CTU Appeal – Helen Kelly Misleading
CTU Appeal – Helen Kelly Misleading
Affco today said the nationwide appeal by CTU
President Helen Kelly to support locked out Affco workers is
incorrect and misleading.
All the Union’s members
are on strike. A minority of the long-term strikers have
been locked out and number 350.
Pressure to end the
hardship must come onto the Union, which refused Affco’s
return to work offer and instead kept workers on
strike.
The Union is forcing hardship on its
members with the ongoing strikes. After making
constructive offers to the Union, it’s now up to Union
leadership to demonstrate a real desire to make
progress.
Affco have provided an offer containing a
definitive timeline to the Union that would have seen all
its members back at work. The Union rejected that offer.
Despite this, Affco lifted the lockout notice for a further
300 workers, with the Union choosing blanket strike action
across all its members.
The Union has rejected 3
subsequent offers as they did not agree to a timeline to
enter into meaningful negotiations.
Affco has
repeatedly stated its desire to see meaningful bargaining
take place, resulting in real progress towards a new
collective agreement.
To date the Union has not
shown a willingness to do so.
The public should
also question where any donations will end up given that the
Meat Workers Union still has not lodged a full disclosure of
income and expenditure set of its accounts with the
Registrar of Incorporated Societies despite requests to do
so.
ENDS