Published: 8 Oct 2020
Before the onslaught of COVID-19, Svitzer were in the middle of National Enterprise Agreement (EA) negotiations. The company used the pandemic to their advantage, as most big business have, and decided to stop negotiating and began changing Svitzer conditions through attacks on POPs (port operating procedures). Svitzer introduced a document of 30 claims that effectively obliterated all the Union won conditions over the past century.
The MUA took the only action available to bring Svitzer back to the table to ensure pay and conditions remained above CPI and remain the industry leading conditions they currently are. The MUA campaigned for a resounding YES to all 20 claims regarding protected industrial action!
And what a result!
240 ballots were distributed to Svitzer workers nationally. 195 postal votes were returned. Voters returned an almost unanimous “yes!”.
Surely such a response will bring Svitzer back to the table and do the right thing by their workers who have worked round the clock and sacrificed for their company all the way through a pandemic.
This result only reinforces that Svitzer MUA members are united and prepared to fight for what is fair in their industry.
As one delegate stated “What a great result, this should be the kick in the pants that Svitzer requires to understand that their workforce are unified in the understanding that We the MUA are not going to stand for the attacks on our pay and conditions.”
