Stop work threatens Oprah Show

Date: 13 December 2010

Tomorrow's filming of the Oprah Show could be disrupted as workers scheduled to deploy an important exclusion zone at the Sydney "Oprah" House today consider industrial action.

Maritime workers will meet today at 10am to discuss whether to stop work for 24 hours after NSW Maritime walked away from negotiations yet again last week, despite having government approval for a wage offer and to negotiate on conditions.

If they do decide to take action, Sydney's "guardians of the foreshore" will not deploy the buoys necessary to ensure the exclusion zone at the Opera House is respected.

MUA Sydney Branch Secretary Paul McAleer said that if workers from NSW Maritime were not the ones to deploy the exclusion zone, ferry captains could not be assured of it's accuracy and services could be affected.

"This is not something that NSW Maritime can just outsource at the last minute", said Mr McAleer.

The Australian Services Union and the Maritime Union of Australia say their workers are angry and frustrated that despite approaching these negotiations in good faith, NSW Maritime have chosen to ignore them.

ASU NSW Assistant Secretary Asren Pugh said that the unions kept hoping for a change in NSW Maritime's approach but their decision to cancel yet another negotiations meeting suggested this was wishful thinking.

"Our workers just can't understand why NSW Maritime won't talk to us. Our workers are really worried that their workplace agreements have expired and there is still no action from NSW Maritime.

"We know that they have been given the go ahead to negotiate with us, we know that they have approval for a wage offer and still they will not come to the table.

"This isn't a case of negotiations breaking down, the process hasn't even started and we have been waiting since April."

For further information

Contact:	Asren Pugh
Union:	Australian Services Union
Contact Mobile:	0459 175 293
WWW:	http://www.asumembers.org.au/

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