Kraft strike in fourth week
By Sue Bolton and Alana Kerr
MELBOURNE — Seventy-three members of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Automotive, Food, Metals and Engineering Union (AFMEU) have entered their fourth week of strike action and are holding an around the clock picket outside Kraft's Port Melbourne factory.
The strike was called after the 73 electrical and maintenance workers were sacked with one week's notice on February 28. They were told that some might be able to retain their positions for three months to train workers from Skilled Engineering and the plant's own process workers to do their jobs.
Skilled Engineering is a body hire firm for one-off jobs. In the past the metalworkers and other unions have tried to prevent it from getting a hold in the manufacturing industry because the body hire system breaks down permanency of employment and award conditions.
The picket has stopped deliveries to Kraft, and all production at the plant has ceased.
Kraft must be getting desperate now; Misford was the first and only trucking company to break the picket line, on Friday, March 17. According to the striking workers, Kraft has been pressuring production workers and other employees to bring supplies through the picket line in the boots of their cars.
Many production workers covered by the National Union of Workers (NUW) are sympathetic to the strikers. Fifty members wanted to go out on a sympathy strike when the Misford trucks broke through the picket line.
The NUW leadership, which does not support the strike, threatened that it would not defend the 50 workers' jobs if they went out in sympathy. Earlier, when NUW members had voted not to unload the trucks that broke through the picket line, NUW officials organised a second vote to overturn the decision.
The company has a policy of hiring both full time and casual or supplementary workers, and playing one group off against the other.
The strikers have received extensive support from other workplaces. ETU and AFMEU members from other factories in the Port Melbourne area are prepared to walk out in support of the strikers if the picket is broken again.
The Kraft workers received the support of striking students attending the March 23 "No Fees" rally in Melbourne. After hearing of the strike, the students, many of whom live below the poverty line, took up a collection which was sent to the picketers.
Workers would appreciate any show of support; people are welcome to drop by the picket, or send money to the strike fund at Kraft Strike Fund, AFMEU, 174 Victoria Pde, East Melbourne 3002, ph 662 1333.