Abbott Blamed for Holden's Demise
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
www.workinglife.org.au Issue 6, December 2013-January 2014 End of the road: Darren Kirwan, an electrician at Holden’s Fisherman’s Bend plant in Melbourne, will be among 2900 workers to lose their jobs when the company ceases domestic production in 2017. Photo: Mark Phillips/ACTU Body blow for Australian manufacturing Abbott blamed for Holden’s demise THE Federal Government has come under fire The first mass-produced FJ Holden rolled by MARK PHILLIPS for not doing enough to keep GM Holden in off the production line at Fishermans Bend in Australia after the company announced it was Melbourne in 1948. ending domestic manufacturing. Managing Director Mike Devereux said The 11 December decision will mean 2900 Holden was the victim of “a perfect storm” and “Tony Abbott and his Holden workers will lose their jobs in Adelaide that the high Australian dollar was a key factor Government have and Melbourne, but will impact on up to 50,000 in the decision. The appreciation of the currency turned their backs on direct jobs in the automotive industry. alone means that at the Australian dollar’s peak, this industry and the It also now throws into serious doubt the making things in Australia 65% more expensive people in it.” viability of Toyota continuing manufacturing compared to just a decade earlier. operations in Australia. However, taunts and goading from the - SA Premier Jay Holden said it would discontinue vehicle and Federal Government is also widely suspected Weatherill engine manufacturing and significantly reduce to have been a factor, culminating in an its engineering operations in Australia by the extraordinary letter from Acting Prime end of 2017. Continued on page 6 2 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 Hall of Shame New Senator Bob Day puts families first and workers last OB Day has been hanging out on the own money into the party. by MARK PHILLIPS fringes of political power for a couple This year he was rewarded by winning the Bof decades. fifth Senate position, despite his party receiving He made his fortune as a property developer, just 36,152 first preference votes, or 3.48%. and used that as a springboard to his first public What this means is that from July next year, position of President of the Housing Industry Day will be one of a handful of minor party Association of Australia. Senators who will hold the keys to whether He was the inaugural President of the Tony Abbott is able to get his legislative Independent Contractors Association, a front agenda through Parliament or not. organisation that advocates a radical windback The changes mean the Senate will take on a of workplace protections, and Secretary of the right-wing hue, and none more so than Day. extremist HR Nicholls Society. In his few public comments since he was The latest nominee to He has also contributed to right-wing think elected, Day has provided some detail about our Hall of Shame is tanks the Institute of Public Affairs and the how he views Australia’s workplace system. an ultra-conservative Centre for Independent Studies. This month, he delivered a speech to the HR new Senator who Day has always had political aspirations and Nicholls Society calling for employers to be wants to abolish the over the years has been a serial candidate for allowed to undercut the minimum wage. This speech has minimum wage slipped under the radar as the other main speaker at the dinner was Qantas chairman and former Rio Tinto CEO Leigh Clifford, but the industrial relations newsletter Workplace Express political office. reported that Day told the dinner: “I do not But when he ran for the Liberal-held believe there should be any law preventing seat of Makin in Adelaide in 2007, he was people working on terms and conditions resoundingly rejected by voters, suffering a that suit them. For example, the Newstart 6.4% swing against him. Allowance . is worth about $250 a week. He next sought pre-selection to replace The minimum wage is about $620 a week. former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in Yet anyone who offers or accepts anything the bluechip Adelaide Hills seat of Mayo, but between $250 and $620 is breaking the law,” was beaten by Jamie Briggs, who was one of he reportedly said. the key architects of WorkChoices. It is “absurd”, Day went onto say, that “we Day spat the dummy and quit the Liberal don’t permit anyone to work for anything Party after 21 years, and switched his between zero and $620” and “it is about time allegiances to the small Family First Party to we stopped dictating to people what they can run against the Liberals. He failed dismally, and can’t work for.” winning less than 12% of the vote, but since There can be no more worthy nominee to the then has poured hundreds of thousands of his Working Life Hall of Shame. GET IN TOUCH Want to know more or get involved? Contact our newsdesk by email at [email protected] or phone (03) 9664 7266. Or get in touch by Facebook (facebook.com/ThisWorkingLife) or Twitter (twitter/thisworkinglife). Editor: Mark Phillips. Responsibility for election comment is taken by Dave Oliver, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, 365 Queen Street, Melbourne 3000. .org.au December 2013-January 2014 .org.au 3 At Work This is our community and we want to protect it A small mining community is being ripped apart by a multinational company’s treatment of its workforce. But, writes Donna Bulloch, they are not taking it lying down Community pride: Collinsville residents make their feelings known about the destruction being caused by Glencore Xstrata’s actions. THIRTEEN years ago, I came to Collinsville policies of coal companies, workers’ camps, never having lived in a small rural mining town drive-in/drive-out (DIDO) and the fact they are but I soon grew to love the community and taking away the choices for families in a resource the people in it, and I gained a passion for the community. This causes the development of history of the area. unhealthy communities and slowly but surely I married a local man, who is a coal miner, kills entire towns. manage a local hotel/motel and have brought up In Collinsville, Glencore/Xstrata took over two children in Collinsville. last December as owner-operator at the century- There are not many communities still around old coal mine. that have such a long, strong and proud history Previous operator Thiess had already started like Collinsville does. the ball rolling by reducing the workforce by The community has a fire in its belly – and it 95 – some by voluntary redundancies but most STAY STRONG is not ready to be extinguished just yet. were made redundant by the company. COLLINSVILLE I can’t bear to see small communities being In March and April this year, another 15 were ripped apart by Government and big multi- also made redundant. Dig deep and fund national companies – who are becoming more ruthless in the treatment of their workers and the THIS was the start of what I call “The Cobweb”: the campaign to communities that they come into. the community started showing cracks, families get the jobs back So it was an easy decision for me to get started to leave, shops were closing or reducing and to provide involved in the forming of a group that could staff hours, and people were starting to feel the longer-term represent the community and all of its issues – financial burden of losing this many people support for the big or small. So in 2010 the journey began for from a small town. Mining Communities United (MCU). The start of September saw Glencore shut the sacked workers MCU is only one of many community gates and cease production on the century-old and their families. representative groups across the Bowen mine site. Basin and we are always busy with the many Overnight, 400 skilled experienced workers Take action at: challenges we face at the local level. became unemployed – 160 living locally. http://www.pozible. We have always been involved in many issues That’s 160 pay packets taken from a town of com/project/176378 but the biggest one and the one that can damage about 2000 residents; 160 skilled experienced the community the most is the employment Continued on page 4 4 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 This is our community and we meeting with him. If we could not meet with want to protect it him, we had a letter ready to be delivered to Continued from page 3 him, but we also wanted to sit with company representatives in the hope that we could workers that choose to live within approximately tell them first-hand what is happening in our five or 10 minutes from the mine site. community. This workforce has an established skills base Glencore intends to start operating as soon as and they have experience in a mine that has been they can get a new workforce in place. known to have a high risk gas problem. What we want is for the 160 local experienced These are scary and difficult times and we are and skilled workers to be given their jobs back. seeing it hurt so many people. Why should they have to re-apply for a job that The community has tried to get Glencore they lost because of a company and its choices, officials to attend community forums, which are open discussions with all of the community.