March 2007   AMIEU AND MASTER GROCERS AGREEMENT   The Master Grocers Association Victoria  and AMIEU Meat Agreement is currently up for renegotiation.   The MGA is currently preparing a draft that will form the basis for negotiating a new agreement.  The Agreement will cover all your wages and conditions for the next three years.    It is essential that meat room employees take an active interest in the negotiation process.   The negotiation comes at a time when many employers seek to use the Howard Government's WorkChoices legislation to lower workers' wages and conditions.   Fishers Supermarkets, which are mostly situated in the Mildura area, has recently concluded a non-Union agreement which lasts 5 years without any guarantee of an increase in wages during that time.  The agreement also drastically lowers conditions and means that workers covered by it will be considerably worse off than they were previously.   The workers at Fishers took no interest in their new agreement and because of this they are now considerably worse off.   The proposed sale of Coles, following their widespread introduction of gas flushed meat, gives independent supermarkets a real opportunity to increase their meat sales and their profitability.  Many independent supermarket meat room employees are former employees of Coles who were made redundant when Cole introduced gas flush meat to take the place of meat freshly cut on the premises.   They were the recipients of a very good redundancy package obtained for them by the Union.  These workers particularly should be aware of the necessity of having their wages and conditions protected by a proper Union Agreement.   We urge all workers in independent supermarkets who have any ideas for the new agreement, or would like to assist in the negotiations to contact AMIEU Organisers Bob Savine on mobile 0417328854 or Laurie Burley on 0418103627 or at the Union Office 03 9662 3766.