Sunday, January 01, 2006

Boeing: Workers' New Year Wish

Twenty-seven Newcastle aircraft maintenance engineers are calling on their employer Boeing to start the New Year on a positive note by making the compromise needed to end the 215-day industrial dispute.

Australian Workers' Union National Secretary Bill Shorten said the engineers, from the RAAF Williamtown base near Newcastle, were hopeful that Boeing could put aside its pride early in the New Year and get serious about ending the dispute.

"No company benefits when it has 27 skilled workers on the picket line for more than 200 days," Mr Shorten said.

"Our members would willingly go back to work tomorrow if only Boeing was prepared to guarantee that its Newcastle workers can be represented by their union in all future negotiations about their pay and conditions.

"Millions of other Australians enjoy that right in their workplaces every day. Why should these engineers be forced to accept unfair individual contracts instead of a collective agreement?"

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