December 12, 2014
The Electrical Trades Union and The Services Union have praised Powerlink workers for rejecting a proposed Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.
ETU spokesman Stuart Traill said the close to 70 per cent “No” vote was “a massive blood nose” for Powerlink and showed that workers had “seen through” political interference.
“One down two to go,” Mr Traill said.
“We are proud that our members and their colleagues at the TSU and Professionals Australia across Powerlink put the future of their industry and future employees before their own immediate needs.
“They understood the government cannot be trusted to keep their word. They have the government’s myriad of broken promises seared in their memories.
“In voting ‘No’ they stood strong against an unprecedented management campaign that included phone calls to family homes outside of work hours, relentless text messages and internal propaganda.”
Mr Traill said workers had seen through the offered one-off job security clause.
“They were offering nothing our members didn’t already have, in fact the proposal was worse it took away job security for future employees,” he said.
Mr Traill said workers were adamant it was now up to Powerlink management to come back to the table and negotiate around the outstanding issues.
He rejected the notion that a ‘No’ vote meant it was back to square one.
“The assertion that a No vote will result in a clean slate is like saying Powerlink don’t like the result at half-time so they’ll take the ball home and not play,” he said.
“We are more than happy to sit down and nut out an agreement we can all live with, the ball as they say is now in Powerlink’s court.”
He said the vote had nothing to do with money; the unions had initially offered a roll-over agreement that included a 0 per cent pay rise in return for no loss of conditions.
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