Water workers to strike
Workers at Sydney Water, angered by the axing of more than 300 jobs as well as the undermining of conditions, have voted for rolling strikes into next year.
More than 1000 workers took part in a four hour walkout on September 20, rallying at Parramatta Stadium. They voted to begin the strikes from next month.
The Australian Services Union (ASU), which will conduct a further two weeks of negotiations with Sydney Water management, is worried that after 335 job cuts Sydney Water wants a new enterprise agreement that will make it easier to sack even more staff.
: 鈥淪ydney Water wants to halve the redundancy pay it gives to people ... obviously it's going to make the workers a lot easier to get rid of.鈥
AAP reported: 鈥淪ydney Water managing director Kevin Young said new enterprise agreements were a necessary step to bring employee benefits into line with current market conditions.鈥
Train workers strike against outsourcing
Melbourne鈥檚 railway maintenance workers will begin a series of three-hour strikes on September 24 and further strike action is planned on September 26.
Their employer, Metro Trains, is pushing for staff to work more night shifts, longer shifts and fewer days.
Unions, including the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, and the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia, say Metro has threatened to outsource the work to contractors if workers don鈥檛 accept the changes.
ETU organiser Gerry Glover told The Age that Metro said workers could, "either agree to their roster changes, which will see their employees take a hit of between $7000 and $10,000 a year [or Metro] will outsource the work and cop upwards of 100 forced redundancies".
Mining giants 鈥榗utting fat鈥
Rio Tinto joined the throng of job cutting mining giants on September 18, saying it will close a Queensland coalmine and slash an unspecified number of jobs. Last week BHP Billiton and Xstrata cut a combined 900 jobs.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who has declared the mining boom 鈥渙ver鈥, said there would be further job losses in mining as 鈥渦nprofitable operations鈥 are closed. Ferguson urged mining companies and becoming 鈥渕ore productive鈥.
But Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union Queensland president Stephen Smyth said Rio鈥檚 move was to 鈥渢rim some of the fat, so they maintain the bottom line of the huge, enormous profits they are earning鈥. Rio Tinto made almost $6 billion profit in the past 6 months.
Smyth said Rio should look at other options rather than 鈥渃ull and cut the workforce鈥.
Another mining company, Northern Iron, program and axe an unspecified number of jobs.