Feltex workers were definitely feeling the love on Friday, 3 November, when around 100 hundred people from Union Solidarity and the greater community turned up to a solidarity breakfast held in their support.

The workers face loosing all their entitlements now that Feltex have gone into liquidation and Godfrey Hirst has bought the company, for a song, through a shelf company with conveniently limited funds.

Evidently, the shelf company cannot afford to pay these workers for the many years (up to 40 years) service they have loyally given Feltex. And, now they expect the workers to sign AWAs that will effectively cut their terms and conditions, including their redundancy package entitlements based on the number of years they have served at their workplace. The AWAs are a condition of continued employment, which may be all very legal under Howard's WorkChoice laws. Just another example of how these laws undermine the rights of Australian workers.

The Textile Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia are taking the company to the Federal Court to test the legality of requiring employees to sign AWAs in these circumstances. Watch this space.

more info: Textile workers suffer AWA carpet burn | TCFUA

Labels: Community Assemblies, Feltex