The workers, who coat fabric for use in blinds and curtains, quickly organized themselves to picket, contacted the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA), and have maintained a 24-hour blockade at the doors ever since, according to shop steward Michelle Booth.

The workers are owed some A$650,000 (US$325,000) in entitlements, including wages, sick pay, and superannuation (pension) contributions. Ori, a worker originally from New Zealand, said the TCFUA had not received union dues deducted from workers' wages for some time and one worker found out that the child support payments deducted from his wages had not been sent to his ex-wife and children. Grenadier bosses Tana and Lessel Davies placed the company into voluntary administration on March 6. The company is reportedly more than A$10 million in debt.

Workers said that Giles Woodgate, the administrator, has repeatedly tried to cajole them to come back to work without pay to finish processing the remaining stock, while at the same time offering to pay out only a fraction of the workers' entitlements. "He's paying Tana and Lessel Davies every day in there," Ori remarked. "They drive here in that flashy MG we bought them last year by giving them 100 percent effort. They have a $1.5 million home. Since they put us on four days on, four days off last year they've been pleading they were broke. Our attitude is 'nothing in, nothing out,' and 100 percent is the only realistic figure," she said.

The TCFUA members have received widespread support and solidarity. Wharfies (dockworkers), tug crews, and linesmen at nearby Port Botany, all members of the Maritime Union of Australia, have taken up collections and visited the picket line in ones and twos at all hours to drop off food and soft drink donations. Local businesses have contributed food.

A delegation of six laid-off production workers from the Speedo swimsuit factory in Windsor visited the picket line March 21 to exchange experiences. The entire production and cutting workforce at Speedo, the internationally known swimwear maker, lost their jobs in early March but did receive their full entitlements, including redundancy (unemployment) pay. The workers had just come from a hearing in the Industrial Relations Commission on their demand for Speedo to pay for retraining.

Later that day, eight Indian stonemasons who toiled on the construction of a Hindu temple in the Sydney suburb of Helenburgh under slave-like conditions for the last three years, arrived for a game of cricket. They were brought to the picket by construction union organizers. The stonemasons are facing deportation, pending the outcome of an investigation, and are receiving financial support from the union in the meantime. The match ended with a draw, according to Booth. The Grenadier workforce is very multinational, with immigrants from the Pacific, South Asia, and New Zealand who worked alongside others born in Australia.

Robert Carr, the state Labor premier, has visited the picket line on more than one occasion. The factory is located in his electorate. In response to Grenadier failing to meet its legal responsibilities to pass on child support payments and pay superannuation, Carr told the workers, "I would assume if there is evidence of fraudulent activity that the attorney general will take the appropriate steps."

In another development, 28 picketing workers in Sydney returned to work April 2 after being locked out for almost six weeks by Mirotone. The industrial paint company backed down on most of its demands such as extending the workweek from 35 to almost 39 hours. The union agreed that two workers in Sydney and one in Brisbane in the tint section would be hired on individual contracts at the longer hours without rostered days off. A breakfast barbecue was organized by the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union as the 28 workers reentered the factory.

Doug Cooper is a member of the Maritime Union of Australia. Ron Poulsen contributed to this article.  
 
 
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