UPDATE (February 3) : Dandenong factory workers claim ‘significant win’ after four-day lunchroom protest, Nick Toscano, The Age, January 30, 2015 | In the factory and in the street, Labor [/labour] is learning again that there is power in a union, Van Badham, The Guardian, February 3, 2014.
UPDATE : Social media campaign to #OccupyDandenong gathers steam with IFF workers locked in pay dispute, Melissa Townsend, Dandenong Leader, January 27, 2015 | Dandenong flavour factory pay dispute escalates to lock-in, Lucy Battersby, The Age, January 27, 2015 | Workers occupy Melbourne factory, Jerome Small, Red Flag, January 27, 2015.
Yo!
BREAKING!
Several dozen workers @ International Flavours & Fragrances (310 Frankston-Dandenong Road, Dandenong South, VIC, 3175; phone: (03) 9788 9200) have initiated a factory occupation in response to the company’s pushing thru a pay cut and locking them out. Management and scabs have left the building; a dozen police are in attendance.
SUPPORT IS NEEDED NOW!
If you can, please attend the community picket at the factory in support of the occupying workers. Bring food, drink, chairs etc and get on down!
For more information, call Bob on 0429 030 436.
Please share and spread the word!
Workers stage sit-in at Melbourne factory
AAP
January 27, 2015Workers have occupied a Dandenong factory lunch room in a dispute over a new workplace agreement.
The strike is taking place at International Flavors and Fragrances Inc (IFF) and is supported by the National Union of Workers.
Union delegate Arthur Ingles told AAP that workers had been in talks with the company about a new workplace agreement, but IFF “made an offer that gutted our conditions”.
“And in all the discussions we have been unable to get any movement from them, we’ve been prepared to negotiate,” he said.
Workers decided to take protected action and stopped all paperwork starting on Tuesday morning, but when they arrived at work before 6am, they were given notices of an indefinite lockout.
More than 50 staff had a meeting in the lunch room, and have been there since.
“Good faith should not be a concept. It should be a reality,” Mr Ingles said.
“We are now negotiating with police about whether we should leave or stay here.”
Workers have given a manifest to Fair Work Australia that lists their demands, including no erosion of conditions and a right to work without intimidation.
Those inside the lunch room have taken to Twitter to get their message across using the hashtag #occupydandenong.
The article said:
Union delegate Arthur Ingles told AAP that workers had been in talks with the company about a new workplace agreement, but IFF “made an offer that gutted our conditions”.
It should be recognised that the conditions in question include ones which affect the workers’s pay. If the bosses get their way, we’re talking about serious pay cuts, not just non-monetary conditions.
The occupation has now passed 37 hours and the workers at International Flavours and Fragrances in Dandenong remain committed.
Updates keep flowing in on Twitter with the hashtag #occupydandenong and on the NUW Facebook page.
There is a hearing at the Fair Work Commission tomorrow at 8am.