Union beats Yallourn Energy
By Michael Bull
MELBOURNE — Energy unions have claimed victory in an increasingly bitter battle over the future of Victoria's power industry, after the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruled in the workers' favour on February 11.
The ruling, by AIRC deputy commissioner Iain Ross, enforces a 36-hour week in the industry, grants the workers a 12.5% pay rise and gives unions veto power over Yallourn Energy's use of some contractors.
Just three days earlier, angry power workers had returned to work after Victorian ALP Premier Steve Bracks invoked the Electricity Industry Act (EIA). Bracks demanded that the workers agree to the company's demands and return to work or face individual fines of up to $10,000 each and $1 million fines for their trade unions. The government has no power under the act to fine power companies for their role in industrial disputes.
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Locked out
Sixty-two maintenance workers, members of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), were locked out by Yallourn Energy in early January.
The company had demanded that the workers sign an agreement which would provide for greater workplace "flexibility" and change work hours, allow the use of contractors without the consent of unions and phase out shift rates over seven years — all for a modest pay rise and a commitment to no forced redundancies for the life of the agreement.
Unions claim that the roster changes demanded in the name of greater "flexibility" could have cut wages by 35% and that the use of contractors would further reduce the already depleted work force.
The maintenance workers' strike eventually halted electricity supply to the state's power grid, resulting in widespread power blackouts on February 3 and power rationing during most of the following week.
Bracks invoked the act after three days of talks between the unions, Yallourn Energy and Neil Pope, the independent arbitrator, broke down. Pope had devised a peace deal that was accepted by the unions but rejected by the company.
Yallourn Energy rejected Pope's deal because it believed the deal didn't provide for a workable disputes settlement procedure and because a workers' log of claims (which the company had rejected) and a clause giving unions the right of veto over some contractors were included.
Immediately after the talks broke down, the company lodged a submission in the AIRC requesting compulsory arbitration, a request which rebounded against it.
Propaganda
Union sources claim that it was always in Yallourn Energy's favour to allow power restrictions to occur, let the pro-big business media run a huge anti-union propaganda campaign and then force the hand of the state government to use the EIA against the workers.
One ETU organiser told Green Left Weekly that there was never any need for power restrictions in the first place. "There were still over 150 megawatts in the system, but [the marketing manager] unilaterally decided to cut output, randomly blacking out entire districts. This created the effect that Yallourn Energy wanted: as much chaos as possible."
"If the supply was allowed to continue and an emergency did break out, cutting off supply to Alcoa for a period would solve any crisis", the organiser argued. Alcoa is Victoria's largest user of electricity. "Then only one company would have been affected, rather than the thousands of homes and workplaces."
It has since been revealed that during the blackouts, the Victorian power industry was still selling electricity to NSW.
Bracks' actions have put a big dent in his new governments' relations with the unions. ETU state secretary Dean Mighell said, "I've got to say the workers feel they have been betrayed by Steve Bracks".
Bracks replied to Mighell's statement, "I appreciate their [the locked out workers'] good will on behalf of the Victorian public in getting generation and power going again". The workers had "stood up for Victoria, and we won't desert them in the future", Bracks promised.
Wild card
The wild card in this dispute is the position of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. The CFMEU has 260 members in the Yallourn Energy power plant, making it the largest union there. It also represents the majority of workers at the other three power stations.
Luke Van der Meulen, secretary of the CFMEU's La Trobe Valley mining and energy division, said that the CFMEU had differences about the timing of the dispute. He told Green Left Weekly, "We are 100% behind the maintenance workers, but they entered the dispute too close to the holiday period, not allowing us time to build up the community support needed to win such a campaign."
Nevertheless, the CFMEU "policed" the maintenance bans that eventually stopped the plant.
Van Der Meulen had rejected Pope's deal because it "will open the doors to contractors ... resulting in job losses". He claimed that CFMEU members would be worse off under the deal than the ETU and the AMWU.
The CFMEU is yet to respond to the AIRC ruling.