
Issue No 60		30 June 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

Those Bastards in There

By Rowan Cahill

Joy Mining Machinery workers in Moss Vale (NSW) are still locked out as meetings with the Company go nowhere.

"We have met with the Company and their legal team on a number of occasions but it's just been a waste of time. They don't want to talk about the issues", said AMWU organiser Alan Ward.

The Company refuses to capitulate on its demands for four separate enterprise agreements to cover the different sections at Joy.

About 70 workers from three separate unions (the AMWU, AWU, and CEPU) have been locked-out of their Moss Vale worksite for three months since the collapse of EBA negotiations.

Two picket encampments are permanently manned outside the worksite. The workers are surviving frugally on a fighting fund, while their activities and those of their unions are restrained by Supreme Court injunctions.

At this stage the lockout is in place until July 14, but there are indications it may be extended.

Part of the Company's negotiating problem is evident in correspondence it has sent to the locked-out workers.

In the Joy view of industrial relations, unions and their officials have apparently little to do with workers. There is no umbilical link or structural connection.

Hence Joy's consistent invitation to workers to negotiate with management without union representation.

As one locked-out worker put it to me, angrily gesturing towards Joy's headquarters, "Those bastards in there don't get it; we are the union".

Other people have no trouble understanding unionism and solidarity. Many thousands of dollars have been donated to help Joy workers in their long running dispute.

Large sums were raised at the anti-3rd wave rally, the ALP State Conference, and the ACTU National Congress.

As far afield as Las Vegas, Light Heavyweight boxer Justin Clements, a scaffolder by trade, donated his recent purse of $5000 after hearing of the plight of the Joy workers.

Joy Manufacturing, trading as Joy Mining Machinery, is a subsidiary of the American holding company Harnischfeger Industries Inc., currently operating under US Bankruptcy Code Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Internationally the treatment of the Moss Vale workers is generating concern.

In South Africa, workers employed by Joy have met with company representatives protesting against the treatment of their Moss Vale brothers.

From Geneva the International Metalworkers' Federation has communicated directly with the American Harnischfeger chairman foreshadowing the "launch of an international campaign against Joy Manufacturing" should the Moss Vale dispute not be satisfactorily resolved.

The United Steelworkers of America has also communicated with Harnischfeger, protesting against Joy's actions in Moss Vale.

As the steelworkers point out, "it would seem that at a time when Harnischfeger Industries is in bankruptcy it would be trying to resolve problems, not perpetuate them".

Anyone wishing to donate to the Joy Mining Fighting Fund should call Alan Ward on 0419 404 530.

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 60 contents

Interview: Turning Tides
ACTU President Sharan Burrow reflects on the disappearance of the middle class and what the union movement can do about it

Unions: Fear and Loathing in Wollongong
For four days this week, too much unionism was barely enough. We bring you the highs and lows from behind the scenes and inside the bars of this week’s ACTU Congress.

Politics: The Group Hug
Opposition leader Kim Beazley came, saw and conga-ed. Here's what he said to the ACTU Congress.

History: Unions and Family Trees
Trade union records may not be the first port of call for a beginning family historian, but down the track a little, these records could bring to life an ancestor who previously was just a name printed on the page.

International: Fiji Bans Lifted
Fiji employers are expected to start reinstating all their workers over the next week, now that Australian union bans have been lifted at the request of the local union leadership.

Review: Room to Manoeuvre
Full employment with a highly skilled well-paid workforce is a realistic goal for Australia, despite the supposed constraints of globalisation.

Satire: Satan Subpoenaed To Cricket Inquiry
The King Commission of Inquiry into cricket match-fixing yesterday heard evidence from Satan that he never influenced Hansie Cronje to accept bribes.

» Delegate Rights Up in 48 Hours

» Email Express to Orange Rally

» Nose Stud Leads to Sacking

» Shaw Walks, Costa Considers Future

» Reith's Waterfront Ghost Returns

» Free Trade: Debate We Have to Have

» Superannuation to Hit 15 Per Cent

» ATSIC Chief Calls for Workplace Quotas

» Those Bastards in There

» Strike Marks Resurgence In Community Sector Activism

» Casino Olympic Pay Deal

» NSW School Staff Ban GST Work

» Workers Online Wins ACTU Media Award

» Update: Computer War Hots Up

» STOP PRESS: Pay Equity Decision Handed Down