Assault, intimidation, refusal of collective

Media Release: Dairy Workers Union
Tuesday September 22, 2009.

Assault, intimidation and refusal to negotiate collectively won’t help resolve Cheese factory dispute

The Dairy Workers Union says a dispute at Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese can be resolved, but the company needs to pull back from both its intimidation of the workforce, including an assault on one of its workers, and its refusal to accept that workers can choose to join a union and negotiate collectively.

“Open Country Cheese’s proposals would have turned most workers into seasonal and temporary workers and seen them subject to major and disruptive roster changes at short notice,” said James Ritchie, National Secretary of the Dairy Workers Union.

“When workers stood up for some basic fairness at work and job security, they were met with aggression. The company set up a bogus employment agency to casualise the workforce, have assaulted a worker, tried to block workers from accessing on-site union representation and this week have bandied around false accusations of environmental sabotage.”

Giovanni Moana is a worker at Open Country Cheese, who was last week assaulted by his manager.

“I was told to put my head through a window in the packing room at the factory. My manager slammed the sliding window on my head and put quite a bit of weight on to it. He then said next time he would throw tomatoes at me.”

“It was quite shocking really. It’s quite upsetting for me.”

Giovanni says he sought help from co-workers and laid a complaint with police.

James Ritchie said that the union would be following this matter up with the police to ensure it was properly investigated.

He said that the union remained open to discussions with Open Country Cheese, but the company needed to have a serious response to addressing its workers' concerns around job security.

ENDS

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