Support Telstra Workers
8.45 am Wednesday
4th March 2009
Melbourne Convention Centre
Corner of Flinders St and Clarendon St
-Nth of Yarra River

Bring Union Banners and Flags

more info: www.yourrightsattelstra.com/ | www.cepuconnects.org | Sol’s parting gift for call centre workers | CEPU Telecom & Services Branch 9349 4411

Labels: Community Protest, Telstra Strike, Upcoming Events

Rally
12.30pm Monday
9 Feb
Testra T Shop
Crn Bourke & Swanston Sts, Melbourne
Download support leaflet

Update: This action was called off due to the bushfires on the weekend
see. "Vic fires delay Telstra industrial action"

Currently Telstra workers are engaged in a landmark dispute with the company for a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA). However this is not just another EBA dispute.

Telstra workers are fighting for the right to a union negotiated agreement, the right to compulsory arbitration, to push back "WorkChoices" AWAs and they are fighting against a relentless management campaign to de-unionise the workforce. more...

more info: www.yourrightsattelstra.com/ | www.cepuconnects.org | support leaflet

Labels: Community Protest, Telstra Strike, Upcoming Events

Report from Clayton's Global Operations Center
7:30am - 12:00pm
Tues 16th December
Henderson's Road, Clayton

Last week a 9MSN poll returned a result that 90% of voters support striking Telstra workers. On Tuesday 16th December, Telstra workers walked out around the country in protected industrial action that is likely to last for weeks. Union Solidarity supporters joined Telstra workers at Clayton's Global Operations Center (GOC) which handles transmission problems across Australia.

Telstra workers from the Communications Electrical Plumbing Union (CEPU) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) want a collectively negotiated, union Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), not the so-called "Employee Collective Agreements" (ECAs), which are basically collective AWAs, currently offered by Telstra. Staff want better pay rises, conditions such as redundancy agreements set in stone, and improved arbitration procedures. The ECAs would eliminate most award conditions, reduce the rights of union officials in the workplace, introduce a six-day working week with low or no penalty rates, and reclassify pay scales against “market rates”. The ECAs would also lock the union out of future negotiations and would mean that working conditions would be subject to Telstra policy, not accountable to collectively negotiated union agreements.

The ECAs also enable different employment conditions between present and future Telstra workers. The legality of this is dubious. Legal firm Freehills are engineering a system whereby current workers employed under "Part A" would have better conditions than future employees, employed under "Part B". By voting to take protected industrial action, Telstra workers voted to protect the rights of future workers in a display of solidarity. If Telstra workers win the dispute, this may lead to the establishment of a legal precedent that prevents employers from imposing a lower set of conditions for people who are not yet employed.

The cornerstone of the ALP's industrial relations changes, to be introduced in July 2009, is "good faith bargaining". Telstra want to rush through ECAs and the "Part A, Part B" system in order to entrench lesser negotiation and arbitration rights for workers.

Over the past two days, Telstra has lost over $7.4 billion as its share price plummets in the wake of the strikes and the government's announcement that Telstra will be banned from the national broadband roll out.

Stay tuned for further updates and information about how you can support striking Telstra workers.

Labels: Community Protest, Telstra Strike