'Five-five-five' is the demand of dairy factory workers for three consecutive years of a five per cent wage increase. Photo: Andy Wilson
Workers in dairy processing factories across Victoria elected to strike on Wednesday, October 18 after seven months of negotiations over a pay rise stalled.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The 1400 workers at 11 different sites throughout the state held rallies at their factories, asking for three consecutive five per cent wage increases over the next three years.
More than 50 staff gathered at the Peters Ice Cream factory in Mulgrave in a picket organised by the United Workers Union.
Storeman David Chapman said the pay rise was warranted due to cost-of-living increases and the loyalty of staff during the pandemic.
“The cost of living is running at over five per cent at the moment, and it has been up to 7.8 (per cent),” Mr Chapman said.
“We have not had a pay increase since our last enterprise bargaining agreement which was over a year ago which was 2.75 per cent.
“The last official offer was four, three and then three per cent (over three years), but we are after five-five-five.
“They didn’t want to budge.”
Mr Chapman said there was a casual staff shortage during the pandemic due to “understandable” reasons of quarantining between factories, which placed more demands on permanent staff.
“We work hard here,” he said.
“We saw them through the pandemic, we turned up, so there was more reliance put on everybody who did work here to do more and more hours, which we did.
“We’ve been working harder and longer; the machines have not slowed down so the company is doing better and better.
“There’s more machines running for 24 hours than ever before so they are making more product.
“The bottom line is they can afford it. They just don’t want to share it.”
Peters Ice Cream storeman David Chapman says the pay increase is to match the rising cost of living and to recognise the commitment of employees. “We work hard here; we saw them through the pandemic.”
26°C