs.
Lakes Creek CMG management claims the plant's closure is due to high cattle sale prices combined with a drop in international demand, a shortage of cattle because of drought and the recent anthrax scare. The workers will tell you a different story.
Last year, the meatworkers were working on a day-by-day basis. They had to show up at the plant each day at 6am on the dot or they would be sent home without pay. CMG employee Lance Wood told the Rural Weekly "there's no yearly salary — it's a lottery of hard work and goodwill".
Workers were kept to very strict time lines and if they were even half a minute late they risked possible suspension. Any worker whose total suspension time exceeded 10 days would be sacked.
CMG recently spent several million dollars to upgrade and expand its meatworks. However, the new equipment was plagued with problems causing productivity to decrease. Workers were bearing the brunt of this, before the closure, with increased pressure to work longer hours on the same flat rate of pay. Many workers felt they were already working hard enough and could not work any harder.
Lakes Creek CMG managing director Ray O'Dell claims that the meatworks will re-open when the company can get "profitable, sustainable performance".
While the closure is due in part to a shortage of beef cattle, the re-opening will come at the expense of the workers. CMG management has stated it wants to increase productivity, eliminate rostered days off and force its employees to work a six-day week in the peak season.
Lakes Creek CMG seems to be following the trend set by US corporations in the 1990s of sacking all of their non-managerial employees and then rehiring them at lower rates of pay and longer working hours. In this way, more profit can be squeezed out of its workers so that "high flyers" like Kerry Packer can keep flying higher.
BY TERRICA STRUDWICK
[The author is a member of the Rockhampton branch of Resistance.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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