The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) is restarting industrial action with Tomago Aluminium claiming refusal on the part of management to continue negotiations regarding a fair wage agreement.
New South Wales Secretary of AWU, Tony Callinan, says that members will resume regular, systematic protected industrial action in the early hours of Sunday morning (23 February).
“Despite our member’s significant compromises over recent years, Tomago Aluminium management continues to undervalue their workforce while the share price climbs and they hold their hands out of their share of billions of dollars in government support,” Callinan says.
The Sunday morning action will involve a total stoppage of work across the entire plant for six hours from 2am.
AWU says Tomago Aluminium has also been notified of a three-hour stoppage on Tuesday 25 February.
Callinan says that over the past three years, workers have been effectively taking pay cuts as inflation has run above 6.6%.
“They’ve done their part to support the company’s viability, but enough is enough, we can’t continue going backwards,” he says.
The industrial action comes after a period of protected industrial action last week, resulting in production delays.
Tomago Aluminium, which consumes 1,000 megawatt hours of electricity and represents about 13% of the state’s power usage, employs over 1,000 workers as part of its operations.
Based in the Hunter region of New South Wales, the Tomago Aluminium smelter is considered to be the country’s largest, contributing around $2.2 billion each year to the country’s economy and accounting for 37% of Australia’s primary aluminium output.
Callinan says AWU has been working constructively with government bodies and the industry to ensure the long-term viability of manufacturing aluminium production in Australia.
“We stopped our industrial action last week and committed to no industrial action until after Friday 22nd February, in return for a commitment from Tomago to return to the bargaining table for intensive bargaining this week,” the Secretary says.
“They turned up to a meeting on Monday morning and said that their current offer was a good offer for the employees, and they were going to put it out for a vote.
“It’s disappointing to see Tomago management respond to our good faith offer by refusing to continue negotiations and provide workers with a fair wage increase.”
Callinan adds that due to Tomago’s power usage and spending on gas, alumina, and bauxite among others, the payroll cost is relatively low compared to other industries.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Tomago Aluminium
