Industrial Workers of the World

support striking workers at Hazelwood - Monday 27th July

From: marabonacci@gmail.com

HI All Please come and support Hazelwood workers on strike. It has been going since April and looks like it will go for quite a while longer.

When: Monday 27th July

Where: Meet at FoE, 312 Smith St Collingwood for arrival at Hazelwood at about 10am. Plan to be back in sunny melbourne by 5pm

Please let me know by email or phone 0422 229 970 if you plan to come. Once I have an idea of numbers I will either sort a mini bus or car pooling - please advise if you have a car and if you can give people lifts if we don't wnd up getting a bus. Please forward to your networks. Below is an article from the Latrobe Valley Express about the strike for your info. cheers Mara

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Latrobe Valley Express Station workers strike BY ADAM IPSEN 27/04/2009 1:45:00 PM

HAZELWOOD staff could be in serious danger and maybe receiving sub-standard emergency support, according to the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union. Hazelwood's entire emergency services division, which is employed bycontracter Diamond Protection, went on strike last Monday over wage disputes with the company.

Workers have called for penalty rates to be awarded and the current wage of $26 an hour to be improved. Loy Yang and Yallourn emergency support staff receive these benefits and a higher pay rate. However, the entire division on strike were quickly replaced by International Power Hazelwood. The emergency services staff at Hazelwood deal with fire, medical and security incidents before the CFA, police and other organisations can arrive.

Union president Luke van der Meulen said the new workers had no site knowledge and could lack qualifications and experience for the job.``Our major concern is we believe the entire Hazelwood workforce's safety is compromised by bringing in workers that are not familiar and have no experience with the plant,'' Mr van der Meulen said. ``The first service response would be severely compromised and we think this is putting people at risk. ``Hazelwood is trying to convince people its workforce can be entirely replaced overnight without any difference.'' Mr van der Meulen said emergency service workers needed to be qualified as it could take 20 minutes for an ambulance or police to arrive on site.``With a hydrogen explosion, a major electrical fault or even a heart attack the emergency services need to have things like defibrillator knowledge,'' he said. ``When the ambulance arrives 15 minutes later it's too late.''

International Power Hazelwood said any fears about safety and the strike were the responsibility of contractor Diamond Protection.``It's a matter between the contractor and it's employees,'' a representative said. The Express was not able to get in contact with a Diamond Protection representative before it went to print. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ "coalactiongroup" group.