Explosive CUB diary note reveals plan to 'shoot the s---' out of workers

Sydney Morning Herald
May 18 2017

Beer giant Carlton & United Breweries has been grilled over an entry in a manager's diary that outlines a strategy to "win the war" against union workers protesting job cuts.

In a Senate inquiry on Thursday, CUB brewery manager Sebastian Siccita was presented with a page from his diary describing a strategy to overcome a six-month protest line outside the Abbotsford brewery gates, including to "shoot the poo out them" and "cut their supply lines and starve them out - through legal fees and defamation".   

Trade unions said they were "shocked and appalled" at the emergence of notes kept by management during the dispute, which was sparked last year over the termination of the brewery's entire maintenance workforce.   

Mr Siccita was taken by surprise when the Senate committee chairman, Labor's Gavin Marshall, showed him the copy of the document and began questioning him on what he meant by the comments from September last year.

At one point, Mr Siccita attempted to retain the diary after being handed it, saying, "it's mine."

Senator Gavin Marshall told Mr Siccita he had privilege over the document, but thanked him for acknowledging the diary was in fact his.

He took the questions on notice and said he could not recall what the notes were about.

The Senate inquiry was probing CUB's handling of what became one of Australia's highest-profile industrial feud in years.

The dispute started after the brewer dumped a long-standing maintenance contract. The decision left 55 workers out of a job after they refused to reapply with a new contractor on vastly lower pay and non-union conditions.

The laid-off workers and their union officials protested outside the gates for six months, prompting sometimes ugly confrontations, while the broader union movement launched a national boycott campaign, urging drinkers to split with some of CUB's most popular beers, such as VB, Carlton Draught, Melbourne Bitter, Pure Blonde and Fat Yak.
Cruel battle tactics

Electrical Trades Union state secretary Troy Gray said he had never seen such a cruel battle plan, from a manager "so focussed on cutting the wages of loyal, skilled workers".

"What these secret documents reveal is what overly powerful corporations are prepared to do when they think no one's watching," he said, "when the system encourages them to go after working people and there aren't ruled to rein them in."

Mr Gray said this was a "glimpse into what unions are defending workers from every day".

The six-month-long dispute ended shortly after CUB was taken over by AB InBev late last year.

CUB vice-president of legal and corporate affairs, Craig Katerberg, said the new company had been "interested in resolving it as soon as possible" and soon hired the workers back on their full pay and conditions.

"We looked at the situation and thought it could have been done better," Mr Katerberg said.

"It was clear CUB should have taken a more collaborative and consultative approach."

The company said it had since adopted a "more consultative approach" with workers and their unions at the Abbotsford plant.



Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said employers had been hiring lawyers to work out ways to "change the balance of power" in Australia's industrial relations system, and the union movement now believed the "rules are broken".

"Employers have investigated every way to get around the rules, just like they do with tax laws," she said.   

"It should never be this hard for workers to resolve a dispute ... this one took a nationwide consumer boycott [of CUB products]."

Ms McManus, who was elected ACTU secretary earlier this year, said she hoped the Senate committee's inquiry would "bring out into the open" the unfair practices that had become commonplace, and lay the groundwork for reforms of the Fair Work Act under a future Labor government.

"This is part of the reason we have got record low wage growth; because people don't have the power to bargain," she said. 

"We are united in our quest to change the rules."
'Difficult time'

After the hearing, a company spokesman said the diary entry had been written during a "difficult time in the dispute" and did not reflect the strategy of CUB management.

"While it is disappointing that the manager's missing notebook has been using in this fashion in a Senate committee, CUB and its new management team is focused on the future and good relations at all its work sites," the spokesman said.

CUB also said it was pleased that the dispute was able to be resolved within two months of AB InBev sealing its merger with CUB.

Couldn't they get a job elsewhere?



If you don't like the company you work for, friggen leave don't sit around for 6 months on no pay b1tching and moaning about the conditions.


If you have skills you'll get another job soon enough and they (the brewery) want to pay sh1t,m they'll get sh1t tradies and pay the price for their stupid decisions.


Why the hell is victoria still carrying on like it is still the 1980s?

CUB manager planned to ‘shoot’ workers shut out for refusing lower wages
18 May 2017


A senate inquiry this morning revealed that CUB management kept notes describing the CUB 55 dispute in 2016 as a ‘war’ and had a strategy to ‘shoot the sh*t’ out of the striking workers in order to avoid paying them their fair wages and conditions. 

In August 2016, CUB dumped a longstanding contract that left 55 CUB workers without a job. The workers were asked to reapply for their jobs with a new contractor but with their pay slashed by up to 65 per cent and non-union conditions.

This dispute highlights the mentality of employers who feel unrestrained by the current workplace relations system and have the power to attack workers and their rights in any way they see fit.   

The outcome of that dispute, which saw the workers return to their jobs with their conditions intact, is to the immense credit of the 55 workers who refused to be pushed around by the iconic Australian company and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Electrical Trade Union who supported them.

Quotes attributable to Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Sally McManus:

“The CUB 55 dispute showed that when working people pull together they have the power to take on the biggest corporations in the world and win.”   

“The actions of CUB management were a case study in how employers are rorting the system and how the system is allowing them to get away with it.”   

“The use of labour hire to cut the wages of existing jobs, the refusal to bargain in good faith, and the use of enterprise agreements signed by tiny groups of workers on the other side of the country years before is all too common.”

“We welcome the admission today by CUB and InBev that CUB’s approach to the dispute was a mistake which they will try to learn from in future.”

“The revelations from the senate inquiry this morning are concerning but show what unions are fighting against every day — a system which has given too much power to employers. The mentality of these employers is to rort the system, treat workers as a cost rather than as people and destroy union agreements as a way to lower costs and cut corners.”

ENDS

BigOl64 wrote on May 19^th, 2017 at 10:16am:


Because Victoria and the Unions still think it's the 1980's. Don't even have to get your car inspected at your annual registration renewal down here. It's such a backwards state.

I prefer to let the stats speak for themselves.
Victoria's economy is not at the bottom half of the states and territories.  Hasn't been for a long, long time.

Grappler Deep State Feller wrote on May 20^th, 2017 at 12:19pm:



Well the Tuckshop lady is pro-jobs sort of (for SEQ only), her deputy jackie trad is anti-jobs (especially NQ) and the only people the suffer are North Queenslanders, so  situation normal.

whiteknight wrote on May 19^th, 2017 at 8:52am:


Imported or domestic?