‘We’re not working until we get our union in there’
Workers at Harrisons, in Brookvale, northern Sydney, have been on strike since 21 November. In what is now a well-unionised shed, all but two of 22 workers voted for indefinite strike action.
They have staffed a 24-hour picket line. With a tent bedecked with NUW flags, a kitchen and community food donations, they have held out for 10 days so far, supported by family members and a few other workers from neighbouring factories and warehouses.
Harrisons had tried to abolish the right of employees to be represented by the union. Management said having a workplace delegate “doesn’t suit their business model”. But offering a 1 percent pay rise, despite the rising cost of living in Sydney, suits them just fine.
One picketer summed up the issues:
“The guys are fighting for respect. Management was calling the guys in one at a time. People would lose hours or get sacked for the smallest things. They started demanding to have a union rep go in with them. Management said no. So we said fine, we’re not working until we get our union in there.”
The workers manufacture oil and lubricants. The company might have its unskilled managers attempt the work, but, without the skills, all they’re doing is making re-work. They won’t be able to sell any of it. As one of the strikers told us on the picket line last night, “The company makes half of the output for Valvoline in NSW. The strike’s causing big problems for them, that’s why they’re so desperate to get the trucks back in”.
The strikers turned a truck around on the first day and the bosses hadn’t tried again since until day nine of the strike. Then they launched a coordinated operation with the cops and the trucking contractors trying to smash the picket and bring nine trucks in to be loaded and taken out again. Unfortunately, despite the valiant efforts of everyone on the picket, the company succeeded, with the cops attacking, even laying into some people with their batons. One community supporter, a 25-year-old university student, suffered a broken leg after being struck by a police baton.
While they broke the line, they didn’t break the workers’ spirits. Undeterred in their fight, the picketers are still there.
Visit the picket at 75 Old Pittwater Rd, Brookvale.
