Printers locked out by The West Australian

Some 102 print staff are being locked out of the pressroom at the West Australian newspaper in a dispute over a new agreement, with casuals now printing the paper.

Seven West management has locked out the printers of The West Australian after they refused to accept changes to the EBA, which the AMWU says would "slash" their conditions. The paper currently being printed by casuals has seen various results in quality.

“We took the unfortunate, but necessary decision to lock striking workers out indefinitely following a walk-out on 3 February in an effort to bring the union to the negotiating table and to avoid significant ongoing workplace disruption,” Seven West said.

“We remain committed to negotiations to provide sustainable employment conditions and hope to resolve a deal.” 

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) says it will continue its ongoing labour dispute with Seven West Media in light of the current worker lockout after negotiations again failed to come to terms.

Lorraine Cassin, federal secretary for the print division at the AMWU, told Print21, “They went back into bargaining again and put an even harsher offer than what’s currently on the table, so they are obviously not trying to come to this to resolve the issue, which is pretty disgraceful from our point of view."

“And this is a company that made $400m last financial year, on top of $47m in Jobkeeper payments from the federal government. Senior executives have even had an increase in their salaries in the last 12 months. 

“On the other hand, workers were only asking for a two per cent wage increase, a minimal wage increase, and the company came with a huge log of claims, including taking away some of the current personal leave provisions during a pandemic. 

“We don’t understand why they’re taking such a harsh view to their workers who have been loyal during the pandemic and come to work, and are asking for just what we would consider a reasonable wage increase, which the workers haven’t received at all for two and a half years now.”

“The workers have only taken one full hour of stoppage during their protest, that’s all they took, and in retaliation they’ve had 21 days locked out by the company, which goes to show that we’ve got some serious issues in this country in terms of industrial relations laws,” Cassin added.

“You’d think someone at a government level would’ve stepped in to intervene, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is interested to do so and pull this all back in to line, in terms of representing the workers. 

“All we can do is keep approaching the company and appealing to them to withdraw their outrageous claims that they’ve put on the table. In my view, the company needs to come to the table sensibly and negotiate fair wages and conditions for its workers.” 

The AMWU recently took a campaign of action over the dispute with Seven West Media’s biggest advertisers, JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys.