AMIEU Newsletter  Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 2002 No. 5  Date 15/10/02

 Attention!

All Meat room Butchers, Packers, Apprentices and Cleaners

Woolworths Notice to Meat Unit Employees

By now most workers would have received a notice from Robyn Atkinson, Regional HR Manager dated the 9/10/02

Whilst it is not the Union's intention to respond to every piece of propaganda that the company puts out - this particular notice demands a response.

The slicer classification.

This was a company proposal that was put forward by them when the Union indicated that a survey conducted with our members showed quite clearly that the company failed to replace butchers and packers due to absences because of annual leave, sick leave, workers compensations and long service leave or any other legitimate absence.

The offer by the company completely ignores their responsibility to replace absent staff with  appropriately qualified personnel -it is a cheap cynical response to an obvious problem that they have and definitely represents 'the thin edge of the wedge'.

One only has to look at the number of  'knife hands'  employed at the Woolworths Break Up Centre in Bunbury who are now performing work that was traditionally done by Butchers.

This company's pathetic track record in replacing staff speaks for itself!

Defence Force Leave, Blood Donors Leave etc

It is true that the AMIEU requested details of the various additional forms of leave that were in the SDA's Agreement - that request came after the company had presented demands that we agree to similar rostering provisions, span of hours etc from the SDA Agreement.

The Union indicated at the time that those leave provisions were 'Socially Commendable' - however what Robyn Atkinson, conveniently  forgot to tell you was, that the Union would need to investigate how many members it would affect, what value it would be to the members and whether our negotiating committee of rank and file butchers and packers were prepared to endorse the package. After due consideration our negotiating committee believed there was very little value in the offer and in no way would it compensate them for the totally unreasonable demands made by the company in other areas..

Industrial Action

The Union regrets that it has become necessary to ask workers to take action to defend their conditions - the miserable 3.5% pay offer is in line with what other workers could expect to receive under National Safety Net Wage case decisions - without the need to trade off conditions.

If Robyn Atkinson thinks this dispute has had no effect - then we think she should pay a visit to the stores that took action and ask the butchers who have had to 'mark down' products and packers who have had to repackage products!

Thanking Employees who chose not to be involved.......................

At the time Robyn Atkinson wrote this, there was a grand total of ONE employee (a young apprentice) out of a total of 7 stores who took action, who did not participate in the dispute  - she seems to have salaried staff, area managers, meat manager confused with 'employees' - either that or maybe she was attempting to portray this dispute as a 'lost cause'

At the time of writing this Newsletter ten stores have taken industrial action and the grand total of 'non participant/s' has risen to TWO (another young apprentice) -  with many more prepared to take action if called upon.

   Members at a protest line in front of a Woolworths Store getting huge support from customers who have been lining up to sign their petition!

The Union Won the Struggle in Victoria and with Your Continued Support We Will Win Here as Well!