21st October 2004 CASTRICUM DISPUTE The workers are locked out of their employment by the wealthy Castricum Brothers meat company. These workers, who have not had a wage increase for over 4 years, have been locked out to starve them and their families into accepting even lower wages and worse conditions. The Company wants these workers to sign Australian Workplace Agreements that would immediately cost them years of long service leave and redundancy entitlements, increase their hours of work, reduce their sick leave, cancel their entitlement to rostered days off, abolish penalty rates and loadings and lock them into a regime of low wages and no right to representation by their Union. The CPI has increased over 16% since these workers last had a pay rise, yet Castricum want to decrease their wages.  The Company has forced these workers onto 10 hour shifts in an industry that according to WorkCover has the worst accident/injury rate in Australia. And that rate is from 8 hour shifts! This Company has been successful in having its existing Enterprise Agreement cancelled by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission despite the fact that Castricum promised to extend the wages and conditions until a new Agreement is reached. This is the sort of industrial blackmail that is encouraged by the rabid anti-worker policies of the Howard Government.