Dorf and Beauty Ware picketers defiant
By Chris Spindler
MELBOURNE — Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members at the Beauty Ware and Dorf factories in Melbourne's south-east are maintaining picket lines in their battle to save their jobs. The US-based GWA corporation recently bought the factories and plans to close them.
The Dorf picket has entered its ninth week, and the Beauty Ware picket has continued for seven weeks. Donations and union levies are supporting the picketers.
Toni Diaz, a Dorf shop steward, received a huge response from the 100,000-strong rally against the federal government's anti-union laws on August 12.
GWA has threatened to call in police against the Beauty Ware picket as shortages of the tap and bath products produced by the factories are being reported.
Tony Di Conza, who worked at Dorf for over 20 years, died of a heart attack on the picket line. He was keeping the picket line going while other Dorf workers were at the August 12 rally.
On August 6, workers at both sites rejected GWA's latest offer. On top of its previous offer of four weeks' for the first 10 years of employment and three weeks for every year thereafter, the company added a bonus of $400,000 which, when divided among the workers, would amount to about $1500 each.
In return, the company demanded that the workers return to work until the plants were closed and agree to "flexible work practices" which include no restrictions on casual or temporary staff, the outsourcing of services and the free flow of equipment in and out of the site. If any employee breached any of the conditions before next March, all employees would lose the "bonus".
Following the workers' rejection of the offer, the company has moved to sack the work force, and all redundancy offers have been withdrawn.
Donations can be sent c/- AMWU, 440 Elizabeth St, Melbourne.