RAAF jets hit in individual contracts row

For the third time in a month, Boeing Australia Ltd today stood down 42 AWU aircraft mechanical engineers from its maintenance plant at the RAAF's Williamtown Air Base, near Newcastle in New South Wales.

AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten said the workers wanted to keep working but had been stood down for imposing a paper work ban in protest against Boeing's refusal to negotiate a collective union agreement. A majority of the maintenance workers wanted an AWU agreement to replace individual contracts traditionally imposed by Boeing, a subsidiary of the US-based aerospace multinational Boeing Hawker de Havilland.

"Why isn't John Howard supporting the democratic right of the majority of the Boeing workers who want the freedom to choose a union collective agreement instead of individual contracts that offer lower wages and conditions?" Mr Shorten asked.

The AWU refuted Boeing's false claims that a minority of the workers at Williamtown wanted a union collective agreement. "A majority of 42 of the 62 aircraft maintenance workers have rejected Boeing's individual contract offer and want an AWU agreement instead. Any other staff such as managers or contractors at the air base will not be covered by our agreement and are irrelevant to the negotiations," said AWU Newcastle Branch Secretary Kevin Maher.

"Unlike Boeing's individual contracts, the AWU's collective agreement offers higher guaranteed pay rises, longer leave entitlements, increased job security, protection from unfair dismissal and equal pay for equal work," Mr Maher said.

"The Boeing dispute shows how John Howard's new industrial laws could be used to force individual contracts with worse pay and conditions onto workers anywhere in Australia. Boeing already has collective union agreements with its workers in the US and in Victoria. Why shouldn't the workers of Newcastle have the same rights?" Mr Shorten asked.

The AWU said that Boeing's action in standing down the maintenance workers could compromise Australia's defence readiness if it disrupted the training schedules for pilots in the FA-18 fleet. The Howard Government's own Defence White Paper in 2000 described the FA-18 fleet as the single most important component of Australia's defence infrastructure. The RAAF used the same Hornet fighter jets in the latest war in Iraq.

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