Holden workers vote on future today

Holden workers are today expected to vote “yes” to changes in wages and conditions that will help secure the manufacturing future of the company to 2022. The 1700 votes will be tallied this afternoon but Holden won’t reveal the outcome until later in the week.

A further 1000 Holden workers in Victoria - employed in engineering and at the engine factory in Port Melbourne - are obliged to vote on the changes affecting their South Australian colleagues even though the new deal does not apply to them.

Critical to the positive outcome is the first point in the new agreement that protects Holden factory workers if the car giant backs out of its plans to invest $1 billion in two new models over the next 10 years.

If Holden does not go ahead with those plans by this December then workers will automatically stay on their current wages and conditions - but the factory will likely close at the end of 2016, about the same time as Ford.

The SA secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union John Camillo, who has been talking to workers on the production line during negotiations and then every day since the new agreement was published, says he has “a gut feeling” the 1700 employees will vote for the changes.

During preliminary negotiations Mr Camillo said up to 90 per cent of workers were ready to vote “no” because at the time Holden was foreshadowing wage cuts of up to $200 a week and putting a 52-week cap on redundancy payouts. “My gut feeling is that the vote will get up,” Mr Camillo said last night. “But to be honest it’s too close to call. It’s up to the workers to decide.”

The unions and Holden have been silent on predicting an outcome. Mr Camillo said he would not advise members either way. But Mr Camillo says the mood has changed now that workers have a better understanding of the new deal, which still gives them bigger productivity bonuses than Toyota factory workers even though Holden wages have been frozen for three years.

“Last week there was a strong rejection because there was a lot of confusion about the wording of the contract,” said Mr Camillo. “Up to 90 per cent were going to vote no. But as we explained things to everyone, the balance has swung more and more the other way.”

Mr Camillo said the whole process has been emotionally draining on its workers. “There are a lot of people very concerned about paying their mortgage, their bills and what the future is for Holden,” he said. “People have been going to work every day under stress because they don’t know what the outcome is going to be. The uncertainty is causing them a lot of issues.”

Even if Holden workers vote “yes” to the changes, the manufacturing future of the company is not guaranteed until it secures further support from the Federal government after the September election. Holden is due to start installing new equipment by the end of this year to prepare for the cars it will build from 2017 to 2022. “We will see the groundwork being done in the body shop in October, November, December this year… and if that work commences we know Holden is fair dinkum in regards to the new models.”

Last week the president of the Australian Council Trade Unions Gerardine Kearney took the unusual step of voicing her support for the new deal. “This has been a hard decision, what has been negotiated at Holden, and I’m really incredibly proud of the union to have come to this point,” Ms Kearney told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“We’ve done it before. Back in the ’80s we sacrificed a three per cent pay rise to implement superannuation. I hope (the workers) look to the long-term viability of that industry and that company.”

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling