Jindivick is a small town in West Gippsland, just over an hour east of Melbourne. Surrounded by rolling green hills, it’s dairy country. It’s also currently the site of a strike against one of the world’s biggest dairy companies. 
Jindi Cheese workers have been picketing their factory since 13 November. The strikers are mostly female and members of the United Workers Union. They have never been on strike before. On the second day of picketing the police arrived at the peaceful gathering in force – a dozen local officers were joined by the public order response team from Melbourne. Union delegate Tammy Norrie told Red Flag “there was like 25 [police] from the city, all in their full riot gear with tasers and everything for 16 women, scary ladies though we are. It was way over the top.” 
The company reportedly asked the police to stop the workers blocking the road as well as the factory’s driveway. The picket had successfully stopped trucks coming and going to the site, crippling business. “Most of the truck drivers have been fantastic,” says Tammy, “you kind of give them a quick ‘we’re on strike’, they say ‘what are you on strike for?’, we say ‘to get paid a bit more than 20 bucks an hour’ and they are like ‘what?! that’s bullshit, see you later’. I’m sure at some stage they have had taken strike action so know the importance of not crossing a picket line.” 
An undertaking by the union with Fair Work has, for now, put a stop to the workers blocking trucks, but they remain determined. “We’ve been out here for this long, we can’t turn back” says Tammy, “We’re out indefinitely. Everyone has been helping each other. Pay just hasn’t gone up with the cost of living, it’s nowhere near the cost of living. We are just getting further and further behind and we can’t afford to get any further behind. It’s stupid – we’re suffering for a company that doesn’t care about us. You are just a number, it really feels like you are just a number.” 
The company the workers are suffering for is Lactalis, the largest dairy products company in the world. Lactalis is owned by the fifth richest family in France and has an annual revenue of around €16.5 billion. It supplies dairy products to Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, and bought Jindi Cheese in 2014. Jindi Cheese workers are some of the lowest paid in the Lactalis empire, with some who have worked at the company for ten years being paid as little as $20.68 an hour, just $1.19 above the minimum wage. 
Cost of living pressures are central to the concerns of these workers. Tammy says “Most of us are struggling to pay the bills. After a 38-hour week, you take home $650. Your rent is $400. You work that out – there’s only $250 left to pay the rest of your bills, put fuel in the car and food on the table. It’s hard, it’s really hard. Most of us are long term, I’m 10 years. This is one of the biggest dairy companies in the world, worth billions of dollars. It’s crazy that they can’t pay us a wage we can live on. It’s insulting to think that they don’t value us as much as they do workers at the other sites. We work damn hard.”
Unfortunately, the factory is still operating, with some workers scabbing and casuals also being hired to scab. Solidarity has come from other Lactalis sites: “We’ve had a few people from Longwarry come out which has been fantastic. Lemnos workers did a collection for us which I was so happy and surprised about. These are poor people, they are on the same pay as us, and they raised about $300. It’s just fantastic. At one of the other sites in Bendigo someone had some concert tickets and they raffled those off for us. We also had a lady from Patties drop in, which is fantastic because they are a union site as well and they got wind of [our action]. She dropped off a few bags of lollies. I was stoked to know [non-Lactalis] sites were also thinking about us. It’s nice to have that support.”
The strike has pushed the company to agree to some of the workers’ demands, including that casuals be covered by the site rates and conditions. But pay rises have proved harder to win. “What they have offered people” says Tammy “is still really going to be a struggle to live on.” Workers have so far voted down the company’s various pay offers and are asking for a minimum 10 percent pay rise in the first year, and a 30 percent pay rise to bring their rates into line with other Lactalis factories. 
Tammy is confident. “It feels good to know that we are going to be making a difference for us and for the others” she says. “For me there is a little bit of resentment against those who haven’t come out... But it feels powerful in a way, and we know they are struggling in there. Everyone out here has had conversations that we wouldn’t normally have. Being out here for the last 10, 11 or more days, we’ve found out more about each other. It’s brought everyone closer together. I think we all have a lot more respect for each other. It’s empowering, it is.”

Naomi Farmer

“It really feels like you are just a number”: dairy workers strike in Gippsland

“One of the things that gives us comfort that this is nothing more than random variation is the (sic) the increase was greatest in the Moe postcode which is 13km away from the fire.”
So said Dr Rosemary Lester, the then Victorian Chief Health Officer, in an email to Dr Louisa Flander, a Melbourne University researcher who authored a number of reports into the mortality impact of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire. Lester’s “feedback” to Flander was in response to data indicating a 32 percent increase in deaths in the Victorian town of Moe during the fire.
Lester’s correspondence has been exposed in the course of the Hazelwood mine fire inquiry which was re-opened in March. The initial inquiry found that the Victorian Department of Health failed to respond adequately to the crisis caused by the fire, which blanketed the Latrobe Valley with noxious coal smoke for 45 days. It particularly singled out Lester as being responsible for the department’s failure to act.
The re-opened inquiry has now found what many residents of the Valley have long suspected, the Department of Health engaged in a cover up.
Hoping to discredit local residents’ health concerns, the department commissioned Dr Flander to consider the health effects of the fire, based on available data. In particular, she was asked to look into the report published by Professor Adrian Barrett whose analysis of births, deaths and marriages data showed a probable link between the fire and increased deaths in the area.
Then, when Flander didn’t say what they wanted, the department began suggesting changes.
When the department thought that Flander’s conclusions were too close to those of Barrett, representatives of the department asked if the report could be re-written. “Is it possible that the conclusion could be drawn instead that the data presented do not suggest strong evidence for the author’s hypothesis that the fire had an effect on mortality?”, asked one department representative. Dr Flander replied: “Many thanks for these useful comments. We will incorporate all the suggestions”.
The final report read as directed: “The data presented in these papers do not suggest strong evidence for the author’s assertion of a significant effect of the period of a fire on mortality at that time”.
The department also points out to Dr Flander exactly which concerns need to be discredited more effectively, telling her: “This statement has been used by the media and has been the de facto conclusion akin to 10 per cent more deaths due to fire and 9.6 deaths caused by fire, so needs to be challenged more directly”.
While the Hazelwood mine fire burned, and in the weeks and months afterwards, the Department of Health insisted that exposure to coal smoke would not have a significant impact on the health of residents. Their statements flew in the face of community experience but the department relied on Dr Flander’s so-called independent reports to justify their line.
Speaking to Red Flag after the revelations, spokesperson for Voices of the Valley, Ron Ipsen said: “The real story of the day was the health department obfuscating data and cooking up reports. They released fact sheets to refute our information, our local doctors went off those, and it was wrong info.
“They were covering their arse. They finally admitted to our findings of 40 percent increase [in deaths] in Traralgon during the mine fire and a 32 percent increase in Moe”, he said.
The re-opened Hazelwood mine fire inquiry will release its finding next month.

Hazelwood fire inquiry exposes cover up

The Hazelwood open-cut coal mine in eastern Victoria continues to burn more than 40 days after fire first engulfed the pit.
The Country Fire Authority on 21 March announced that the northern batters [the incline section of the mine walls] are now safe because the surface flames have been extinguished. They hope to have the southern batters and the mine floor under control in a short period of time.
However, the extent of underground fires, known as “hot spots”, is still unclear. The CFA has handed responsibility for managing the northern batters to GDF Suez, the company whose practices allowed the fire to begin. The CFA plans to hand over management of the southern fire to the company in the coming days.
All is not calm at the power plant. Workers report that that GDF Suez has threatened to sue anyone who slanders the company in relation to the handling of the disaster – which has resulted in the adjacent town of Morwell being covered in smoke, ash and extremely elevated levels of pollutants.
Residents have suffered severe respiratory complaints and there is uncertainty about the long term health consequences of the immense pollution from the fire.
According to a CFA volunteer, who agreed to speak with Red Flag anonymously, CFA command also has told its firefighters not speak to the media about what has transpired at the mine.
“The impression being given is that the fire is out [but] it’s not ... There are still hot spots along the northern, central and southern fires, there is still an untold amount of work required”, he said.
Understandably, people are concerned about authority for the fires being handed back to the company.
“The area that they are currently mining was well defended, you couldn’t fault them on how much gear they had set up to prevent fires from starting in the western end of the mine, where they working, where they’re getting the coal from”, said Red Flag’s CFA source.
“In the east, along with the north, the south and the centre, where they’re not mining any more ... there was nothing. Nothing had been done; bugger all. In the areas that they defended and that had the [fire prevention] gear set up there wasn’t a problem. The areas that they pulled the gear out of, there were problems.”
Disused areas of a mine are supposed to be rehabilitated and protected from the threat of a fire taking hold. “You either keep the gear there or you cap the coal seam with a layer of clay or soil so it’s not gonna catch fire, so a fire can run over the top of it, so you can just fight the fire that you’ve got – not a coal fire. But what [the company] did was they left the coal steam open and had no fire preparation ready.”
Despite this negligence, the extent of the disaster has been downplayed. The health of the site workers and the local residents has been endangered so that the world’s largest independent utility company can continue business as usual – making millions of dollars from the coal of Hazelwood Power Station.
[Don’t miss the Marxism 2014 session “Women of the 2013 Yallourn lockout”, Saturday 19 April 2pm at Melbourne University <a href="http://www.marxismconference.org/">marxismconference.org</a>.]

Hazelwood mine still burns

A public health disaster is unfolding in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. The brown coal mine connected to Hazelwood power station has been burning since 9 February, and fire authorities are at a loss as to how to put it out.
The fire is six kilometres across, a kilometre down and at least two feet into the coal face.
The area is blanketed by thick smoke. Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality Index readings have shattered records. A reading above 150 is considered “very poor”; above 200 indicates that the air pollution is “hazardous”. Morwell, which is next to the mine, had had a number of readings above 500. On 21 February, the reading reached 1,300.
“Avoid prolonged or heavy physical activity, get inside [and] bunker down”, urged the EPA’s Tanya O’Shea. There have been no readings in Churchill, Newborough, Moe or any of the other smaller towns in the area.
My dad Brett is a miner at Hazelwood. Despite the dangerously polluted air, he and his colleagues are still being sent down to dig coal. Twice now he has emerged with elevated and dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in his blood.
The second time he had to be rushed to hospital. “I was digging coal from way over the other side of the open cut and I thought, ‘There is no drama here, the wind is blowing pretty strong.’ I only went outside for half an hour to check the oil levels and then the next thing you know I am going to hospital”, he said.
Ambulance services, the hospital and local GPs have all reported an increase in patients due to respiratory problems. Speak to anyone in the Valley and they will tell you that people are tired, headachey and sick.
Government authorities have recommended that people leave the area if they can, especially if they have pre-existing respiratory problems.
But leaving is not feasible for many people. Single mum Casie Konnodouras says of her 5-year-old son Declan, “He has had the worst breathing. He didn’t eat for two days because his throat was so sore. It’s crazy. Dad works at the tip, he’s come home every night and used Mum’s ventolin. He’s not an asthmatic; he’s just been breathing so bad.
I ask her if she has considered moving out until the fire stops. “To where?” she responds.
Emily Jones is from Moe but works in Morwell. “It is revolting. I’ve had a headache for days. The air is thick with smoke and ash. People I know are getting sick from being exposed to it. I’m home now but can still taste it. I hope they can get it resolved soon as I worry about the long term health effects”, she says.
Particularly vulnerable are the elderly. Lyn Zalesiak is a personal care assistant at Morwell aged care facility Heritage Manor. “They had to put towels around all the doors and the windows [and] switch off the air conditioning”, she says. “It’s hot in there at the best of times; with no air conditioning it was bad.”
It was avoidable
This disaster is not “natural”. The section of the mine currently burning has not been used for years. It should have been capped with clay to prevent fires.
But the current owner of Hazelwood, GDF Suez, decided against capping after it acquired the operation in 2010. It was considered too expensive. GDF Suez is the largest independent utility company in the world, with an annual revenue of 84 billion euros. And Hazelwood is a very profitable plant. At times it produces millions of dollars worth of power per day.
The neglect is systematic. It is in part a product of the power industry’s privatisation two decades ago and the subsequent drive to increase profits at the expense of safety.
The sprinkler system was removed and sold as scrap metal. All of the experienced firefighters have lost their jobs and less experienced people have replaced them. Cost-cutting has seen maintenance staff become responsible for their own training. All of these measures increased the risk of disaster.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Division president Luke Van Der Meulen explains: “In the 1990s the fire protection of that part of the mine was scrapped, leaving a vast area totally exposed to this fire.
“This area should have been rehabilitated years ago and the exposed coal should have been covered in earth. Until this was done the fire systems should have remained in place and functional. The bodies responsible to ensure the community was adequately protected are I believe the Department of Primary Industry, the Fire Department and WorkSafe.
“These departments and successive governments have failed in their duty to the Latrobe Valley and Victorian community. Negligence or asleep at the wheel are the terms I believe that apply.”
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) has says that using too much water to extinguish the fire could “damage the mine’s infrastructure”. It is “searching the world for solutions”.
But Peter Marshal, president of the United Firefighters Union, says that the Napthine government’s $60 million in cuts and recruitment freeze has had an impact. “There is no doubt the extra 342 firefighters, equipment and fire stations would have made a significant difference to the resources available to fight the fire.”
In the meantime, 200,000 people’s health is being sacrificed to keep the power – and the profits – flowing.
The company and the authorities have attempted to stop evidence of this disaster getting out. When my Dad took me to see the fire everyone was saying the smoke wasn’t as bad as it had been. It was still an incredible billow of grey smog – strong enough to hurt my eyes and my throat as soon as I stepped out of the car.
When I took a few photos a security guard quickly tried to stop me. He told us “You’re not allowed to take photos. The police told us that if anyone around here is taking photos, then give the police their rego and they will take care of it.”
Within five minutes, three police cars and three security cars had arrived to take our IDs and escort us out the area – they even followed us down the highway to make sure we left.

Disaster in the Valley

The election of Tony Abbott has the conservative women-haters feeling pleased with themselves. 
The bigots will be mobilising on 12 October in Melbourne for their annual “March for the Babies”. It will be a display of hatred for women’s rights masked as concern for the unborn.
The event has been organised by Victorian Liberal Party MP Bernie Finn. Its stated aim is to overturn the Abortion Law Reform Act, passed in 2008, which legalised limited abortion rights in Victoria.
In NSW the introduction of a private member’s bill, “Zoe’s Law”, which is an attempt to grant legal personhood to foetuses, is also providing a battleground over reproductive rights. If passed in its current form, the bill will possibly open women who obtain abortions to prosecution.
Access to abortion is a question of basic health care for women. It is a necessary service if we are to have the right to control our own bodies and make choices about how we will live our lives. 
The conservatives know this. They claim that abortion is “a tragedy” and try to shame women and reinforce the idea that a woman’s main purpose in life is to have and raise children.
Women’s rights campaigners have put out a call to organise a response to the conservatives. A meeting in Melbourne on 20 September agreed to organise a counter-demonstration to the 12 October march.
It will gather at 12:30pm on the steps of Parliament House to confront the bigots and reassert women’s right to control our bodies.

“It really feels like you are just a number”: dairy workers strike in Gippsland

Hazelwood fire inquiry exposes cover up

Hazelwood mine still burns

Disaster in the Valley

Women’s rights under attack

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