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Why Holden workers should vote 'yes' | comment

Workers may miss out on planned 3 per cent pay rises each year for the next three years.

It’s been a long and bumpy ride for the 1700 Holden factory workers over the past two months. If you think you’re tired of reading about it, imagine how tired the workers themselves feel about being held to such scrutiny from friends, family - and members of the public who don’t know them or what they’re going through.

As one worker told us this week the Holden factory uniform stands out a little more than unusual these days - even in a queue at the local grocery store. Hopefully some good news is just around the corner for the workers and the communities they live in.

We hear from unions and Holden insiders that a yes vote is looking more likely now than a fortnight ago, when 85 per cent indicated they would vote no. Since then, Holden has backed down from some of the measures in its 41-point plan. Future voluntary redundancies of long term employees are capped at 90 weeks (not 52 week as was once floated). Only the redundancies of new starters are capped at 52 weeks.

And the 17.5 per cent leave loading has been maintained (it too was under the knife). If any Holden worker has any lingering doubt, however, they need only look at the first point on the first page of the 30-page amendment to their workplace agreement.

If Holden does not go ahead with the planned $1 billion of investment in two new models over the next 10 years then the new wages and conditions do not kick in - and the factory will close in late 2016.

If workers vote “yes” to the new agreement - and Holden has successful talks with whoever is leading Australia after the September 7 Federal election - then their livelihoods are assured for at least 10 years. And they’ll be able to negotiate new terms in 2017.

Think Holden’s bluffing? It’s not. General Motors is poised to close one of Germany’s oldest car factories, the Opel site in Bochum, because workers wouldn’t sign up to new conditions put to them last year.

But GM’s UK factory at Ellesmere Port got a stay of execution after 94 per cent of workers there voted to new wages and conditions and the UK government increased its level of support. The next generation Astra will be made there beyond 2020. While it is of course important to go through the details of the document, it’s worth noting a few other key facts.

Workers may miss out on planned 3 per cent pay rises each year for the next three years. But they can make up for most of that with productivity bonuses of between $1200 and $1800 per worker per year - if Holden cars sell well and the factory reaches its cost reduction targets.

To put that in perspective Toyota factory workers get a $250 bonus in a good year. Under the new conditions Holden workers will also still be paid between $1000 and $5000 more per annum than Toyota workers. If you’re not a Holden worker and are concerned about all the taxpayer money that’s been spent over the past 12 years - all $1.8 billion of it - then consider this.

Over that period Holden received on average of about $150 million a year from the public purse - but its workforce paid about $120 million back to the Federal Government in income tax annually. The net result is a handout of $30 million per year - less than $1.50 for every man, woman and child in Australia.

 

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