Thousands of workers across the Blue Mountains and Central West are expected to walk off the job this Thursday, November 30, as part of a national day of action against the Federal Government’s workplace laws.
Katoomba RSL is the venue of a 9am meeting co-ordinated by the Blue Mountains Unions Council, which will feature a nationwide satellite hook-up with similar meetings in other capital cities and regional centres across Australia.
Other venues in the Mountains include the New Lapstone Hotel in Blaxland and The Royal Hotel at Springwood.
The Springwood meeting will be followed by a march to the office of Kerry Bartlett; a keen supporter of the laws which have seen penalty rates, take home pay and conditions cut and breadwinners thrown out of work.
Meetings will also be held at Lithgow Workers Club, Royal Hotel Oberon, Bathurst Panthers and Penrith Paceway.
Others from the region are traveling to Sydney to take part in a mass rally planned for Belmore Park, next to Central Station, that morning.
“With our rights at work under attack from Kerry Bartlett’s Liberal Party we are seeing people in the mountains, especially in the hospitality industry, being given ‘take it or leave it’ individual workplace agreements that cut or abolish penalty rates and slash conditions,” said Kerry Cooke, Blue Mountains Unions Council President.
“We are placing those businesses that think that they can sink the boot into our neighbours on notice that we are not going to stand by and do nothing while our community is under attack.”
Blue Mountains Unions Council Secretary, Brett O’Brien, is encouraging as many people as possible to get along to the meetings at Katoomba RSL, Springwood and Blaxland.
“People really need to have a serious look at these laws,” said O’Brien. “Bit by bit they will destroyworking conditions built over decades.“With holidays, penalty rates, sick leave rules andhourly rates under attack, our kids could be the firstgeneration to end up with worse working conditions than their parents.
“How is that progress?”
O’Brien encouraged those that cannot get to the meetings to contact the Blue Mountains Unions Council on 0413 866 520
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