Visy uses strike-breakers

Australia's second richest man is using helicopters to fly 
scabs over picket lines in a bid to claw money from sick and 
injured workers. Billionaire Richard Pratt was flying strike-
breakers into Visy factories in Dandenong, Victoria, and bussing 
them into, Warwick Farm, NSW, as the Federal Court rejected his 
application to have employee resistance declared illegal.

The Federal Court in Melbourne rejected Visy's move to use a 
technicality to force employees in Queensland, WA, Victoria and 
NSW back to work. Six hundred workers at 12 sites went on strike 
after a national agreement collapsed over company demands to 
slash the entitlements of workers who fall victim to long-term 
illness or injury.

The impasse brought negotiations down after Australian 
Manufacturing Workers Union members cleared a number of 
obstacles, including getting Visy to drop insistence on single-
site, non-union agreements.

The union's Print Division Secretary, Steve Walsh, called the 
breakdown "very disappointing".

"We thought we had a framework agreement but when we got into the 
details there were major problems over income protection", he 
said. 

"Under Visy's proposal some people could be seriously 
disadvantaged." 

Negotiators had settled on wage movements totalling 14.75 percent 
over three years and agreed to establish the first national Visy 
agreement.

"We got very close", Mr Walsh said, "frustratingly close. This 
action is an indication of how seriously our members view income 
protection."

He said the union was ready and willing to negotiate at any time.

The dispute effects Visyboard, Visypaper and Visy Recycling 
operations.

Last week, AMWU members were near unanimous in their support for 
a three-year agreement hammered out with leading Visy competitor 
Amcor. It contained 14.75 percent wage movements and maintained 
income protection.