Legislative Council
GREENS MOTION: Rann Must Intervene in Tristar Dispute
July 25th, 2007
On the 25th of July, Mark Parnell moved the following motion in the SA Legislative Council:
That this Council notes:
(a) the long-running industrial dispute at Tristar Steering & Suspension Australia Limited; and,
(b) the location in Adelaide of the company’s owners and directors
and calls on the Premier to convene a meeting of the parties to the dispute, with a view to assisting in its resolution.
The Hon. M. PARNELL: Currently in Sydney a human tragedy is unfolding, and it is a human tragedy that has its genesis in Adelaide. Some 29 employees of the Tristar factory in Marrickville are involved in a war of attrition. They are paid to come to work every day to do nothing. Despite there being no work for them to do, the company refuses to make them redundant until the time is reached when it will be cheaper for them to be sacked.
Tristar is part of the Arrowcrest group of companies which is based here in Adelaide, and it is in Adelaide that all the high profile Arrowcrest and Tristar directors live. Meanwhile, the workers that they employ in Sydney watch the clock ticking down until their lifetime entitlements are stripped from them and they are made redundant. Despite the federal government's multimillion dollar advertising campaign to reassure Australian workers that their wages, conditions and entitlements are secure under WorkChoices, the Tristar workers are experiencing calculated treatment by their employers that is destroying not only their physical and mental health but also their dignity as human beings.
Yet despite this story rightly dominating the media in Sydney and Canberra and its clear links with Adelaide, it has barely caused a ripple here in South Australia. The truth is that Adelaide is the key to resolving this conflict. As I have said, the people with the power to resolve the dispute, the owners and directors of the company, all reside here. The Greens have been supporting the Tristar workers and the unions that represent them. We want to highlight the plight of the Tristar workers and their families by asking the Rann government to recognise the unique and pivotal role that it can play in helping to resolve this unjust and tragic situation.
A bit of background might be useful to honourable members. Arrowcrest purchased Tristar Steering and Suspension Australia Ltd of Carrington Road, Marrickville, from a United States company, TRW, in December 1999. The company manufactured auto components for export and domestic consumption. It supplied some 300 000 steering gear systems to the four Australian car manufacturers and reportedly turned over $70 million a year. At that time there were more than 600 employees, and the workers' entitlements were guaranteed, both through the site enterprise agreement and a specific account to cover liabilities.
Tristar ceased manufacturing in the first half of 2006 and, effectively, there has been no work for the remaining Tristar employees since that time. Under the Tristar employees' original certified agreement, if the company was to simply shut down its operations they would be obliged to pay entitlements for each year of an employee's service, with forced redundancies to be paid at four weeks pay for each year of service (uncapped) and voluntary redundancies to be paid at the same rate but capped at a maximum of 52 weeks. But there was a lot of money to be saved. The Arrowcrest bosses calculated that it would be cheaper to simply keep these long‑term employees on board until their certified agreement expired, rather than pay out the legitimate redundancy entitlements they were owed. The workers could then be terminated with only their bare award payments.
Quite cynically, Arrowcrest provided redundancy payments to their more recent employees because their payouts were not terribly substantial, but they kept the longest serving employees on. The remaining workers are some of the longest serving employees of Tristar and, therefore, are the most expensive to pay out under the redundancy provisions. Some of these employees have been with the company for more than 45 years. One worker, who I heard about today, a woman, has been with the company for 49 years. I thought I misheard it when I was first told that. I thought she was 49 years old, but, no, she has been with the company for 49 years. As Tristar wound down its operations in Australia, it prepared to set up joint venture operations in India and China.
When the workers returned to work after the Christmas break this year, it was to find that all of the machinery had been removed, there was only one toilet for men and women to share and no access to water, other than this one toilet. Whilst there have been some improvements since the workers' union and New South Wales WorkCover became involved, it remains little more than the corner of a huge, empty shed. Everyone who has gone to the Tristar factory, including federal Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey, has stated that they can see no current manufacturing at the site and little or no hope of future work.
The company's operations manager has given evidence under oath on two separate occasions that the company has no customers, no clients and no contracts. Those with experience in the industry say that there is no medium to long‑term work in this field. The local market is already flooded with cheap imports and most local manufacturing has already gone offshore to China. The workers are, therefore, in every sense, redundant and should be paid their full redundancy entitlements, yet the company refuses to pay redundancy packages to the remaining 29 workers.
I want to speak briefly about the case of one worker, Mr John Beaven. Despite the appalling behaviour towards all the workers, what really hit the headlines, especially on the eastern seaboard, was the company's disgraceful treatment of John Beaven. John Beaven's first and only job was as the accounts manager at Tristar. He worked there his entire working life, a total of 43 years. Then a double tragedy struck: on Christmas day 2005, his wife, who was also the mother of his three children, died of cancer, and then shortly afterwards John himself was diagnosed with cancer of the bowel and liver.
Knowing that he was about to die and desperate to provide for his three children, aged 17 to 21 years, all of whom are dependent students, John applied for voluntary redundancy on 12 December 2006. Although they processed at least 20 other redundancy applications around the same time, and despite knowing his circumstances and his lengthy years of loyal service to the company, the Tristar directors did not approve John Beaven's redundancy payment but retained him as an employee, even though he was in a hospice. It was clearly cheaper to pay sick pay than to pay redundancy.
Mr Beaven died in Calvary Hospital at Kogarah, Sydney, on Australia Day this year. He had just turned 61.
In the hours before he passed away, under immense public pressure resulting from the campaign waged by his union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Tristar finally agreed to pay John Beaven voluntary redundancy. Under the certified agreement, the AMWU says that he was owed more than $200 000 as a forced redundancy payment. In the end, he was paid around one quarter of this amount. `He will probably be dead in the morning', his brother‑in‑law John Pert told ABC Radio. `We got the cheque to him and he said, "Thank you". Those were probably his last words, actually', and that was from a media transcript.
No Australian deserves this undignified exit. The company's actions in this case were abhorrent and morally reprehensible. But there are many more stories. The group of 29 workers, including five women, is made up of mostly post‑World War II migrants who began working for Tristar soon after arriving in this country. They came to Australia to escape and to start a new life for themselves and their children. They have worked hard and paid their taxes. If Tristar closes down or terminates them, they will have enormous difficulty finding new work.
Today I was pleased to host Greg and Cristeta Rutherford in Adelaide.
Greg is an engineer who has worked at the Tristar factory for 31 years. It was an absolute privilege to meet him and his wife. He is softly-spoken but incredibly articulate about what is happening to him and his fellow workers. He has shown amazing courage in coming to Adelaide to help promote their plight. Accompanying Greg and Cristeta was Aron Nielson, who represented the New South Wales AMWU.
Sydney radio journalist, Alan Jones, has said the Tristar site has `working conditions that wouldn't have passed the factory acts of Britain in the 19th century'.
I think it is important for this council to realise that the redundancy arrangements that were a part of the Tristar certified agreement are not an unusual package in this industry and, since the workers are not well paid and do not hold large superannuation savings, the redundancy package is and remains quite fair and reasonable. It was a package negotiated and agreed to by the workers and by Tristar. Yet, if the company's strategy is successful, Tristar's remaining workers could end their working lives with as little as 12 weeks' pay.
This is a war of attrition in every sense and it is highlighted by the despicable harassment of workers who dare to speak out about their situation.
For example, Simon Kokinovski, who has worked at Tristar for 32 years, told a New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission inquiry that, since the company had warned him off, he has been too frightened to talk to the media. He said, `I'm scared for my job. For my existence, I'm scared.' Marty Peek, a supervisor and former union delegate, has been with the company for 35 years. He is currently fighting an unlawful dismissal case in the New South Wales Supreme Court, after the company dismissed him for talking to the media. The company has also threatened defamation actions against Marty and a number of journalists.
In this context, the courage that Greg Rutherford has shown today in coming to Adelaide is quite extraordinary.
The key reason for me moving this motion is to point out that Adelaide is the key to this dispute. It appals me that in Australia in 2007 this situation could occur and that those with influence have been so loath to do anything to stop it. What is worse is that all of the people behind this shocking story are prominent and respectable South Australians. Arrowcrest remains a highly profitable group. It continues to operate here in South Australia, including an auto component, ROH, and farm equipment company, John Shearer.
The key decision-maker is undoubtedly Andrew Gwinnett, who is the ultimate owner and principal shareholder of the group of companies. According to the Sydney Morning Herald of 3 February this year, Mr Gwinnett stands to profit directly from the continuing Tristar dispute. Mr Gwinnett has insisted that he has no connection with the day-to-day running of Tristar, since he is simply the chairman of the Arrowcrest group.
However, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show that not only is he a director of Tristar, through two holding companies (GCF Investments and Aroh Corporation): he owns more than 98 per cent of Arrowcrest. The only other Tristar shareholder is Cheng Hong. Tristar paid the men $12.5 million in dividends in 2005 and 2006.
As reported in The Australian on 31 January 2007, Mr Gwinnett owns at least five properties in South Australia worth more than $6 million. He has been described as `a leading figure in Adelaide business circles'. Recently, in February, he was reappointed by Premier Rann to the board of the Art Gallery of South Australia. His term expires in 2010.
Another key Adelaide identity involved in this story is Michael Abbott, who is chair of the board of the Art Gallery of South Australia and Mr Gwinnett's lawyer. In recent articles The Advertiser and The Adelaide Review have listed a number of lucrative SA government contracts held by Gwinnett's group and by individual directors within the group. So, while this travesty is going on in Sydney, in Adelaide the company, its owners and directors carry on their respectable lives as normal without impediment or challenge.
From early on, the unions representing the Tristar workers have asked Premier Rann to use his good offices to assist in resolving this dispute. The unions have written to both the Premier and the Minister for Employment, and they have telephoned their offices. The workers themselves have also written to the Premier desperately asking for his support. There have also been letters, including briefings, written to state Labor members of parliament.
The AMWU flew its lawyer and senior officials to Adelaide to meet with Minister Wright, and they were granted only a few minutes for an interview, without any offer of support. There has been no follow-up assistance offered since. During the ALP national conference the unions tried to arrange for Premier Rann to visit the Tristar factory, a mere five minutes away from Darling Harbour, where the conference was held. They hoped that such a visit would provide a morale boost to the workers at Tristar and might help Premier Rann better appreciate the impact of the dispute.
Despite a veritable conga line of Labor politicians to visit the Tristar site—including Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Anthony Albanese, Kim Beazley, Robert McClelland, New South Wales Minister for Industrial Relations John Della Bosca, and New South Wales Minister for Education Carmel Tebbutt—Premier Rann could not find the time. By the time the unions were finally able to track down the Premier at the ALP national conference, the media had also taken an interest and the Premier made a hasty departure; again, without offering to assist in resolving this spiralling debacle.
The lack of support from the Rann government has surprised and deeply disappointed both the unions and the Tristar workers. The Premier has a wonderful opportunity to use his personal connection with Mr Gwinnett and other directors to broker a meeting of the parties. In an effort to raise the issue in Adelaide, the unions organised an exhibition outside the Art Gallery of South Australia, where Andrew Gwinnett is a member of the board. The exhibition of 29 giant photos of the remaining Tristar workers was designed to expose the human face of the dispute. The exhibit received good coverage in the media but, apparently, has not changed the minds of either the company or our Premier.
There is another murky and disappointing connection between the Rann Labor government and Arrowcrest. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Arrowcrest has donated at least $26 880 to the South Australian branch of the Labor Party, and $750 to the federal branch of the ALP over the last eight years. The South Australian Liberals accepted $69 001 and the federal Liberals, $2002.
It is disturbing that Labor pockets nearly $28 000 from Tristar's parent company whilst, at the same time, many of its members are expressing concern for Tristar workers. The Greens say that this money should be given to the workers and their families.
Whilst this is a deeply human tragedy, it is also a very high profile example of the worst excesses possible under the WorkChoices regime. In The Adelaide Review on 2 February this year, John Spoehr said:
"It is clear that WorkChoices is emboldening employers to take mean and capricious action against their employees. The hardship that Beavan and his fellow workers have faced at Tristar is not simply a product of corporate immorality, it is a manifestation of the WorkChoices system which fails to recognise that equality of bargaining power between individual workers and companies is illusory. The Tristar case illustrates this harsh reality. The WorkChoices legislation enabled Tristar to put in place new arrangements that significantly reduced the level of redundancy entitlements available to employees under their enterprise agreement.
The unilateral termination by Tristar of the agreement meant that redundancy entitlements were cut from four weeks' pay for every year of service to a maximum of 12 weeks' pay. WorkChoices stripped away the capacity of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to arbitrate and resolve the case in a fair way. It took intense media pressure on the government to persuade it to intervene".
Indeed, WorkChoices does encourage the very worst in the worst employers. Reasonable employers are forced to compete with unscrupulous employers who undercut competition through a reduction in wages and conditions now encouraged by WorkChoices, including casualisation, individual contracts and AWAs.
With the stripping away of the powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to be an effective arbitrator and conciliator of disputes, effectively, workers have nowhere to go for independent assistance. Under WorkChoices, there is no requirement on employers to negotiate on the issue of protection of entitlements, and workers can be locked out and have other wages and conditions usurped. Adelaide was at the centre of another similar dispute involving workers' redundancy entitlements last year, this time involving Radio Rentals. If companies like Tristar are able to get away with their current actions, many more employees throughout the country will be facing the same horrible situation of seeing their entitlements stripped away.
The Greens believe that workplace laws should be fair, protect all workers from unjust treatment, promote industrial harmony and enable us to organise collectively to negotiate fair pay and conditions. We believe that WorkChoices and the federal government's other industrial relations law changes have not been in the interests of working Australians, families or small businesses. They will not strengthen our economy or improve our way of life; in fact, they will undermine it by lowering wages and stripping back awards, rights and conditions for which we have fought so hard over the last century. They are a none too subtle effort by the federal coalition to destroy the union movement and to make the already powerful in our society even more powerful. The Greens are part of the campaign opposing these reforms. We are active in workplaces, the community and parliament, defending the rights of working people and our unions.
The motion I move today directly requests the intervention of Premier Rann to assist the resolution of this long-running dispute. I believe Premier Rann has a unique opportunity to help the workers at Tristar. He can, and should, intervene to assist. He has the opportunity and, surely, he has the motivation. Today, when asked in question time by the member for Mitchell in another place whether he would intervene, the Premier said that he could not comment on a matter that is before the federal court. I do not believe that that is a valid reason. Certainly, it has not stopped his New South Wales Labor colleagues from coming out in support of the workers.
In conclusion, this is an appalling and shocking situation. It has shocked even experienced union officials who have felt personally affected by their inability—despite extraordinary efforts—to resolve this dispute. They, and the families of the workers, have been forced to watch as the workers' health and dignity have been stripped away. It appears that in this case greed has outweighed decent Australian values. The Howard government has been dragged kicking and screaming by Alan Jones, and others, to intervene. Joe Hockey has described the employers as `criminal' and `ratbags'. Even John Howard has described the employers as `immoral'.
The reputation of Adelaide has taken a big hit in Sydney. Alan Jones refers to the Tristar group as `that lot in Adelaide'. The strong perception many in Sydney have been left with is of Adelaide aristocracy living the high life while Sydney battlers have been screwed.
If the solution really is here in Adelaide—as it appears that it is—not only is it appropriate but it is imperative that this council intervene to assist. In particular, I expect the support of the members on the government benches, many of whom have fought similar industrial battles in their working past. I acknowledge the Hon. Russell Wortley and the Hon. Ian Hunter who attended today's briefing.
While the company's course of action appears entirely legal, it is certainly highly objectionable and immoral. Premier Rann, minister Wright, and others on the government benches, are ideally placed to broker meetings and to place pressure on the Arrowcrest group, and Andrew Gwinnett, to do the right thing.
The workers and their families have been suffering for many months, and they genuinely believe that Premier Rann is in a unique position to assist in the resolution of this dispute.
I strongly urge the council to support this motion.
For more information see Mark's Media Release on Tristar
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