
Issue No 106		10 August 2001

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News

Tassie Workers Brew Up a Storm

By Andrew Casey

Tasmanian brewery workers at Cascade in Hobart and Boags in Launceston have been involved in a range of industrial bans and disputes this week as enterprise negotiations at both workplaces grind to a snails pace.

Workers at both breweries will meet on Monday morning with a threat to escalate the disputes hanging over both companies because of the failure to make any reasonable offer to their workforce.

" Our members at both breweries will discuss the possibility of ratcheting up the disputes on Monday," Peter Tullgren said.

The Boags brewery - which was recently taken over by the Filipino multinational brewer San Miguel - is involved in its first industrial dispute in 15 years because the company proposal would see the Tasmanian workers paying for their own wage increases.

Boags brewery workers are angry because the latest, revised offer, from the company actually seeks to reduce the pay offer last made by the company.

The Cascade brewery - which is owned by CUB - is refusing to budge on a pay offer which would see Hobart workers get a pay increase below those of their CUB workmates in Melbourne and Brisbane.

The CUB CEO, Ted Kunkel, who was on his first ever visit to the Cascade brewery site in Hobart this week was greeted with union bans and union members wearing badges saying they were not happy with the company's pay offer.

LHMU Industrial Officer, Peter Tullgren, said the Boags workers in Launceston were being told by the Manila based management that their wage increases had to be traded off for increased working hours and a discounted wage increase.

" Negotiation with Boag representatives - who are being controlled from afar - is always frustrating but it is doubly frustrating when the good industrial record of Boag workers is being put at risk.

" If San Miguel wants to be a good corporate citizen then they must get used to dealing with Australian workers and providing Australian wage standards - they should not expect to force down our wages and working conditions to those of Filipino workers," Peter Tullgren said.

Referring to the separate dispute at Cascade Mr Tullgren said the company should not act as if it was an overseas multi-national manipulating isolated local workers in a colony.

" Tasmanian is part of Australia - we are not a foreign country with foreign workers. The company is refusing to put the same offer to our members as they have put to other CUB and Foster brewery workers."

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  Issue 106 contents

Interview: In Exile
Burmese's government in exile's Minister for Justice U Thein Oo talks about a struggle for democracy that has become a test of international solidarity.

Politics: A National Disgrace
Labor's IR spokesman Arch Bevis gives his take on the workers entitlements issue and its mismanagement by the Howard Government.

E-Change: 2.2 The Information Organisation
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at how network technologies will change the way organizations operate in the Information Age.

Media: The Fine Print
Mark Hebblewhite looks at how the major dailies handled the Tri-Star dispute and finds that the story really does depend on the telling.

Human Rights: A People Besieged
Labor MLC Janelle Saffin, an active supporter of the pro-Democracy movement in Burma, sets out the issues behind the ILO sanctions.

International: Postcard From Brazil
The CFMEU�s Phil Davey reports on a rural movement that puts our National Farmers Federation to shame.

History: Indonesia Calling
They needed no resolutions. Soldiers and workers who did not know one another moved together, the black ban started to reach out across the harbour from the noisy, smoke-filled room.

Solidarity: On the Frontline
Australian trade unionists are providing practical help for the Burmese through projects funded by APHEDA-Union Aid Abroad.

Satire: Skase 'Too Ill' to Fly Home for Burial
Spanish authorities have deemed Christopher Skase too ill to return to Australia for his own funeral.

Review: Living Silence
In these extracts from her new book, Christina Fink goes inside Burma to find a world where military repression is slowly crushing a people.

» Revealed: ABC Censors Industrial Reporting

» WorkCover Revisited � Public Sector Laws Rammed Through

» Bras First in Burma Boycotts

» Tri Star Only the Start of Entitlements Push

» New Spying Tactics Hit Work Cars

» Howard�s Secret Anti-Worker Plans

» Direct Action to Increase Nurses' Worth

» High Court: Courier Was Employee

» Victory for Academic Freedom

» Put A Stop To Acoustic Shock

» Builders' Bucks: Payroll Tax Evasion Rife

» Tassie Workers Brew Up a Storm

» HIH Collapse Hits Arts Industry

» Labour for Hire Not Entitlements

» Rail Inquiry Into Treatment of Homeless

» ACTU Awards To Reward Union Excellence

» Activist Notebook