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18 October, 2000After seven long months of bargaining dispute at Joy Mining Machinery, workers and their union achieve extraordinary feat.
AUSTRALIA: Workers at Joy Mining Machinery, in Moss Vale, New South Wales, will be back on the job next Monday, October 23, 2000.
Readers will remember that Joy management tried to eliminate unions from the workplace and undermine wages and conditions by insisting on the introduction of four separate agreements in place of the previous single company agreement.
When management threatened to close the plant unless the workers accepted its demands, the workers refused. They then established a lawful, peaceful picket line outside the plant, upon which the company locked them out and hired scab labour.
Now the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has formally resolved the dispute. Its decision provides for the following:
- a substantial wage increase of 12 per cent over the three-year agreement, with no productivity trade-offs;
- consultation with the unions on the use of contractors and casuals;
- the retention of award entitlements;
- access to a fully accredited training and classification structure;
- travel time and a 15 per cent allowance for off-site work;
- preference for company employees rather than contractors for off-site work;
- monitoring of contractor and labour hire employees by a consultative committee.
A spokesman for the IMF-affiliated Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, representing 56 of the 63 workers involved in the dispute, said that throughout the dispute Joy management allowed its American parent company Harnischfeger to "call the shots", instead of having sensible negotiations. When the workers resisted company attempts at union-busting, management resorted to out-of-state scab labour, who were identified by the AMWU as the same group of mercenaries used by Patricks against the MUA during the dockworkers' strike.
The workers have shown that even when a multinational giant threw its weight against them, they were able to achieve a victory against huge odds. And, this, says the IMF, is "a wonderful example and an inspiration for all trade unionists in the metalworking industries."
Readers will remember that Joy management tried to eliminate unions from the workplace and undermine wages and conditions by insisting on the introduction of four separate agreements in place of the previous single company agreement.
When management threatened to close the plant unless the workers accepted its demands, the workers refused. They then established a lawful, peaceful picket line outside the plant, upon which the company locked them out and hired scab labour.
Now the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has formally resolved the dispute. Its decision provides for the following:
- a substantial wage increase of 12 per cent over the three-year agreement, with no productivity trade-offs;
- consultation with the unions on the use of contractors and casuals;
- the retention of award entitlements;
- access to a fully accredited training and classification structure;
- travel time and a 15 per cent allowance for off-site work;
- preference for company employees rather than contractors for off-site work;
- monitoring of contractor and labour hire employees by a consultative committee.
A spokesman for the IMF-affiliated Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, representing 56 of the 63 workers involved in the dispute, said that throughout the dispute Joy management allowed its American parent company Harnischfeger to "call the shots", instead of having sensible negotiations. When the workers resisted company attempts at union-busting, management resorted to out-of-state scab labour, who were identified by the AMWU as the same group of mercenaries used by Patricks against the MUA during the dockworkers' strike.
The workers have shown that even when a multinational giant threw its weight against them, they were able to achieve a victory against huge odds. And, this, says the IMF, is "a wonderful example and an inspiration for all trade unionists in the metalworking industries."