Newsletter No. 25
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2004
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Cannery workers win days off Workers at the SPC Ardmona fruit processing and canning plant in Shepparton, Victoria won a 13.5 per cent increase in salary and an extra eight rostered days off a year from their employer, after a 6-day strike. After their win, in February, Australian Workers union national secretary, Bill Shorten, whose union represents many of the workers at the plant, stated: ‘These are the same workers who, in 1990, took voluntary pay cuts to save the company. They are proud of their work and proud of their important place in the economy of the Goulburn Valley’. ‘This dispute could have been avoided if SPC management realised that what makes the SPC brand so important and valuable is the people who have made SPC what it is today — that is the workforce at the original SPC factory at Shepparton … those workers have had a victory that will change the way they work at SPC for ever’. ‘We of the AWU will be continuing our campaign to win greater leisure time for our members across the country’ (AWU wins shorter working hours at SPC’ 18.2.04 http://www.awu.net.au). |