Fed: Talks fail to resolve car industry dispute

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2001
Fed: Talks fail to resolve car industry dispute

SYDNEY, Aug 6 AAP - Marathon talks between employers and unions have been unable to
resolve the dispute crippling Australia's car industry.

After emerging from a meeting lasting almost 12 hours at 1.30 this morning, unions
and the Australian Industry Group (AIG) were no closer to resolving the increasingly bitter
dispute at Sydney car component manufacturer Tristar Steering and Suspension, which has
forced nearly 12,000 car workers nationwide off work.

Each party blamed the other for the failure to end the dispute.

Three of the country's four major car makers have had to cease production because of
the dispute, sparked by Tristar's refusal to sign up to a trust fund unions say will protect
workers' entitlements.

Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) national secretary Doug Cameron told
reporters the union recommendation at today's mass meeting of workers, at Tristar's Sydney
headquarters, would be that the trust fund, Manusafe, was the preferred option over the
employer's offer of an insurance bond to protect workers' entitlements.

"We tried and tried and tried everything in there. We compromised out position... but
after nearly 12 hours, we have been unsuccessful," Mr Cameron said.

AIG industrial relations general manager Stephen Smith, representing Tristar, said
the company had offered to protect workers' entitlements 100 per cent with an insurance
bond, but unions still insisted the company use Manusafe.

"It proves that the issue has not been about protection of entitlements, but more so
about increasing entitlements," he said.

Mr Smith said there were numerous problems with Manusafe, which was a scheme about
extending entitlements, and the company was strongly opposed to putting money into it.

The federal government yesterday urged employers not to compromise with unions before
the talks resumed.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott yesterday insisted the union behind the strike
back down, calling its action bloody-minded.

Mr Abbott said the motor industry did not deserve this kind of industrial vandalism.

"You don't compromise with this kind of union bloody-mindedness - the only answer to
this problem is a back-down by the union," he told ABC television.

"I have a lot of sympathy for the workers, but in this case the union interest is dead
against the long-term interests of the workers."

Unions regard the dispute as a test case in safeguarding the entitlements of workers
when companies collapsed.

"The days of employers frittering away, stealing or removing workers' entitlements
in this country should be gone," Mr Cameron said.

He called on the federal government to take responsibility to ensure this was fixed up.

Mr Cameron said the insurance bond offer from Tristar would cost workers $750 a year
each to fund.

But Mr Smith denied Tristar workers would have to contribute to the insurance bond.

The company had offered an 8 per cent wage increase over a two-year period and payment
of the insurance bond, he said.

The Industrial Relations Commission will hold a hearing today at 3pm, following which
it will announce whether it has decided to suspend or terminate the bargaining period.

If it does so, any further industrial action would be illegal.

AAP ph/rs

KEYWORD: CARS DAYLEAD

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