Telstra tries to derail pay deal

Striking Melbourne and Sydney technicians have pointed to the 
"grubby" hand of Telstra when Foxtel took a $400 a week interim 
payment off the negotiating table.

"It looked like we might have been able to reach an interim 
settlement but someone intervened and we suspect it was Telstra", 
the Secretary of the Communications Division of the CEPU, Len 
Cooper said. "It had Telstra's grubby fingerprints all over it."

He said the payment would not have got technicians back in their 
vans but, prior to its withdrawal, the parties had been close to 
an interim agreement that would have allowed digital installation 
to proceed while contractual arrangements were being finalised.

Telstra is Foxtel's largest shareholder. It owns Australia's 
dominant pay TV network in partnership with Rupert Murdoch's News 
Ltd and Kerry Packer's PBL.

Mr Cooper said Telstra technicians received messages on their 
mobile phones during the week, requiring them to make themselves 
available for Foxtel work.

"Telstra corporate managers have been complaining that the action 
by Foxtel technicians is a direct threat to their contracting out 
strategy", Mr Cooper noted.

NSW union official, Shane Murphy, agreed: "Telstra is up to its 
neck in this."

The withdrawal prompted 800 sub-contractors around Australia to 
vote to extend their strike "indefinitely".

Mr Murphy led a convoy of 200 vans all the way from Chester Hill 
in Sydney's western suburbs to Foxtel's inner suburban corporate 
headquarters where technicians staged a raucous protest.

There were van blockades of other corporate offices around the 
city and similar actions in Brisbane after Melbourne techs had 
blockaded the company's Victorian headquarters, then headed to 
state parliament for a protest rally.

Foxtel forked out $15 million to spruik its digital revolution 
but take-up has been thrown into disarray by newly-unionised 
contractors who have seen their earnings tumble in recent years.

Technicians claim that around seven years ago the average 
contractor was grossing $160,000 but that repeated rate cuts have 
shaved that figured back to around $43,000, from which 
technicians have to pay expenses and tax.

Len Cooper says the re-unionisation of contractor technicians is 
highly significant for the labour movement.

"We are seeing subbies getting organised and returning to the 
family", he said.