BY STEPHEN MARKS
NEWCASTLE — Thanks to international working-class solidarity, 160 Southland Colliery workers near Cessnock are reported to have won their entitlements back after the collapse of the Colrack Group on January 10.
Colrack's parent company, the German industrial conglomerate Thyssen, agreed to meet the obligations of its subsidiary after German unionists made "representations". When the news came through on February 1 the Southland workers released 11,000 tonnes of export coal.
The news was not so bright from Coffs Harbour where 40 workers lost their jobs and entitlements after receivers were called into W.E. Smith Engineering. Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) members set up picket lines on January 24. W.E. Smith Engineering fabricates pressure vessels and tanks.
Newcastle's STP workers have finally started receiving cheques for their entitlements. AMWU officials are hoping that the deal they have struck with STP's receivers will eventually result in a 100% payout for the workers. While some workers have received $3300 out of $18,000 owed to them, others have received as little as $30.
The STP bosses, the infamous Weeks brothers, used intricate employment structures to secretly shuffle their workers in and out of shelf companies. Despite a hard battle to win their entitlements the workers still have to pay a third of what they receive in tax.
In 1999 the NSW Department of Industrial Relations calculated that company failures cost 26,000 workers $464 million in unpaid wages, holiday and other leave pay.