This kind of lockout madness has to stop

ARE we seeing a new wave of lock out first, talk later aggression from employers?

Two lockouts in western Sydney in recent weeks have sparked concerns among unions of the emergence of a new brand of employer militancy, emboldened by the election of the Abbott Government.

Last Friday, about 50 workers at CSR Gyprock in Wetherill Park returned to work after they had been locked out for two weeks following industrial action in pursuit of a pay rise.

The United Voice members have agreed in principle to the terms of an enterprise agreement with above inflation pay over four years in exchange for some productivity improvements.

But just a couple of kilometres away in the same suburb, 24 workers employed by building products manufacturer Ausreo remain out in the cold for the ninth week after pay negotiations came to a halt almost as soon as they started.

While the union movement has rallied to support the workers, many of whom are facing severe financial hardship after two months without pay, the employer’s actions have shattered any trust in the workplace and will take a long time to rebuild, said Tim Ayres, NSW Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

He said that there seemed to be a new approach by employers to take a hardline, aggressive stance early on in negotiations as a strategy to break workers’ spirits.

“It’s very clear that there’s a growth in western Sydney of this sort of employer militancy, a sort of first resort to the lock out with no regard to what that means for the business interests of the firm, or their relationship with their employees after the dispute ends,” he said.

“It’s really a mad strategy that just flies in the face of any ambition to have a constructive working relationship with people.

“It’s going to make things very difficult.”
‘Fringe element’
The workers at Ausreo, which supplies concrete reinforcing products to the building and construction industry, have been locked out since 19 June.

The union says that prior to then, the company had been stonewalling since the existing enterprise agreement ran out in February.

Mr Ayres said the workers were seeking only a cost of living increase to lift average pay from $25 an hour to $28 an hour, and the company’s response had been disproportionate to the employees’ modest claim.

Ahead of a meeting between the company and the union today in a bid to get negotiations back on track, Mr Ayres was scathing of the tactics employed by Ausreo, which have included allegations that manure was smeared on a nature strip where workers had been basing themselves outside the plant.

Under section 411 of the Fair Work Act, employers are entitled to take industrial action of their own in response to action by workers.

But it is often used as a disproportionate response to minor industrial action by workers, most infamously when Qantas CEO Alan Joyce grounded the airline’s entire fleet in retaliation to work bans by ground staff and engineers.

Even pilots were locked out, despite their industrial action being no more threatening than wearing a red tie in defiance of management.

“There’s no conceivable good reason why employers should be allowed to behave or conduct themselves in this way.

- Tim Ayres of the AMWU

“I think there’s a fringe element particularly among the law firms that advise companies like this to look at things from the perspective of what their legal rights are and what the legal possibilities are rather than what’s the right strategy, how do we bring this difference between the parties to an end?” Mr Ayres said.

“There’s a sort of ultra-right employer law firm agenda here. I think it’s not helped by the political environment where the government is encouraging an adversarial approach.

“And of course the legal framework doesn’t provide many answers for people who find themselves in this position.”

Unions have long supported improved arbitration of intractable disputes to avoid situations where negotiations become a trial of strength, and particularly when employers are frustrating attempts to reach an agreement.

“There’s limited capacity for arbitration for workers who find themselves locked out,” Mr Ayres said.

“It’s not a very good system when a group of low wage workers in western Sydney are locked out for nearly 10 weeks for no observable purpose, there’s no great issues at stake, it’s an employer who’s just determined to hold back a wage increase. There’s no conceivable good reason why employers should be allowed to behave or conduct themselves in this way.

“There has to be a better answer for them than the framework that the law provides at the moment.”
Unions pull together to back the workers
The Ausreo lockout has taken on a greater significance as it has dragged on, and could well prove to be a test of whether this type of employer militancy spreads.

The NSW union movement has been determined to support the workers in any way possible, and they have rarely been alone at the gates of the plant with regular visitors from other parts of the movement.

Federal MPs including Senator Doug Cameron and Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen have dropped in, as has ACTU President Ged Kearney, while several hundred people attended a Unions NSW rally on 7 August.

The public have chipped in thousands of dollars through a fundraising campaign co-ordinated through the ACTU’s Australian Unions website, and the workers also have a Facebook page.

“This dispute, like all other disputes, will end, but the real issue for unions in western Sydney in particular but more broadly as a movement is we have to pull together to help us make sure that we win this dispute because it sends a message to other employers that we’re just not going to lie down when people flick the switch to an ultra-militant strategy, we’re going to work together to make sure we beat them.”

Supporters of the Ausreo lockout have also included workers at the nearby CSR Gyprock plant, who successfully returned to work last Friday after a three week lockout.

They too were buoyed by support from the broader union movement, including an online petition that was circulated widely.

As United Voice’s New South Wales branch said in an announcement on its website last Friday: “By standing strong in spite of the tough conditions, CSR workers will be returning to work with an agreement that ensures strong, secure jobs.”

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