Unions urging consumers to deliver sugar hit

The ACTU Congress yesterday passed a motion urging unions to support a consumer boycott of Goodman Fielder food products ahead of a threatened lockout next week of about 1200 sugar mill workers in north Queensland.

Wilmar Sugar is owned by the Singapore-based multinational corporation Wilmar International, which also owns Goodman Fielder.

Goodman Fielder has well-known brands such as Meadow Lea, CSR, Praise, White Wings and Helga's bread.

The three unions that have coverage at Wilmar's multiple sugar mills – the AMWU, AWU and ETU – say the Wilmar workers have had "pittance" wage increases over the past four years, with entry-level trade rates that are 23.4% below the national average.

Unions urging consumers to deliver sugar hit

The unions say the workers have accepted lower wage rises in recent years on the promise that they would be compensated and have reduced their wage claim from 25% over three years to 18%.

They say Wilmar management last year offered annual rises of 5%, 3.75% and 3% when they put a proposed agreement out to a ballot without union approval.

In a live big screen cross to Congress from the picket line in the Burdekin region, ETU Queensland secretary Peter Ong said Wilmar workers had "busted their arse" and received pay rises of 1.25% a year for five years.

Ong thanked Congress delegates for showing their support in a group photo that will send a message to the Wilmar workers and management.

"That way, these workers know how much support they've got nationally from the broader trade union movement [and] Wilmar . . . understand that this is not a dispute in north Queensland any more."

"This dispute has gone Australia-wide and it will go international when we start boycotting their products."

First proposed deal "decisively rejected"

AWU Queensland secretary Stacey Shinnerl told Congress that Wilmar's offer was "decisively rejected", with seasonal workers being included in the vote but showing solidarity with permanent employees by voting against the deal.

The dispute comes in the lead-up to the Queensland State election in October and Shinnerl said the workforce had won support from both Queensland Labor Premier Steven Miles and the LNP Opposition, along with cane growers.

AMWU Queensland secretary Rohan Webb told Congress the workers had "already spent five days on the grass" and had planned to take further industrial action before the company said it would answer one-hour rolling stoppages with a lockout.

"So we made a strategic decision not to put our notices in this week," Webb said.

"When the company put this [second] dodgy deal out next Tuesday, I'm pretty sure 98% of the workforce will reject it again.

"Following [that] we will put in our rolling stoppages, [and] we will be locked out.

"These workers, they're pretty resilient in far north Queensland, they like a barbecue, they put their tents.

"They're loading their utes, they are loading their trailers, and we will put 24-hour picket lines on every Wilmar sugar mill."

A consumer boycott of CUB products in 2016 led to maintenance workers being reinstated at its Abbotsford brewery.