Freight strike – Organiser George Pavlou of the Victoria/Tasmania TWU branch outside TNT with frustrated workers. 60673

By Lia Bichel
HALLAM freight company workers went on strike for two days in the past week in a bid to secure a better workplace agreement.
On Thursday last week and Tuesday this week, many TNT workers who are TWU members, participated in national work stoppages and refused to load and unload outside hire vehicles that entered their workplaces.
TWU has been negotiating for months with TNT, one of the world’s largest freight companies, to pay site rates to labour hire, set up safe rates committees across its sites and increase workers’ superannuation.
A spokesperson for TWU said the union called on police to be at all sites on Tuesday after reported violence by contracting companies at last week’s strikes in Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and Adelaide.
But TNT denied there was violent behaviour at the work-stoppages and called on the assistance of police to ensure the safe passage of vehicles entering and exiting TNT sites.
The TWU spokesperson said TNT refused to negotiate over job security for casual and labour-hire employees, as well as increased superannuation- a claim the transport giant denied.
“We reject claims by the TWU that we are unwilling to negotiate in good faith and we continue to remain hopeful that these negotiations will be resolved without further detriment to TNT Express, our employees and most importantly our customers,” the TNT spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, TNT made an offer of a 4 per cent per annum wage increase, which is 12 per cent over the three-year term of the proposed EBA, with a CPI safety net.
But TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said TNT workers wanted increased superannuation.
“With a predicted 10-15 per cent increase in Australian operations through to 2015, they have no reason to cry poor on increased superannuation,” Mr Sheldon said.
“An extra one per cent superannuation for all employees and further increases over the coming years would allow members to retire with dignity.”