UNION members at the Kimberly-Clark Australia Millicent Mill are set to begin their sixth consecutive day of strike action today as indefinite rolling strikes started Thursday afternoon.
The flashpoint was reached after the company and a key union could not agree on the terms of a new enterprise agreement.
The strikes are authorised by the Fair Work Commission and fell on the eve on Sunday of the fourth anniversary of the last pay rise for the union workforce.
The South Eastern Times understands the company has offered its workforce a conditional 3pc pay rise over the coming two years while the main union wants a 6pc increase in the same period.
These figures have been outlined in letters to union members which have been obtained by The South Eastern Times.
The industrial action follows two closed meetings of union members held last month at the Millicent Returned and Services League Hall and a one-hour strike by one union member in the mill’s store in May.
According to the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, its members were frustrated the company continued to drag its feet after four years of negotiations for a new workplace agreement, during which time there had not been a single pay increase.
CFMEU Pulp and Paper Division president Denise Campbell-Burns said her members are also angered by the lack of certainty about the long-term future of the mill.
She said its American owner was the Kimberly-Clark Corporation and earlier this year it had announced 5000 jobs would be shed and up to 10 plants closed around the world.
“Negotiations have dragged on since 2014, with wages frozen the whole time, but it is the growing uncertainty about the future of the mill and whether people will even have a job next year that is most difficult for workers to deal with,” Ms Campbell-Burns said.
“As a result, KCA workers have made it clear they are prepared to take action to secure a modest wage increase and improved redundancy provisions to ensure they are better placed if the mill does close.
“It is a real strain for workers as they live and work under a cloud of uncertainty about what their future holds.
“That’s why the 265 CFMEU members at the mill have launched industrial action, which will include indefinite rolling work stoppages, to try to bring these negotiations to a satisfactory conclusion.”
Ms Campbell-Burns said that union members remained committed to working with KCA to reduce costs to ensure the ongoing viability of the mill, having already proposed significant long term saving measures, but the financial toll of the four-year wage freeze was being increasingly felt.
“Since these negotiations began in 2014 there has not been a single pay rises, despite the cost of living for local families steadily rising, meaning hundreds of men and women from the KCA Millicent Mill have actually endured a pay cut in real terms,” she said.
“When the largest employer in the South East freezes wages, the economic impact of that action flows through to the entire community as hundreds of local families are forced to tighten their belts.
“KCA likes to claim to be a ‘family’ company, but what we have seen at Millicent is a workforce held to ransom by the threat of closure, while enduring ongoing, protracted negotiations and a wage freeze.”
Ms Campbell-Burns met with the CFMEU Millicent Mill committee of management on Thursday and returned to her Melbourne base the following day.
A request has been made of the union by this newspaper to outline the quantum and nature of the rolling stoppages but this has been declined.
The South Eastern Times understands the rolling stoppages of different areas of the mill last one hour each.
CFMEU Millicent Mill president Craig O’Connor declined to comment on the industrial action while KCA Millicent Mill manager Scott Whicker is also not speaking on this issue.
THE Sydney headquarters of Kimberly-Clark Australia has provided The South Eastern Times with this statement in response to the CFMEU decision to undertake industrial action.
“Kimberly-Clark Australia is currently in enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations with employees at our Millicent mill,” the company stated.
“Our aim will forge an EA that balances fair and competitive terms with the ongoing cost challenges faced by manufacturers in Australia.
“We are committed to working with our employees and the CFMEU to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.”
At its peak in the 1970s, the mill had a workforce of 1000 but its current level of employees and contractors is around 400.
