Pampas Pastry workers in West Footscray have reached day 14 of an indefinite strike for better pay and job security. The majority migrant workforce, who produce a range of baked goods for Helga’s and Bakers Delight, are out in force against Pampas management and parent company Goodman Fielder, which has an annual revenue of $1.1 billion.
For most of the workers, this is the first time they have been on strike. Only some remember the last time there was industrial action at Pampas 20 years ago, when production workers, cleaners, warehouse workers and even mechanics fought together. 
The workers have knocked back the company’s four percent pay offer and are instead fighting for a six percent annual wage increase for the next two years. In a time of rising inflation and cost of living pressures, even a six percent pay increase would represent a decline in real wages.
“The cost of everything is going up, but our wages aren’t,” a union delegate told Red Flag. He is paying an extra $400 to $500 a month on his mortgage because of rising interest rates, but the pay offer would only translate into an additional $40 per week.
Workers are also fighting casualisation. Many are unable to get permanent positions, and the company has outsourced some casual labour to an agency that pays lower wages. Casuals employed by the agency are on $26 an hour compared to $33 per hour for those employed directly by the company. One worker has been a casual for more than seven years with no indication of permanency in the future. “Management are on $150,000 a year, and they don’t care about the casuals,” one worker said to Red Flag.
Almost all of the 80-strong workforce has walked out. On the first day of the strike, only two workers, a few cleaners and management were still inside. This success is down to strong levels of unionisation in the factory, itself in part a result of a drive to sign up new members over the last six months. More than 95 percent of workers are now in the union, despite 30 percent of the workforce being agency casuals.
Management have responded to the strike with heavy-handed tactics designed to intimidate and demoralise the workers. They have called out firefighters to investigate a barrel fire that workers were maintaining on the picket line outside the factory gates, hoping this would lead to the assembly being broken up. When this didn’t work, they door-knocked locals encouraging them to call the police on the strikers. $100 vouchers were included as an incentive, many of which were handed back by locals in disgust, while other were donated to the strikers.
Production has been effectively paralysed during what is the busiest period of the year in the food industry. The workers have committed to staying out for as long as it takes to win a better deal. Some have been employed by Pampas for more than 30 years and say conditions have consistently become worse during that time. Now, they feel they have no choice but to fight.

Amelia Christie

Striking Pampas workers refuse to accept crumbs

Several fires today were allegedly lit in Melbourne’s Park Hotel prison, in which dozens of refugees are indefinitely detained. 
“Breaking news park hotel detention in Melbourne is on fire and the keeping us in the building instead of taking us to a safe place!”, tweeted one of the men, Mehdi Ali, just before 2pm.
According to the fire incident controller, speaking outside the building, a refugee lit several fires across the top few floors of the five-storey building. 
All the men were safely evacuated. However, one refugee and one security guard were sent to hospital for minor injuries. 
One of the detained men said that he was having a shower when guards rushed into his room and told him there was an emergency. He was not given any information about the nature of the emergency. “It was hard to know what was going on”, he said over the phone. 
He and 32 others were taken to the restaurant on the ground floor, while seven others who are awaiting COVID test results were taken to a separate dining room on the same floor. 
This is the same Carlton hotel at which the government’s criminal negligence allowed COVID to spread like wildfire only a few months ago, resulting in almost half of the imprisoned refugees and asylum seekers becoming infected. 
If the fires were in fact started by a refugee, it should be regarded as an act of resistance to their ongoing and unjust incarceration. 
The men inside have been locked up by the Australian government for years—without charge and in breach of their rights. Fleeing war and persecution, the men have been made to suffer first in offshore detention camps and now, under constant guard, in the stifling isolation of the hotel rooms. 
Conditions in the hotel are so dire that some of the men reportedly asked to be moved back to Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, where they could at least breathe fresh air.
Refugees in the past have had to take drastic measures to fight back against their horrific imprisonment and to draw attention to their plight. 
In 2011, 100 refugees protested and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/buildings-set-alight-in-villawood-detention-centre-rooftop-protest-20110421-1dp62.html">burned down buildings in Sydney’s Villawood detention centre</a>. Two years later, hundreds <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-22/125-asylum-seekers-charged-over-violent-nauru-riots/4834098">rioted and burned buildings at the Nauru prison camp</a>. In 2014, four asylum seekers on Manus Island sewed their lips together as a part of a mass hunger strike. Half of the compound refused to eat or drink anything in protest against being detained for more than a year. 
Some people now have been imprisoned for up to nine years.
These displays of resistance in the face of the most brutal treatment are a testament to their courage and perseverance. 
One could only imagine the desperation these men must feel. If they choose to take action—peaceful or otherwise—we should support their bravery in fighting back.
UPDATE: Mehdi Ali notes on social media at 8pm:
“We are still stuck in the level one lobby. We have no access to fresh air and some of us are having health problems. There was a bathroom problem and some guys had to relieve themselves in bottles. Some need to smoke and some need blankets. They came and said that levels three and four were damaged really badly but level two is okay. What's next for us? No one is letting us know, just as no one is letting us know about when we will be free.”

Striking Pampas workers refuse to accept crumbs

Park Hotel refugee prison set alight

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