The Guardian 18 June, 2008
Intercast and Forge threatens lockout
Workers at Intercast and Forge in NSW were threatened with being locked out as negotiations for a new EBA hit the wall last week. Management is pursuing reductions in employment standards as a result of high debts incurred by the company.
Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) Organiser Colin Drane said management want to force these costs on to their workforce.
"They want the workers to pay for their high interest rate payments. We know it’s a very profitable business. We just don’t want to pay for their share with our share."
Intercast and Forge is an Australian-owned company with car part plants in Adelaide and Sydney. Ownership is believed to be dominated by Australian Mezzanine Investments, a private equity company.
The AMWU and other unions at the plant have been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement since November last year and the current agreement expired in February 2008.
Union members have taken protected industrial action for more than two weeks to push the negotiations forward.
"The workers are asking for a 5 percent pay increase and a 3 year agreement," said Mr Drane. As a lockout loomed, three separate companies, Toyota, PBR and ZF, went to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to seek suspension or cancellation of the bargaining period under S430/S433 of the Workplace Relations Act.
Any lockout would threaten the supply of important parts to auto components and car plants. To maintain the right to future industrial action, the members agreed to enter conciliation around the outstanding matters.
"We’re negotiating under WorkChoices and that’s to our disadvantage. The new Labor government has not changed these laws yet and that’s why the company is drawing out the negotiations and threatening to lock us out."
The company is demanding cuts in working conditions, including cuts to the redundancy agreement, cuts to overtime, changes to hours of work and the removal of allowances.
Mr Drane said there were also moves to change work practices which would cause stress among the workers. "They want fewer people to do more work for less pay."