One picketer was taken to hospital by ambulance with suspected spinal injuries following the police assault on Friday evening. Despite intimidation by police and private security, a community picket continues throughout the weekend at the Baiada factory, 17–19 Pipe Road, Laverton North. Please call the Workers Solidarity Network mobile on 0431 445 978 for further infos. To donate to the strike fund: Carboni Social Club, BSB 803226, Account no: 10077.
“What’s disgusting? Union busting! What’s outrageous? Poultry wages!”
In Chicago, USA, 124 years ago today (November 11, 1887), four men–George Engel, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and August Spies–were hanged for a crime they didn’t commit. On the previous day, International Carpenters’ Union leader Louis Lingg committed suicide rather than be hanged alongside his comrades. When sentenced to death in October 1886, he stated the following to the court:
Ah, you laugh! Perhaps you think, “You’ll throw no more bombs”; but let me assure you that I die happy on the gallows, so confident I am that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged us, then, mark my words, they will do the bomb throwing! In this hope I say to you; I despise you! I despise your “order”, your laws, your force-propped authority. Hang me for it!
Today in South Africa, Doreen Lewis will bury her son, 24 year old Leroy Van Wyk, another victim of the medical neglect the poors are subject to the world over. No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way documents the struggles of their community; sales of the book in Cape Town are providing some financial assistance to Doreen.
Update : November 11, 2011 : Court orders union to stop blockade, AAP, November 11, 2011. On Friday night police attempted to break the picket. One picketer was seriously injured and taken away by ambulance with suspected leg and/or spinal injuries. The community picket is being maintained over the weekend and supporters are strongly encouraged to come down and join it.
You may remember Baiada Poultry from such moments as the decapitation of Sarel Singh in August 2010. WorkSafe later cited the company over the death. Other industrial smash hits include:
• In 2005, St Albans man Mario Azzopardi died at Baiada’s Moorooduc farm when a 550-kilogram steel module fell from a truck after it was loaded by a forklift driven by an unlicensed 16-year-old. Baiada was found guilty by a County Court jury and fined $100,000.
• In 2002, a 31-year-old Tamworth man’s right forearm was severed after his wrist became caught in a machine at a Baiada plant. (‘Baiada factory worker loses arm in accident’, The Northern Daily Leader, March 22, 2002. Dunno what WorkCover done.)
Baiada has also been accused of bullying, lying, and the super-exploitation of its majority migrant and NESB workers. The National Union of Workers (NUW) wants ‘Better Jobs 4 Better Chicken’.
The company, one of Australia’s largest chicken “processors”, is owned by the Baiada family. Their hard work was recognised earlier in the year when the company was nominated for the ‘Excellence in Community Practices’ award at the 2011 BRW ANZ Private Business Awards.
Despite its excellence, the company is currently embroiled in an industrial dispute with workers belonging to the NUW at their Laverton North factory (19 Pipe Road, Laverton North, VIC, 3026 | 1300 137 372). The industrial action has received near-unanimous support from unionists (PDF), and is aimed at securing a little moar money and a little better working conditions for members.
Sadly, the pursuit of excellence by the Baiada family means that, inter alia, the company is currently seeking a Supreme Court injunction to bar all NUW officials from the picket line. Last night, ABC news reported that a security guard at the plant, perhaps inspired by the police eviction of Occupy Melbourne, attempted to drive his car through the picket line, established at 6pm last night (Wednesday) and currently ongoing.
Supporters are being asked to join a community picket at the plant.
Basic fact sheet on Baiada Laverton
Workforce/Ethnicity
There are approximately 430 workers regularly employed at Baiada Poultry in Laverton. Approximately 150 or 40% of these workers are employed as either cash in hand workers, contractors or labour hire workers. The NUW has had regular contact with contractors and cash in hand workers but has struggled to represent them because they lack basic collective bargaining rights enjoyed by other workers in Australia.
According to our site audit, 70% of Baiada Laverton’s workforce is Vietnamese with African, Indian and continental Europeans also strongly represented in the workforce. Only around 5% of the workforce is Anglo Saxon[?].
Workers employed as contractors, cash in hand and labour hire employees to work in Baiada’s Laverton plant are mostly migrants and a large percentage of them are also international students.
The NUW has lobbied the Federal Government to improve the Migration Act, the Migration Amendment Act and the Independent Contractors Act to ensure companies like Baiada cannot intimidate and exploit vulnerable members of the Australian community and prevent them from collectively bargaining for a living wage and better working conditions.
Baiada’s indirect employment model has lead to two deaths in six years, one on a farm and one in the Laverton processing facility. Baiada was considered culpable and was charged and fined by Work Safe Victoria for both incidents.
Bargaining
The NUW is bargaining with the company for a new agreement for the 284 workers directly employed by the company after the previous agreement expired on the July 31 2011. 210 of these workers are members of the National Union of Workers.
The NUW and Baiada have held four bargaining meetings.
The agreement put forward by the company includes significant reductions in conditions. The company wants to take away any form of meaningful protections in terms of minimum site rates, and conversion to permanent employment.
Our log of claims includes accountable regulation of contracting on site.
Protected Action
– A ballot was mailed out for protected action on the 18th of October
– The ballot closed on November 2
– 70% of the workers voted in the ballot and all 100% of those that voted support indefinite strike action
– Indefinite strike action will commence at 6pm Wednesday 9th November
Animal Rights Issues
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently taking Federal Court action against Baiada Poultry for misleading the community over their animal welfare standards. Animals Australia and other animal welfare and consumer advocate groups have welcomed the action.
Community Support for Baiada Workers
Vietnamese Western suburbs community leader Tram Nguyen has worked closely with the National Union of Workers on our campaign to help Baiada Workers. Tram is employed as a Vietnamese multicultural mide at Sunshine Primary School and has also worked closely with the Brimbank Council. Community groups including the International Student Legal Advice Clinic (ISLAC) and the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition are also partnering with the NUW to provide support for poultry workers including those employed by Baiada.
Baiada Company Profile
Baiada Poultry was established by Celestino and Giovanna Baiada in the late 1950s and the company is still owned by the extended Baiada family, which includes Simon and John Camilleri, grand children of Celestino and Giovanna Baiada. The Baiada family’s wealth was estimated at $495 million by BRW Magazine in June 2011.
Baiada Poultry is Australia’s leading poultry company and controls approximately 35% of the market and had revenue in 2009-2010 totalling $1,195 million, which will have significantly increase in 2011 after the company completed a significant takeover of a major competitor Bartter. Baiada are a private company and the directors and owners are very secretive about their financial position. Annual profit figures and executive pay details are not available. Simon Camilleri and Jean Mercieca are listed as the current Directors of Baiada Poultry.
Baiada is the primary poultry provider for Coles supermarkets. Baiada’s other major customers include Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Nandos, KFC and Red Rooster. The company has processing operations in every Australian mainland state so a lock out at Laverton may not necessarily disrupt supply of chickens to Coles but would mean the company would have to transport poultry from interstate to service their Victorian supermarkets as well as the company’s other customers. Baiada workers in WA, SA and Victoria are represented by the NUW while workers in NSW and QLD are represented by the AMEIU.
Uncle Noam done come and gone. I saw him speak in Sydney. His Sydney Peace Prize lecture (November 2), to be exact, which will be broadcast on the ABC’s Big Ideas on November 30. You can watch the actual presentation (by Patrick Dodson) on the Sydney Peace Foundation website. His lecture in Melbourne on the ‘Changing Contours of Global Order’ (November 4) will be available via the Deakin University website later in the week.
Inter alia, Chomsky spent a few moments talking with some of the members of Occupy Sydney prior to his lecture, tho’ his enthusiastic support for the Occupy movement is not one shared by authorities in Melbourne or Sydney–or many other places it seems.
Most recently (November 9), Occupy Sydney protesters have been arrested for briefly occupying/squatting one of the estimated 120,000+ properties standing empty in Sydney, allegedly the ‘seventh most expensive city’ in the world (see also : UBS Wealth Management Research Prices and Earnings study, August 2011 update).
The eviction follows closely upon another eviction of squatters in Sydney in September, this time from Church property (Sydney squatters’ rooftop protest over cost of housing, Stephanie Gardiner, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 16, 2011).
A passing reference to former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans during the course of Uncle Noam’s Peace Prize lecture provoked a response by the man dubbed ‘Professor Genocide’ in East Timor and me: A response to Noam Chomsky (November 3, 2011); an attempt at historical revisionism which Clinton Fernandes examines in ‘Gareth Evans and the Responsibility to Protect’ [PDF].
Finally, the University of Sydney is hosting a public discussion of the Occupy movement on Wednesday, November 16 (the political agenda of Occupy Sydney, based on a survey of participants in a November 5 rally, is briefly discussed in a news release of November 7, 2011). In Melbourne, the New International bookshop is hosting a panel discussion on Left Politics and Strategy inre OM tomorrow night (Thursday, November 10) from 6.30pm.
Shout outs to Alex, Alex, Brian, Damian, Eleven, Jenny, Jeremy, Jura, Mutiny, Phil, Shaun, Sunil, Tim and Occupy Sydney. Mad props to Uncle Noam for being a righteous d00d.
*Puhakka has been replaced by Sweden’s Diego Gonzalez for the BAMMA WORLD LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE ELIMINATOR vs. Andre Winner.
Poor old Puhakka.
Once upon a time the Finnish MMA proudly protected the nazis of Blood & Honour in Finland from ZOG. Now it seems his main concern is combating bad publicity.
BAMMA has given no reason for Puhakka’s alleged removal from the card, but Fight Lounge speculates that “Puhakka, who has many “Nazi” inspired tattoos, including swastikas and racist slogans, has been removed from the event, most likely for his past involvement in right wing organizations”.
To be precise, Puhakka has the symbol of the neo-Nazi group ‘Blood & Honour’ (the slogan of the Hitler Youth) tattooed on his chest, and once served as a member of its security. According to B&H (‘Scene News’, Blood & Honour, No.28, 2003):
Finland’s B&H security is one of the toughest security in the world. Our security has European, World and Finnish champions in weightlifting, Finnish championship medallists in boxing and wrestling plus the bad ass freefighters [MMAs] we have in our security ranks. [Their] latest title holder comes from this event. 20.10.2003 our security member Niko, who’s never lost a single freefighting match, won the European championship title in freefighting [80kg]. He won the title from Valentin Siouljine from Belarus. We congratulate the new European champion!
Wikipedia notes that Niko “is known for having numerous neo-Nazi tattoos”; it’s less well-known that he served as security for the Finnish branch of the neo-Nazi network Blood& Honour. He was also sponsored by the US clothing company ‘Hoelzer Reich’, which in late 2009 was informed by leading MMA orgs that its products were no longer welcome to adorn its fighters.
It will be interesting to see if BAMMA remains happy for neo-Nazis to fight under its banner…
“Clearly this is going to hurt revenue,” said CMC Markets strategist Michael McCarthy. “Overall though I suspect the market generally supports this kind of action.”
“Given the potential for bleeding to death over the next 12 months, it’s better Qantas acts than not.”
Mr McCarthy said the decision by Fair Work Australia to terminate any further strikes “is quite a positive for the company”.
“Qantas has already lost the PR war to some extent so they are already less concerned about (public perceptions of their treatment of the unions).”
…
Joyce template?
“Within Australia Mr Joyce’s firm stance is seen as a bellwether for emerging industrial disputes in other sectors,” according to analysis by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, released yesterday.
“Internationally in aviation Mr Joyce has usurped the tough stance former British Airways CEO Willie Walsh took against BA’s Unite Union in 2010,” the report said.
“The developing situation at Qantas will be a case study of extreme action airlines could take in the future, but only if they share Mr Joyce’s conviction the company will prevail,” the group, which advises airlines, said.
“AirAsia co-founder and CEO Tony Fernandes backed Mr Joyce’s move, saying on Twitter, ‘You have to salute Alan Joyce for doing what he’s doing. This is not about workers vs management. It’s about survival in the modern world.'”
[NB. Fernandes’ tweet would appear to have gone down the memory hole.]
“The small and peaceful Treasury Gardens sit between Fitzroy Gardens and Spring Street, and are a popular venue for community events and rallies”–but not, obviously, as far as VicPol is concerned and especially not when the event and/or rally has been organised by Occupy Melbourne. So after assembling at the Gardens in the early afternoon on Saturday it was back to the city: first to RMIT and Bowen Street and then, after a contentious meeting, the State Library.
Well, for some at any rate: another mob decided it would be moar funs to occupy Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy, a property owned and managed by Yarra City Council. Their decision to do so is–apparently–a point of contention, as it contradicts the decision of the (9th) General Assembly to re-locate from RMIT to the State Library.
In any case, the chief problem confronting occupiers had (and has) both a legal and a political dimension. The dimension populated by law-talking guys–that is, the legal realm–concerns the problem of locating a property within central Melbourne on which it would be lawful to camp. Not surprisingly, such nominally public property is so scarce as to be almost non-existent. The problem is further compounded when such paltry forms as do exist are controlled by hostile institutions such as the Melbourne City Council (under Robert Doyle) and other nominally public institutions such as RMIT (under fellow neo-con Margaret Gardner).
Outside of/in addition to/and if necessary against the law is the political context in which the Occupy movement manifests itself locally. Or, the intersection between what occupiers hope to achieve by their actions and their willingness to risk violent repression in pursuing these goals. It’s at this point that individuals tend to part company, often literally. Occupy Melbourne’s 10th General Assembly will be held at 4pm later today (Sunday) at the State Library.
Oddly enough, another (peace) camp was established at the State Library 10 years ago. It was gonna last ’til the end of the war on terror but didn’t quite make it…
Protesters vow to stay put
Jen Kelly Herald Sun
October 31, 2001
AUTHORITIES claim they are powerless to evict a band of unruly protesters illegally camped on the lawns of the State Library.
A legal loophole means the hands of police are tied unless the State Library formally requests help.
But the library is refusing – insisting it wants to convince the protesters to leave voluntarily.
The State Government and the City of Melbourne are also distancing themselves from the protest, now in its 19th day.
Premier Steve Bracks backed the police’s stance that it was the library’s responsibility to ask for police help if it was needed.
And Lord Mayor John So condemned the illegal campsite, but said it was outside the council’s jurisdiction, and refused to comment on whether police should intervene.
The defiant band of anti-war protesters have transformed the formerly glorious Swanston St forecourt into an appalling eyesore.
Graffiti is scrawled on statues, stickers have defaced signs, electrical tape has been used to post flyers and the lawn is covered with huge patches of dead grass.
Giant tarpaulins are strung up alongside smaller tents, with ropes looped around historic and fragile lamp posts more than 100 years old.
Superintendent Mick Williams, in charge of city policing, said his officers could do nothing.
“The library property comes under the State Library Act, and for the police to take any action we would have to be requested by the State Library,” he said.
“Under the trespassing provisions of the Act, we would have to be requested by an authorised person from the library.”
State Library staff have repeatedly told the protesters they are trespassing and breaking library by-laws — but beyond that have opted for negotiating with protesters rather than asking for police help.
“We want a peaceful outcome rather then calling in police, because the library respects the right of people to express a point of view,” State Library head Fran Awcock said.
The library has offered the protesters space for a large information tent by day if they clear out by night, and is hopeful of reaching a resolution at a 10am meeting today.
Furious residents and businesses have demanded authorities take tougher action.
“It’s absolutely appalling,” Residents 3000 secretary Russell Howard said. “It’s a hideous eyesore. What disappoints us is the lack of backbone of any of our elected leaders to fix it.”
Up to 60 protesters share about a dozen tents in the 24-hour peace vigil.
They yesterday vowed to stay until the war against terrorism was over – years if necessary.
Occupy Melbourne–a group of people the Lord Mayor describes as a “self-righteous, narcissistic, self-indulgent rabble”–returns to the Treasury Gardens later today by way of the State Library. A vaguely unsympathetic report by ABC-TV’s 7.30 Report is here, while photographic evidence of the Untermenschen is assembled on tumblr here.
Police have declared that they intend to sabotage any attempt to re-establish a camp at the new site, after they violently evicted the original camp at City Square last Friday, on rather dubious legal grounds. In an interview with Neil Mitchell on 3AW on October 24, Acting Police Commissioner Ken Lay blamed the “anti-Jewish” BDS group and the Socialist Alliance for the police violence.
NB. Occupy Melbourne Legal Support can be contacted on 0434 126 515 or by email at: OccupyMelbourneLegal[at]gmail[dot]com.
Note that in celebration of the Stolenwealth Games, on March 12, 2006 another camp, Camp Sovereignty, was established in the Kings Domain. Among other things, it served to remind the general public of the reality behind the rhetoric regarding the Commonwealth.
In Queensland, state authorities have generously offered Aboriginal workers whose wages were stolen the sums of $2000 and $4000 in exchange for indemnifying the state against any further legal action.
Florence Luff was not even 14 when she was sent out to work as a housemaid and nanny, the government ‘banking’ half her weekly wage of 15 shillings (about $45 today). She continued working full-time with her husband, paid mostly in clothing and food, always fearful that without any money they would be locked up as vagrants. She never saw a bank passbook, had no idea how much she earned or where the money went. If she and her husband had been paid their wages, she said, perhaps they might have been able to buy a little house. She planned to use the $4000 to put a headstone on her husband’s grave. Fred Edwards worked for 25 years as a stockman on stations around the Gulf of Carpentaria, mostly unpaid except for ‘tucker’. He remembered the humiliation of being refused permission to withdraw even small amounts from his compulsory savings. He estimated he was owed around $400 000 and without it he would have to ‘go on slaving’. He was unsure if he could afford to refuse the $4000. Percy Bedourie was contracted out to work when he was 12 and paid mainly in rations, tobacco and an occasional pair of boots. He never saw his pay which went direct to the protector. The $4000 offer equated to $181 per year for each of the 22 years he worked under the system. He said that if he didn’t accept it he’d get nothing.
“Mooners, bongo-drummers, green salvationists, and under-appreciated arts graduates of the world unite and take over!” Or: moar blah about Occupy Melbourne.
“For Democracy and Discipline: A Plea to Occupy Melbourne”, James Pollard, abstractblack, October 25, 2011: This is an article on the eviction of the occupation. In it, I try to show how certain assumptions and ways of action, crystalised in the chants we raised on the day of eviction, defined and limited what the occupation was. Throughout the week, a clique of liberal-pacifist activists attempted to impose these ideas upon the entire assembly, and to take control of the general assembly. In the wake of the eviction, their coup over the assembly has come to pass, leaving us in circumstances that demand reflection, re-organisation, and preparation before future action can be carried out with confidence. In the same spirit, the Rooftop Collective has published some Notes on Occupy Melbourne. What it might mean. Where we might take it., October 25, 2011. Liberal commentary @ The Occupy movement and the Importance of Civil Protest, Sarah Joseph, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law blog, October 26, 2011.
Norwegian Blues. Or: On Utoya: Anders Breivik, right terror, racism and Europe edited by Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and Tad Tietze, available now on Amazon Kindle and other platforms. Or visit www.onutoya.com.
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
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