CONSERVATION & LAND MANAGEMENT

Fire Service Provision Negotiations

Negotiations have been carried out with calm reps over the past twelve months to upgrade calm fire service provisions. The reason these negotiations have taken so long was because of the involvement of other unions (mainly the CSA). The Government authorised senior Management to negotiate an ALL union FS Agreement but those negotiations fell apart after the CSA reneged on agreed positions at a meeting in front of the whole negotiating team.

The combined union negotiating team had agreed to take a stand on particular issues that had been tagged as difficult issues, at the meeting, the CSA delegates had unanimously agreed with all other union delegates to take a united stand and force the issue. Unfortunately, once the AWU team had tabled our concerns and it was time for the CSA to do the same, they didn't, this left the AWU on their own. This was after the AWU had sided with the CSA so as they would gain all the other benefits that they didn't have and the AWU had fought for and won for its members over the years. The CSA went on to agree with management and finalise the agreement and have it registered in the AIRC as the All Union Agreement that only pertained to them.

Our delegates with the support of the membership have now completed the negotiations on our FSA and will soon supply copies to the membership for acceptance or rejection. Once again we stand tall in CALM as the Union that cares most for its members and allows the membership to drive the agreement negotiations.

The CSA agreement is inferior to our package and their members should be rightfully outraged at the effort their team put in to those negotiations. The AWU delegates should be happy with the final outcome of this package and the members should thank their delegates for their effort as the negotiations have been hard and furious; they stuck to the plan and obtained a good result.

The agreement will be back-dated for all AWU workers which will also rub it in to the CSA because that was one of the reasons they caved in early as they thought we wouldn't achieve the back-payment. The final DRAFT will be out in the work centres shortly for all to see and vote on.