Vic: A few companies exempt from massive manufacturing strike

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2000
Vic: A few companies exempt from massive manufacturing strike

By Heather Gallagher, Industrial Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Aug 28 AAP - A mere 15 Victorian manufacturers will be spared an industry-wide
strike tomorrow after a peak employer group made a last-ditch legal bid to avert the action.

The Australian Industry Group (AIG) asked the Australian Industrial Relations Commission
(AIRC) to suspend the enterprise-bargaining period for 60 companies, effectively making
strike action illegal at those workplaces.

But Justice Paul Munro ruled that only 15 companies would be exempt from the strike action.

The Metal Trades Federation of Unions (MTFU) initiated the strike in pursuit of Campaign
2000 - an industry-wide deal that includes a 15 per cent pay rise over 33 months and improved
conditions.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) - which accounts for the majority
of the MTFU - said up to 40,000 workers were expected to walk off the job from midnight.

AIG Victorian director Paul Fennelly said if the unions' estimate was correct, it could
cost the state's manufacturing industry $72 million in lost production.

He said the AIG hoped the strike would be a fizzer as all indications showed employees
were keen to negotiate "effective outcomes" with their employers.

"What we've got now, tomorrow, this 24-hour dispute, is an enormous dummy spit," Mr
Fennelly told AAP. "It's a demonstration by these irresponsible trade unionists that they've
been unsuccessful so `Let's go out and try and injure the industry a little bit more'."

But AMWU spokesman Darren Nelson said today's AIRC hearing proved the AIG could only
find 15 employers unwilling to give their staff a pay rise.

He said the reality was employers were signing up to the Campaign 2000 deal on a daily basis.

"They've been prodded or prompted into getting their act together... and they're coming
in to line up for a fair deal," he said.

But Mr Fennelly rejected the notion employers were jumping on the Campaign 2000 bandwagon.

"Quite clearly, the campaign is an abysmal failure," he said.

"We've got over 100 companies already who've entered agreements on different expiry
dates but, more importantly, different wage outcomes."

Mr Fennelly said the employer body would present more evidence showing unions were
attempting to illegally push through an industry-wide deal at a full hearing of the AIG's
case in the AIRC on Friday.

AAP hmg/jd/rs/br

KEYWORD: CAMPAIGN (CARRIED EARLIER)

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