On November 2nd last year LaTrobe Valley power workers turned out the lights in Melbourne – this was unprecedented action. They were fed up with the plotting of Yallourn Energy – then owners of Yallourn Power Station – and the way the Workplace Relations Act was being used to bully them into accepting a massive reduction in hard-fought conditions, and 200 forced redundancies. They have been nearly two years for a new agreement but the company has shown no wish to negotiate
Since November...
Yallourn Energy – now owned by British
company China Light and Power (CLAP) - has continued to breach the enterprise
agreement and threaten heavy-handed disciplinary procedures.
The Yallourn workers have been forced
into arbitration – not because they would not negotiate but because the
company refused to begin talking till their seven fundamental principles
were accepted.
On top of that workers have had
to deal with the fact that the Victorian Supreme Court has gagged the CFMEU
and its local representatives with injunctions.
The Victorian government has not
come through with its promise of help. It has supported Yallourn Energy
in its efforts to serve writs on workers and the union and obtain orders
to prevent further protected action.
The power companies in the Valley
have collectively taken out writs against 13 CFMEU members and the union,
totalling 60 million dollars. The workers have been tied up in the Australian
Industrial Relations Commission where appeals to re-open the bargaining
period have been rejected.
Seven Deadly Sins
The company claims, which they called the seven fundamental principles were quickly dubbed by workers the seven deadly sins, and became the basis for the document known as EB 2000.They were:
Fight
Privatisation
The La Trobe Valley produces the
bulk of Melbourne's power. Workers in the Valley have been supplying electricity
to Melbourne for eighty years and the current problems in the Valley can
be directly linked to the break-up of the SECV and the privatisation of
electricity generation and supply.
The permanent workforce has been
reduced by nearly 10,000 – its little wonder that the quality of service
has declined. The reality of privatisation is not just the loss of jobs
and community but an electricity supply which is expensive and unreliable.
Like people living through the California power crisis – running a similar
system of deregulation to the one being put in place in Victoria – we will
soon be paying more for less.
The La Trobe Valley community and
the power workers are organizing to re-build an area hit hard by privatisation.
They are organizing to save jobs, save a community and ensure a safe, efficient
and affordable energy supply for all Victorians.
What's Happening?
After months of appeals, Yallourn
workers face arbitration. During the appeals that have been happening since
January the presence of supporters inside and outside the Court has been
a boost to the workers and a real factor in making the bosses nervous.
The experience of the last few months
have made it clear that the IR laws and the courts are not there to provide
justice for workers. But a big turn-out at the AIRC will show that power
workers are not alone in fighting for decent conditions. If Yallourn Energy
succeed in taking away the power workers core conditions – there is no
stopping other bosses using the Workplace Relations Act against us all.
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