Up to 100 workers are holding a lunch room sit-in at the Smiths Chips warehouse in Tingalpa, a suburb in Brisbane’s east. Red Flag spoke on the phone with Brett, a member of the National Union of Workers (NUW), about what’s happening.
“We’re having a lunch room sit-in because the company is refusing the pay us for the day – they want us to work for free”, he says. The protesting workers are part of the day shift and started their sit-in at around 7:30am this morning. Brett says they plan on staying put until the next shift comes in. It is expected that those workers will be locked out by management.
“The plant’s not running while the majority of us are sitting in the lunch room. It’s exciting. As the hours go by hopefully it gets more exciting.”
The dispute is about current enterprise agreement negotiations. The decision to sit-in came after workers tried to implement partial work bans to pressure the company for a better deal.
Brett explains: “We voted up action and today was our first day of action. We actually came to work to put in paperwork bans, and truckloading bans and an over time ban and the company said they’re not going to pay us for any work at all. So we’ve decided to have the sit in.”
“We’re fighting for a fair deal for all Tingalpa workers – especially the casual workers who get paid less for the same work”, he says. “We want a pay increase, a decent pay increase and we especially want to see the casual workers who get paid less get paid the same.”
They want labour-hire workers on the same rates too. “They get paid $200 a week less than us which causes a lot of animosity between them and the full-time and part-time staff. We want to make sure they get paid the same as us so that everyone’s job is more secure.”
The mood among the protesting workers is “really good”, according to Brett. They’re making banners and placards. “People are quite excited, a lot of people think this has been a long time coming. Some of these workers have been here for 30 to 35 years.”
Of the company’s response to their action, Brett says: “They have come back in to talk to the members and all they did was re-read a letter that they offered yesterday which was a slight increase to the percentage [wage increase] that we’re asking for but no change to the rest of the EBA.”
Brett says that the day shift has been in touch with the afternoon shift workers who will start arriving at around 2pm. “Afternoon shift is the biggest shift and the most active of the lot of them. We suspect when the afternoon shift come in not too many of them will actually try and come to work.”
“The day shift has already been asked to leave. We chose to stay here and we’re waiting for them to make the next move. As soon as they kick us out we expect a rally to start.”
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The National Union of Workers is asking for support for a **rally outside the gates** as the afternoon shift arrives at 2pm. If you can get to Smith's (1331 Wynnum Road, Tingalpa) at **1.45pm TODAY, Thursday**, to show solidarity, that would be much appreciated by the workers.