News & Views item - March 2011

 

CSIRO Staff Picket Outside East Geelong Lab. (March 17, 2011)

The  Geelong Advertiser's Jane Harper yesterday filed the following report:

 

CSIRO staff lead national protests

 

CSIRO workers picketed outside the East Geelong laboratory yesterday in the first of a series of strikes planned across the country.

Nearly 100 workers from CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory and the Belmont laboratory stopped work yesterday morning to protest against stalled enterprise bargaining negotiations.


"We hope we have made our message loud and clear," CSIRO Staff Association secretary Sam Popovski said.


"We will be increasing pressure on CSIRO executives and hope we can reach a resolution."


Mr Popovski said negotiations had stalled over the annual pay rise offer, redundancy payouts and calls for improved staff consultation.


Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) offered to negotiate from its starting point of a 4.6 per cent annual pay rise, but CSIRO has stuck with its original offer of 3 per cent.


Mr Popovksi said strike action would follow at sites in Melbourne and around the country over the coming days.


"We are delighted with the turnout here and certainly have had a visual presence," he said.