THE YALLOURN DISPUTE 'A Fight for Jobs and the Latrobe Valley Community'

The CFMEU Latrobe Valley Mining & Energy members from all power stations, mines and the briquette factory saw this as another attack on all power workers and their community and felt a responsibility to build a substantial campaign to defend their jobs and community.
Under the WRA, when employers like Yallourn Energy make an application to terminate an existing EA it is mandatory for the AIRC to terminate unless the unions can prove that it is contrary to the public interest, making the unions responsible for protecting the public interest. The case to terminate the bargaining period went from one adjournment to another and was hung over the heads of the workforce to force them to concede to the company's demands.
By January 2000 workers patience had run out. It was now seven months since the opening of the bargaining and Yallourn Energy had not shifted from their all or nothing position and were still refusing to genuinely negotiate. The CFMEU, AMWU, ETU and AWU all agreed industrial action must be taken to force the company to begin to negotiate in good faith.
A tactical disagreement occurred between the CFMEU and the maintenance unions. The maintenance unions wanted to start taking protected action from 4th January. The CFMEU argued that load demand would be low in the holiday period and that many key activists were still on holiday. They proposed that protected action should coincide with the peak later in January.
During this period CFMEU activists became aware of some little known aspects of the way the privatised electricity market was set up by the former Kennett government. They also had strong suspicions that Yallourn Energy had bought from the market, significant amounts of power that they could sell back into the market at a profit when market prices increased due to their station being shut down.
As a part of the Kennett government sell-off of the former SEC, they put in place laws ('force majeur' legislation) that protected power companies in the event of workers taking industrial action. The protection was provided by tax payers Yallourn Energy's fully compensating the power companies for losses greater than 550 megawatts (MW) in excess of 24 hours, essentially strike breaking legislation.
It is important note that this legislation was recently extended to July 2001.
On 4th January 2000 the maintenance unions applied bans and quickly found themselves effectively locked out. The CFMEU workers refused to do any maintenance workers work and the power station shut down on 6th January. The CFMEU members resolved to support the picket both financially and by a continued presence at the picket line.
The maintenance unions called on the CFMEU to also initiate industrial action, however the CFMEU believed that nothing would be gained from having the entire workforce locked out as the plant was already at zero generation and most of the workforce was on full pay. It was the old most harm to the boss argument.
The company must have agreed with the CFMEU as they applied to the AIRC for a stand-down clause. On the day of this hearing, Yallourn Energy informed the AIRC that it would be issuing lockout notices to all its employees at Yallourn Energy.
On 3rd February 2000, before the lockout could take effect, the combined effects of Yallourn being shutdown, high temperatures and major plant breakdowns at other power stations, caused load shedding and power restrictions across Victoria.
The state Labour government intervened enacting the Electricity Supply Industry Act to order Yallourn Energy to reopen its gates and the workers to resume work. Talks were then set-up using ex-Labor Minister, Neil Pope. The marathon talks between the parties seemed to have almost reached an agreement when Yallourn Energy backed-out at the 11th hour.
After a return to work, further sessions mediated by the AIRC Vice President, Ian Ross saw the ETU, and later the AMWU and AWU, reach a 13 point in-principle agreement with the company. The in-principle agreement saw the introduction of compulsory redundancies via a Technology/Change/ Redundancy (TCR) clause.
Negotiations resumed with the CFMEU, ASU and APESMA, however Yallourn Energy's continued unwillingness to negotiate and their continued stalling of negotiations soon became apparent. In April 2000, at a mass meeting of CFMEU members a decision was made to put a comprehensive position document to the company. The ASU and APESMA supported this process. This draft enterprise agreement was put to the company in June 2000, which they rejected without even meeting with the unions.
In July 2000 the CFMEU decided to take protected action in an effort to force the company to the negotiating table. This was supported by the ASU. The CFMEU couldn't just shut the company down as this would have lead to the unions bargaining period being quickly terminated by the AIRC with Yallourn Energy arguing that the Victorian economy was at risk. Another consideration was the 'force majeure' legislation.

The CFMEU decided the best action was to limit Yallourn Energy's output to 950MW down from its normal 1450MW. This was just enough to stop the Kennett legislation being invoked but meant that Yallourn Energy had less power to sell on the highly profitable spot market.
In stark contrast to the action in January 2000, where the company appeared to make money rather than lose it, this action was met by a barrage of Federal Court, Supreme Court and AIRC cases initiated mainly by the company. The bans were kept in place for seven weeks during which time the company refused to pay the CFMEU members involved. The company's primary response was to apply to the AIRC to have the unions bargaining period terminated.
In October 2000 a Melbourne Age article revealed Yallourn Energy's Patrick's-like plans for its workforce. The plan revealed the company's intentions to sack the entire mine workforce of 262, lock out the entire workforce for 6 months, pressure the government with blackouts and then contract out the mine and cut the entire workforce by at least 200.
Yallourn Energy wanted to suppress this information and succeeded in being granted injunctions against the CFMEU in the Victorian Supreme Court. With this new information the CFMEU made applications to both the Federal Court and the AIRC to stop Commissioner Lewin making a decision to terminate the unions bargaining period, on the basis of a conspiracy.
Yallourn Energy's real agenda had at last been revealed. It is believed that they had been working on their secret agenda since late 1999. It had presented its plans to its Management Board but failed to reveal them in the termination case.

On 1st November, the eve of a planned CFMEU mass meeting, Commissioner Lewin contacted the unions solicitors saying that no orders would be made at the hearing scheduled for the following day. The CFMEU strategy group met at 2pm on 2nd November to put together a proposal for the mass meeting at 4pm. Toward the end of this meeting a 25 page document came through from Commissioner Lewin revealing that he had actually decided to terminate the unions bargaining period in a weeks time but wanted the unions to respond on how they wanted it terminated. It was unbelievable.
The CFMEU mass meeting was informed that due to lack of time the CFMEU strategy group had not come up with a recommendation, therefore any resolutions or decisions would have to come from the floor. The shop floor was incensed at Lewins decision and the plan revealed in the AGE that was barred from being discussed by an injunction. A motion was passed from the floor calling for industrial action to commence at 7pm that night for 24 hours. This bold motion was passed overwhelmingly.
Once the action was implemented, power distribution companies initiated blackouts across the State. During the evening State politicians and State union leaders, including the FEDFA State Secretary, John Van Camp were interviewed on radio condemning the action as a wildcat strike and labelling the power workers as rogues and rebels.
Quickly an injunction was sent to the union calling on them to cease and desist. The Victorian Government intervened calling on the workers to cease their action and promised to do all in their power to assist in a fair settlement of the Yallourn dispute, stop writs being issued against individuals and the CFMEU and to do something about job creation in the Latrobe Valley. In return the CFMEU members returned to work at 11pm after only a 4-hour stoppage and commenced restoring power generation.
At midnight, just an hour later, the Victorian Government barrister was supporting Yallourn Energy's barrister in seeking a certificate from the AIRC to allow Yallourn Energy to seek damages against individuals and the union. The next day 15 CFMEU members commenced receiving writs worth many millions of dollars. Since then, the state government has been working to fast track the arbitration process much to the detriment of the Yallourn workers and their community.

The CFMEU strategy group predicted that the resulting conciliation process would consist of no negotiation but merely a process where the unions would be expected to accept the company's demands or go to arbitration where Yallourn would get their way. Yallourn Energy put down its final offer, which was a further step back from its previous hardline position. The document revealed the company's aim of mass sackings and outsourcing. Yallourn Energy was now going in for the kill. Despite being opposed by the rank and file union representatives, the AIRC determined that the document should be voted on by the Yallourn Energy employees and was supported by union leaders. Reith's Act was in full swing. The CFMEU Yallourn membership was not about to throw in the towel.
The CFMEU Latrobe Valley Mining & Energy sub branch was a part of the CFMEU FEDFA division controlled by State Secretary, John Van Camp. The state leadership determined that CFMEU Latrobe Valley members had no choice but to accept the company's ultimatum (EB 2000), as Arbitration would be far worse.
The CFMEU local leadership vehemently opposed accepting the agreement saying that members should fight on rather than voluntarily falling on their swords. A persistent concern being that other power companies were waiting to continue the slaughter.

When Yallourn Energy realised that the local leadership was vigorously opposing their EB 2000 they applied and won an application for a secret ballot, which was not opposed by the state FEDFA leadership in the AIRC. This ballot was held on site with 60 non-union members also getting a vote. Despite the enormous pressure from the company, the State leadership of the FEDFA, the ASU and APESMA to accept, the Yallourn workforce rejected EB 2000 by 212 votes to 170, confirming confidence in the local leadership.
The CFMEU recognises the unfair nature of arbitration and has resolved fight it all the way. They are now in a much better position than last year. After an eight year internal struggle, the union will finally restructure in accordance with its rules. As from 2nd January 2001 the local CFMEU sub branch of power industry workers are no longer part of the FEDFA but will be transferred to the Mining & Energy division of the CFMEU.
This officially promotes them to the Victorian District of the CFMEU Mining & Energy Division. They will now operate under a new set of rules, which are far more democratic. The change also gives the branch autonomy over its funds.
Since the members have rejected the secret ballot CFMEU leaders such as John Maitland are backing the local leadership in their efforts to challenge and defeat the arbitration system.

The CFMEU Latrobe Valley membership through its Jobs and Community Campaign have run a Public Meeting in Melbourne, set up a Melbourne based support body, spoken at several mass meetings of unionists and received strong motions of support from many unions.
Vice President Ross has listed a hearing in the AIRC on 18th January to decide on what matters need to be arbitrated. He had implored the parties to try a settle their differences before then but Yallourn Energy have steadfastly refused to talk to the unions despite repeated attempts by the union to start dialogue with them. The company's only reply is that they will rely on the arbitration process.
A successful rally was held in Melbourne outside the AIRC on January 18th when Latrobe Valley power workers were joined by hundreds of union and community supporters. The rally raised the following key demands: The maintenance of all existing conditions, including job security and shiftwork arrangements, a call to the company to return to the negotiating table.
Arbitration is not like mandatory sentencing, at the discretion of the commissioners or through the intervention of the Federal Minister the company can be forced back to the negotiating table. This dispute is an open challenge to the mincing machine that is Enterprise Bargaining and the draconian nature of Reiths Workplace Relations legislation. The Latrobe Valley CFMEU membership and leadership have made it clear they are prepared to fight arbitration the whole way but whether they are in a position to defy an unjust arbitration will depend on the level of support from both the broader trade union movement and the broader community. An arbitrated outcome would mean the Enterprise Agreement would be replaced with what is known as a MX Award (the MX simply referring to the section of the workplace relations act). An MX Award can be given a life span of 6 months to 3 years before a new Enterprise Bargaining period can begin.

The CFMEU will be mounting a big public interest case. The question we must all ask is. Do multinational companies that own and run our power have the right to put their profits and shareholders interests over and above the interests of the Yallourn workforce's jobs and conditions or the general publics interests in an efficient, safe and reasonably priced power industry?
The unions are not opposed to change and moving forward as proven by previous agreements reached at Yallourn Energy and at other power companies. Why do the other generators in the Latrobe Valley not have these problems when they are in the same environment?
This dispute is every bit as important as the MUA dispute and a victorious outcome is dependant upon unionists and community activists from all sectors building the same level of unity and solidarity that stopped the destruction of unionism on the wharves. The key is for all trade union and community activists to broadly inform and involve the widest layers of the working class and its allies in the country and small business communities.
If you wish to be involved please contact the Victorian CFMEU Mining & Energy Districts Jobs and Community Campaign on 03 5126 1679 or e-mail on cfmeulv@iprimus.com.au.