Around 150 workers in the Australian city of Sydney have been in a brutal struggle from last August against their employer, Streets Ice Cream, a subsidiary of the global giant Unilever, over a new enterprise agreement. The company wants to reduce workers’ wages by over 40%, as well as cuts to overtime and redundancy payments. Workers have made a video on the effects that such savage cuts would have on them and their families. The company is now trying to silence workers by threatening them with dismissal if they comment publicly on any aspects of the dispute. While a boycott of Streets Ice Cream has been proposed, co-ordinated industrial actions at other Unilever sites around the world would be much more effective in maximising workers’ power.
Around 150 workers in the Australian city of Sydney have been in a brutal struggle from last August against their employer, Streets Ice Cream, a subsidiary of the global giant Unilever, over a new enterprise agreement. The company wants to reduce workers’ wages by over 40%, as well as cuts to overtime and redundancy payments. Workers have made a video on the effects that such savage cuts would have on them and their families. The company is now trying to silence workers by threatening them with dismissal if they comment publicly on any aspects of the dispute. While a boycott of Streets Ice Cream has been proposed, co-ordinated industrial actions at other Unilever sites around the world would be much more effective in maximising workers’ power.
