Issue No 79 | 24 November 2000 | |
NewsWattyl Happen on Monday?By Andrew Casey
Paint workers who were issued lock-out notices by Wattyl expect to march back through the gates at 6am on Monday morning - with flags flying and their heads held high.
" It was the decision of Wattyl to lock-out Australians from their workplace. It was the decision of the management to stop our members from doing their jobs," Cheryl Hyde, the LHMU Assistant National Secretary, says. " On Wednesday the company issued the three-day lock out notice - which led to the sit-ins. " Our members will now proudly front Wattyl gates first shift Monday morning - ready for work. " When they decided on a lock-out our members met and immediately voted to stay inside the buildings and not be forced out by the company - this spread across the nation. Earlier in the week, reporting on the Wattyl dispute, The Australian newspaper, quoted Joe Isaac, the former Deputy President of the Industrial Relations Commission, as saying that sit-ins have not been a significant feature of the Australian industrial landscape. " It is the lock-out which is the new employer style of workplace relations in Australia," Cheryl Hyde said. " This strategy has spread and infected factories and offices and other workplaces ever since Peter Reith took over the job of Federal IR Minister. " It is ugly and something that ordinary Australians reject because it is not part of our Fair Go ethos." Because of the lock out, production of more than 3 million litres of paint - worth an estimated $60 million - was stopped . If you want to read earlier stories about the Wattyl dispute then first read Wattyl a Sit-In Do For A Pay Rise? And then read Wattyl We Do For a Pay Rise - sit-ins spread nationally. If you want more details about what the LHMU paint workers asked for in their negotiations then click here and read about Paint 2000 -Primed To Win.
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Interview: Back on Track After blowing the whistle on rail privatization, NSW Transport Minister Carl Scully is rebuilding bridges with the trade union movement. Unions: The Problem with Organising It may be the new mantra, but Brisbane Institute director Peter Botsman argues that organising may be the wrong to go for a movement attempting to attract a new breed of workers. International: Burma: Workers Act on ILO Ruling Energy workers' trade unions across the Asia-Pacific have urged Western oil and gas companies to "cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues". Economics: Rethinking Incomes Policy While many have thrown incomes policy out with the Acoord bathwater, Graham White argues it still has a role to play. History: What Goes Around Comes Around Labor Council's Mark Lennon argues that while trade unions - and labour history - might be unfashionable, there's life left in both of them. Education: Peas in a Pod Both sides of politics must take blame for funding levels in our public schools, argues NSW Teachers Federation president Sue Simpson. Satire: Hurley Rebukes Actors' Guild: I'm No Actor! Liz Hurley has responded angrily to claims by actors that she crossed a picket line by filming an Estee Lauder ad. Review: It's Only a Job In a stunning new book, author Phil Thornton and photographer Paul Jones have combined to portray working life in all its diversity through the eyes of ordinary people like process worker Sharonak Shannon
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