Strike defends union rights
By Jonathan Strauss
SYDNEY — Workers at O'Briens Metal Products in Caringbah struck on July 3 in defence of their right to organise after the union delegate, co-delegate and one other union militant were sacked.
By the end of the day, the company agreed to follow the Industrial Relations Commission's recommendation to reinstate the three if they returned to work.
The company had sacked the workers supposedly due to lack of work, but the strikers said this was false. In fact, the company is vehemently anti-union.
Despite some workers feeling intimidated about joining the union, a month ago the overwhelming majority of the 20 or so workers at the factory joined the National Union of Workers.
The picketers told Green Left that workplace problems included: under-award and cash-in-hand payments; incorrect work classifications; fumes, flooding and exposed electrical wiring; a lack of safety guards on many machines (two workers have lost parts of their fingers in the last year); and workers being required to drive fork-lifts without licences.
The workers plan to bring in Worksafe officers to help solve some of the problems. The delegate, Ian Farrell, told Green Left that the strike was "just a case of going for our rights".