BY ANDY GIANNIOTIS
MOSS VALE, NSW — Rather than renegotiate a collective agreement that has been in place for the last 20 years, Joy Mining Machinery has locked out 71 workers. Workers walked off the job on March 31 in protest against the company transferring work off-site, and a picket line was established.
The company then indicated that it wanted workers to sign four enterprise bargaining agreements (EBA). Three workshops would get a two-year deal while workers in the main workshop would get a three-year contract. Each agreement would contain different pay and conditions.
While the EBA notification allowed workers 14 days to think it over, some workers were advised by registered mail on April 13 that they were to be locked out the next day. The required 72 hours notification for a lockout was not given.
Robert Casey, an Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) delegate at Joy Mining, told Green Left Weekly that the last EBA they received in the mail was "pretty disgraceful".
Casey said: "They've played around with sick leave [and] our rostered days off have virtually gone. Our tool allowance was previously a part of the hourly rate, and now they want to pay us in a lump sum, and the company wants to end a work-clothes laundry arrangement. This company retrenched 41 workers last October without any notice whatsoever."
Joy Mining is one of the world's largest mining machinery manufacturers, producing up to 75% of all such equipment. Mark Dal Molin, AMWU NSW industrial officer, said that, if the company can drive this agreement through, "the ramifications will be felt right throughout the manufacturing industry".
Workers at Joy Mining Rockhampton went on strike for 24 hours in support of their Moss Vale comrades. Dal Molin toured construction sites in Sydney on the morning of the lockout to garner support and collected, from just three sites, $1700. Workers at sites at Sydney International Airport have promised to give $10 per worker each week.
A 24-hour picket line is in place at Vale Road, Moss Vale, and will continue for as long as the workers are locked out. "We're here to the end", Casey told Green Left, "because if we give in now, we'll screw it for everybody".