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28 July, 2005
A strike over issues seen as a sign of things to come under the Howard government ended in Australia on 4 July. One of those issues included unrestrained use of contract labour. Fifty-five mainly immigrant women began the strike against Kemalex Plastics 27 April backed by their union, ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers.
The strike was over the employer’s plan to make them all individual contractors, this disallowing protection from unfair dismissal, leaving them without sick leave and holiday pay, and excluding them from the mandatory 9% superannuation guarantee contribution. The strike galvanized Australian labour against Prime Minister John Howard’s industrial reforms. Strikers at the automotive components factory in Dandenong near Melbourne agreed to a compromise deal in which they will receive A$100 weekly in additional wages, and will remain permanent employees under an enterprise labour agreement.