Contributed
Shopping centre contract cleaners
campaigning against Westfield and other major shopping centres are showing
remarkable resilience in their protracted struggle for respect, a liveable
wage, safe workloads and job security.
In 2011, in defiance of the isolated
nature of their employment, these cleaners supported by their innovative union,
United Voice, took protected industrial action against one of Westfield’s
preferred contractors, Spotless. Westfield and Spotless responded with the use
of sub-contract scab labour. Despite the sporadic nature of the strike action
across several shopping centres across four cities, the action caused
considerable media attention, but not enough to make Westfield buckle to
cleaners’ demands.
Westfield weathered the storm, and
when strike action came to an end in December 2011, they thought the cleaners
were done, that they’d given up.
Westfield exposed as a public health risk
However, Westfield was way off the
mark. Cleaners and their union, United Voice, hadn’t given up, they just
changed their tactics. Cleaners understood that due to the anti-worker
restrictions on industrial action in the Fair Work Act legislation, they would
not win their campaign by industrial action alone. So they decided to ‘keep the
powder dry’ on the industrial action front and then collected their first hand
stories about the threats to public health in shopping centres, caused by
Westfield’s cuts to cleaning hours and cleaning staff.
When the cleaners reported the impact
of these cuts to the health of the public, their union, United Voice, engaged
qualified consultants to conduct bacteria tests in food courts, toilets and
baby rooms in major shopping centres.
The union then released a Hygiene
Report which exposed the alarmingly unsafe bacteria levels in shopping centre
surfaces in the targeted areas. This proved to be a public relations nightmare for
the slick Westfield media machine. They tried to trivialise the findings, and
said that their hygiene standards were ‘rigorously enforced’. That this didn’t
ring true with the concerned public was conceded by the actions of Westfield
who passed the buck to their Shopping Centre Council to take the brunt of
public criticism.
For the cleaners themselves, the
release of the Hygiene Report had the effect of expanding their support from
tenants, the public, and especially parents using the baby rooms for nappy
changes. Cleaners also found support from local Councils, with Councillors
concerned about issues of public health. Hits on the union’s Clean Start web
site and on line petitions escalated.
Westfield continued its public
message of denial of responsibility towards contract cleaners in their malls,
and repeated ad nauseam that they only engaged responsible contractors to
maintain centres at a high standard of cleanliness.
Westfield exploits overseas students
Soon after the “hygiene storm’
subsided, the cleaners and their union released another damning public report
about Westfield’s treatment of cleaners. A study by United Voice and TAFE
Victoria found that overseas students working as shopping centre cleaners were
subjected to underpayment of wages by as much as $250 per week, as well as
abuse and racism and impossible workloads.
Again Westfield tried the denial
line.
Westfield trembling in their boots
despite brave public face
United Voice followed up the overseas
student report with a plan for 2013 to popularise a new Westfield Watch web
site.
The web site links exploitation of
different groups by Westfield – tenants, cleaners, shoppers and community
groups. It is an example of a union thinking outside the square when
campaigning against the biggest shopping centre chain in Australia, if not the
world.
The campaign has even attracted
active support from the conservatively led Shop Assistants Union, which is
unable to ignore the actions of a minority group of contract cleaning workers
within a much larger group of retail shop assistant workers employed by major
Westfield tenants.
This is Westfield’s worst nightmare.
Giving in to cleaners’ demands for a living wage, respect and a fair workload
will raise questions in the minds of thousands more exploited retail workers in
Westfield and other shopping centres.
2013 will be an interesting year of
struggle at Westfield centres.
.......................
Further reading:
United Voice hygiene report: http://www.unitedvoice.org.au/press-releases/nternational-student-cleaners-hit-rip-offs-racism-report
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