Mass strike hits Townsville Council as 200 workers demand fair pay
Waving placards and earning honks of support from passing motorists, 200 of the council’s lowest paid workers lined Dalrymple Rd, demanding a ‘living wage’.
Townsville
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Waving placards and earning honks of support from passing motorists, 200 of Townsville City Council’s lowest paid workers lined Dalrymple Rd on Friday morning to drive home their demand for a fair pay rise.
As workers struggle to keep their heads above water amid the crushing cost of living crisis, they were mobilised by multiple unions to exercise their right to protected industrial action on Friday morning in an effort to ramp up pressure on pay negotiations.
The council has offered workers an initial five per cent pay rise, followed by three per cent increases over the subsequent two years.
CFMEU regional organiser Peter Wright said the offer fell well short of the 20 per cent increase or $12,000 uplift to base wages being sought to bring Townsville workers in line with other councils across Queensland.
“Ninety-nine per cent of our members are in housing stress and the majority spend half their take-home pay putting a roof over their heads,” Mr Wright said.
“These are the people who keep the city running, liveable, beautiful. They’re the ones doing the dirty work.
“We’re not asking for champagne and caviar. We’re asking for a living wage so people can put fuel in the car, a roof over their head and feed their kids.”
The dispute has highlighted tensions over pay rates at the financially-troubled council, with union representatives criticising the contrast between highly-paid executives and struggling workers.
“None of our members set budgets … and they cop it while they’re out doing their job,” he said.
“Not the former CEOs who got a golden handshake for absolutely ruining the budget. Not the executive managers that make decisions that waste rate payers money constantly on a day-to-day basis.”
He said if rate payers actually knew what was going on in this council, they would be appalled at the “sheer incompetence of the managerial decisions”.
“Every depot I go to, to talk to our members, they’ve got a dozen stories of the wasteful decision making by management of this council. It’s disgusting,” he said.
Transport Workers Union organiser Brayden Eaton Robertson said workers walked off the job at 5am for 24 hours as a last resort.
“I think everyone is disappointed. We’ve just gone through a cost of living crisis and these workers have not had a pay increase to catch up with that cost of living change, so they’re doing it tough,” Robertson said.
“The reality is that some of these workers have to decide whether or not they are able to buy baby formula or put fuel in the car to get to work.
“The most essential people in our community have been the most disrespected.”
A Townsville City Council spokeswoman said the council respected the right of employees to take protected industrial action and it remained committed to constructive negotiations.
“Council is taking steps to minimise disruption to essential services. Residential collection and waste facilities may be affected this Friday and during the weekend,” she said.
Townsville City Council offers insight into negotiations
A Townsville City Council spokeswoman said all unions had rejected the council’s “financially responsible wages offer”.
“The Unions have reaffirmed this week in bargaining that there will be no movement in negotiations until council agrees to an immediate 20 percent uplift to the base wage rates across all three streams — before negotiating wage increases for years 1, 2, or 3 of the proposed agreement,” she said.
“This is not financially sustainable for council and will impact upon council’s core services.
“Council is committed to bargaining in good faith and respects employees’ rights to engage in industrial action. Council is currently in the fifth week of protected industrial action from the unions and is monitoring the disruption to services to the community.”
She said the council had tabled revised conditional offers for its three streams of employees, which offered improvements to their terms and conditions of employment.
“For Stream C employees, which includes electricians, diesel fitters and other tradespeople, Council’s offer equates to a first-year increase of 14.61 per cent, representing an average annual increase of $8682.52 or about $166.97 per week,” she said.
“Council must compete in a tight labour market for qualified tradespeople, and this offer is designed to attract and retain the critical workforce needed to deliver services for the community.
“Council’s current wage offer for Stream B employees which includes labourers, plant operators and other field staff, equates to an average increase of 7.66 per cent in the first year. This translates to an average annual increase of $4,556.45 or about $87.62 per week.
“The offer consists of a $1,500 base uplift, plus a 5 per cent wage increase, which is deliberately targeted at putting more money in the pockets of our lowest-paid outdoor workforce.”
Stream A covers the indoor workforce, who have been offered a five per cent increase in the first year, equating to an average annual increase of $4262.85, or $81.98 per week.
“In addition to the first-year increases, all three streams have been offered 3 per cent wage increases in both the second and third years of the proposed three-year agreements,” she said.
“Council’s wage offer is structured to reflect the diverse nature of its workforce. The offers are shaped by a combination of the councils financial position, labour market pressures, and the need to support both attraction and retention across all streams.”
Pay battle: Council workers strike over low wages
Townsville City Council workers are leaving the city for the Burdekin to earn more cash for easier work as union members prepare to stop work to fight for better pay.
On Friday, members of the Australian Workers Union will down tools at 5am to push their claims in the bargaining negotiations for a pay rise.
A council spokesman has confirmed multiple services would be impacted by the stop work, including closures at the Stuart Waste Facility and the Hervey Range Resource Recovery Centre and bin collection.
Union Northern District Secretary Jim Wilson said union members at the council were the lowest paid in the North Queensland region despite Townsville ratepayers pay among the highest rates each year.
He said union members believe the organisational structure of the council was why the rates were so high and the worker’s pay was so low.
“Currently as I understand it, the Townsville City Council organisational structure below the CEO, you have senior directors, you have executive directors, you have general managers, you have managers, and you have team leaders,” Mr Wilson said.
“So you have at least four layers of management and sometimes more before you get to a worker that actually delivers a service to a rate payer.”
Mr Wilson said this should be concerning for ratepayers of the council was that union members who were the one who deliver the services they pay for.
“So things like garbage trucks, tips, parks, water, sewage, a thousand other things that the community never notices because our members do it so well,” he said.
“If the people doing those jobs aren’t paid enough to survive they’re going to choose to do other jobs in other locations.”
Mr Wilson pointed to the Burdekin Shire Council where workers were being paid $10,000 more for working their ordinary hours.
Mr Wilson said he was told that two ex-parks and gardens workers from the Townsville City Council who still live in the city commute to Burdekin everyday.
“They’re doing a simpler job down there, it’s a smaller council with less complex needs for a lot more money,” he said.
“So our members are standing up and saying enough is enough, there’s too much money going to the top end of the Council and not enough going to the ratepayers and the people who do those things for the rate payers.”
Mr Wilson said that with blown out salaries of executives seen in the council annual report, the increase in use of contractors and hiring equipment it already has, members see it as a spend happy culture at the top.
“When it comes to our members, it’s all about budgetary restraint, and we’ve got to tighten the purse strings guys so that we can get the budget in order,” he said.
“Our members think and we believe the community supports them that the money should be spent on the rate payers and the services for the rate payers, not contractors, not on executive remuneration, not on hiring equipment that the council already owns.”
As a result of the action, the Stuart Waste Facility and the Hervey Range Resource Recovery Centre will be closed on Friday and reopen to all customers on Saturday for normal operating hours. There may be disruptions to operating hours during the weekend if further industrial action is taken.
The Toomulla and Bluewater transfer stations will be closed this Saturday but will reopen for normal operating hours next Saturday August 2.
Magnetic Island Transfer Station will remain open for normal operating hours.
A spokesman for the council said it respects the right of employees to take industrial action.
“Townsville City Council’s waste crews are working at a limited capacity due to the industrial action,” the spokesman said.
“To make sure residents’ bins are collected as soon as possible, the council is asking for residents who have their bins collected on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to leave their bins on the kerb until Tuesday.”
“Any residents bins who have not been collected by Wednesday should call council on 13 48 10. All other bin collection will run as normal-this only affects residents whose bins are normally collected on Friday.
For more information check council’s website or Facebook page or call council on 13 48 10.
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