Read this article in:
26 March, 2007
Two days after 70 members of ICEM affiliate Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) voted to take another strike action, managers at Bridgestone’s Salisbury tyre plant near Adelaide, South Australia, locked them out. In a wage dispute turning more and more bitter, managers locked maintenance workers off their weekend shifts on 23 March.
AMWU members staged a one-day strike on 20 March, and voted the next day for another 24-hour strike, this time to occur on 27 March. Workers represented by both AMWU and fellow ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) turned out at a shareholders meeting on 20 March to voice their displeasure over Bridgestone Australia’s bargaining posture.
Management enraged the AMWU and intensified the dispute by hiring contract workers during last week’s industrial action. An AMWU spokesman said this action was like “putting fuel in the fire,” adding the mood of workers’ has gone “from frustration to anger.”
Both LHMU, representing 500 production workers at the Salisbury plant, and AMWU have been locked in pay talks with Bridgestone for over a year. LHMU took a series of industrial actions earlier in March, and currently is banning all overtime work by members. Local managers have retaliated against the LHMU, as well, by issuing temporary suspensions to some production workers.
Bridgestone currently is offering 6% over three years, while the unions are seeking a 12% increase over the same period. Management is also trying to put in place a voluntary retirement plan at the 42-year-old auto and truck tyre plant.
At last week’s shareholders meeting of Bridgestone Australia Ltd., a A$50 million share buy-back plan was approved, which effectively makes the Australian company privately-held and wholly-owned by Bridgestone of Japan.