By Anthony Thirlwall
ADELAIDE — The third round of enterprise bargaining has stalled after eight meetings at the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA). On October 18, the unions' single bargaining unit, seeking a 15% wage rise over two years, refused a 3% offer and walked out of negotiations.
Frustrated with the miserable offer and the slow approach of management, the unions have now lodged an "authority to use industrial action" with the Industrial Relations Commission.
ETSA has been undergoing continuous restructuring since the early 1990s, being "streamlined", "best practiced" and "quality assured" in preparation for the national electricity market.
The work force has been reduced from 6000 full-time positions in 1989 to around 2800. Most of these people left with voluntary separation packages. The work that they performed has either been out-sourced or added to the workload of those remaining. Services and maintenance have suffered as workloads have increased.
New jobs are few and far between. Even where it has been necessary to fill full-time, permanent positions, management has said no. Deadlines for accepting voluntary separation packages have been extended on several occasions. ETSA is still identifying "surplus" workers.
These job cuts have come from both Labor and Liberal state governments whose neo-liberal policies have carved the organisation into business units. Next January 1, the Torrens Island power station and other stations in the state's north will separate from ETSA to form the SA Generation Corporation. There are rumours that they will be privatised by the Liberals after the next state elections.
From an economic rationalist point of view the restructure has proceeded successfully, if not always smoothly. In 1995, while redeployed workers hung in limbo and apprentices worried about their futures, ETSA was corporatised and posted a record $240 million profit for the previous financial year.
In the last three years, the number of executives paid more than $100,000 has trebled from 11 to 36 and the executive bill has almost quadrupled to more than $4 million. But any trickle down effect stops there, angering the workers.
Enterprise bargaining has been an essential tool for management in this restructure. The first round of agreement was struck in 1991 delivering a 6% wage rise over two years. The second round dragged on for ages for a mere 4%, which most people have not yet received. This agreement was almost voted down, even though it was the only way to get a rise. At these votes it was made abundantly clear to union officials that the workers had had enough of ETSA management and wanted justice.
The unions' bargaining unit entered this round of enterprise bargaining confidently. The 15% claim over two years is in line with other claims in the SA public sector. The unions have said they will discuss award simplification and other flexibility measures, but are not prepared to have any more conditions taken away and want guarantees on continued voluntary separation packages and no forced redundancies.
While most workers are not yet involved in the day to day activities of their unions, a couple of hundred struck and marched on August 19 with a sense of solidarity that may be needed in the near future.
The unions have threatened to call mass meetings. Already there has been a proposal from the Torrens Island shop-steward committee for a united industrial campaign. Such a campaign is an absolute necessity.
[Anthony Thirlwall is an apprentice with ETSA.]