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THE AUSTRALIAN www.awu.net.au $4.50 (INC GST) ISSUE 3 

2010 

WORKER 

www.awu.net.au $4.50 (INC GST) 

HARD AT WORK IN HOBART 

WHAT LIES 

BENEATH 

A LOOK AT 

MINE SAFETY 

MINE SAFETY 

PEDAL TO 

THE METAL 

ALL ABOUT 

ALUMINIUM 

CAPTAIN 

KINDNESS 

IAN CHAPPELL 

ON REFUGEE 

RIGHTS 

INSIDE: ALL YOUR UNION’S 

NEWS AND MUCH MORE... 

ISBN 978-186396379-4

CONTENTS 

www.awu.net.au 

20 

10 

24 

46 

FEATURES 

06 WHAT LIES BENEATH 

As we waited with baited breath for the rescue of 

the trapped Chilean miners, we were reminded of 

our own collapse at Beaconsfield in Tasmania back 

in 2006. Here, we a look at the current state of mine 

safety around Austalia. 

10 PEDAL TO THE METAL 

The mining, refining and smelting of bauxite 

makes the aluminium industry one of Australia’s 

most lucrative export industries. But the Union’s 

role in representing the industry’s workers has 

been a tough battle. 

14 COVER STORY: POSTCARD FROM HOBART 

If you thought that farms in Tasmania were all about 

apples, you’d be wrong! Salmon farms are big 

business, where AWU members are hard at work. 

20 THE CAPTAIN AND THAT SHIP 

Australian cricketing legend Ian Chappell tells us 

why the Tampa crisis inspired him to do what he 

can for refugee rights. 

24 TEMPERATURE’S RISING 

Warm days make for dream vacations. But a hot 

working environment is no holiday and poses 

some serious health risks. 

43 A CHAT WITH JULIA 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard addresses the concerns 

of some AWU members. 

46 A MAN OF THE PEOPLE 

Every so often in history, someone will step forward 

and say “enough”. William Cooper, an Indigenous 

Australian, was one such man. 

REGULARS 

04 National Opinion 28 Frontline News 

40 Meet the Delegates/Officials 44 Private Lives 

49 Bindi & Ringer 50 Grumpy Bastard 

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54-58 Park Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000. Cover photo: David Hahn 

AWU 

EDITOR 

Paul Howes, 

AWU National Secretary 

AWU NATIONAL 

COMMUNICATIONS 

CO-ORDINATOR 

Andrew Casey 

AWU NATIONAL 

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER 

Henry Armstrong 

Address: Level 10, 

377-383 Sussex Street, 

Sydney NSW 2000 

Email: members@nat.awu. 

net.au 

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www.awu.net.au THE AUSTRALIAN WORKER 3

NATIONAL OPINION 

NATIONAL OPINION 

Bill Ludwig 

National President 

Queensland 

Branch Secretary 

It has been a good year for the 

members of the Australian Workers’ 

Union, with many significant 

battles being fought and won. As 

2010 draws to a close, the AWU finds 

itself in the enviable position of being 

the fastest growing union in Australia. 

While many other unions are struggling 

with membership decreases, our Union 

is getting bigger across 

the country. 

While the AWU 

National Office and 

each Branch has 

dedicated significant 

resources to the task 

of growing our Union, a lot of the credit 

for our increased membership should go 

to our workplace Reps. It is the Reps in 

the workplace who sign up most of our 

new members, and who look after our 

members day to day to make sure they 

remain AWU members. They are the face 

of our Union in their workplaces, and 

they do a bloody great job. 

Being an AWU Rep can sometimes be 

a difficult and thankless task. 

Often times, when you are doing a 

good job, you don’t hear from anyone, but 

when things go wrong you cop a bit of 

flak. AWU Reps are not paid for their 

services, they do it out of a commitment 

to unionism, and a commitment to 

helping out their fellow workers. It is a 

fundamental right for each union member 

to be represented by their union, and 

often times it is their workplace Rep who 

is their representative. 

People become AWU Reps because 

their fellow members see them as 

leaders in the workplace. Many AWU 

members don’t feel they have the 

necessary skills to represent 

themselves, and that is why they 

choose the people that they do to 

be their Representative. 

AWU Reps are the face of 

our Union in their workplaces, 

and they do a bloody great job.” 

As the year draws to a close, I’d like 

to thank each and every AWU 

Representative across Australia for their 

hard work and dedication. 

Without their commitment and 

leadership qualities, our Union would 

be much worse off. 

I would also like to wish a very safe 

and merry festive season to all AWU 

members and their families, and I look 

forward to working with you all again 

in 2011 to keep our Union strong. 

The misuse of global free trade 

rules and regulations – 

especially by China – has hurt 

Australian jobs and led to the 

collapse of our manufacturing sector. 

New jobs which could be created in 

Australia in the fledgling ‘green 

technology sector’ – such as solar 

panels – have had their natural growth 

stunted because China has adopted 

an aggressive policy to distort trade 

in its favour. 

The Australian Workers’ Union was 

an early supporter of free trade as a way 

of creating good new jobs for our 

membership. But we won’t stand by and 

allow jobs to disappear overseas, 

because not everyone is playing by the 

same rule book. 

We believe there is plenty of evidence 

that China has decided to ignore the rules 

of the game set by the WTO and the ILO. 

They are winning new opportunities for 

Chinese companies by tearing up the rule 

book. Delegates to the 

next AWU national 

conference will discuss 

and vote on a plan to 

trigger a major public 

campaign in 2011 to 

ensure our Government 

does not stand by and 

allow Australian jobs to disappear 

overseas. 

Free trade can work for all economies, 

but only if all countries agree to play by 

the same rules, and respect the umpire’s 

decision. Unfortunately a series of 

Australian governments have had a bad 

record when it comes to defending 

Australian manufacturing jobs from the 

subsidized dumped products. We are 

witnessing that especially in AWU 

manufacturing workplaces, in steel and 

aluminium extrusion. 

Increasingly in Australia, the USA, 

We won’t stand 

by and allow jobs to 

disappear overseas.” 

Paul Howes 

National Secretary 

The AWU has joned forces with the United Steelworkers of America. 

Canada and Europe trade unions have 

begun pressuring their governments to 

take action against China. We’ve joined 

with the Steelworkers in the USA and 

Canada to campaign to defend our jobs 

against cheap subsidised Chinese 

imports. The Steelworkers have already 

had some success in rolling back the 

Chinese juggernaut. 

We’re now campaigning for Australia 

to look at the models adopted by both 

the US and Canadian governments to 

fight the unfair subsidised manufacturing 

practices behind these Chinese 

imports. The next step in our campaign 

will be unveiled at the AWU’s National 

Conference in February 2011. 

AWU 

LEADERS 

POST YOUR LETTERS TO: 

The Editor, 

The Australian Worker, 

Level 10, 377-383 Sussex Street, 

Sydney NSW 2000 

4 THE AUSTRALIAN WORKER www.awu.net.au 

Russ Collison 

Greater NSW Branch 

Secretary 

Richard Downie 

Newcastle Branch 

Secretary 

Andy Gillespie 

Port Kembla Branch 

Secretary 

Cesar Melhem 

Victorian Branch 

Secretary 

Wayne Hanson 

South Australian 


Stephen Price 

West Australian 


Ian Wakefield 

Tasmanian Branch 

Secretary 

Norman McBride 

Tobacco Branch 

Secretary 

OR EMAIL THEM TO: 

members@nat.awu.net.au 


MINING INDUSTRY SAFETY 


Photos: Getty 

Five years after 

the Beaconsfield 

mine disaster, 

Out of the dust of the 

new legislation 

has finally been 

Beaconsfield rock 

passed. RIGHT: 

fall in 2006 emerged 

The rescue of 

new interest from the 

Brant Webb and 

Australian public in 

Todd Russell. 

mining safety. After 

breathing a collective sigh of relief 

when Brant Webb and Todd Russell 

made it out alive, and following a 

period of mourning for Larry Knight, 

who lost his life in the collapse, there 

was a resounding call to operators and 

the Tasmanian government to make 

sure it never happened again. 

Five years on, and new legislation has 

finally been passed which deals with the 

occupational hazards of an inherently 

risky business. In fact, the long process 

toward the new legislation had been 

under way since the publication of 

a coroner’s report following the deaths of 

Matthew Lister and Jarrod Jones in a rock 

fall at the Renison Bell tin mine in 2001, 

and that of Sidney Pierce at the same site 

two years later. 

The coroner’s investigation into those 

ciesWhat lies 

incidents found there had been serious 

failure in Tasmania’s workplace safety 

legislation to deal with mining. In his 

2008 report coroner Don Jones asserted, 

“These inquests have highlighted what 

I perceive to be fundamental deficiencies 

in the current legislation applicable to 

mining in Tasmania. Whilst the current 

legislation, the Workplace Health 

and Safety Act 1995, is applicable 

to mining, it is a more generalised 

approach, while mining requires more 

industry-specific legislation due to the 

nature of its operations.” 

In short, safety at the mines 

was governed by the same rules 

that applied to office, retail and all 

other workers, a situation which was 

deemed by all involved to be wholly 

inappropriate. 

AWU Tasmanian Branch Assistant 

Secretary Robert Flanagan said there 

was little disagreement in the tripartite 

talks between the AWU, the Tasmanian 

Minerals Council and Workplace 

Standards Tasmania to establish the new 

legislation, which Tasmanian Minister 

for Workplace Relations David O’Byrne 

hopes will be enacted early next year. 

The Workplace Health and Safety 

Amendment (Mine Safety) Bill 2010 

legislation is broad in scope and built 

on three key platforms. It deals with the 

hazards that exist in the mining industry 

through audits and inspections, it 

creates standards for ventilation in 

underground mines and, arguably 

most importantly, it opens the lines 

of communication between workers, 

operators and management. From 

these general themes, more definitive 

regulations will be established, 

particularly in regard to establishing 

hazard-management systems. 

Robert says the lack of communication 

between workers and bosses and the 

lack of an opportunity for workers to voice 

their concerns was a major contributor 


As the world rejoiced the rescue of the trapped 

Chilean miners, we were reminded of our own mine 

collapse at Beaconsfield in Tasmania. Aaron Bertram 

looks at current Australian mining industry safety... 

beneath 

to the Beaconsfield disaster. “There 

was a sense of powerlessness at 

Beaconsfield,” he says. “If workers 

had a forum to express their concerns, 

Beaconsfield may never have happened.” 

Under the new rules, workers at 

each site will elect one of their own as 

an employee safety representative. 

Workers elected to this role by their 

peers would be the first point of contact 

for workers to voice their concerns 

regarding any potential safety issues. 

The industry in Tasmania will also 

be subject to inspections by Workplace 

Standards Tasmania to ensure each site 

adheres to agreed safety processes. 

The new positions call for a great deal 

of mining expertise, something which may 

be in short supply as our mining industry 

surges ahead, as the world bounces 

back from the global financial crisis. 

“It’s important we have engineering 

and geotechnical expertise in order to 

inspect areas where people have raised 

concerns,” Robert says. “There are plenty 

of qualified people, the problem is being 

able to recruit them when there’s better 

money in a booming mining sector.” 

Robert estimates that an 

appropriately qualified inspector 

could earn four times as much 

“and climbing” in the private 

sector than they would working for 

Workplace Standards Tasmania. 

However, aside from this concern 

about potential difficulties in 

recruitment, it is certain that 

mine workers in Tasmania and 

their loved ones will be able to 

breathe easier when the legislation 

and subsequent regulations are 

implemented. 

“The new rules should improve 

hazard management, with exposure 

to hazards substantially reduced,” 

Robert says. 

Mine bending 

QUEENSLAND 

Fatigue is the focus in 

Queensland, where relations 

Qld 

between the miners, unions 

and the government are 

generally positive. However, 12-hour 

shifts and repetitive work is a potential 

killer, says AWU Queensland Branch 

Organiser Hag Harrison, who is involved 

in compiling a draft fatigue management 

plan for the industry. Fatigue is a difficult 

problem to quantify – the fatalities are 

not necessarily happening at the mines 

but when workers are making their way 

home. Hag says there have been three 

recent incidents of workers driving home 

at the end of a long shift and, due to 

fatigue, not completing their journeys. 

The management plan calls for more 

rest for workers and more varied jobs. 

NEW SOUTH WALES 

NSW AWU Greater NSW Branch 

Vice-President and Northern 

Regional Organiser, Glenn 

Seton, says that while there were no 



FREE CHILE! 

Rescued 

Chilean miner 

and staunch 

unionist 

“Super” Mario 

Sepulveda. 

THE WIDELY COVERED August 5 collapse 

at the Copiapo copper mine in Chile 

cemented concerns for mining safety in 

the public consciousness. More than a 

billion people round the world tuned in to 

watch its 33 survivors being winched the 

700 metres back to the surface of the 

earth after 69 days underground. 

The irony of this story is that the 

miners had access to an emergency 

ladder in a ventilation shaft designed 

to deal with exactly this type of 

incident. However, the mine’s owners had 

neglected to finish it, so the workers 

attempt at self-rescue came to an end 

only one-third of the way up. 

Safety had long been an issue at the 

relatively small facility, with eight workers 

losing their lives there in 12 years. It 

was even forced to close down in 2007 

after relatives of a miner who had been 

killed sued the company. The installation 

of emergency ladders was one of the 

conditions of it reopening. 

Union man”Super” Mario Sepulveda 

was the group’s unofficial leader and 

despite urging the media to treat him 

as just a miner, he was widely 

credited as the driving force supporting 

the morale that helped the miners 

survive those long dark days in a hole 

in the ground. 

After a visit with his family, Mario 

warned Chile’s mining authorities and 

corporations that this incident would be 

a turning point in industrial relations in 

Chile in the way that Beaconsfield put 

mining safety on the map in Australia. 

“I think that this country has to 

understand once and for all, that we 

have to change the way we work, he 

said. “The working world needs lots 

of changes. We, the miners, we won’t 

let it rest.” 

IUS Group Income Protection 

Insurance for AWU members 

Two thumbs up! 

fatalities at any metalliferous mines in 

NSW last year, the Union still strives 

toward a “world’s best practice” hazardmanagement 

model. Glenn says a shakeup 

of workplace culture will provide the 

key to creating a “zero-death, zeroincident” 

mining sector in NSW. “Our 

numbers have been very good, and all 

trending down,” he says. However, there 

is room for improvement. Fatigue is an 

issue being watched by the Union, and 

especially the rules around managing 

fatigue arising for workers pushing 

beyond 48 hours of work in a seven-day 

period. The state’s Mine Safety Advisory 

Council will be following up on a summit 

in 2008 which addressed the need for 

cultural change in the industry.” 

SA 

SOUTH AUSTRALIA 

BHP Billiton has so much 

money, it doesn’t need a 

bank, AWU South Australia 


Branch Secretary Wayne Hanson says. Its 

stranglehold on South Australia is such 

that when BHP says “jump”, that the state 

government says, “How high” 

This is the problem facing the AWU in 

South Australia, Wayne believes. 

In that state, BHP allows unions no access 

to its facilities. Wayne is involved in the 

Mining and Quarrying Occupational 

Health and Safety Committee. About a 

year ago, a Canadian delegation came 

over to look at Olympic Dam and asked 

that MAQOHSC be there too. BHP told the 

delegation that it was very welcome to 

come along but that the plane was exactly 

two seats short – there would be no room 

for the two union representatives on the 

committee. Wayne believes, however, 

there are some “closet members” of the 

Union in the state’s mining industry, and 

while he’s unable at this stage to go into 

detail, he has reason to believe there may 

be a breakthrough soon. 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA 

WA is in the process of a major 

overhaul of mining safety 

WA 

regulations. And, like in South 

Australia, limited union access 

to sites is the main obstacle in 

making mines safer for workers in WA, 

where there have been 11 fatalities on sites 

since June 2008. This is in a state where 

individual contracts had been used long 

before WorkChoices and one which was 

stridently anti-union even before Howard. 

AWU WA Branch Secretary Stephen Price 

describes the relationship between the 

largest miner, BHP Billiton, and the Union 

as “strained”. However, talks are occurring 

to bring WA legislation up to that which 

governs the much more stringent offshore 

industry. This will see an increased focus 

on a risk-management approach where the 

onus would be on the companies to put in 

place their own processes which would be 

regularly inspected by an external auditor. 

The AWU and IUS: 

Working together to protect members. 

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and more than $350,000,000 in benefits to Australian 

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South Australia: Harry Early 0413 612 551 Queensland: Jodie Bechara 0425 272 705 

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Postal: PO Box 6215 North Sydney NSW 2060 Australia

ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY 


PEDAL TO THE METAL 

The mining, refining and smelting of bauxite makes the aluminium industry one 

of Australia’s most lucrative export industries. But the Union’s role in representing 

the industry’s workers has been a tough battle. Paul Robinson reports... 

The aluminium industry 

generates exports worth 

more than $10 billion 

a year. The industry is 

an export heavyweight, 

especially in Western 

Australia and Victoria. And it’s a big 

workplace. Between them, Australia’s 

bauxite mines, refineries, smelters, 

extrusion mills and rolling plants 

employ more than 15,000 workers, 

including contractors. 

Unfortunately, the giant multinational 

companies that produce aluminium in 

Australia – Alcoa, BHP, Tomago, Hydro, 

Rio Tinto – have no particular loyalty to 

this country – they will operate wherever 

it is cheapest, and they are happy to flex 

this muscle regularly in negotiations with 

workers over wages and conditions. 

The AWU is the main union 

representing workers in 

aluminium refineries, smelters, 

mines and plants across 

Australia. 

“The main battle is keeping 

permanent employment and 

getting the companies to 

recognise the role of organised 

labour in the workplace,” AWU 

National Organiser Liam O’Brien 

says. “It depends what sector 

you’re talking about. In extrusion, 

for instance, there’s been a massive 

rise in non-union companies in the 

past five years because the market 

has expanded and a lot of Chinese 

companies have become involved.” 

10 THE AUSTRALIAN WORKER www.awu.net.auu 

With smelting and refining, the 

key issues are a supply of cheap 

power, environmental concerns and 

working conditions. “Some of these 

companies simply don’t want to have a 

third party involved in their workplace 

negotiations,” Liam says. “Rio Tinto is 

pretty hard-line; Alcoa is not as bad – 

that said, we’ve been taking industrial 

action in WA for seven months!” 

Global concerns 

Foreign ownership is obviously an 

issue when it comes to negotiations 

on awards and conditions. Albeit 

with some Australian investment, all 

the major players are giant foreign 

multinationals. Again, it’s a matter 

of picking your battles. Last year, the 

AWU opposed state-owned foreign 

companies buying into the Australian 

resources sector when Chinalco 

(a Chinese state-owned aluminium 

company) attempted to increase its 

stake in Rio Tinto to 19 per cent. 

Australia’s seven smelters and six 

refineries are mostly located in regional 

towns where alternative employment 

is hard to find. When labour is under 

the gun, there is a potential for these 

places to become “ghost towns”. 

Research undertaken in 2008 by 

Per Capita for the Australian Workers’ 

Union entitled The Full-Cost Economics 

of Climate Change – Aluminium: A Case 

Study suggests average unemployment 

could rise above 30 per cent in refinery 

towns and 15 per cent in smelter towns 

– a savage king-hit. The big players 

need encouragement to consider the 

THE ORGANISER 

Craig Beveridge 

Capral Aluminium, Perth 

IT’S A BIT of a change of direction for me. I’ve 

only been with the AWU for about 15 months. 

I worked for a stockfeed mill called Wesfeeds; 

I was a delegate there for 10 years. We worked 

under an EBA for that time and even when 

the Howard Government was in, we were on a 

good deal. Nothing could change or be taken 

from us and every two years we were up for a 

renegotiation on percentages for pay increases. 

Obviously I’ve taken that little bit of experience 

to some of the sites I’m dealing with 

now, with those EBAs coming up, and 

just give it my best shot. 

Photos: David Hahn/Fairfax Photos 

impacts of their decisions on these 

small towns. 

As Liam says, “In the case of 

Alcoa or Rio Tinto, you’re talking about 

highly profitable companies. We’re 

about seeing the wealth created in 

these towns stays in the communities, 

rather than in some CEO’s pocket 

in New York.” 

Industry perils 

A major grievance is safety 

and the lack thereof, 

particularly on nonunion 

sites. There is also 

concern about the lack of 

consultation on workplace 

changes and a desire 

for parity with sites that 

already have collective 

agreements in place. 

“Safety is a huge 

concern in refining, smelting, mining – 

they all use significant heavy machinery, 

there are hazardous materials, and 

workers are often subject to extreme 

temperatures,” AWU National Campaign 

Coordinator Daniel Walton says. 

When companies try to cut costs, it 

always affects safety negatively. “Little 

things, such as skimming over upgrades 

on walkways and materials, the basics 

are often overlooked,” Daniel says. 

“Particularly in non-union sites, safety 

committees are set up and represented 

by managers or supervisors, with very 

little input from workers.” 

For organised labour, it’s been a 

long time between drinks. Since the 

heyday of union power in the 1970s 

and ’80s, companies have worked 

steadily to reduce union influence in 

the workplace. The Howard regime’s 

WorkChoices laws finally gave employers 

the ability to undermine collective 

action and shift the industrial relations 

culture to the individual contract. This, 

in turn, made it easier for companies to 

completely de-unionise sites. 

The AWU strategy has been to 

build strength at existing sites over 

the past three years. Now it is shifting 

to a broader approach, targeting more 

non-union sites around 

the country and working 

with the Branches to 

organise workers. 

“The AWU has seen 

a massive increase 

in membership over 

the past two years,” 

Daniel says. “There 

are certainly a number 

Liam O’Brien of operations in the 

aluminium industry, 

with fairly hostile employers and antiunion 

strategies in place, that we’re 

starting to gain significant traction. In 

some cases they are actually sites that 

had been organised and were then deunionised. 

With renewed focus and push, 

we’re managing to turn things around.” 

The AWU has only been involved 

in award bargaining with one smelter 

over the past two years. However, 

all smelters are due to sit at the 

bargaining table in the next six months. 

“There have been quite a few 

issues,” Liam O’Brien says. “At Alcoa 

in Victoria, they’re trying to reduce 

manning and that sort of thing. That’s 

been a bit of a fight. And it brings up 

a few safety concerns.” 

Negotiations are looking promising 

for saving jobs – after 18 months’ hard 

work – at Rio Tinto’s Gove refinery at 




Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory. 

And right now, agreements are 

being negotiated at Alcoa refineries 

and mines south of Perth. 

The extrusion and rolling mill sector 

has been the AWU’s most successful 

battlefield. It recently unionised and 

has started bargaining with Olympic 

Aluminium, one of the non-union 

companies in Victoria that, as Liam 

says, “had crept up on us.” 

Another win was with G James 

Extrusions – a national dispute over 

three states earlier this year. “The 

company started off offering 2.5 per 

cent with no back pay, and wanted 

to take protection off the guys,” he 

says. “We went on strike and ended 

up with a wage offer between 4 per 

cent and 5 per cent, six months’ back 

pay, improvements in sick leave and 

redundancy arrangements.” 

This agreement was accepted by 

over 90 per cent of members. 

The Capral extrusion plant in Perth, 

WA, makes window frames among other 

things. With a workforce of 52, the site 

was pretty unorganised and management 

anti-union until a few months ago. Now, 

THE DELEGATE 

Tristan Gulvin 

Worsley Alumina, WA 

I’VE JOINED the Union to try to get 

equality around the place, and 

education on workers’ rights, 

especially regarding disciplinary 

matters. We’re still on common-law 

contracts, but we’re trying to get our 

numbers up so we can go back to 

EBAs. Our membership is increasing, 

which gives us a bit more leverage. 

BHP aren’t too keen on the Union 

being back on site in any way, shape 

or form, but our members now know 

they’re entitled to representation. 

BHP was getting away with stuff like 

getting guys to sign bullshit warnings 

because the guys didn’t know any 

better. We’ve got a very young 

workforce and most of them didn’t 

We’ve 

doubled the 

membership, 

to about 80 

members, and 

we’ve got good 

Delegates 

in there.” 

according to Daniel Walton, they are very 

close to voting on an agreement. 

“These companies expand into 

other areas and don’t highlight their 

operations,” says Daniel. “It’s a matter of 

doing research then having a chat about 

what’s been achieved at other sites.” 

Organiser Craig Beveridge has 

been on the job for the past 12 months. 

“When I first stepped in, we had two 

members and it was a bit of a rough 

know their rights; they were being 

walked over. I’m 34, one of the older 

heads out there. I’m lucky I grew up 

in Collie, a coalmining town, tough 

old bastards, and we’ve always been 

involved in the Union. My father was a 

shop steward at the power station. 

Worsley is between Collie and 

Bunbury and we always say that 

Collie guys know their rights, 

but the Bunbury boys don’t. 

road and management didn’t want a bar 

of me,” he says. “But I kept chipping 

away, and now we’ve built up to being 

about 12 guys off 100 per cent.” 

Steep learning curve 

With all on common law contracts, the 

major complaint was the lack of career 

path, and workers were doing the same 

job side-by-side for wildly differing pay 

packets. “There was no classification 

structure,” Craig says. “That was the most 

tedious part of this agreement. But I think 

management now realises if you don’t have 

some incentives to keep your workforce, 

the younger blokes will head up north 

chasing big money when the boom hits.” 

It’s been a steep learning curve for 

Craig, who had only been with the AWU 

for a couple of months when he started 

organising the Carpal site. 

“The previous management were 

anti-union and there’d been problems 

with how they were running the shop,” he 

says. “They weren’t paying proper overtime 

rates. I couldn’t believe they thought 

they could get away with it in 2010!” 

About to talk money with the 

company, Craig is cautiously optimistic. 

“At the end of the day, stalling on level 

structures is no good for either of us. 

We eventually need to even up the 

wage playing field, but obviously that’s 

not going to happen overnight.” 

BHP’s Worsley Alumina mine and 

refinery in WA is another site where 

workers had been on common law 

contracts, but were concerned about 

losing parity with other operations and 

issues such as unpaid overtime, and 

also becoming conscious of their limited 

bargaining power as individuals. 

With changes in the Fair Work 

Australia laws, the AWU has been 

building membership at Worsley since 

August last year. Organiser Craig Ramirez 

says the signs are encouraging. “It took 

a lot of groundwork, but we’ve about 

doubled the membership, to about 

80 members, and we’ve got good 

Delegates in there, some strong guys.” 

The site had been fairly anti- 

1MARCH 2009 

G James Extrusions, 

in Smithfield, Sydney, 

sacks 30 workers – 

nearly half its workforce 

– and the AWU Delegate, 

without consultation, 

ignoring the terms of the 

workplace enterprise 

agreement. “These 

are long-standing 

workers who should 

have been treated with 

respect,” AWU Greater 

NSW Secretary Russ 

Collison says. “We’re 

going to make sure the 

company sticks by the 

agreement.” 

2APRIL 2009 

Rio Tinto axes 600 

jobs at its refinery in 

the Queensland town of 

Gladstone, citing falling 

commodity prices. The 

union, but the future looks brighter. 

“Sometimes BHP tends to do what they 

please,” says Craig. “But we’ve got 

a base now to give us leverage. Our 

members know if they get hauled up on 

a disciplinary issue or any other reason, 

we can represent them. It’s harder for the 

company to exert that external pressure.” 

Tough tactics 

The Rio Tinto Alcan smelter at Bell Bay, in 

Tasmania, was Australia’s first aluminium 

smelter, starting production in 1955. The 

operation employs some 500 workers 

and contributes $225 million a year to 

the local economy. Electricity costs and 

pollution concerns are being used as 

justification for blocking wage claims. 

The site was de-unionised in 1996 

after the Rio Tinto management team 

had studied work practices on sites 

CUTTING METAL • REDUNDANCIES IN THE INDUSTRY 

aluminium sector is a 

key part of its industrial 

development, each 

job contributing a total 

community value of 

$89,000 a year (Per 

Capita research, 2009). 

According to Gladstone 

mayor, George Creed, it 

is the worst blow to the 

town in 40 years.“This 

must be nearly a sadder 

day for Gladstone [than] 

it was in the early 1960s 

when the meatworks 

closed,” George says. 

3THE COMPANY 

also cuts bauxite 

production at Weipa, in 

North Queensland, at 

the cost of 100 jobs. 

APRIL 2009, Alcoa 

4 cuts output at its 

Portland smelter, citing 

emissions trading and 

falling global prices 

as key reasons. With 

640 workers, Portland 

is a major employer in 

western Victoria. The 

following 12 months 

across the Tasman in New 

Zealand. Workers were put 

on individual contracts 

and it is only in the past 

two to three years that the 

Union has started to build 

up its membership, and in 

the past 12 months that it 

has begun rolling out 

a significant campaign. 

Rio frequently plays 

the “oldest smelter in the 

country” card. 

“Members have told us 

that the company likes to 

use that as a threat to put 

fear into the workplace,” Daniel Walton 

says. “The inference is that if workers get 

too organised, push too much, the place 

won’t be able to function.” 

It’s a scare tactic the company has 

sees 24 redundancies 

and an overall loss of 

100 operational roles 

(including contractor 

cut-backs). AWU 


Secretary Cesar 

Melhem says the 

proposed cuts stem 

from the company’s US 

head office ordering 

a 5 per cent global 

cost reduction for its 

smelters. “It’s not just 

an attack on workers, 

it is a threat to the 

Craig Ramirez 

viability of Portland,” 

Cesar says. Workers 

have voted to resist 

redundancies and the 

Union is pursuing talks 

with the company. 

But it’s a frustrating 

business. “The 

company refuses 

to discuss financial 

matters,” Cesar says. 

“It is obvious this 

site is making a lot of 

money for its masters. 

It is up to Portland 

Aluminium to treat its 

workers fairly.” 

DECEMBER 2009, 

5 Alcoa announces 

plans to cut 90 jobs 

at its rolling plant in 

Point Henry, Geelong, 

and a further 60 at 

its Yennora plant in 

western Sydney. 

also used at local and 

state government level in 

its quest for a favourably 

cheap electricity deal to 

sustain the smelter. 

“After the recent closure 

of the Reflex paper mill in 

Burnie, this is one of the 

largest sites in northern 

Tasmania,” Daniel says. “If 

someone in Georgetown, 

who’s worked at the smelter 

for 20 years, loses his job, 

there’s not much around. 

And the knock-on effect in 

the area would be huge.” 

“This is a classic example,” Liam 

O’Brien says. “The company wants to 

keep a lid on wages to its own cost 

advantage and has a real resistance 

to organised labour.” W 



POSTCARD FROM HOBART 

LEFT: Shane Williams at the 

helm at Tassal’s salmon farm 

on the Tasman Peninsula. 

If you thought 

Tasmanian farms would 

be all about apples, 

you’d be wrong. One of 

the most lucrative crops 

farmed down there is 

salmon. Yep, salmon. 

So the AWU’s intrepid 

reporter Michael 

Blayney and 

photographer David 

Hahn took off to Hobart 

Something 

to, well, go fishing! 

Michael Blayney, left, 

and David Hahn, right, 

pretending to work! 

FISHY 

PHOTOS DAVID HAHN 

It’s a mild spring afternoon on in 

south-eastern Tasmania. On 

a small, motorised plastic boat, 

AWU member Shane Williams 

is taking great pleasure in giving 

our “office legs” a good workout, 

carving up the icy-cold waters from pen 

to pen on a Nubeena salmon farm. 

We hold on tightly to a small railing up 

front, thankful that today the water’s 

calm, the wind’s gentle, and the 

weather’s warm(ish). 

Shane has worked this farm on the 

Tasman Peninsula for nine years, recently 

being promoted to regional manager 

of Tassal’s operations here. “I’ll spend 

less time on the water and more time on 

land, shuffling papers,” he says, with 

just a tinge of regret. 

Although he’s risen through the 

ranks at Tassal, Shane very much values 

the AWU’s contribution to workers’ 

conditions on this site. 

The farm has 33 pens, all close to the 

shoreline. Each one houses approximately 

25,000 fish at different stages of growth 

in a space half the size of a cricket oval. It’s 

big business: Tassal is Australia’s largest 

Atlantic salmon producer, harvesting over 

20,000 tonnes of fish a year. 

Graeme Shipway 

with a star of 

the show. 

Today, Shane parks beside a larger 

boat that will harvest roughly 20,000 

Atlantic salmon by day’s end. The fish 

are pumped out of the pen into Peter 

Whalan’s safe hands on deck. “We follow 

strict harvest processes to ensure welfare 

standards are maintained and to get the 

best quality for eating,” he says. 

Scales and tales 

Today’s fish are a healthy-looking bunch, 

a consistent weight of approximately 

six kilograms and sixty centimetres 

in length. 

The harvesting process is clinical. 

Peter releases live fish down a 

mechanical chute where they’re quickly 

stunned and bled out. When they land 

at the bottom of the chute, the catch of 

the day is then sorted into a holding bay 

nestled in the boat’s hull. From there, the 

booty is destined for bellies all over 

the world. 

We leave the harvestng behind us, ❯ www.awu.net.au 

www.awu.net.au theaustralianworker 15


RIGHT: OHS Rep 

Richard Potter 

and, above right, 

some of the farm’s 

prime catch. 

zipping over to a pen where salmon are 

being bathed in fresh water. This routine 

procedure guards against amoebic 

gill disease, a potentially-fatal affliction 

that reportedly costs the Tasmanian 

industry $20 million a year in treatment 

and lost productivity. The fish are 

pumped from their homes onto a 

tarpaulin filled with fresh water. After 

a cleansing period of two to three 

hours, the salmon are released back 

into salt water. 

The disease is not the only concern 

I’m there for 

people when 

they start, 

offering them 

assistance and 

connecting 

them to the 

Union.” 

Occupational Health and Safety 

Representative, Richard “Potts” Potter. 

A Tassal employee for over 10 years, Potts 

works as a senior farm-hand, feeder, and 

dive supervisor. In years gone by, he 

worked as a diver retrieving “morts” 

(mortalities), repairing nets, checking on 

the well-being of the fish, and naturally 

keeping a watchful eye out for sharks. 

“Diving is a young man’s game,” 

he says, injury having put the brakes 

on his underwater career. “You have 

to be super-fit to do it every day.” 

LEFT : AWU Delegate John Daniels 

at work in the picturesque Royal 

Tasmanian Botancial Gardens. 

was so successful that Government 

House outdoor workers adjoining the 

gardens have since joined the AWU 

to bargain collectively for their next 

work agreement. 

for the salmon population in these 

waters. Local seals and sharks are 

understandably tempted by the free feed 

be careful. Workers have been bitten.” 

As we make our way back to land, 

Bloomin’ lovely 

Leaving Nubeena, we make tracks for 

Right on track 

The next morning, a new work agreement 

in their own backyard. Every day or 

Shane discusses his family’s diet. 

Hobart, about an hour’s drive away. Here 

is also on the table in the break room 

thereabouts, an enterprising seal rips 

Fortunately, he and his three children, 

we drop in on the horticulturists tending 

at the picturesque Elwick Racecourse. 

a hole in one of the nets or leaps over the 

aged 3, 4 and 11, all love salmon. Shane 

the flower beds at the Royal Tasmanian 

Co-Delegate Tim Broadby and AWU 

barriers to feast on the salmon. One 

even has a smoking set-up at home. With 

Botanical Gardens. 

Organiser Kevin Midson dispense the 

memorable day, five seals and a shark 

so much omega-3 on offer, his kids could 

The 13 hectares of gardens are located 

paperwork, ready for sign-off. “We’re 

were discovered in one of the pens. 

end up being the brightest in all of 

on the northern outskirts of the city 

pleased with what we’ve got and 

“Most of the seals are repeat offenders,” 

Tasmania! “When they have a choice of 

centre, majestically overlooking the 

members on site. “I’m there for people 

award was negotiated specific to the 

everyone’s happy,” Tim says. 

Shane explains. “You get to know them 

eating fish or lollies, the kids choose fish 

Derwent River. With hoe in hand, AWU 

when they start, offering them 

gardens. The pay scale was realigned, 

“This has been the biggest one 

after a while, and we even have names for 

every time. If it’s in the fridge, they won’t 

on-site Delegate John Daniels is working 

assistance, advice, and connecting them 

and John and his team’s trade status was 

for a long time. We put a lot of work 

a few of them. They can also get a bit 

vicious when cornered, so you have to 

stop eating until it’s gone,” he laughs. 

On dry dock, we chat to the site’s 

his patch when we arrive. A Delegate for 

ten years, John takes care of the twelve 

to the Union.” 

Recently, a new state public service 

finally recognised with a 10 per cent wage 

increase across the board. The outcome 

into this agreement state-wide,” Kevin 

agrees. “We all stood together, ❯ 16 theaustralianworker www.awu.net.au 

www.awu.net.au theaustralianworker 17


LEFT: Workers at the Elwick Racecourse 

put a lot of effort into a new agreement. 

New brooms (above) will sweep clean. 

Tassal AWU Delegate 

Phil Garth. 

prepared to follow through on work bans. 

Management initially offered us 3.5 per 

cent for three years, but we managed to 

negotiate a four-year agreement at 4 per 

cent the first year, 4.5 the next, and 5 per 

cent the final two years. It was a good 

outcome.” 

Kevin drives us back to the North 

Hobart AWU office to meet with Ian 

Wakefield, the AWU Tasmanian Branch 

Many of our 

industries are 

high-risk, and 

we’ve recently 

been successful 

with an asbestos 

campaign.” 

AWU HOBART TEAM: Organiser Kevin Midson; Branch Secretary, Ian Wakefield, 

Office Manager Lyn Padman and Branch Assistant Secretary Robert Flanagan. 

Secretary. Ian is rightly proud of his 

tight-knit staff and the state’s union 

heritage. “We’ve had continual growth 

for the past 10 years, even under 

Howard. The AWU in Tasmania is a strong 

union, a united union, and we get better 

outcomes as a collective,” Ian says. 

With total membership of approximately 

2400, Tasmania has the highest density 

of union membership in the country. 

“One of the most important things we 

do for our members is health and safety,” 

Ian says. “Many of our industries are 

high-risk, and we’ve recently been 

successful with an asbestos campaign. 

We pushed hard for a prioritised removal 

program, and we’ve seen significant 

improvements on site.” 

Our final stop is the Tassal salmon 

processing plant in Huonville. Here 

we reconnect with yesterday’s 

harvested fish, and meet with Phil 

Garth, AWU Delegate and Branch 

Executive member. A Tassal employee 

for nine years, Phil first worked on the 

production line before taking on a 

Lorraine Smith with the finished product – premium smoked salmon. 

maintenance and groundkeeping role. 

“I’m happier in the job I do now,” he 

says, possibly because he’s not that 

keen on fish! 

Before entering the plant, we are 

kitted out in white smock, gumboots, 

and hairnet. Inside, five large industrial 

ovens smoke the salmon for nine 

hours before it’s chilled for a further 

two. The fish is then skinned, trimmed, 

sliced and packaged. The plant is 

“We have 130 staff in processing, 

and four delegates take care of their 

needs. Last agreement, we improved 

our overtime rates to get time-and-ahalf 

and double time,” Phil says. 

“The next EBA is set down for July, 

so we’re busy planning for that 

at the moment. It’s mostly about 

money this time. We have a 

reasonable relationship with 

management, so we’re hopeful 

up and worked about 18 hours a day. our demands will be met. W 

18 theaustralianworker www.awu.net.au 

www.awu.net.au theaustralianworker t 

19

GREAT MATE 

GREAT MATE 


THE 

CAPTAIN 

AND 

THAT 

SHIP 

“In cricketing parlance, 

it was like cheating. 

I felt that those people 

on the ship, the 

refugees, were being 

cheated out of a fair 

go.” – Ian Chappell 

Photos: AFP/Newspix 

He was one of Australian cricket’s 

formidable team captains. Now the 

legendary Ian Chappell talks to Laura 

Macfarlane about how the Tampa 

crisis inspired him to speak out for 

refugee rights... 

Former Australian test-cricket captain Ian 

Chappell was watching the infamous 

Tampa crisis unfold before him on 

television when he was struck by the 

extreme unfairness of the situation.“In 

cricketing parlance, it was like cheating. 

I felt that those people on the ship, the refugees, 

were being cheated out of a fair go. 

“I’m railing at the television set, and my wife, 

Barbara-Ann, said, ‘You know, bad things happen when 

good people do nothing.’ And that sort of jolted me a little 

bit and I thought, ‘I’m not going to do a lot of good sitting 

railing at the television set’,” he says. 

A fateful answering-machine message Ian received 

a few days later galvanised him into taking action. 

“There was a message on the machine from Stuart 

McGill asking me to call him. I thought, ‘Why would Stuie 

be calling me I can’t help him with his batting, or his 

bowling, for that matter.’ But it was another Stuart McGill 

asking me if I would put my name to a letter from Australia 

for UNHCR to help raise funds for refugees.” 

Ian agreed and later received a call from Naomi Steer, 

the National Director of Australia for UNHCR, to thank 

him. But he was not content to leave it there and told 

Naomi that he’d like to do more. 

Naomi, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary at 

Unions NSW, says she had been looking for someone 

who could speak to a broad range of Australians about 

the work of Australia for UNHCR and, in particular, the 

situation of refugees. 

A few months later Naomi invited Ian to accompany her 

to East Timor to open a sports stadium which had been 

rebuilt by Australia for UNHCR and to see first hand 

UNHCR’s humanitarian and peace-building work in action. 

“That gave me an opportunity to see a situation that 

had caused a lot of refugees. It was disturbing to be driving 

along seeing houses that have been burnt or knocked to 

the ground and they’re just a pile of rubble,” Ian recalls. 

BELOW: Ian 

Chappell in 

action at the 

Oval in 1975, 

and today. 

Flash 

back 

THE TAMPA 

CRISIS 

In August 2001, the 

Howard Government 

refused permission 

for the Tampa – a 

Norwegian freighter 

carrying over 400 

Afghan refugees 

rescued from a 

distressed fishing 

vessel – to enter 

Australian waters. 

The refugees 

included pregnant 

women, children 

and sick people 

rescued by the 

Tampa in the Indian 

Ocean, about 

120 kilometers off 

remote Christmas 

Island. Australia 

then defied growing 

international 

pressure to allow 

the asylum seekers 

to land on its 

territory. When 

the Tampa did 

finally enter 

Australian waters, 

Howard ordered 

Australian 

Special Forces 

to intercept the 

ship. The debacle 

that followed 

included a string 

of government lies 

and distortions, 

including the 

allegation that 

adults were 

throwing children 

overboard – which 

was found to be 

untrue. 


GREAT MATE 

Naomi says the East Timorese knew 

nothing about who Ian Chappell was and 

little about the game of cricket, but were 

keen to learn. 

“Ian launched the inaugural soccer 

game at the stadium but he also gave 

them cricket lessons,” she says. “People 

in these devastated communities really 

appreciate it when others reach out to 

them and sport has a way of breaking 

down barriers.” 

Ian also joined a group called A Just 

Australia, and one of the first things he 

did was go to Canberra to lobby some 

of the politicians “for a better go, a fairer 

go for the asylum seekers”. 

“Having been in a position of privilege 

at times in my life through being captain 

of Australia, you learn that you do have a 

slightly louder voice at times than other 

people. And I think that there are times 

when you need to use that louder voice to 

speak out for people who in some cases 

have no voice.” 

Call to action 

“I got the opportunity to travel because 

I could play cricket reasonably well,” Ian 

says. “And when you went overseas, you 

were always treated extremely well. So 

I thought to myself, Australians have 

a reputation for being welcoming, except 

for this black mark we’ve got with 

refugees. To me, it’s not the normal 

[behaviour expected from] Australians. 

When he joined the group, he checked 

with Naomi to see if it was okay because 

he didn’t want it to cut across what he 

was doing with for Australia for UNHCR. 

“I rang Naomi and she said, ‘I haven’t 

got a problem with it and I’ll visit you in 

jail, when you’re arrested.’” 

Through A Just Australia, Ian visited 

the Baxter detention centre, where he 

says there were people visiting refugees 

sometimes two or three times a week. 

“I felt embarrassed because those 

people were really doing something, but 

they said, ‘Yes, but if people like you don’t 

get involved more people wouldn’t be 

aware of what’s going on.’ I didn’t feel 

quite so embarrassed then, but even 


. 

Refugee rights 

SUPPORT AUSTRALIA FOR UNHCR “The Union is made up of many 

refugees, migrants and their descendants and has a proud record of looking 

after the oppressed, says AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes. To assist the 

work of Australia for UNHCR, donations can made at www.UNrefugees.org.au 

so, there a lot of people who are doing 

things unsung.” 

After the floods in Pakistan, Naomi 

invited Ian to go there with her and 

UNHCR, but he didn’t feel comfortable 

about going because of the political 

storm that had ensued from the cricket 

match-fixing affair. 

“It blew up into a major thing and I 

was writing some strong opinions in the 

media about it and I didn’t really feel 

comfortable going to Pakistan,” Ian says. 

“At first, it was because I didn’t feel 

comfortable about saying, ‘I think 

the Pakistan cricket team should be 

suspended’ and then arriving there saying 

‘I’m here to help’. But, later, I thought if 

I did go I might be giving some people 

an opportunity to seek retribution for me 

being outspoken about the match-fixing.” 

Naomi says she understood Ian’s 

reluctance to go to Pakistan at that time. 

“Ian did, however, use his name to get 

wide coverage of UNHCR’s Pakistan appeal 

helping raise more than $1 million for flood 

victims. For the future, I’d like to go with 

Ian to the Indian subcontinent, where he is 

widely known and respected, to give the 

message that Australia really does care.” 

Ian also says he would like to do some 

more work like that for Australia for UNHCR. 

“Cricket season is underway, so I’m 

really busy. But I’ll be doing more things 

with the UNHCR in the off-season.” W 

Your Union 

now owns 

a share 

of Chifley 

This will mean even greater value for all 

members of the AWU. 

More details soon. 

For more information on the services that Chifley provides, call us 

on 1800 800 002 or visit www.chifley.com 

Chifley Financial Services Limited (ABN 75 053 704 706) is an Australian Financial Services Licensee (AFSL 231148). Chifley Financial Services Limited is an APRA Registrable 

Superannuation Entity Licensee (RSEL: L0001120). Chifley Financial Services Limited is co-owned by Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme Pty Limited (ABN 72 077 947 285), 

Unions NSW, Australian Workers Union (ABN 28 853 022 982 trading as the Australian Workers Union National Office) and the Australian Workers Union (ABN 70 662 384 762 trading 

as The Australian Workers Union Greater New South Wales Branch). 

1198-CHFS-11/10-AWU

HEALTH & SAFETY 

TAKING HEAT AT WORK 

After 24 years as a ganger 

there are regular staff 

Temperature’s 

with Hinchinbrook Shire 

Council at Ingham in North 

Queensland, Bob Gosley is 

used to working in the 

education sessions about 

working in the heat. 

“Our council let’s us 

have regular breaks for 

heat. But even so, 

water, and pull up in the 

Warm days make for dream 

vacations. But a hot working 

environment is no holiday. 

Melissa Sweet reports... 

In late January 2009, temperatures 

began to climb in what would 

become known as the worst 

heatwave on record in Victoria. For 

five days, maximum temperatures were 

12 to 15 degrees Celsius higher than 

normal over much of the state. And, as 

the mercury climbed, health services 

began to melt down thanks to a dramatic 

increase in calls to ambulances and 

presentations to emergency departments. 

A subsequent Victorian government 

investigation of the health effects of the 

heatwave found there were 374 more 

deaths than normally would be expected 

between January 26 and February 1. This 

is significantly more than the 173 bushfire 

deaths of that summer that have 

attracted far more public attention. 

The report of the investigation, titled 

January 2009 Heatwave in Victoria: an 

WHEN THE HEAT 

IS ON... 

● Increase fluid intake. 

● Susceptible people should 

stay in a cool or air-conditioned 

environment. Wear loose 

clothes and take frequent 

showers or baths. 

● Reduce normal activity during 

hot weather. Be aware of the 

symptoms of heat exhaustion 

and heatstroke. 

● Patients taking drugs that can 

potentially impede heat loss 

should monitor themselves by 

measuring their weight. 

● Check on people who may be 

vulnerable, such as the elderly 

or sick. 

he has been caught 

unawares. Several 

years ago, he was 

concreting a school 

driveway under a 

blazing sun. 

“It was bloody 

hot and there was no 

breeze,” he says. “I 

was sweating like a pig. 

I kept pushing myself. 

Before I realised it, 

everything went lightheaded 

and I went down 

like a bloody barrel of shit.” 

After a spell in the 

shade, he cooled down and 

recovered without needing 

medical help. But Bob, 61, 

says he’s learnt his lesson. 

“It was a wake-up call,” he 

says. “You realise that your 

body is telling you, ‘listen 

here, fella’. I won’t push 

myself to that degree now.” 

Bob, an AWU Rep, says 

the council is good at 

FROM TOP: 

Darryll Hill, 

Bob Gosley 

and Keith 

Woods. 

providing staff with training 

about dealing with the 

heat, and recognising the 

early warning signs of heat 

stress, such as profuse 

sweating or dizziness. Staff 

are also encouraged to 

keep an eye on colleagues, 

particularly new arrivals to 

the area who may not be 

acclimatised. 

At Townsville City 

Council, AWU Rep Daryll Hill 

says there’s good workplace 

support to help workers 

cope with heat extremes. 

Daryll, 48, a herbicides and 

pesticides sprayer, says 

shade in summer,” he 

says. “People here take the 

heat seriously.” 

But at Jemena, an 

energy infrastructure 

company in Sydney, many 

workers are suffering heat 

stress as a result of a 

requirement to wear long 

shirts and trousers – which 

was introduced to help 

prevent skin cancer. 

Keith Woods, 52, a gas 

supply technician who has 

been with the company for 

25 years, says that for the 

past two years he and his 

colleagues have had wear 

long sleeves and pants, as 

well as safety gear. “Guys 

complain about sweat 

rashes, heat stress and 

dehydration.” Keith says 

the company also could be 

doing more to minimise 

heat stress by providing 

workers with cool water. 

Assessment of Health Impacts, also found 

there was an almost threefold increase 

become actively involved in preparing for 

given them a heatwave planning guide, 

the Australian National University, says 

cyclones or floods over the same period. 

When the 2009 heatwave hit Victoria, 

in patients who were dead on arrival at 

heatwaves. He is the Chief Health Officer 

and a template on how they can go about 

prevention efforts should focus on risks 

But it is only in the past decade that their 

authorities had already been planning for 

hospitals during the heatwave. 

of Victoria, which has been at the forefront 

doing it,” he says. “We can lead from the 

for outdoor workers. This is especially 

implications for human health have really 

such an event. As part of this work, 

Public health experts predict that 

of developing heat plans. 

centre, but action really has to take place 

important for farmers, contractors and 

begun to hit the radar. 

Monash University researchers were 

climate change will increase both the 

Dr Carnie points to a wealth of 

on the ground at the local level in terms of 

other self-employed people, who are less 

The summer in Europe in 2003, 

commissioned to investigate the impact 

frequency and severity of heatwaves, 

heatwave materials prepared by the 

preventing heat-related illness.” 

likely to be covered by OHS regulations. 

dubbed a “heatquake” was estimated to 

of high temperatures on rural and 

Words: Melissa Sweet 

particularly across south-eastern 

Australia, with potentially serious 

implications for community’s health. And 

they say all sectors of the community 

need to step up preparation efforts. 

Public health physician Dr John Carnie 

says it is critical that local communities 

Victorian Department of Health to help 

community organisations, the general 

public and health professionals 

(www.health.vic.gov.au/environment/ 

heatwave/index.htm). “In Victoria, we 

have provided funding for local councils to 

develop their own heatwave plan and 

The elderly and people with medical 

problems such as heart disease are at 

increased risk of becoming ill or even 

dying as a result of heatwaves. But 

workers employed in hot conditions are 

also at risk. Dr Peter Tait, a GP who is 

undertaking climate-change studies at 

“We’re going to have to change how we 

think about work practices,” Dr Tait says. 

Heatwaves are not a new phenomena. 

Monash University researchers estimate 

that they have caused more than 4000 

deaths in Australia alone over the past 

200 years – twice the number caused by 

have killed up to 70,000 people. 

Subsequent investigations identified the 

need for better planning and coordination 

between social and health agencies. The 

lessons learnt meant that when another 

heatwave struck Europe in the summer of 

2006, far fewer people died. 

regional centres. Their analysis of 

weather data from 1990 to 2006 noted 

that the adverse effects of heatwaves that 

have been documented for large cities in 

Europe, America, and Australia are also 

relevant to rural communities. 

“This adds strength to the argument 



HEALTH & SAFETY 

FEATHERED FRIENDS 

In the early ‘90s, young 

scientist Shane Maloney 

spent many long, hot hours 

observing emus in the 

outback. He learnt that 

emus are remarkable 

creatures that survive in 

wildly varying conditions, 

from the high snow country 

to the arid deserts. And 

they remain active under 

the most scorching of 

midday suns, while carrying 

a heavy cloak of dark 

feathers. The project 

investigated emus’ ability 

to maintain a constant body 

temperature in conditions 

ranging from minus 

5 degrees Celsius to 45 

degrees. 

“In the middle of a 

summer day, nothing is 

active, except emus,” 

says Shane, who is now a 

professor at the University 

of Western Australia. 

(He was an AWU member 

years ago, when working 

on the wheat silos during 

his summer study break). 

“Their thermal tolerance 

means they’re not limited 

in how long they forage; 

they can afford to be 

selective. They spend 

time picking the best stuff, 

so they don’t just fill up 

with anything.” 

Back then, Shane may 

not have guessed that his 

emu studies would prove 

useful in furthering 

understanding of human 

health in heatwaves – 

an issue recently described 

in an article in the medical 

journal, The Lancet, as 

“a global public health 

challenge”. 

It’s an emus’ feathers 

that hold the key to their 

effective thermo-regulation. 

“The radiation gets 

absorbed quickly on the 

outer layers of feathers. 

It’s a bit like walking 

around with an umbrella. 

They’re shading themselves 

with their feathers,” 

Shane says. 

that human populations are vulnerable to certain medications, such as diuretics. 

heat events regardless of location, and While heatstroke and coma are the most 

that heat stress occurs in populations dramatic manifestation of thermal stress, 

living outside large cities,” they said. the effects are wide-ranging and often not 

Secrets of surviving the heat involve obviously attributable to heat. 

understanding who is at risk, and 

A report earlier this year in the 

targeting those groups with strategies to international medical journal, The Lancet, 

create environments that minimise risk. said that most heat-related deaths in 

Professor Shane Maloney from the wealthy countries are likely to result from 

University of Western Australia, a scientist cardiovascular or respiratory causes. 

and an expert in the effects of heat on the Prof Maloney adds, “The body’s 

body, says that when the body is exposed response is dependent on the 

to thermal stress, it responds by increasing cardiovascular system. People with heart 

sweat production, cardiac output and failure, anyone with compromised 

redirecting blood flow to the skin. These cardiovascular health and diabetes are at 

responses can, however, be impaired in greater risk of developing heat illness.” 

elderly people or other groups such as 

Mental illness, kidney disease and 

those with chronic illness or those taking multiple sclerosis are also risk factors. 


Professor 

Shane 

Maloney with 

a cool emu. 

BIGGER PICTURE 

Attention needs to be paid to tackling 

the underlying causes of climate 

change, says Fiona Armstrong, chair of 

the Climate and Health Alliance, which 

includes more than 20 health and 

medical organisations. 

Ms Armstrong, a former chair of the 

Australian Health Care Reform Alliance, 

says many agencies are planning to try 

to intervene to prevent deaths during 

heatwaves. “Adaptation is important, 

but there’s too little emphasis on 

mitigation,” she says. 

“Unless we take measures to reduce 

emissions, our ability to adapt will be 

exceeded by the changes.” 

A 2009 study released by MS Australia 

found that people with the condition 

are reliant on air conditioning, and are 

estimated to spend almost 10 times 

more on keeping cool than the average 

household. Its survey called for national 

policies, including electricity rebates, for 

heat-intolerant patients. This is in line 

with health experts’ views that heatwave 

planning involve more than health services 

and include supportive environments, 

such as access to air-conditioned public 

spaces like shopping centres. 

Dr Carnie says heatwaves are an issue 

the community cannot afford to ignore. 

“The climate change experts say periods 

of extreme weather are going to become 

more frequent and severe,” he says. W 

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Free legal advice to 

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FRONTLINE NEWS NATIONAL 

FRONTLINE NEWS NATIONAL 

NATIONAL NEWS 

GOING GLOBAL 

WITH THE global power of multinational 

corporations ever increasing, it is now 

fundamental that unions across the 

world find new and innovative ways 

of working together to protect and 

promote the rights of working people. 

AWU National Secretary Paul Howes 

believes that the future of unions lies 

in global unionism. 

“We live in a global market. Our 

employers last century may have been 

home-town bosses, then the more 

successful became state or national 

bosses,” Paul says. “But now, in the 

21st Century, increasingly across all 

employment sectors, we face global 

employers, global bosses. Therefore 

unions have to match this new reality 

with global unionism.” 

Paul, a member of the International 

Metalworkers Federation Executive 

Committee, has been elected to a new 

taskforce representing Asia-Pacific 

unions at a conference aiming to 

FROM LEFT: Conference Delegates; 

Federation Secretary, Jyrki Raina; 

AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes. 

create a new global union organisation 

representing 55 million workers in more 

than 130 countries. 

Union leaders from all five continents 

attended the conference to underline the 

role of the manufacturing industry – the 

locomotive of national economies. 

“Industry is the backbone for the 

creation of good quality jobs with decent 

working conditions, proper training and 

skills development – and respect of trade 

union and workers’ rights,” Jyrki Raina, 

General Secretary of the Federation said. 

“Australia has a strong manufacturing 

and mining base, and Australian unions 

are an important part of our global union 

family. Their strong involvement in this 

strategic process to create a stronger 

counter-power to major multinational 

corporations is crucial.” 

The meeting in Germany resolved to 

bring together three global trade union 

federations, with plans for the new global 

union grouping to hold its founding 

congress in 2012. 

IT’S ALL IN 

THE BOOK! 

AWU National Secretary 

Paul Howes launched his 

book Confessions of a 

Faceless Man. The book 

is Paul’s diarised account 

through the sensational 

lead-up to and the outcome 

of the 2010 federal 

election. 

The 

2010 federal 

election 

campaign 

had more 

twists, 

conspiracies 

and betrayals than a 

ripping political thriller and 

Confessions of a Faceless 

Man is the day-by-day 

account of the campaign by 

Paul – one of the so-called 

“Faceless Men”. 

Paul was accused of 

being a plotter instigating 

former PM Kevin Rudd’s 

downfall and instilling 

current PM Julia Gillard into 

the top job. Paul’s book is 

candid and answers many 

of the questions Australian 

voters may still be asking. 

But don’t think that this is 

a boring political memoir. 

It’s a laugh-out-loud and 

low-down account of how 

Labor won the 2010 federal 

election. Confessions of a 

Faceless Man is published 

by Melbourne University 

Publishing, rrp $24.95 

and is available at all good 

bookstores. 

PAID PARENTAL LEAVE SCHEME – REMINDER! 

WITH THE federal government’s new Paid 

Parent Leave Scheme (PPL Scheme) set to 

begin on January 1, 2011, now is the time 

for workers who are expecting babies in 

the new year to make their applications. 

The AWU is spreading the word about the 

new PPL Scheme to ensure that all workers 

are aware of their new entitlement and how 

to apply for it. 

“All workers, women especially, need to 

be fully aware that they will be entitled to 

paid parental leave from January 1, 

2011,” AWU National Secretary, 

Paul Howes said. “It’s 

important that members are 

aware because the onus will 

be on workers to make an 

application to receive paid 

leave. Most employers 

will do the right thing 

by informing their 

staff, but some may 

not – or may simply 

be unaware of the 

change.” 

The 

government’s 

PPL Scheme will 

provide eligible 

working parents 

with 18 weeks’ 

payment at the 

Federal Minimum 

Wage (currently 

$570 per week, or 

$10,260 in total). 

This amount is a 

flat rate available to 

all eligible parents 

including part-time 

or casual employees 

earning less than 

$150,000 per year. 

Further, the new PPL 

Scheme is in addition 

to any payments your employer currently 

provides and must not replace your existing 

employer-paid parental leave entitlements. 

To be eligible for the scheme, an applicant 

must have completed at least 330 hours work 

in the 13 months prior to the birth of their child. 

This includes casuals, contractors and selfemployed 

workers. Primary care givers who 

don’t meet the minimum work requirements 

outlined above may still be eligible for the 

Baby Bonus. 

Please note, though, that PPL Scheme 

recipients are not entitled to the 

tax-free $5000 baby bonus for 

Family Tax Benefit B, although 

they can choose to receive the 

Baby Bonus instead of the PPL 

Scheme payment if preferred. 

The government’s PPL 

Scheme benefit must be taken 

within 12 months after the 

birth or adoption of a 

child. Paid parental leave 

can be shared between 

eligible parents (but 

cannot be taken at 

the same time). 

Workers are 

responsible 

for making the 

application to the 

Family Assistance 

Office. Applications 

for a preliminary 

determination from 

the Family Assistance 

Office for eligibility 

are advised. For 

more important 

details about the 

new Paid Parental 

Leave Scheme go to 

www.fahcsia.gov.au/ 

about/overview/infocus/ 

Pages/ppl.aspx 



FRONTLINE NEWS QUEENSLAND 

FRONTLINE NEWS QUEENSLAND 

Photos: Getty Images/Supplied/Josh Cowling 

QUEENSLAND 

NEWS 

DAVE SWIPES OUT FOR THE LAST TIME 

DAVID WICKMANN worked at the 

Laminex Group’s site at Gympie for 

22 years, at James Hardie for 14 years 

and at Bowen Council for two years, 

and was always an AWU member. Now, 

after negotiating the latest enterprise 

agreement at Laminex as the AWU 

Representative, Dave has decided to 

swipe his work card out for good. 

He has done a great job, as the 

AWU Rep, handling everyday 

problems, tackling every agreement 

negotiation to get the best wage 

increases and improved working 

conditions for his fellow workmates. 

His assistance will be missed 

in the workplace by his co-workers 

and also greatly by AWU Organiser 

Maree Duffy. 

QUEENSLAND DEPUTY PREMIER WALKS A DAY 

IN THE SHOES OF HOSPITAL WORKERS 

QUEENSLAND Deputy Premier and 

Minister for Health Paul Lucas helped 

satisfy the tastebuds of almost 500 

patients as a food-service worker at 

The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane 

in September. 

Paul, who took on the role as part of 

the Bligh Government’s “Walk A Day In 

My Shoes” program, worked with the 

team responsible for serving meals to 

hungry patients in two coronary wards. 

“I began the 

morning shift at 6.30am, 

buddying up with Trish 

to do the breakfast and 

morning tea run for two 

of the coronary wards,” 

Paul said. “Throughout 

the shifts we also 


Paul Lucas in the kitchen 

David Wickmann 

Dave has been an AWU member for 

more than 40 years. We wish him and 

his wife, Hope, all the best in their 

retirement and send a big thank you to 

Hope for the support that she also 

gave the Union. 

maintained the local kitchen, ensuring 

we had the right meals with us at all 

times and individual dietary needs 

were met. 

“When the morning shift was done, 

I helped Janet on the lunch line, where 

I was responsible for placing the 

correct dessert on each tray as it came 

past on the conveyor belt. After lunch 

was served, we were on dishwasher duty 

– working at a cracking pace and working 

up a sweat to stack 

and unstack the 

massive industrial 

dishwashing 

machine. 

“Janet and 

I finished our 

shift at 3pm and 

REP DAVE GOLIK 

HANDS OVER THE 

REIGNS 

AFTER WORKING for Redland Shire 

Council for 19 years and having 

been the AWU’s Representative 

for 10 years, Dave Golik has 

handed his role over to make 

sure the AWU stays strong at 

the council. 

Dave says he has enjoyed his 

time as a rep and took on the job 

because he didn’t like to see 

people being bullied. His father 

was a staunch unionist and had 

been involved with the bitter 

shearers’ strikes in 1955, so Dave 

has a long family history of 

activity within the AWU. 

He says now, “We need to do 

the best for our conditions. Our 

parents and grandparents fought 

hard to get them, and we need to 

make sure we hang on to them. 

walked home to Janet’s house to end 

the day. It was certainly a big day – a 

lot of hard work. Our kitchen staff do 

a fantastic job and they work extremely 

hard. The only time we sat down was 

when we were on smoko or a lunch 

break, so I was certainly leg-weary and 

sore in the back yesterday afternoon. 

“I really appreciated getting to 

know the staff and meeting the 

patients,” Paul said. 

Paul said the state Opposition had 

slammed the program. “The LNP have 

criticised walking in the shoes of our 

workers because they don’t think that 

service and support staff count in our 

hospitals,” he said. “Spending the day 

working with Trish and Janet showed 

me not only the vital role they perform, 

but how they are much appreciated by 

patients, families and other hospital 

staff alike.” 

CONSTRUCTION DELEGATES’ CONFERENCE 

AWU DELEGATES and Officials from the 

construction industry met in October for the 

AWU’s Queensland Branch Annual 

Construction Conference, which was bigger 

than last year’s inaugural meeting. 

Delegates working on the Airport Link 

project attended after having last year 

being refused to do so by their employer. 

Thanks to the AWU’s growing strength and 

membership, AWU members were in a 

DISABILITY SERVICES 

QUEENSLAND REPS’ 

CONFERENCE 

AWU Representatives who work as 

residential care officers for Disabilities 

Services Queensland met at their 

conference in late September to address 

the many issues facing them. 

AWU National Secretary Paul Howes 

(third from left) with Construction 

Conference delegates 

position to force permission to attend. 

The conference was opened by AWU 

Queensland Branch Assistant Secretary Ben 

Swan. AWU National Secretary Paul Howes 

also addressed the conference, as did 

Assistant National Secretary Scott McDine. 

AWU Delegates at the conference 

endorsed a number of resolutions which 

will set the agenda for the Queensland 

branch in construction in 2011. 

The conference was addressed by the 

state’s Minister for Disability Services and 

Multicultural Affairs, Annastacia 

Palaszczuk, and the AWU Representatives 

took the opportunity to raise their 

concerns about the care of their clients 

with her directly. 

The Minister thanked the Reps for their 

hard work and for bringing important 

issues to her attention. 

QUEENSLAND 

HEALTH 

DELEGATES’ 

CONFERENCE 

AWU Representatives 

from hospitals and 

health facilities all 

around the state 

attended attended 

this year’s 

Queensland Health 

AWU Delegates’ 

Conference, at 

which the main issue 

of discussion was 

the continuing 

problem with the 

organisation’s 

payroll system. 

Representatives 

from Queensland 

Health attended to 

explain to AWU Reps 

what the situation was 

and what processes 

had been put in place 

to resolve the issues. 

Queensland 

Premier Anna Bligh 

attended the 

conference and 

addressed the 

delegates, who 

provided a number of 

suggestions for 

improving the 

functioning of the 

payroll system. 

She thanked them 

for their input and 

congratulated AWU 

Reps on the great job 

they were doing in 

improving their 

workplaces, and for 

their work in dealing 

with the payroll 

issues. 


FRONTLINE NEWS GREATER NSW 

FRONTLINE NEWS NEWCASTLE 

GNSW NEWS 

UNION PROTECTION FOR INJURED 

WORKERS A GLASS ACT 

VIRIDIAN’S GLASS manufacturing 

plants at Ingleburn in NSW and 

Dandenong in Victoria have 

completed negotiations on a new 

agreement that will protect the jobs 

of injured workers who are off work 

for up to two years. 

Now, regardless of whether they 

are injured in the workplace or suffer 

from a non-work-related injury, 

workers will have their jobs protected, 

thereby allowing them the recovery 

time needed to be able to return to 

work in a healthy state. 

Income-protection insurance was 

brokered such that workers will have 

their wages covered for up to two years 

in the event of injury. Other outcomes 

in the agreement include an improved 

dispute-settlement procedure, up to an 

additional eight hours of personal leave 

for bereavement which will extend to 

include the deaths of nieces, nephews 

and grandchildren, and job-sharing for 

workers moving into the retirement 

phase of their working lives. 

Ingleburn Senior Site Delegate Greg 

Kelly believes this is a great outcome. 

Greg said, “The Union Delegates and 

Officials worked closely together 

across both sites and delivered great 

outcomes for all members. Job 

UNION WELCOMES NEW TRIO 

GREATER NSW Branch has welcomed 

three new Officials. Eddy O’Brien is 

working in the construction industry; 

Paul Noak will be a Sydney-based 

Organiser and will also coordinate 

national parks and forestry workers; 

and Alan Haynes, will be the Central- 

West Organiser based in Orange. 

protection gives peace of mind to 

injured workers, allowing them to 

recover without fear of losing their jobs. 

Wage increases of 12 per cent over 

three years also allow members to stay 

ahead of the inflation rate.” 

AWU Greater NSW Branch 

Assistant Secretary Stephen Bali 

thanked the delegates and members 

for their efforts in securing a 

successful agreement. He said, “This 

agreement enhances workforce 

morale when manufacturing industry 

is under intensive competitive 

pressures. Viridian recognises the 

value of their employees and they are 

committed to work with injured 

workers to return them back to 

workforce at the right time.” 

Greater NSW Branch Secretary Russ 

Collison said, “The AWU is one of the 

fastest-growing unions in Australia and 

our commitment to regional NSW 

remains strong. These new officials 

have experience and knowledge to help 

members and to continue the Union’s 

strong growth.” 

GNSW BRANCH 

PULLS STRONGER 

TOGETHER 

THE 2010 Annual Greater New 

South Wales Branch Conference 

was declared a success with guest 

speakers coming together 

on important issues under the 

banner: “Labour movement – 

stronger together”. 

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally 

raised key differences between her 

government’s and the opposition’s 

proposals, saying the Labor 

government would protect workers’ 

and union safety rights in the 

workplace. She said it would 

maintain the Industrial Relations 

Commission and continue NSW’s 

economic record as the fastestgrowing 

state economy in Australia. 

Other conference speakers 

included AWU National Secretary 

Paul Howes, Federal Minister for 

Indigenous Employment and 

Economic Development Mark Arbib, 

AWU National Occupational Health 

and Safety Director Yossi Berger and 

Socceroo legend Jim Fraser. 

Greater NSW Branch Secretary 

Russ Collison said, “The conference 

offered valuable information for 

delegates to take back to their work 

sites. Often, the media gives us a 

bias or false representation of the 

facts. Once again, it shows the 

importance of the AWU in the 

community when senior elected 

parliamentarians come to our 

conference to discuss issues with 

our delegates.” 

Russ said, “NSW has one of the 

best workplace safety laws in 

Australia, if not the world There is 

a clear choice at next March state 

election, vote for Labor and 

maintain strong workplace safety 

laws or vote for the others and 

possibly see your safety 

compromised.” 

NEWCASTLE 

NEWS 

JOHN KEEN HANGS UP HIS GLOVES 

THE AWU NEWCASTLE Branch sees 

the end of an era with the retirement 

of Branch President John Keen after 

15 years of loyal service. 

John came to the Branch after 

working for Tomago Aluminium, where 

he was the first Senior Site Delegate. His 

even temperament earned him respect 

and friends on “both sides of the fence”. 

NSW SMELTER ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS 

TOMAGO DEAL FORGED 

THE AWU NEWCASTLE Branch is 

pleased to confirm that the enterprise 

agreement for Tomago Aluminium was 

recently accepted by more than a 70 

per cent majority. 

A major accomplishment of the 

agreement was that AWU members are 

now on a single aggregate pay structure. 

Prior to this, workers from different 

sections of the plant were paid differently. 

Around two-thirds of the workforce 

was on a wages system and the other 

third was on an annualised salary system 

which offered far better conditions, such 

as long-service leave being paid as 

worked, for example. The 2010 agreement 

does away with the double pay-structure 

system and the associated unfairness that 

had plagued the plant for around 10 years. 

The members are now all on the same pay 

system and are collectively stronger for it. 

The agreement also saw record wage 

increases of 5 per cent, 4.75 per cent, 4.5 

per cent and 4 per cent over the four years 

of the agreement for the majority of 

workers. This is a significant improvement 

over the traditional 4 per cent that 

members were accustomed to. 

He will be missed by all Newcastle 

Branch officials and staff and although 

it is said he still has his first pay cheque, 

he is well known for his love of a punt 

and the odd twisty top. 

We hope you have a long, healthy 

and active retirement, John, and we 

thank you for your contribution to this 

great movement and Union. 

HYDRO ALUMINIUM 

DECISION LOOMS 

At the time of publishing, the proposed 

agreement for Hydro Aluminium 

is going to the vote, with its outcome 

to be known within a few days. The 

company’s final offer was a two-year 

deal at 4 per cent per annum. 

Negotiations have been complicated 

by a drop in global aluminium prices and 

an increase in global stocks. As with any 

commodity, when stocks are plentiful 

prices tend to drop. 

The strengthening Australian dollar 

has also affected margins as global 

prices for aluminium are set in US 

currency. 

The negotiation process was made 

more interesting as all 22 AWU 

delegates and both ETU delegates 

formed the negotiating committee with 

management. 

Whilst the group was large, it was 

well run and posed no impediment 

to productive negotiations. The numbers 

greatly assisted the communication 

process as each delegate was able to 

report back to their crews after each 

EA meeting. 

PROVING THE 

POWER OF 

PROTECTED 

ACTION 

After more than nine months 

of negotiations, the AWU has 

finalised an agreement with 

Transpacific Industrial 

Solutions for members working 

in the Hunter Valley. 

Throughout the negotiations, 

the company refused to agree 

with key items on its log of 

claims and refused to offer any 

increase to wages or 

allowances without increased 

flexibility. 

The members voted in 

favour of taking protected 

industrial action in support of 

their claims and within hours 

of the result of the ballot being 

declared by Fair Work Australia 

the company had scheduled a 

series of meetings to fast-track 

the negotiations. 

Without actually taking any 

protected action, the end result 

was a 6 per cent wage increase 

back-paid from July 1 with 

further 4 per cent increases 

annually. The Union also won 

the inclusion of better 

allowances, delegates’ training 

leave and an improved 

classification structure. The 

outcome is a real credit to the 

delegates and members at TIS 

who showed that they are 

prepared to unite and fight for 

fair and reasonable wage 

increases. 

The power of protected 

industrial action should not be 

underestimated, as this result 

clearly shows that when we are 

forced to fight for justice we can 

achieve great results. 



FRONTLINE NEWS NEWCASTLE/VICTORIA 

FRONTLINE NEWS VICTORIA 

VALLEY LONGWALL 

INTERNATIONAL 

SHOWDOWN 

VALLEY LONGWALL International’s 

Diesel Division specialises in the 

manufacture, sale and maintenance of 

diesel-powered vehicles used 

predominantly in underground 

coalmining. VLI has two sites in the 

Hunter, at Tomago and Rutherford. 

In December 2009, the AWU 

Newcastle Branch received a call from 

concerned employees of VLI who were 

being offered second-rate individual 

work contracts and pressured to sign 

them. Newcastle Branch Secretary 

Richard Downie and Assistant 

Secretary John Boyd visited VLI and 

began the process of unionising the 

two sites. There followed plenty of 

one-to-one conversations, objection 

handling, mass meetings and 

education of potential members. 

“Six months of solid campaigning 

resulted in a combined union 

density of over 80 per cent across 

both sites. Structures were put in 

place, we had two delegates voted 

in on the Tomago site and another 

from Rutherford. A log of claims was 

formulated and endorsed by members 

and by June we were ready to 

negotiate a collective agreement with 

the company,” he said. 

The negotiation process was 

expected to take time. This was the 

first union-negotiated collective 

agreement on site and was imperative 

to construct a solid base on which to 

build all future negotiations. 

After five months, thanks to the 

collective strength of the AWU 

members on site at VLI, 12 of the 14 

original claims on the AWU’s log have 

been agreed to by the company. 

VLI employees now proudly have 

their collective agreement, one in 

which all members can take 

ownership, as they were involved 

throughout the whole process. 

VICTORIA NEWS 

GIVING DOESN’T HURT THESE 

BIG-HEARTED WORKERS 

IT WAS 14 years ago that AWU 

members at OneSteel in Laverton 

decided they’d like to help children 

going through tough times – and so 

the Save Our Kids Fund was born. 

Most of the 450 AWU members at 

the site chip in between $2 and $5 a 

week which is distributed across the 

western suburbs. 

Paul Spear, Peter Hartley and Phil 

Wilson recently decided it wasn’t right 

that the pupils at Newport Lakes 

Primary School should be 

disadvantaged because thieves had 

made off with their sporting equipment. 

Save Our Kids Fund and AWU members Phil Wilson 

(left), Paul Spear (centre) and Paul Hartley. 

They decided to help, and made a 

donation to get things rolling. It’s a 

typical project for the Fund which has 

helped finance 270 young people 

through the Open Family Foundation’s 

Back to School program. 

Paul said the program paid for fees, 

books and other items to help level the 

playing field for students in need. 

“Over the years we’ve seen kids get 

through primary school, and we have 

about seven in tertiary education now,” 

he said. “It’s important to give back to 

the community and there is no better 

way to do that than by helping kids.” 

The fund is also a supporter of the 

Challenge cancer charity for children, 

and the work of youth outreach worker 

Les Twentyman. As for the kids at 

Newport Lakes, they were overwhelmed 

that their plight had prompted the fund to 

give them a hand. “We got a lot of letters 

from kids, thanking us, and they were 

excited when we went to the school,” he 

said. “One little fellow said to me that 

they would repay us one day. I said to 

him if he wanted to repay us he should 

join the Union when he was older.” 

Paul, Peter and Phil are long-term 

AWU members. Paul is the 

AWU full-time Safety 

Co-ordinator working with 

HSRs. Phil is the Site 

Delegate and Peter is an 

HSR. 

There are many AWU 

members and staff 

involved in community 

causes. In Portland, 

full-time Delegate at Alcoa, 

Peter King is well-known as 

a Bombers’ tragic. But he 

couldn’t say no when the 

local rep of the Make A Wish Foundation 

asked him if he would join her in the last 

stages of a charity walk from Melbourne 

to Portland. The catch was he had to 

wear a guernsey of this year’s premiers 

Collingwood. It was worth the 

humiliation, according to Peter, who 

raised $2000 for the charity and took 

the ribbing with good humour. 

And the Industrial Department’s 

newest addition, Rebecca Berecz took 

part in a fun run to help the Asylum 

Seeker Resource Centre and raised 

a considerable amount in the process. 

Union warriors: Former National Secretary, Bill Shorten, MP; 

National Secretary, Paul Howes; Victorian Branch Secretary, 

Cesar Melhem and National President, Bill Ludgwig. 

ANOTHER ENCHANTED EVENING 

THE VICTORIAN Branch annual 

ball for Delegates and Health and 

Safety Representatives was 

again a spectacularly successful 

night this year, with a record 

1150 guests coming together at 

Melbourne’s Crown Casino. 

The ball has become a high 

spot on the Union calendar in 

Victoria and 

attracts guests 

from all over the 

state and the 

country. 

AWU Victorian 


Cesar Melhem said 

the event offered an 

acknowledgement 

of the important 

work done by 

Delegates and HSRs. “We could not 

service our members the way we do 

without the fantastic contribution of 

these workplace Reps. They are very 

much part of everything we do. This is 

just a great way of bringing everyone 

together to say thanks,” he said. 

This was the ball’s twelfth year and 

according to those close to the 

frazzled event organiser, the Victorian 

Branch’s Claire Raimondo, the number 

of guests has reached its upper limit. 

Every year, AWU 


Delegates and 

Reps and invited 

guests attend the 

Union’s annual 

ball – and it’s an 

event that’s not 

to be missed! 

“This is a good chance to make 

a very public thank you to Claire, 

who organises the ball with all the 

professional efficiency and flair 

we have come to expect of her,” 

Cesar said. 

Again, this year, there was a 

waiting list of people wanting to 

attend, so those who are invited next 

year should remember to respond 

early if they want to be part of one of 

the best nights of the year. 

FIREFIGHTER 

NUMBERS LIFTED 

AFTER MANY months of lobbying, and 

three appearances before the Victorian 

Bushfires Royal Commission, AWU 

Victorian Branch efforts were rewarded 

with a total of 170 new firefighters for 

the public sector. 

The new workers will be distributed 

across the Department of Sustainability 

& Environment (DSE) and Parks Victoria 

(PV), where the Victorian Branch will 

represent their interests. 

The AWU Victorian Branch has 

increased its involvement in both areas 

since Black Saturday on 7 February 2009. 

Victorian Branch Secretary Cesar 

Melhem has been a constant voice in 

the quest for a better resourced force. 

“You can’t fight a war with a 

part-time army,” he memorably told the 

Royal Commission, thereby confirming 

the AWU’s commitment to increased 

numbers to perform backburning and 

firefighting. 

The decision by the Victorian 

Government to appoint the new 

full-time workers went part of the way 

to meeting the Union’s concerns over 

manning levels in the future, he said. 

Highly-experienced Organiser Sam 

Beechey is now co-ordinator for the 

public sector, and brings with him 

a wealth of experience in the bush. 

He welcomed the appointment of 

more firefighters. “We are seeing 

backburning increased to sensible 

levels, and now we have a significant 

increase in the numbers of people 

protecting the public estate,” Sam said. 

DSE Senior Delegate and member of 

the Victorian Branch Executive Rodney 

Lyn applauded the move but said 

further improvements would be 

necessary in the future. “It is a step in 

the right direction, and a show of faith 

from the Victorian Government which 

has made improvements across the 

board to fire prevention, management 

and administration,” he said. 



FRONTLINE NEWS VICTORIA 

FRONTLINE NEWS SOUTH AUSTRALIA/ WEST AUSTRALIA 

FAIR WORK VICTORY 

THE AWU had a win in Fair Work 

Australia (FWA) on an important 

matter of principle which could 

see some of our members at 

Alcoa Australia Rolled 

Products repaid money 

deducted from their wages 

over industrial action in 

September 2009. 

The issue was that the company 

deducted money proportionately 

from pay packets over bans, but 

was found not to have 

properly notified many 

workers of those 

deductions. 

There were 

also complex 

issues around an 

Patrick 

Reilly 

RECORD DEAL FOR BASS STRAIT 


negotiated a record-breaking 

greenfields agreement for workers on 

the construction of the $3 billion 

Kipper Tuna Turrum (KTT) gas project 

in Bass Strait. 

Organiser Terry Lee, who negotiated 

the agreement, has spent the past 20 

years looking after the interests of AWU 

members in Bass Strait. He said this is 

the biggest investment he has seen 

during that time. 

“We’ll have about 400 AWU members 

on the project over the next two years; 

and they’ll be on an agreement that 

has some significant initiatives for 

offshore workers,” Terry said. 

The agreement sees a 6 per cent 

increase on wages and allowances, 

including shift loading, from the last 

development in Bass Strait which was 

the Henry Field commenced In 

November 2009. 

The introduction of a construction 

disability, or site allowance of $7.90 

per hour worked, is a first. 

“The overall uplift from the Henry 


overtime ban which FWA said could not be 

considered a partial work ban. The 

case was highly technical and 

the final outcome for the 

Alcoa employees in question 

is yet to be determined, but it 

has drawn a line in the sand 

over how workers are 

informed of deductions for 

partial work bans. 

Industrial Officer Patrick 

Reilly said the case had 

been wellfought 

and 

well worth 

the long 

hours in 

preparing 

it. 

Project which was completed not all that 

long ago, is in excess of 30 per cent. This 

is tough, demanding and isolated work 

for which our members deserve the 

rewards they will be getting,” Terry said. 

Increasingly, international standards 

of accommodation for offshore workers 

are for one person to a room with private 

facilities. There will be four to a room 

on KTT, with communal bathrooms, 

for which the agreement allows 

a $90 a day ‘hard lying’ allowance. 

“This allowance is a first, but it is 

appropriate. It is not a great 

environment for sleep and relaxation 

to start off with. Having so many 

people in a room and having to share 

everything does make life more 

difficult,” he said. 

AWU Victorian Branch Secretary Cesar 

Melhem said the agreement was only 

the latest in a long line of achievements 

by Terry for AWU members. 

“Over the past 20 years he has 

consistently delivered outstanding 

outcomes in Bass Strait through a 

combination of his deep understanding 

“I think everyone acknowledges the 

importance of pushing for interpretations 

of provisions of the Fair Work Act. It is 

still early days for legislation and pretty 

much every decision is significant at the 

moment.” Patrick said. 

AWU Victorian Branch Secretary 

Cesar Melhem said the Branch would 

continue to test the new Fair Work laws 

when the opportunity arose. 

“We must continue to pursue 

decisions that help clarify the meaning of 

the Act if we are to get the best outcomes 

for our members.” 

“I am very proud of our Industrial 

Department which has been 

responsible for a number of important 

cases, including the first majority 

support determination,” Cesar said. 

of the industry and the issues, and his 

commitment to the role the AWU plays 

in the life of its members,” Cesar said. 

KTT is a joint BHP, Esso and Santos 

project, and one of the largest 

domestic gas developments on the 

eastern seaboard. 

AWU construction members will 

Terry Lee. 

perform a range of tasks from laying 

80km of pipe, to installing platforms, 

doing hook-ups and building bridges 

between platforms and topsides. 


been involved in Bass Strait since work 

began there in 1967. 

SOUTH AUSTRALIA NEWS 

Justin Hanson, 

left, with 

Darryl Breen. 

AGREEMENT CEMENTED AT 

AUSTRAL BRICKS 

AFTER THEIR last enterprise 

agreement expired in 2006 

and the company refused to 

negotiate another, workers 

at Austral Bricks took up the 

fight to recover their basic 

rights and entitlements to 

agree an EBA that covered the 

whole of its workforce. 

Austral argued that 

employees were happy on 

Australian Workplace 

Agreements and did not want 

an EBA. Up to this point only 

employees who would sign an 

AWA or individual contract 

would get a pay rise and those 

who chose to remain on the EBA 

during the period from 2006 

and 2010 did not receive one. 

The workforce filed its 

intention under the Fair Work 

Act in September2009, but 

Austral stalled that process 

until September 2010, when 

the AWU obtained an order 

from Fair Work Australia 

Commissioner Peter Hampton 

stating that the company had 

to bargain with the AWU as 

reps of the workforce. This 

proved a victory for the Union 

and its officials Delegate 

Darryl Breen, Organiser Frank 

Mateos and Industrial Officer 

Justin Hanson. 

WEST AUSTRALIA NEWS 

WORKERS UNITE TO TAKE ON BAE 

THE AWU’s WA Branch has 

been working closely with 

the Newcastle Branch and 

National Aviation Organiser 

Liam O’Brien to win a better 

deal for BAE Systems 

workers around Australia. 

After being subject to the 

wrath of the Howard regime’s 

workplace relations laws, BAE 

Systems workers have now 

come off their AWAs and are 

ready to bargain for a 

collective agreement with the 

Union’s support. The 

Newcastle Branch has been 

working on organising BAE 

Systems workers for several 

years and has developed a 

national campaign to organise 

them so they can start 

bargaining to formulate their 

own collective agreement. WA 

Branch Growth and Campaign 

Organiser Matt Dixon and 

Aviation Organiser Mahmut 

Melkic, have been talking with 

workers about formulating 

their own collective 

agreement. The WA Branch is 

now in a position where its 

membership has grown to 

65 per cent. It has two elected 

Delegates and the workforce is 

now reading up on other BAE 

Systems agreements from 

around the world to try and 

formulate the one they are 

entitled to when bargaining 

commences early next year. 

GUNNS JOBS ARE STILL IN DOUBT 

THE AWU Western Australian Branch is concerned that if the 

Gunns Timbers operation closes its Deanmill and Manjimup 

operations, it will represent the death of another southwest 

timber town. 

Earlier this month, Gunns Timber announced it would be 

closing its Deanmill operation in November, if a potential 

buyer could not be found. 

“If these operations close, more than 100 AWU members 

will lose their jobs,” South-West Organiser Craig Ramirez 

said. “While some workers can be absorbed by other local 

industries, such as fruit and vegetable growing around 

Manjimup, many will be forced to leave the region to find 

work”, he added. “I’ve spoken to a couple of guys on 

Friday and they’re saying that a lot of the younger people 

are just going to have to leave, they’re not going to have any 

other choice.” 

The AWU is still hoping a buyer will come through at the 

last moment and save Gunns’ operations, but the Union is still 

preparing to do everything it can’t to protect the entitlements 

of its members and seek opportunities for re-employment. 


FRONTLINE NEWS WEST AUSTRALIA 

FRONTLINE NEWS TASMANIA 

TESTING THE METAL – ON THE MARCH IN PINJARRA 

More than 600 workers at 

one of Alcoa’s largest 

worksites in Australia, 

Western Australia’s Pinjarra 

Refinery, have been locked 

into tough pay negotiations 

for over 12 months. 

And another 1300 Alcoa 

workers at the Wagerup 

refinery, Kwinana refinery, 

Willowdale mine and Huntly 

mine – known as the Combined 

Sites – are also in negotiations 

for well over 12 months. 

The big issue for all the 

Alcoa workforce is job security 

as the aluminium industry 

faces new global competitive 

pressures. The workers are 

concerned about protecting 

their work-family balance as 

many of them are involved in 

shift work which impacts on 

their family life. 

The AWU membership has 

fought to protect and maintain 

their wages throughout the 

devastating WorkChoices 

years. Now the membership 

are concerned that Alcoa wants 

to contract out some of their 

work, to create a second tier 

workforce of relatively low paid 

workers. An active workplace 

structure of Union delegates 

have represented the voice of 

the AWU workforce at Alcoa 

throughout the current dispute. 

Union members have been 

involved in a series of 

industrial stoppages as part of 

the on-going campaign. 

As The Australian Worker 

goes to press negotiations 

continue – but the Union is 

hoping to achieve a great result 

just in time for Christmas. 

Turn to page 10 for a 

report on the aluminium 

industry in Australia. 


AWU members at Alcoa’s 

Pinjarra refinery take their 

message to the streets during 

their tough negotiations. 

FIRE-LINE ALLOWANCE FOR DEC FIRE-FIGHTERS 

The AWU WA Branch is proud to represent 

WA Department of Environment and 

Conservation frontline fire-fighters who 

work under the inadequate job title of 

“conservation employees”. 

AWU fire-fighters battle some 500 wildfires 

every year across the state. In addition to 

wildfire suppression, there is an annual 

prescribed burning target of 200,000 hectares 

to minimise the risk and intensity of wildfires. 

AWU fire-fighters often work extended shifts at 

times in excess of 24 hours in extreme conditions. 

After extensive negotiations between the 

Union and DEC, agreement has been reached 

for a new fire services agreement. It extends 

the fire-line allowance to prescribed burning 

and will be back-dated to July 1. The allowance 

of $6.50 per hour applies to all fires wildfire 

and prescribed burning and will also be 

increased automatically every year in line 

with the WA IR Commission decision. 

“This has been a hard-fought result from 

our AWU members,” WA Branch Organiser 

Mike Zoetbrood said. “This is a significant win 

for AWU fire-fighters and a step in the right 

direction. The services agreement expires in 

September 2011, at which time the Union will 

continue the struggle for terms that properly 

reflect the work undertaken by AWU 

members,” he said. “It is only through the 

resolve and strength of the AWU membership 

that further improvements to the pay and 

conditions of this group of brave firefighters 

will be achieved.” 

TASMANIA NEWS 

AWU RECOGNISED 

FOR OHS 

CAMPAIGNING 

TASMANIAN MINISTER for Workplace 

Relations David O’Byrne praised the 

important contribution AWU Tasmanian 

Branch Secretary Ian Wakefield has 

made to workplace safety in that state. 

Ian was named the winner of the Best 

Individual Contribution to Workplace 

Health and Safety in an annual event. 

The Minister said, “I’ve known Ian for 

many years and I was particularly 

pleased that the award recognised Ian’s 

work in representing working families by 

ensuring they get the pay, conditions, 

safety and respect that they deserve.” 

The award acknowledged Ian’s 

outstanding contribution to the 

continuing improvement of occupational 

health and safety standards for workers 

across Tasmania. Ian has also been 

instrumental in leading efforts in the 

state to create legislation that 

recognises the issues of hours of work, 

shiftwork and fatigue, mining safety 

and the risks associated with asbestos. 

The awards recognise businesses, 

organisations or individuals who lead the 

way in workplace health and safety. 

THE AWU Tasmanian Branch and a 

number of other unions have concluded 

negotiations in October for an 

enterprise agreement with Southern 

Water, the water authority set up by the 

island’s state government to take 

control of water infrastructure in the 

south of Tasmania in 2009. 

AWU members from various southern 

councils were moved across to the new 

authority under their previous conditions 

in July 2009, and a new agreement was 

needed to cover all employees. 

THE TASMANIAN Branch finalised its 

2010 enterprise agreement 

negotiations with the Hobart City 

Council in July. 

Members voted to agree to an 

average pay increase of 4 per cent 

from July 2010, and a further 

AGREEMENTS FLOW AT SOUTHERN WATER 

HOBART CITY COUNCIL SIGNS OFF 

The AWU and other unions negotiated 

for over 18 months to achieve an 

agreement that provides pay parity for all 

employees over the life of the agreement 

and for no overall disadvantage to workers 

from their previous council conditions. 

Specific changes included an 

improvement to on-call rates, increased 

HSM allowance and redundancy 

provisions for some AWU members, 

improved dirt money and a contractor’s 

clause to protect against the contracting 

out of their jobs. 

Left: AWU Delegate 

John Wright. 

Above: Delegate 

Steve Parramore, left, 

with AWU member 

Reg McPherson. 

increase of 3.75 per cent in July 2011. 

Other improvements included 

a rise in the pay-out of sick leave up 

to 17.5 per cent, an increase on all 

allowances and a review of the 

classification structure during the life 

of the EBA to reflect better duties. 

The AWU and other unions applied for 

a protected industrial action ballot in 

mid-2010, and also participated in a rally 

on Parliament House lawns in pursuit of 

members’ claims. Industrial action was 

averted because negotiations became 

more positive for AWU members after 

their rally in Hobart. 

Thanks goes to AWU Delegates Garth 

Hennessy, Allan Wright, Aaron Whitehill, 

David Tatnell and Marcus O’Rielly for 

their commitment throughout the long 

negotiation period. 


MEET THE OFFICIAL 

MEET THE DELEGATE 

NAME: 

JOB: 

AND… 

Beryl Lawson 

National Training and Education Coordinator 

A Kiwi who worked in the New Zealand trade union movement 

NAME: 

JOB: 

AND… 

Andrew Pavleski 

A fitter and Delegate at Valley Longwall International in Newcastle 

Dad to toddler Alexander 

I 

started working with the Union in 

October as the National Training and 

Education Coordinator, based in 

Sydney. It’s been an exciting period, 

as my learning is being fashioned 

to fit with the skills and knowledge 

that I carry with me coming from New 

Zealand. That has been rewarding, 

and my enthusiasm has grown steadily 

since I have been here. 

This is my first job outside New 

Zealand. I came from the Service and 

Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota 

(SFWU), where I spent three years as an 

Organiser in community support services, 

and particularly in aged care, and public 

and commercial services. I looked after 

hospital workers both with the District 

Health Board, and contractors. 

THE OTHER ROLE I HELD WITH SFWU 

was the Northern Region educator’s 

position. Each of the three regions of 

SFWU was responsible for its own 

education delivery, but run through 

a national program. I could see the 

potential in training and education, and 

fortunately the people I worked for could 

see the potential in me. I embraced both 

roles and absolutely loved it. 

The SFWU proved a change from my 

previous job. I came from a government 

department which housed the 

occupational health and safety services, 

the immigration service, the Labour 

Inspectorate, and mediation services. 

I worked for mediation services as 

workplace coordinator. The vast range of 

cases that came through concerned 

unjustified dismissals or disadvantage in 

the workplace, by way of bullying, hours 

being cut back, pay discrepancies, and 

sometimes collective bargaining being 

stalled by employers. 

The AWU 

is supportive. It is 

exciting to be in a 

job where people 

are open to ideas.” 

Beryl Lawson 

NATIONAL TRAINING 

AND EDUCATION COORDINATOR 

It was an eye-opener when I left the 

mediation service to go to a union. 

Suddenly, I had gone from a bureaucratic 

to a democratic organisation, and that 

was quite a change. 

Throughout my working career, I’d 

also volunteered with an adult literacy 

organisation that delivers programs to 

students one-to-one, in groups and out 

in the workplace. Here, I trained as a 

tutor to help students delivering learning 

programs that met their immediate 

needs. The word “literacy” encompasses 

a lot, really, and more than just the 

basic needs of reading and writing. 

Sometimes, it was about comprehending 

things in people’s everyday lives, such as 

reading bank statements, or signs, or 

things around their workplace that some 

may have taken for granted. 

When I felt it was time for another 

change, I researched where I wanted to 

go. I knew I wanted to stay in the union 

movement, and be somewhere I was 

proud to be associated with. The AWU 

ticked all the boxes. I would find it 

impossible to work anywhere that did 

not have principles aimed at working 

towards a fairer, more just society. It 

would be a hollow existence to put all 

your effort into something that was at 

odds with your own ethics. 

I THINK A LOT OF WHO YOU ARE IS TO 

do with where you come from, and how 

you were brought up. I’m the youngest of 

five children and was born in Whakatane, 

a coastal town in the Bay Of Plenty. Our 

parents were hard workers and while we 

were not a political family, I would say 

we were a very moral one. Fairness and 

decency were the bedrocks of our values. 

My father worked in a sawmill, then 

moved into hospitality. Mum was a cook, 

working sometimes up to three jobs, and 

still held the family together. 

The AWU is incredibly supportive and 

responsive to ideas. It is exciting to be in 

a job where people are so honest and 

open, and willing to talk about ideas. I’m 

looking forward to the projects already 

on the drawing board, particularly those 

relating to Delegate development. 

In 10 years’ time, I imagine I will still 

be in the union movement. I can’t 

imagine being anywhere else. My 

immediate future is full of challenge, 

which I love. 

Since January this year 

(2010), I’ve been an 

AWU Delegate at Valley 

Longwall International 

at Tomago, a suburb 

of Newcastle, in NSW. We didn’t have 

a union on site before then. 

In January of 2009, I was working 

as a fitter on the floor when we were 

handed individual contracts. It was 

made very clear they were nonnegotiable. 

All we got was, “Here are 

your contracts, this is what you are 

getting, sign these, or bad luck.” No one 

was doing any talking, and eventually 

we just signed it. 

No one was prepared to stand up 

and say this was wrong. We got a pay 

rise, but we lost conditions. There was 

a lot of whingeing and a lot of whining, 

but it didn’t seem there was anything 

we could do. 

One of the provisions of that contract 

was that it would be reviewed every 

January. Last December, I went around 

to fellows on site and said, “I think they 

are going to do what they did last time 

to us, and we should see if we can get 

the Union.” 

I spoke to the Delegate at another 

company site over the road where the 

AWU was already in place. I got 

information and then Richard from the 

Newcastle Branch came out and talked. 

We got about 80-per-cent membership 

before we started negotiations. 

We had great support from the AWU 

during it all. Our Organiser, Paul 

Delaney, was with us for every meeting 

for the new enterprise agreement. In 

fact, he is on site a lot; whenever we 

have a problem he is there. 

This time we got a pay rise of three 

per cent in the first year and four per 

cent in the second, and a whole lot of 

allowances that we should have been 

receiving before, but weren’t. We got 

first-aid allowance, meal, toolbox 

allowance. And some people were 

getting their super paid on all hours 

worked, but some people weren’t. Now, 

everyone is getting that. 

I’d never been in a union before. 

I am finding the AWU really good. I hate 

bosses who think they can do whatever 

they want. There are laws to protect 

workers and they need to be followed. 

When it came to our new contracts, 

I thought we really needed some help 

to lay the law down. We got the right 

help, that’s for sure. 

IT’S GOOD BEING A DELEGATE, BUT IT 

can be hard work. I do my normal job 

but then I’m in the office if there is any 

sort of issue. The negotiations for the 

new agreement were good, too. It is 

difficult to please everyone; you can’t, 

and sometimes people complain. But 

overall, I’d say to anyone that they 

should become a Delegate, I’d 

recommend it. 

My father and mother came to 

Australia from Macedonia. They settled 

in Newcastle from the beginning. I was 

born here. My father has worked at BHP 

for 38 years. He has worked very, very 

hard for his family, to provide his kids 

with a good future. He worked too much. 

I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son, 

Alexander. My wife Anna is at home with 

him. I want to make sure I spend time 

I think you do 

learn new skills as a 

Delegate, and you feel 

better that you are 

standing up and doing 

something.” 

Andrew Pavleski 

FITTER AND DELEGATE AT VALLEY LONGWALL 

INTERNATIONAL, NEWCASTLE 

with them, as I saw my father work 

too much. 

The site I work at makes mining 

machinery, front-end loaders and 

personnel carriers. I came from the motor 

vehicle industry about two years ago, and 

where I was there was no active union. 

Things have definitely improved since 

the AWU got involved here. And I think 

you do learn new skills as a Delegate, 

and you feel better that you are standing 

up and doing something. 



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Photo: Getty Images 

Workers’ 

rights 

I’m concerned about 

the entitlements of 

workers being lost 

when companies 

shut down or fall into 

bankruptcy. Will your government look 

into raising the stakes when it comes to 

workers’ financial entitlements in these 

situations Brett Noonan, Vic 

The PM: The Government believes 

workers should be protected when they 

are made redundant. That’s why the 

National Employment Standards contain 

a minimum standard of between 4-12 

weeks redundancy pay depending on 

an employee’s years of service. This is 

based on what the Australian Industrial 

Relations Commission decided was a fair 

safety net in 2004. The Government also 

committed at the election to replace the 

existing General Employee Entitlements 

and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) with 

an improved Fair Entitlements Guarantee. 

GEERS is a payment scheme which 

provides basic payments when workers 

lose their employment after their employer 

goes into liquidation or bankruptcy. Under 

the Guarantee, the existing cap on 16 

weeks’ redundancy pay will be removed 

and workers will be eligible for 4 weeks’ 

redundancy pay per year of service. 

Closing the 

gap 

Will your government 

commit to improving 

health and health 

outcomes for 

Indigenous 

Australians Moreover, will your 

Government provide support by 

enhancing the Aboriginal Torres Strait 

Islander Health Worker workforce and 

give the same recognition that is given 

to other professional groups 

The Torres Strait Northern Peninsula 

Area region has the greatest prevalence of 

diabetes in the world. Will your 

Government provide additional resources 

to assist in addressing and ensuring 

positive health outcomes 

A CHAT 

WITH 

AWU members had 

some questions for 

our PM – and she was 

pleased to respond… 

Also, the lack of a border between 

Australia and Papua New Guinea impacts 

on Torres Strait Northern Peninsual 

Health Services. Workers have been 

obliged to provide healthcare to Papua 

New Guineans based on humanitarian 

grounds (this is illegal). This impacts 

other government agencies – 

Immigration, Customs, Education and 

AQIS (Australian Quarantine Inspection 

Service). Are there plans to resolve this 

issue Stephen Christian, Qld 

The PM: My Government is pursuing an 

agenda to close the gap on Indigenous 

disadvantage. This includes undertaking 

major reform and delivering investment in 

early education, health, jobs, housing and 

services, and infrastructure. We are 

committing over $805m over four years 

from 2009-10 to target chronic disease, 

including diabetes and risk factors. A new 

workforce of 617 positions is being funded 

nationally. We also launched a National 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health 

Worker Association earlier this year. From 

1 July 2012, national registration will be 

required of qualified Aboriginal and Torres 

Strait Islander Health Practitioners, 

including Aboriginal Health Workers. The 

Government is working with the PNG 

Government to strengthen its national 

health system over the long term. The 

Torres Strait Cross Border Health Issues 

Committee (HIC) is providing funding 

worth $1m for the cost of health 

professionals moving between Torres 

Strait and the South Fly coast of PNG. 

The Torres Strait Health Protection 

Strategy provides $13.8m to address 

current health concerns in the Torres Strait. 

The bigger 

picture 

I’d like to know why 

MPs and Senators in 

Opposition parties 

feel obliged to 

oppose everything, 

even if it’s in the national interest not to 

do so Will your Government encourage 

bi-partisan support for issues that are 

essential to the national interest 

Lauren Catachin, Vic 

The PM: People often raise this concern. 

And yes, on many policy issues, and for 

many of our nation-building programs, 

we don’t share the views or the approach 

that the Opposition would prefer us to 

take. However, there are occasions when 

political parties do agree. The Apology 

to Australia’s Indigenous people in 2008 

is an example. But it happens in policy 

areas as well. In the last Parliament, the 

Opposition supported our legislation 

ensuring that all young people complete 

Year 10 and remain in school, training or 

work until they are 17. Before we came to 

Government there were times when the 

ALP also supported legislation. However 

cooperation, delivering results in the 

national interest, rarely makes headlines. 


PRIVATE LIVES 

LIFE 

It’s a massive task looking after the rights and 

entitlements of AWU members in Australia’s largest state. 

But as Western Australian Branch Secretary 

Stephen Price tells Michael Blayney, he also makes sure 

he spends some quality time with his family. 

When West Australian 

Branch Secretary Stephen 

Price’s wife Melanie 

delivered triplet girls five 

years ago, the couple’s life was turned 

upside down. Consider the evidence: 

in previous issues of The Australian 

Worker, we’ve shared the private passions 

of AWU Branch Secretaries far and wide. 

New South Wales honcho Russ Collison 

shared his cook’s secret with an awardwinning 

batch of scones, Victoria’s Cesar 

Melhem knocked up a bowl of tabouli 

salad that we all wanted to dive into, 

South Australia’s Wayne Hanson popped 

a cork in his enviable wine cellar, and 

Tasmania’s Ian Wakefield took to the 

water to find the catch of the day. So what 

passion does Stephen like to explore 

come the weekend Naturally, he spends 

quality time with his family. 

PHOTS DAVID HAHN 

“I sound pretty boring when you put it 

that way,” Stephen says, laughing. “But it 

might be because I’m a bit younger than 

the other guys. I don’t think many of them 

have a young family like I do.” 

As proud Dad of four girls, 

seven-year-old Abbey and 

five-year-old triplets Erin, 

Rani and Tia, 40-year-old 

Stephen tries to devote 

all of his non-working 

hours to the well-being 

of the quartet. When 

he’s not listening to the 

girls read and 

supervising homework of 

an evening, he’s busy 

shuffling the girls to and from 

gymnastics and swimming 

engagements. The three youngest have 

also recently taken up AFL Auskick with 

Stephen the designated driver and coach. 

Fortunately he has a passion for football. 

“I love AFL,” Stephen says. “I was a keen 

player when I was younger and fitter, and 

I follow both Perth teams in the comp.” 

When pressed further as to his true AFL 

allegiances, Stephen says he has “a soft 

spot for the Fremantle Dockers.” With the 

woeful performances of the West Coast 

Eagles in 2010, it looks like he’s with the 

right team! 

Holidays are spent in the south-west of 

the state at Busselton with all four girls 

Photos: Supplied 

Busselton Jetty 

LEFT: Fremantle Dockers 

keen on swimming and boogie boarding. 

“When we’re at home in Perth, we live 

near the Beach, so we like to go there 

when the weather’s good.” 

All four of Stephen and Melanie’s 

daughters were assisted by the IVF 

program, and the arrival of the triplets 

wasn’t entirely unexpected. “We definitely 

knew that a multiple birth was a possibility 

with IVF, so it didn’t come as a shock when 

it happened. When we had Abbey, we were 

told there was a possibility of four, but we 

got just the one. When we had triplets, we 

were told three, and we got the three.” 

Nevertheless, adjusting to three in one 

hit took plenty of preparation. Even though 

the couple were informed of the triple treat 

seven weeks into the pregnancy, the usual 

logistical problems weighed heavily on 

their minds before the birth. 

“With Abbey it was relatively easy, but 

with the triplets we needed three of 

everything; three cots, three seats for the 

car, and we had to look at getting a new 

car to fit everyone in. It wasn’t cheap, and 

feeding time was a frenzy.” 

For those in similar situations, 

Western Australian Branch Secretary 

Stephen Price and his wife Melanie with 

their four very special little girls. 

Stephen believes that sticking to a routine 

is the key to successful parenting. Even 

with that routine in place, it took at least a 

month before the household returned to 

“normal” after the births. “If I could offer 

any advice it would be to control your kids 

and don’t let them control you,” he says. 

Now, with family in tow, Stephen looks 

back at life before kids and can’t quite 

believe where he is now. “We used to be 

double income before the kids arrived so 

that was a big change. We also did things 

when we wanted to in those days. We 

used to do a lot more travelling around 

the state, mostly down south around 

Margaret River.” 

Even so, he wouldn’t change a thing 

about his life. So, any chance of shooting 

one more time for that elusive boy 

“No, no more mate. I’m done.” W 



THEN AND NOW 

MAN 

PEOPLE 

Sometimes someone will say “enough”. William Cooper, 

an Indigenous Australian and one-time AWU member, 

cared about others suffering in a hostile world... 

In the 1870s, missionary Daniel 

Matthews would often paddle along 

the Murray River in a canoe. Along 

the way, the Englishman would 

meet Aboriginals who’d lost their land. 

With his own mission in Echuca, he’d 

offer to take in these displaced persons. 

William Cooper became one of them. 

His mother took up Matthews’ offer, 

so William learnt to read and write at the 

mission. Education was an important part 

of this environment and the youngster – 

armed with literacy skills – also studied 

the justice system and how to campaign 

on political issues. This was to prove 

pivotal in shaping William Cooper’s life 

until he passed away in 1941, aged 80. 

William lived and worked in the 

Cummeragunja community for most of his 

life. He and his sons were also members 

of the AWU, which helped to develop his 

organising skills, and these were put to 

good use during the Yorta Yorta’s battle 

for land justice with the NSW government. 

William moved to Melbourne late in his 

life, where he helped organise the “Day of 

PHOTS DAVID HAHN 

Mourning” – a response to the 150th 

anniversary celebration of British 

settlement in 1938. He also led the first 

Aboriginal delegation to a Prime Minister, 

and the first mass strike of Aboriginal 

people in 1939. The week-long cultural 

celebration we now know as NAIDOC 

(National Aboriginal and Islander Day 

Observance Committee) is the result of 

William in 1940 declaring the Sunday 

before the Australia Day holiday the first 

“Day of Mourning” Aboriginal Sunday. 

Recounting the life of his greatgrandfather, 

Kevin Russell says William 

Cooper had an egalitarian vision for the 

world. “What he campaigned on was that 

everyone deserves to be treated the 

same. He was a humanitarian devoted 

to his community,” Kevin says. 

William’s persuasive, intellectual 

approach won him many friends. He 

wrote 77 letters to those in power – 

including King George V – asking for 

Aboriginal representation in parliament. 

“His letters had a charm to them,” Kevin 

adds. “Even when he was speaking at 

OF THE 

meetings on river banks preaching on 

Aboriginal issues, he wasn’t a radical. 

He was a gentle man who appealed to 

people on basic humanitarian grounds.” 

William Cooper’s contribution has 

been recognised in Australia. In 1988, 

as part of the bicentenary celebrations, 

he was named as one of the 100 greatest 

Australians. This year, the Victorian 

government backed the naming of a 

William Cooper Footbridge in Footscray 

and the William Cooper Justice Centre in 

Melbourne. Additionally, books such as 

Blood From a Stone: William Cooper and 

the Australian Aborigines’ League, edited 

by Andrew Markus (Monash University, 

1986) and Thinking Black: William Cooper 

and the Australian Aborigines’ League 

by Andrew Markus and Bain Attwood 

(Aboriginal Studies Press, 2004) have 

helped highlight his achievements. It was 

a line William Cooper often used. “He’d 

often say, ‘if only you’d think Black you’d 

understand us more’,” Russell recalls. 

Plans are afoot to buy the Footscray 

house that William resided in. The vision 

is to create a museum that educates 

about racism. Kevin Russell, one of the 

people behind the plan, says it’s a place 

where it’s hoped William’s name will be 

remembered forever.” W 

Photos: Newspix Words: Aidan Ormond 

FAMILY LEGACY: Holocaust survivor 

Henri Korn (left) with Alf Turner (right), 

one of William Cooper’s grandsons. 

ISRAEL HONOURS 

WILLIAM COOPER 

Like the union 

movement, William’s 

humanitarianism had 

a global perspective. e. 

In 1938, an elderly 

Cooper lead an 

unprecedented yet 

peaceful delegation 

to Melbourne’s 

German consulate 

to protest 

Kristallnacht – a night of sponsored violence towards Jewish 

statepeople 

in Germany which resulted 

in over 90 dead and tens of 

thousands sent to ghastly 

concentration camps. 

The delegation’s petition 

slammed Kristallnacht’s “cruel 

persecution”, but it was rejected by 

the consulate. However, a journalist 

– astutely brought along by William 

Cooper – wrote about the protest in 

The Argus newspaper. Years later, 

Israeli historians uncovered this 

news – believed to be the only 

private protest against Germany in 

the wake of Kristallnacht – which 

led to tributes from that country. 

This year, in honour of William 

Cooper, a “chair” dedicated to 

studying resistance during the 

Holocaust will be formalised at 

Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust 

Museum. And at the Australia-Israel 

Friendship Forest and the Martyrs 

Forest near Jerusalem, trees have 

been planted in his honour. 

Kevin Russell recalls that 

emotional day in 2009. “The 

Australian ambassador spoke 

[at the Martyrs Forest] about how 

ashamed he felt that it fell to one 

of Australia’s dispossessed 

non-citizens to make a stance 

against Nazism. When he said 

those words, it really sunk in.” 


www.awu.net.au www.awu.net.au THE AUSTRALIAN ALIAN WORKER 47

BINDI & 

RINGER 

A First State Super initiative 

Simple super 

answers for 

busy women 

As a woman, your life is already fi lled with all sorts of 

matters. But that doesn’t mean you don’t care about 

your super. To get super answers fast – and fi nd out 

more about the issues that affect women and super, 

here’s the place for you: 

www.womenandsuper.com.au 

Please consider the First State Super (ABN 53 226 460 365) Product Disclosure 

Statement (PDS) relevant to your own situation before deciding whether 

to become a member or continue your membership. To obtain a PDS visit 

www.fi rststatesuper.com.au or call 1300 650 873. Issued by FSS Trustee 

Corporation ABN 11 118 202 672, AFSL 293340. October 2010 

Solution: THERE IS LOTS TO DO IN SYDNEY 

Bindi and Ringer have set off on a trip around 

Australia’s capital cities. They’ve arrived in their 

first city and, below, is a list of suburbs they’ll 

be visiting. When you’ve found each suburb 

in the list and crossed it out in the grid, the left over 

letters will spell a message that 

reveals which city Bindi 

and Ringer are in! The names of the suburbs can appear 

vertically, horizontally and diagonally and run in either 

direction, and some letters are used more than once. 

C A B R A M A T T A T H 

E M A N L Y E R E D I S 

B E L F I E L D L N F O 

E P M E T T O S Y A F N 

A A A T O D M O Y R I W 

R D I I N S O Y N I L O 

L S N D T O C S A M C T 

W T A O G L U M T N R K 

O O A T L E Y I O Y E C 

O W I L T O N N B B D A 

D E A E M Y G T Y A N L 

D U R A L D O O W R U B 

■ BALMAIN 

■ BELFIELD 

■ BLACKTOWN 

■ BOTANY 

■ BURWOOD 

■ CABRAMATTA 

■ COMO 

■ DURAL 

■ EARLWOOD 

■ GYMEA 

■ MANLY 

■ MASCOT 

■ MINTO 

■ MIRANDA 

■ MULGOA 

■ OATLEY 

■ PADSTOW 

■ RABY 

■ RYDE 

■ TEMPE 

■ UNDERCLIFF 

■ WILTON 


GRUMPY BASTARD 

Kevin Airs doesn’t like 

twits. And Twittering 

twits are even worse! 

W 

HEN did I start needing 

subtitles for life Oh yes, 

that’s right... it would have 

been about the same time 

I signed up for Twitter. 

For those lucky few who do not know 

what that is, it’s a brief messaging system 

on the internet that allows you to 

broadcast your opinion to the world in 

140 characters or less. 

But never has a medium been so 

appropriately named. Twitter is full of 

twits. They’re all there, writing vacuous 

captions on life for the hard-of-thinking. 

In the Victorian era, they used to 


TWITS 

charge people to tour asylums to laugh 

at the mentally ill. Now we just open a 

Twitter account instead. 

Keyboard warriors pick fights with 

people they’d run away from in real life, 

celebrities write down stuff they should 

only say in private and journos lap up the 

easy stories...while everyone else simply 

tries to king hit each other with crude 

putdowns instead of intelligent debate. 

It’s not quite the information 

superhighway we were promised, is it 

Then again though, where IS my “Holden 

Hovercar by the year 2000”, dammit 

But that’s the intra-web-by-box-of- 

lights-that-plugs-into-the-wall-and- 

delivers-the-world for you. Once upon a 

time, it was nice and simple – you went on 

the Net for porn and... actually, no, that’s 

about all you went on there for. Now it’s 

impossible to live without it. And it’s 

everywhere. (The Internet, that is. Not 

porn. That’s all been downloaded onto the 

PC of a 14-year-old boy in Warrnambool. 

I know it’s laughable now, but I 

remember a time when you used to make 

phone calls on your mobile. And that was 

considered cutting edge... Now they seem 

to do everything but make calls. 

I asked Mrs Grumpy what the weather 

was like the other day and instead of 

looking out the window, she looked for 

her phone, tapped the screen, checked 

a radar, looked at the synoptic chart, 

mapped out the rising barometric 

pressures vs decreasing humidity, 

measured the rainfall since 9am, changed 

the range on her radar, switched to the 

doppler reading, looked at the five-day 

forecast then proudly told me: “It’s 

sunny.” Thanks. For. That. 

Throw in Facebook, YouTube, Gmail 

etc etc etc... and the world these days is 

only about weather apps and cats playing 

pianos. While someone criticises the cats 

for doing it poorly. While someone else 

sends around fake naked pics of the cat in 

its pre-piano days. 

While someone else gets the wrong 

end of the stick entirely, thinks it’s 

paw-nography, brands everyone else a 

pianophile beast and raises a lynch mob, 

backed by radio shock-jocks, conservative 

commentators and the rabid newsrooms 

of Australia’s right-wing press. 

This is our modern multimedia life. 

You know what I was already 

multimedia before the internet was 

invented. In those days though, it was 

called real life. You could see, hear, touch, 

taste, feel the world around you. 

I kinda miss it...oh HANG ON, is that 

two cats DRESSED UP like PRINCE 

WILLIAM and KATE MIDDLETON on their 

WEDDING DAY! HOWWWW 

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!! 

RETWEET RETWEET FWD: EEEEEK! 

Photo: Getty Images 

Ready to take the 

plunge and follow 

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Join online at sunsuper.com.au or call 13 11 84. 

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Products issued by Sunsuper Pty Ltd ABN 88010720840 AFSL No. 228975. Outcomes not guaranteed. Read relevant Product 

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bcm:sun 0567

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