No choice for warehouse workers

Date: 12 July 2007

Greg Combet, ACTU Secretary

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet today met with warehouse workers from stationary supplier Esselte, who are on strike trying to get a union collective agreement, as new ACTU research shows strong support for laws enshrining the right of workers to collectively bargain.

ACTU polling conducted in July across Australia shows that 85% of Australian voters say they support the introduction of 'laws that would allow workers to have a collective agreement if that is what a majority of employees in a workplace want.'

Under the Howard Government's IR laws workers have no right to collectively bargain with their employer even where a majority of employees want to, and employers have been given the power to insist on AWA individual contracts.

Workers from Esselte's warehouse in Minto, Sydney, have been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement following the expiration of their old agreement in May 2007. The company has refused to renegotiate a new agreement and instead has issued AWA individual contracts that the workers do not want to sign.

The AWA reduces the workers' current entitlements to annual leave loading and overtime pay and removes all shift penalties and allowances. The AWA would leave the workers an estimated $50 per week worse off.

The Esselte workers are not highly paid, and have not received a pay rise since 2004. The company is a multi-national, and has tried to put pressure on the workers to give up their action by calling in the Federal Government's investigators from the Office of Workplace Services (OWS). Workers have been interviewed individually by OWS investigators about their strike action, and where told that if they refused to answer questions they could be prosecuted and possibly even sent to jail.

New national poll - key results

The poll by Essential Research of 800 voters was conducted between June 22 and July 3 and found support for Labor on a two-party-preferred basis stands at 57% compared with 43% for the Coalition.

The poll found health care, industrial relations and education were the top three issues for respondents that mattered most when deciding how to vote. Health care was cited by 54%, while 44% cited industrial relations (up from 37% in March 2007) and 44% chose education.

The poll found 43% of people who voted for the Coalition in 2004 but were now intending to vote Labor said industrial relations was the key reason they were changing their vote -- health care came a distant second most important issue, cited by 14% of respondents.

The poll also found strong support for Labor's proposed changes to the Work Choices IR laws:

- 89% supported Labor's proposal to "protect conditions like penalty rates, four weeks' annual leave, public holiday pay and redundancy payments"; and

- 85% supported introducing laws to allow workers to have a collective agreement for their workplace if that is what the majority wanted.

For further information

Contact:	Evan Langdon
Union:	ACTU
Contact Mobile:	0418 479 455
WWW:	http://www.actu.asn.au/

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