No beer cheer

By Bridget Cook
VISY and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) representatives have returned to the negotiation table after a chaotic day of protest resulting in 29 arrests on Monday.
The arrests were made after police moved in to break up the five-day picket line set up by workers after Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiations broke down late November.
The previous workers’ agreement expired on September 30. Visy offered a four per cent wage increase each year for three years however the workers were seeking five per cent annual pay increase over three years, a comprehensive dispute resolution clause and the introduction of a heat policy.
That submission has been rejected.
About 100 Dandenong Visy workers first held a 24-hour stop work on Monday 29 November and took indefinite strike action again from 3 December.
The 29 workers arrested have been charged with creating an undue obstruction and besetting the premises.
After being taken to the Dandenong Police Station for questioning, they were bailed to appear in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court in February 2011 on condition that they did not return to the site.
AMWU print division national secretary Lorraine Cassin said with Visy plants producing cardboard packaging for breweries including Fosters, if workers didn’t return to work, Christmas beer supplies could be threatened.
But she said the major concern in the Dandenong area was the fruit and vegetable boxes and car component boxes, which come from the Dandenong plant.
Ms Cassin said the indefinite strike action at Dandenong would continue until negotiations were made.
“It is not going to end at this stage,” she said.
“It will not come to an end until Visy comes to the table and make genuine negations,” she said.
A Supreme Court of Victoria injunction under the Fair Trade Act was granted last Friday, which stopped AMWU officials from entering the site.
A police spokeswoman said officers attended the scene on Monday to break up a picket line of workers stopping trucks from entering the site.
The Dandenong Visy factory has been basically non-operational since protests began.
Over the past two and half months the AMWU has sought to reach an agreement with Visy that would include a comprehensive dispute resolution clause, fair pay increase over three years and the introduction of a heat policy.
A Visy spokesman said it was the company’s policy to communicate directly with the employees, and not make public comments through the media.
A resolution had not been met between the two parties when the Star went to print yesterday.