Pickets said they decided to strike when the company sought to scrap the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), or contract, putting in jeopardy the gains the union had won over the past 10 years. Since the walkout began, the unionists have stopped all production, they said.

Workers at the picket line said that they operate three giant printing presses and the binding equipment used to produce the telephone directories for half of Australia.

The walkout began over company demands to cut the pay of seasonal workers by as much as 20 percent, terminate 30 out of the current 50 seasonal workers, and reduce the workforce all around by initiating a plant-wide speed-up of production.

In an interview with Militant reporters, chief site union delegate Mark Aubry said that the company moves represented a “divide and conquer strategy.”He noted that most of the permanent workers are Australian-born, while the majority of the seasonal workers are immigrants from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

The universal support for the walkout and the composition of those walking the picket lines, however, show the solidarity between the permanent and seasonal workers who are taking action to overcome these divisions in struggle. Many of the seasonal employees have been rehired several times and have more than 10 years in the plant. “We’re out here to protect what they have,” Aubry said, referring to the gains in wages and conditions of the seasonal workers. “We’re all union members,” he added.

Militant reporters were also told that the company had offered every worker who agreed to the new EBA a one-time A$4,000 payment (A$1 = US$0.71). The unionists said they rejected this proposal unanimously. “The company has been preparing this for two years,” Aubry said. He noted that the bosses had brought in a team of lawyers hoping to use them to deal blows to the union through the courts.

So far, the company has not attempted to bring in scabs, workers said.  
 
 
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