Workers hit out at ACI
By Chris Slee
MELBOURNE — Locked out workers from the ACI glass mould manufacturing plant in Box Hill halted production at the firm's bottle-making plant in Spotswood for almost 24 hours on March 6. Two days later, they held up deliveries for several hours to the Carlton and United Breweries plant in Abbotsford.
The Box Hill workers, who are members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, picketed the Spotswood plant between 5am and 3pm. The Spotswood workers refused to cross the picket line and production came to a halt.
The picket at CUB was the second time the ACI workers have visited the Abbotsford plant. They have been picketing users of ACI products and asking those companies to put pressure on ACI to resolve a dispute over a new enterprise agreement.
The workers want a pay rise while retaining existing conditions. The company is trying to impose unrestricted management prerogative, make the workers do extra duties with no extra pay and introduce de facto casualisation.