Saputo workers demand nationwide boycott of cheese products

Unions are calling for a nationwide boycott of Saputo cheese products to pressure the dairy giant to lift the pay of Tasmanian employees.

Tasmanian Saputo workers join unionists to protest outside the dairy giant’s Australian headquarters in Melbourne. Picture: Ewin Hannan

Unions are calling for a nationwide boycott of cheese products, including Cracker Barrel and Mersey Vale, to pressure dairy giant Saputo to lift the wages of the company’s Tasmanian employees by more than 20 per cent over the next four years in line with its Victorian workforce.

Electrical Trades Union Victorian secretary Troy Gray said the boycott could cost Saputo millions of dollars, citing the successful boycott campaign run by unions against Carlton & United Breweries in Victoria in 2016.

“At the end of the day, that dispute cost CUB millions,” Mr Gray told The Australian after workers rallied outside Saputo’s Australian headquarters in Melbourne.

“Saputo is one of the largest and most profitable dairy companies in the world. If anybody could pay a parity claim, this company can do it. They do it in Victoria. They’ve got to do it for a handful of workers in Tasmania.

“If they refuse, we will crank this boycott up. If it gets to the level of CUB, that is really in the hands of Saputo. It could be a very expensive outcome for (them). History says boycotts can be very successful. I guarantee there would be thousands of people who didn’t drink CUB beer during that dispute and never came back.”

Unions are calling on the community to boycott products manufactured by Saputo including Cheer, Devondale, Cracker Barrel, Great Ocean Road, King Island Dairy, Liddells, Mersey Valley, South Cape and Tasmanian Heritage.

Rallies will be held outside the supermarkets of Saputo’s biggest clients, Woolworths and Coles.

Unions said the 24 workers at Saputo’s Burnie operations in northwest Tasmania were paid 23.5 per cent less than their Victorian counterparts doing the same job.

Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union Tasmanian secretary Michael Anderson said the maintenance workers oversaw “super robotics, programmable machinery that is incredibly technical”.

Union officials said the Burnie workers earned a base salary of $80,000 to $85,000 a year, with the highest paid earning about $130,000 annually.

The existing enterprise agreement expired last year and Mr Anderson said the company had offered a pay rise of 19 per cent over the next four years: “The (current) agreement has been expired since December so it’s a 4½-year agreement (for 19 per cent) which on Tassie terms, based on prevailing inflation, is a wage cut.”

Mr Anderson said historically workers in Burnie and regional areas had accepted lower wages compared to mainland workers because of a lower cost of living.

Now, because of cost-of-living increases, including higher housing and education costs, there was no difference in costs between Tasmania and the mainland. Mr Anderson said Saputo’s ­“arrogance” and its miscalculation of the strength of the workers had already cost the company “tenfold of what parity would mean for these striking 24 workers”.

“Saputo picked this fight … now we’ll see if management is keen to play games as union members boycott their brand,” he said.

“We’ll see if Woolies and Coles like their products boycotted.”

Saputo Dairy Australia operations and supply chain director Gerard Lourey said the company was “committed to progressing negotiations in good faith”.