Latrobe Valley’s Opal Australian Paper Maryvale Mill undertakes legal lockout of more than 300 production workers following strike
Industry figures are warning the move by a Morwell paper mill to lock workers out for more then 21 days amid an ongoing industrial dispute is having impacts across the region.
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THURSDAY UPDATE:
Victoria’s Latrobe region is suffering as hundreds of households and business are impacted by the shutdown of a local paper mill, prompting calls for Premier Jacinta Allan to intervene and end the pay dispute.
More than 300 workers have been locked out of the Opal Australian Paper Maryvale Mill in the Latrobe Valley - owned by Japanese multinational Nippon Paper - since January 16 after long-running pay negotiations soured.
Now, after three weeks of the mill being shutdown, local businesses and representatives are warning the region is taking amassive hit and called on the government to intervene.
Latrobe City Mayor Dale Harriman said the issue was now impacting families, local businesses and contractors in aregion that’s already struggling.
“It’s not just the workers at the mill,” he said.
“There’s a lot of linked jobs to it, and a lot of support services, like the harvesters, like the truck drivers, like the diesel mechanics, and it’s having a huge impact on them. So it flows onto a whole range of other impacts across the region and it’s absolutely devastating.
“Everyone’s noticed since the shutdown, a lot of businesses are are seeing a slowdown in spend and a slowdown and it’s a region that’s already under the pump since the shut down of the native logging industry.
“We need the state government to intervene directly now, I’m calling on the Premier and the Deputy Premier to intervene personally.”
Premier Jacinta Allan responded to questions in parliament saying she was “concerned” the company locked workers out but declined for the government to step in with negotiations ongoing.
“This is impacting not just on those workers but on those families and I also want to acknowledge the impact. I am concerned about the ways the company has gone about treating its workers.”
She added she “would suggest to the company that they consider the impact their approach has taken”.
ACTU president Michele O’Neil said the lockouts continued to be an abuse of power by the company.
“The paper mill is the biggest employer in the Latrobe Valley and the jobs at the mill keep local businesses and communities going,” she said.
“Every local school has kids turning up whose parents are not bringing in any wages. Not because their parents are on strike but because they have been locked out of the workplace.
“This is bullying on the part of Nippon Paper Opal and completely out of proportion with workers exercising their legal right to bargain for the first time in two decades.
“Nippon Paper Opal has deep pockets, but instead of reaching a fair deal, have adopted a strategy designed to starve mill workers into accepting severe cuts to pay and conditions so they can go back to work.”
The strike, marking the first at the mill in two decades, follows stalled negotiations between Opal and the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) over a new enterprise agreement, as the previous production agreement lapsedin December of last year.
The mill has previously said it was negotiating in “good faith” with the CFMEU and the production team, but said it could not operate given the threat of further industrial action.
“We are focused on reaching an Enterprise Agreement with our team members and the union that is fair and allows us to supplyour customers with quality paper in an extremely competitive and evolving market,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the ongoing pressure on workers CFMEU Pulp & Paper Secretary, President Denise Campbell-Burns said the stag were remainingunited and wouldn’t back down.
“This isn’t just about the 308 workers locked out of their jobs – it’s about the entire Latrobe Valley. Every local business,every family, every community that relies on this mill is being punished because a handful of executives won’t come to thetable and negotiate in good faith.”
TUESDAY UPDATE: More than 300 production workers at one of Victoria’s largest industrial companies have been forced out of their jobs as an “indefinite” lockout enters its third week.
The Opal Australian Paper Maryvale Mill in the Latrobe Valley — that has been in operation since 1937 and is owned by the billion dollar Japanese company Nippon Paper Group — had seven workers go on strike for six hours as part of planned rolling stoppages.
The strike — the first at the mill in 20 years — comes after unresolved negotiations between Opal and the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) regarding a new enterprise agreement after the existing production agreement expired in December last year.
Under the Fair Work Act, Opal was forced to undertake a legal lockout, giving pulp and paper production employees one hour’s notice before the start of their 6pm shift on January 16.
For almost 20 days, workers have been camping out the front of the mill in a rotating roster to let people know they are there and want to be employed again.
Despite this, an Opal spokesperson said it would continue to negotiate in “good faith” with the CFMEU and the production team.
“We are focused on reaching an Enterprise Agreement with our team members and the union that is fair and allows us to supply our customers with quality paper in an extremely competitive and evolving market,” the spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately, given the protected industrial action taken and upcoming notified action by the CFMEU, which includes planned rolling shutdowns of the Mill’s infrastructure, we cannot operate our paper production facilities.”
The spokesperson said given their commitment to good faith bargaining and the success of the mill, they remain confident the Enterprise Agreement negotiations would be resolved so their team members could return to work.
“As has been well documented, the Maryvale Mill’s operations have been severely impacted by the loss of wood supply from VicForests and the subsequent end to white paper manufacturing,” they said.
“As a result, the site has lost almost half of its production volumes and suffered significant and continued financial impacts and the new Enterprise Agreement obviously needs to reflect these significant changes.
“The terms and conditions that were appropriate many years ago in previous Enterprise Agreements are not relevant to the mill’s operations today, nor do they reflect the way Australian paper mills operate in 2025.”
CFMEU manufacturing division members have been bargaining with Opal since October last year, with negotiations stalling over Opal’s demands to reduce the wages and working conditions of their workforce.
In 2016, workers agreed to a 5 per cent pay cut and a resetting of wages to secure the future of the mill.
CFMEU Maryvale Sub-Branch secretary Anthony Pavey said workers wanted to be “heard”.
“We’re just there showing that we’ve got a presence at the mill — we want to go back to work,” he said.
Mr Pavey said it was “hard to gage” how the mill’s standstill had affected workers.
“They’re despondent — they haven’t missed a pay yet because they would get paid on Wednesday — but it’s going to be a full fortnight without pay from there on for them so it will really hit them at that point,” he said.
“There’s a big, big effect — everyone’s hurting and the local businesses will be hurting as well — but we’re getting a lot of support from the shops.”
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CFMEU pulp and paper worker district secretary Denise Campbell-Burns said workers were concerned for their jobs and how they’re going to continue to put food on the table.
“Families are under stress, not just the workers, it’s causing a huge amount of stress and tension,” she said.
“The company just comes in and makes these unilateral decisions with the stroke of a pen.”
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus said the lockout without pay was “unfair” and “unreasonable”.
“The union movement calls on Opal to end this disproportionate action and negotiate a fair deal with their Maryvale mill workers,” Ms McManus said.
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