Kaye Broadbent in Brisbane
The O-I Glass workforce started a week of industrial action on Monday 15 July, establishing a picket outside the South Brisbane factory. Their action was in response to management’s belligerence in negotiations for a new agreement. 
O-I Glass is a US-based multinational that manufactures nearly 98 percent of glass containers in Australia. If you drink beer or soft drink from a bottle, chances are it’s made by workers at O-I Glass. It has sites in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, where it has been producing glass bottles for more than 100 years.
The factory operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with some of the more than 200-strong workforce having worked there for more than 30 years – as electricians, maintenance workers and factory operators. Over the decades, workers have fought for and gained important conditions including overtime pay, heat and dirt allowances and confined space allowances, some on the basis of handshake agreements. 
More recently, the workers have tried to formalise and protect their conditions by securing industrial agreements, but management has resisted. As one maintenance worker told Red Flag, “We know we have good conditions because we’ve fought for them, but management is not honouring these conditions”. During negotiations, workers were told that they could pick five of their existing conditions for management to consider formalising. 
Heat exposure is a particularly serious issue because workers constantly deal with molten glass. Despite management proclaiming its commitment to safety, one electrician observed, “When safety issues are raised, management says it’s too hard”.
Management is refusing to speak to the striking workers. All 60 maintenance workers voted against management’s proposed agreement when it was put to them.
Since the strike began, production has been severely reduced, with mechanical problems causing delays and product quality affected. The strike will continue for at least a week. Pickets have so far been lively, and visits from Scabby the Rat and toots from passing motorists show the striking workers have a lot of support.
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Cameron Rowe in Melbourne
Melbourne’s Bourke Place boomed with chants of “Pay your taxes, pay your workers” and “Michael Brown, you’re a clown, come on down” on 25 July. 
O-I Glass workers haven’t had a pay increase in seven years, while the director of operations, Michael Brown, “earns” a salary of $11 million and travels on a private jet. Needless to say, Brown didn’t come down to address workers’ demands. 
The picket of 40 workers and officials from the electrical and manufacturing unions outside the company’s head office was the latest action by workers in Melbourne. They have also imposed overtime bans and held a series of one-day strikes. 
A worker from the company’s Spotswood plant commented, “We’re skilled workers! We make every step in production happen, and the bosses like to pretend it’s not true. They want to imagine we’re robots”. I’ve found the level of respect shown to workers by their employers correlates directly with the level of organisation, solidarity and industrial power. O-I Glass workers know this very well and have more actions planned.

Kaye Broadbent

Cameron Rowe

Glass workers: ‘We’ve had enough’

A group of unionists and activists held a small lunchtime protest at a Woolworths supermarket in Melbourne’s CBD on 4 July. It was the third store visited by the group in a week, after similar actions in Altona North and Broadmeadows, to promote the National Union of Workers’ Fair Food campaign.
The union and community supporters are demanding that the major supermarkets eliminate illegal practices in their fresh food supply chain. Protesters collected signatures and spoke to customers while Woolworths managers watched.
“Woolworths and others at the top of the supermarket supply chain could completely avoid dealing with dodgy labour hire contractors that make possible gross exploitation of farm workers”, NUW community organiser Liz Turner told Red Flag. “They choose not to. In fact, Woolworths refuse to meet with workers and the NUW to discuss the issue. Actions like today are a template for actions we want to get going all over the country.”
Winnie, who works in regional Victoria producing fresh food for the major supermarkets, said that most workers in the industry feel alone: “Like nobody cares about them”. After experiencing injury, violence and underpayment while working at Covino Farms, a vegetable supplier, Winnie began organising her workmates. “I tell them that collectively we have strength and we should be part of the union and stand up for ourselves”, she said.

Woolworths targeted by farm workers’ campaign

“About as popular as the Ebola virus”, Labor MP Anthony Albanese quipped recently. He could have been talking about one of many elements of the federal budget, but in this case he was referring to Melbourne’s ill-fated East West Link.
The two-stage $18 billion toll road would be the largest infrastructure project in Victorian history, slicing through the inner city to connect the Eastern Freeway with Citylink, and then on to the Western Ring Road. Victorian Liberal premier Denis Napthine has staked his premiership on it, but there are now serious doubts about its realisation.
ALP leader Daniel Andrews has announced that the party will not go ahead with the project if elected, reversing Labor’s previous position.
Despite howls of outrage from the business lobby at this about-face, opposing the East West Link should be a popular stance. A recent Age/Nielsen poll revealed that Victorians, by a three to one margin, believe that improving public transport should be a higher priority than the proposed road link.
Preliminary drilling and preparation for the eastern section have been dogged by protest since their beginning in September 2013.
Anthony Murphy is involved in the campaign against the East West Link and was the plaintiff in a recent Supreme Court challenge that argued the project was based on ‘‘misleading representations’’ that breached consumer protection laws.
The state government has refused to reveal any kind of business plan for the massive project. The case was dismissed on 10 September, but Murphy intends to appeal. He told Red Flag, “The court case is a serious attempt to delay or halt construction, but it’s complementary to the community pickets, demonstrations and other actions.
“It’s a battle on multiple fronts. The campaign is the main reason the East West Link has become such a big issue. Napthine’s plan was to present the project as a fait accompli, but it’s blown up in his face. There’s been a lot more opposition than he thought. I think we’re in a strong position to win this campaign.”
As far as Daniel Andrews’ recent announcement goes, Murphy says, “Labor’s change of heart has a hell of a lot more to do with the prospect of losing multiple inner-city seats to parties opposed to the East West Link than anything else. I don’t trust them at all. It’s vital to maintain the rage and keep the pressure on.”
Despite many billions of dollars being spent on roads in Victoria in the last decade, congestion is worsening. Massive toll road projects don’t help. They simply serve the interests of developers like Lend Lease, which stands to profit handsomely, along with other corporations.
The only effective way to reduce congestion is to remove cars from the road. To do that, there needs to be affordable and reliable alternative transport – particularly for people living in outer suburbs. The wide median strip of the congested Eastern Freeway was originally set aside for a rail line through Doncaster, servicing the same suburbs now reliant on cars. Building that rail line would be a good start to reducing congestion.

Glass workers: ‘We’ve had enough’

Woolworths targeted by farm workers’ campaign

Scrap the East West sham

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