More industrial unrest because of Gillard’s employment relations package, this time in the one industry that makes this economy:
The warning came as Fair Work Australia deputy president Brendan McCarthy was last night locked in a meeting with Woodside Energy in a last-ditch bid to stop workers building its $12 billion Pluto gas plant in the Pilbara from walking off the job again as early as today.
In an internal memo obtained by The Australian, Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Sam Walsh warned staff that the ramp-up in industrial activity under the Rudd government’s new workplace laws could serve as an omen for Rio Tinto and other companies in the Pilbara.
Mr Walsh described last week’s illegal strike by 1600 Pluto workers over accommodation demands as “disappointing” and “unnecessary”, and said the action had been “encouraged” by the militant Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
It behooves conservative media types like Alan Jones to stop cuddling up toward Gilland and start exposing her as the militant socialist she clearly is. With the left, one has to ignore what they say and only consider what they do and what they don’t do. Gillard talks using mainstream language, but her policy actions on employment relations are not mainstream. At least some one is calling Gillard out:
WA Premier Colin Barnett has urged federal Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard to “roll up her sleeves” and help settle the growing number of crippling disputes in the Pilbara, which last week saw members of the Maritime Union of Australia secure pay rises of up to $50,000 in exchange for no productivity gains. Ms Gillard did not return calls from The Australian last night.
Gillard is on the run, and like virtually every other policy announced by the Rudd government, employment relations is falling apart and going back to the bad old days of the 1970s – 1990s.