Golden Circle - giving workers the rough end of the pineapple

Vanguard April 2014 p. 8
Greg C.

(Above: Yesterday it was "Welcome"; today it's "on your way!"

Workers at the Heinz Golden Circle factory in Northern Melbourne are pitched in a battle with the American owned corporation.

The manufacturing workers entered a period of indefinite strike action on Thursday February 20, in response to the company’s imminent closure, and subsequent treatment of outgoing employees of the Mill Park juice factory.

The plan’ts one hundred employees, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), were dealt a severe blow last October when Heinz management informed the workers, some of whom have given twenty-five years’ service, that the Golden Circle operations would be relocated to Queensland.

Tony, one of the AMWU members employed at the site, along with the other workers manning the twenty-four hour picket line were irate at Heinz treatment of its employees; “They have decided that they are not making enough profit, so they are going to move things to Queensland to increase their profits, and kill our livelihoods”

The workers currently engaged in struggle, are resigned to the fact that the factory is in the twilight, yet continue to mount a battle in order to obtain a fair redundancy package; one that sufficiently pays recognition to their service at the multinational’s Melbourne based factory.

Fifty workers have already been notified that their labour will no longer be required mid-March, while the remaining fifty face an uncertain future in a period of rising casualisation in a midst of an insecure work crisis in Australia. One hundred more permanent manufacturing jobs lost in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, a region devastated through the manufacturing crisis in the state of Victoria in recent years.

Adding insult to the wound, Heinz Golden Circle vindictively denied those soon to be displaced employees, who had successfully sourced new employment, the opportunity to be released from the company prior to closure. Tony noted “A lot of people have found work and Heinz are refusing them to go, so those members have actually lost jobs in the process”.

High in priority from the AMWU membership, a key claim was a demand that the company provide an additional payment should the dispossessed workers engage in training and education in order for the transition into alternative employment. In yet another example of corporate irresponsibility, Heinz pathetically offered to place the workers on a Government funded program. “It (the offer) was basically token gestures” Tony added.

In the midst of the Victorian manufacturing crisis, and the casualisation crisis to grip this country, whereby forty percent of Australian workers are placed in insecure, precarious employment, the striking workers fear for their employment prospects once the Mill Park operation closes its doors.

Facing an uncertain period, the workers have witnessed the tragic loss of two of their comrades since the announcement was made in October that production would cease at the Golden Circle factory. The late AMWU members’ workmates said both deceased workers had passed away due to stress related illnesses.

The Mill Park workers continued the fight for justice in memory of their deceased comrades; they all deserved better.

Workers returned to the factory on Friday February 28, securing a one year deal, meaning that once Heinz vacates the premises on the first of April, any company that operates out of the Mill Park plant must abide by the new AMWU Enterprise Agreement.

The victorious workers returned having secured a three per cent wage increase, which also applies to leave redundancy payments of four weeks’ pay for each year of service, backdated to January 10. Casual workers will now receive one week’s wage for each year service, calculated from the first day of employment, rather than the company’s original position which would have seen casual workers only receive redundancy benefits after five years’ service.