Brisbane casino workers fight back

Workers at The Star, in Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf district, are the lowest-paid casino workers in the country. So we’re fighting for a pay rise.

We’re already paid 10 to 20 percent less per hour than workers at the Star Sydney. But the company’s pay rise offer in our enterprise agreement negotiations is a measly 3 percent a year. Even more insulting is management’s attempt to introduce Friday and Saturday night penalty rates while cutting Sunday rates, which would result in pay cuts for entire departments.

Under the current agreement, cleaners are forced to do the work of two or three people. Housekeepers clean shit-stained bedsheets while being denied the $10 sewerage allowance. And workers in virtually every department are locked on entry-level pay rates with no room for advancement, regardless of the skills or experience they bring to the company.

The Star managers are confident that, after decades of shitty deals getting through with little more than quiet words of protest, they can get away with anything. But we’re determined to prove them wrong.

Workers have overwhelmingly voted to reject the deal, and 90 percent of union members have voted to go on strike. We know that the company relies on us to make its profits. So we’re making it clear that we will disrupt operations unless we’re paid what we’re worth.

On Friday 4 July, we’re striking from 4pm until 6pm and holding a union meeting to decide what’s next.

The process of preparing for this dispute has strengthened our union. We’ve gone from having a minority of union members in the workforce and almost no history of workplace campaigning, to having a strong majority of workers involved and planning one of the first strikes in the Australian casino industry for years. Close to 250 workers have joined the union in the last month.

There is a determination to fight. The lesson at this point is that sometimes all it takes is a handful of determined union delegates and a few socialists to turn sentiment into action.