THE Australian Manufacturers Workers’ Union (AMWU) stop work meetings at Electrolux next week are not designed to be industrial action, but to update employees who are facing job losses, according to union secretary Tim Ayres.
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Mr Ayres said yesterday he is confident Electrolux management will work with the union to allow employees to leave the floor to be updated by the union on their rights, the preservation of entitlements and the union’s call this week for the state and federal governments to deliver a jobs package for Orange and the central west.
“It looks at this stage as if those meetings will take place next Wednesday,” Mr Ayres said.
“We certainly won’t be recommending anything like the idea workers should go home,” he said.
He said rather than being designed to disrupt productivity he believes the union has a legitimate reason to ask employees to stop work next week for a union briefing and update.
Mayor John Davis said he is in talks with Blayney and Cabonne councils to determine how many workers in their council areas will be affected.
“We have been looking at figures of ages, but now we need a breakdown of where the workers who will be affected live,” Cr Davis said.
Cr Davis said as a senior high school student in Orange he had no recollection of 1975 which was reported as “a dark day for Orange” when more than 500 workers lost their jobs at the Email plant, later to become Electrolux.
Author of a book on the then Emmco/Email/Electrolux plant Liz Edwards said Orange suffered a severe downturn and there was considerable industrial unrest in the city with 10,000 of the city’s then 25,000 population reportedly affected by the massive job losses.
“We are fortunate in one way now that we have a much more diverse economy than we did in those days and we do have the advantage of having around 15 months’ notice on our side, compared to 1975,” Cr Davis said.
Cr Davis said despite Orange having a more diverse economy now he has a strong sense management and the unions are pulling together to get the best outcome for workers.