By Paul Oboohov
SYDNEY — Workers at the Tooheys brewing plant at Libcombe set up a picket line on August 18 following moves by the plant's owner, Lion Nathan, to force redundancies on 156 production workers.
Maintenance workers were presented with a fait accompli of "semifeudal" hand-over of themselves to a body hire contractor, Skilled Engineering, complete with complimentary job application forms. The 50 maintenance workers, members of the Metalworkers and FIMEE unions, responded by walking out and setting up a picket line. They were followed soon after by the rest of the production workers, members of the CFMEU (FEDFA Branch) and LHMU (Liquor Trades Branch) unions, who had simply been offered redundancies. Despite the recession and high unemployment, the workers decided to maintain jobs in what is a "recession proof industry" according to them.
Three years ago, Lion Nathan, a New Zealand brewing company, bought the Lidcombe Tooheys site from the banks, which were acting as receivers for Bond Corporation, then in its death throes. A year later, an enterprise agreement was struck with unions on site, as part of the Breweries (State) Award, hailed as a precedent-making model for its time. It included multi-skilling, and a continual review of "restrictive work practices". This last provision has been the subject of continuing negotiations over the last two years, and some major concessions have been made by unions. The agreement still had a year to run, and had graduated dispute resolution machinery built into it. Furthermore, it included a promise of no redundancies for the term of the agreement.
However, it is plain to see now that the agreement was regarded by the company as a holding operation, while it sorted out its position in Australia, which included buying up big (Swan brewery in Perth, XXXX Castlemaine Perkins brewery in Brisbane, a Grafton brewery and a recent takeover of a brewery in Adelaide).
Perhaps due to overgearing (too deep with loans), and/or the usual inter-capitalist competition, Lion Nathan started on an Australia-wide binge of sackings early in the new financial year, first in Perth's Swan brewery, then at XXXX Castlemaine Perkins brewery in Brisbane, where 300 workers were sacked, and 28 in Grafton, northern NSW. The Lidcombe Tooheys workers feel that they were the tough nut to crack, and were left to last, while the company encircled them with the easier slaughters. The Brisbane sackings were rammed through despite an enterprise agreement whose ink had hardly dried in May this year!
The managing director of Tooheys, Michael Wesslink, complained to the Sydney Morning Herald that the sackings in Sydney were due to "restrictive work practices", therefore an uncompetitive plant, intransigent unions, and, surprise, unsuccessful negotiations on an enterprise deal. He also rationalised the maintenance contracting-out by saying that maintenance of the brewing industrial plant was not their "core business", and that contractors were more s the gloves came off the enterprise agreement when it suited Lion Nathan, never mind fancy dispute resolution clauses or promises.
The redundancy deal offered is very generous, being 60 weeks of pay rate for first year of service, three weeks' pay per year for the next five years service, then four weeks' pay for any years of service thereafter. In some cases the company has quoted $115,000. However, workers on the picket line said that they regarded most of this money as being already due to them in the forms of accrued sick, holiday, longservice and superannuation money, and felt the company was trying to put one over them in regard to the redundancy inducement amounts.
Despite the amounts being offered, the workers felt that it was far better to fight for the future of jobs, for their children, for workers in general and because working for a contractor would be much worse.
The company has sought to intimidate the workers into accepting the redundancy packages. On Friday, August 20, the company delivered an ultimatum of acceptance of its redundancy offer by 5 p.m. The night before, special couriers had hand-delivered letters to workers' homes, quite late in most instances, stating the company's terms. During the day on Friday, foremen had rung workers' homes putting pressure on families to accept the offer.
While I was at the picket line on Friday evening, reports were coming in that sack cheques were being delivered, and in one case, the courier, having been turned away without an open door, stated that the cheque could be picked up from "Blacktown police station". As many workers were at the picket line, it was the workers' parents and partners who found themselves bearing the brunt of these stand-over tactics. Reports at the picket line suggested that couriers were given short shrift.
The struggle here is important, as it is the first dispute in a long while in Australia where workers have stood up for their jobs in the middle of a recession, and not simply taken the golden handshake and a loss of jobs to the working class. If won, it will be a morale booster for working people.
The first round of sackings around Australia provoked the ACTU to call for a boycott of Tooheys, XXXX, Swan and Pepsi-Cola products. The Tooheys sackings have prompted the metalworkers' union to demand the ACTU reissue that call.
Morale is high on the picket line, and messages and material support can be channelled through the relevant unions (mentioned above). The picket can be found at 29 Nyrang St, Lidcombe.