Marrickville Council denies claims of union busting

BY LIZ CUSH
Marrickville Council’s Mayor Fiona Byrne has come under attack this month over an industrial dispute with waste collection workers.
Ms Byrne has rejected claims that council engaged in strike breaking and employing scab labour to undermine demands by unionised council workers.
But the Mayor distanced herself from the dispute saying council operations are under control of the council’s general manager Ken Gainger.
Cr Byrne says a letter from the Mr Gainger to the United Services Union (USU) was misinterpreted.
Marrickville Council is in continued negotiations with the union representing outdoor workers. 150 workers went on a one day strike on July 6, protesting council’s plans to outsource green waste collection services and to ban union officials from council worksites during work times.
The USU claimed council wanted to curtail the ability of union officials and delegates to organise in the workplace.
According to the union’s secretary general Grame Kelly, Mr Gainger’s email stated that union officials would have to produce union rights of entry certificates.
Mr Kelly said, “USU officials and delegates have also been instructed that they may only meet with aggrieved members during meal breaks, or before and after work hours.”
Cr Byrne said no correspondence was ever sent that forbid union meetings during work hours. She said the general manager’s letter asking for notice of union meetings was misinterpreted.
Council issued a statement saying it “has always welcomed union organisers into the council workplace and this will continue to be the case. Council has never refused any reasonable access requests in the past and will not do so in the future. The letter to which you refer simply asked the union to follow protocol when entering the Marrickville Council workplace, as based on the Local Government State Award 2010 and the NSW Industrial Relations Act 1996.”
The USU claims council had a strike-breaking army of scab workers ready to take the places of unionised workers.
Marrickville Labor Councillor and USU member Emanuel Tsardoulias placed the blame squarely on the mayor’s shoulders.
“Scab labour has not been used at Marrickville Council in over a century. It is appalling that the Greens Party Mayor chose to bring in scab labour as strike breakers without consulting any Labor or Independent councilors,” Cr Tsardoulias said.
But Cr Byrne denied that council was ready with a strike-breaking army. She said the workers described as scabs were agency casuals employed by the council.
“The green waste service has been collected by agency casuals for many years with approximately 10-15 per cent collected by our own staff,” Cr Byrne said.
“It is my understanding that when our staff took industrial action the casuals did not go on strike but went to work that day.”