Remember when: Gold Coast City Council plant workers threatened to cut off Albert Shire

GOLD Coast City Council water treatment plant workers threatened to cut off water supplies to the Albert Shire.

Gold Coast History: Gold Coast Bulletin 1984, June 14. Front page.

Gold Coast Bulletin, Thursday June 14, 1984

GOLD Coast City Council water treatment plant workers threatened to cut off water supplies to the Albert Shire.

The threat was made in support of claims by Albert Shire blue collar workers for a 38-hour week and nine-day fortnight.

Australian Workers’ Union South Coast organiser George Ansems told a stop-work meeting attended by around 200 council workers that Albert Shire councillors had refused to negotiate with union officials on the issue.

This was despite a statement by Local Government Minister Russ Hinze that negotiations should be held between unions and councils statewide.

Mr Ansems also denounced claims by the Local Government Association which said that blue collar council workers traditionally worked more hours than white collar employees.

Gold Coast Bulletin 1984, June 14. Front page.

“That statement more than anything else really got the men upset,” he said.

Following a vote, around 100 men marched on the Albert Shire Council’s Nerang Headquarters.

Shire Chairman Bill Laver agreed to meet a deputation after the men stood outside for more than an hour.

Following a half-hour discussion the meeting broke up with Cr Laver promising to recommend to the next full council meeting that further negotiations be held with union delegates.

“It will centre around the trade-offs that are involved,” Mr Ansems said.

He said the council’s main concerns with worker productivity on road works.

He later told the men waiting outside the council offices to withhold any industrial action until after the next council meeting.