Davids strike: 'They want to do as they please'
A strike at Davids Limited by about 300 members of the National Union of Workers has lasted for more than three weeks. The company wants to reduce workers' conditions through casualisation, increasing the working week from 36 to 38 hours and removing early-morning and late-night shift allowances. Green Left Weekly's JAMES VASSILOPOULOS spoke to FRANK BELAN, secretary of the NSW branch of the union, about the workers' struggle.
Davids supplies small supermarkets from its large warehouses in Sydney and Canberra. There are now two picket lines — at Blacktown and Silverwater, both in Sydney's west. There has been an enormous police presence at the Blacktown picket line and at least 50 picketers detained.
The dispute has been inflamed by retailers threatening a law suit against the union, and its officials have been issued with injunctions against stopping trucks from crossing the picket lines. A July 21 letter from Davids to workers said that "approximately 50 employees have now lost their jobs as a result of attempts to deny trucks and employees [i.e. scabs] access to warehouses".
According to Belan, the dispute is over whether or not the company can do whatever it wants. "They do not want any kind of interference, objection or rebellion against their managerial prerogative. They want to do as they please."
The strike is not only about a 5% pay increase. The key issue is permanent jobs being made casual, part-time and seasonal. The same problem affects millions of workers, the victims of casualisation occurring in nearly all industries. Causal workers are cheaper for bosses, more vulnerable and easily sacked. This is the new "flexible workforce" — flexibility for the boss to make more profits but resulting in more insecurity for workers.
Belan explained that there is a 50% limit on casual and seasonal labour at present. Davids wants no restrictions at all. "This tells me they want almost the whole of the work force in casual positions, with perhaps a few permanents in a few key positions."
Added to this, Belan said, the company wants to change the performance assessment of permanents. If a worker gets two warnings that their performance not to Davids' "satisfaction", however that is measured, the worker then faces the sack.
There are two cases now in the courts intended to intimidate the union, one taken by Davids and the other by a group of retailers. Davids won a Supreme Court action against union members and officials to stop them from blocking the road at the picket line by physically preventing any truck driver or person from going in, or by directing anyone to picket.
The hearing of Davids' charges that the injunction has been broken by the union has been adjourned the July 27. If the company wins the case, Belan and union organiser Marisa Bernardi may be jailed.
According to the July 20 Daily Telegraph, a "confederation of retailers" will lodge a Supreme Court compensation claim of $2 million against the union. Belan said he was unaware of such a claim but added, "We have been told that [the retailers] are being bankrolled by a number of other businesses to break this union".
Belan said the dispute will have an immediately greater impact than the waterfront dispute in which Patrick Stevedores took on the maritime union. The MUA has about 5000 members on the waterfront nationally, whereas Davids has about 1100 of the 30,000 workers nationwide in the retail warehouse industry, who will be directly affected by the outcome.
Warehouse workers are also connected to manufacturing workers, particularly in the food and general merchandise industries, who will also be affected by the outcome of the dispute.
If Davids' unionised work force loses this battle, the trend towards a casual work force will be accelerated. The potential for solidarity by other working people is therefore significant.
Since the media have not been able to attack the Davids workers as "overpaid", as they did MUA members, they have instead focussed on the strike's cost to supermarkets.
Belan said the NEW is running an "old-fashion" campaign. "We got people out on strike and they are being harassed by police. We are asking other people to support us, asking the general public and the community to support us. We are letting people outside shopping centres know what the dispute is about."
Some other unions are supporting the NEW. For example, one of the buildings being used to house the picketers came from the MUA picket line. At the Silverwater picket line, however, it has been reported that some Transport Workers Union members are driving trucks through the picket line.