Labour notes
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) Queensland Secretary Andrew Dettmer, will visit sugar mills in North Queensland as part of the AMWU's campaign to save Queensland's sugar industry. The AMWU, which represents fabrication and maintenance workers in the industry, will be distributing literature highlighting the importance of the sugar industry to north Queensland communities. The union will release a paper listing the various suppliers to Queensland sugar mills and how they have benefited from the sugar industry. "It also highlights why any decline in the sugar industry has a ripple effect through local economies. And this is not something that should not be ignored, because there are not many alternative industrial options on the horizon for many of those sugar communities. That is why the AMWU wants a sensible, balanced debate about the industry's future. Not one based on panic and certainly not one based on strict adherence to free market ideology that ignores the welfare of the wider community," Mr Dettmer said.* * * A meeting of combined unions on the South Coast of NSW have voted unanimously to consider a district-wide stoppage if the NSW Government does not progress demands for a local medical retrieval unit within 14 days. The South Coast Labour Council decided to co-ordinate the campaign after a spate of recent workplace deaths; road and other accidents in the region raised serious concerns about response times and exposed the fact that there was no retrieval unit based in the region. "We have thousands of workers in heavy industry risking their lives every time they go to work. The least the government can do is provide adequate local emergency services should they be need," South Coast Labour Council Secretary Arthur Rorris said. "It is a disgrace that our local health service does not currently have one specialist retrieval doctor able to attend a serious injury in the workplace."* * * Miners in Western Australia are fighting attempts to "slash and burn" wages across the coalfields. According to unions, Wesfarmers Premier Coal has taken to sending out letters to workers' families stating its intention to attack wages and conditions. The coal company plans to extend working hours to beyond 12 hours per shift, bring in contractors without consultation, and reduce holiday entitlements. More than 300 members of the CFMEU and the AMWU voted unanimously to shut down the industry for 36 hours. State Secretary of the CFMEU Gary Wood said that the attempt by the company to force the changes on workers was unacceptable. "The dispute will have an effect on customers, but we do not expect any disruptions to power supplies unless there is an escalation of the dispute. Any such escalation will only result if Wesfarmer Premier Coal continues to refuse to bargain in good faith."