Opal is assuring its packaging grade customers that its contingency plans mean supply will continue without interruption, as the lockout of its 308 workers at the Maryvale Mill enters its fourth week.
The Nippon Paper Opal mill workers travelled to Melbourne for a rally outside the multinational’s headquarters in inner-city Richmond, protesting at what the union says is ‘the harshness of the lockout and the extreme action taken by the company’, and where they listened to union bosses lambasting Opal.
Opal says it is continuing to negotiate in good faith with its Maryvale Mill’s production team members and the CFMEU, to reach a “fair” Enterprise Agreement that “is relevant to the Mill’s current operations”.
The mill remains out of operation, with tensions over the dispute ratcheting up as union bosses accuse the company of bullying and abusing its power. The lockout was sparked by a stop-work action by seven workers at the mill.
The core of the dispute sees Opal seeking to redefine its enterprise agreement with staff, in light of the dramatic loss of production following the end of the log supply from VicForests a year ago, which resulted in the end of white paper manufacturing at Maryvale. Two of the five papermaking machines, M2 and M5, were decommissioned as a result of the loss of 200,000 tonnes of output, almost half its volume. Opal now only manufactures packaging grades at Maryvale.
However, the union sees the dispute as Opal wanting to cut wages for its staff, which it says it will not accept.
Opal says that its actions are a result of ‘protected industrial action that the CFMEU notified us they would undertake’, which impacted its ability to produce paper at the Maryvale Mill. It says as a result, it had to make the decision, in accordance with the Fair Work Act, to stop operations at the Mill and implement a legal lockout of its production team members covered by the CFMEU Agreement.
Opal says its goal is to have “our valued production team members” back to work as soon as possible.
However, ACTU president, Michele O’Neil has slammed Nippon Paper’s Opal management, demanding an immediate end to the lockout of the production workers, who have now been without wages for almost a month.
At the rally in Richmond O’Neil didn’t hold back, saying the lockout was “an abuse of power” by a multinational “seeking to crush” its Australian workforce. She called on Nippon Paper Opal local managers to sit down with workers and CFMEU Manufacturing for crisis talks to reopen the mill.
She said, “Nippon Paper Opal should have their workers’ backs. Instead of locking them out in an aggressive abuse of power, they should be sitting down with their loyal, skilled, long-term workforce to settle a new fair enterprise agreement.
“This is bullying on the part of Nippon Paper Opal, and completely out of proportion with workers exercising their legal right to bargain for the first time in two decades.
“Nippon Paper Opal has deep pockets, but instead of reaching a fair deal, have adopted a strategy designed to starve mill workers into accepting severe cuts to pay and conditions so they can go back to work.
“Nippon Paper executives in Japan seem to fail to grasp the gravity of the hardship being caused. This is not a game; workers, families and Latrobe Valley towns need these 300 jobs and Nippon Paper Opal needs to end this flagrant abuse of power.”
Opal says that as part of its EBA negotiations, it has reassured the CFMEU bargaining representatives that all production team members will receive increases to their annual salary for their rostered hours. It says how those increases are determined and calculated is up for negotiation.
An Opal spokesperson said, “We look forward to meeting with the CFMEU in the coming week to try and resolve these negotiations. Given our commitment to good faith bargaining and to the success of our Maryvale Mill, we remain confident that the Enterprise Agreement negotiations will be successfully resolved so that we can welcome our team members back to work.”
CFMEU Pulp & Paper president Denise Campbell-Burns went even further attacking Opal, she said, “Members at Nippon Paper’s Opal mill are standing strong and won’t be bullied into taking a pay cut.
“Nippon Paper Opal’s lockout is an attack on workers, an attack on families, and an attack on the Latrobe Valley. This company is showing complete disregard for the people who keep its operations running.
“If executives in Japan think Australian workers will roll over and accept pay cuts, they’ve got another thing coming. We don’t accept bullying, we don’t accept intimidation, and we won’t accept a deal that leaves workers worse off.”
