Australia: McCains import workers, replacing strikers

Disgruntled workers gathered around megaphones and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union flags flew high in the wind, but the potato trucks kept coming.More than 400 workers are employed at the Ballarat plant, which primarily produces frozen potato products such as french fries.Most of the workforce were on strike for a second day on Wednesday 21 September, as part of a push for better job security and entitlements."It is not a money issue," Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s Angela McCarthy said."It’s a matter of being able to access their entitlements, because the company is treating entitlements like privileges."If you give eight months’ notice of intention to take leave and the company says no, that is an unreasonable refusal, and that’s becoming more and more prominent."But McCains, which supplies restaurants such as McDonalds with french fries, said seven staff had been brought in from interstate plants and New Zealand to ensure the plant’s operation continued.Paul Laverey, who has worked at McCains for 27 years and currently works at the chip plant on rotating 12-hour shifts, said it was the first time the company had brought in workers from outside during an industrial dispute.Click here to read more at abc.net.au.