Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Ian Smith from the Transport Workers Union about today's Startrack Strike

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Katie spoke with Ian Smith from the Transport Workers Union about today's Startrack Strike · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that thousands of workers at a major
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: parcel delivery service who are worried for their job security
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: have walked off the job across the country for the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: second time this month. We're not one hundred percent sure
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: how heavily it could impact us here in the Northern Territory.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: But to tell us more about the situation, Transport Workers
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Union Branch Secretary Ian Smith, good morning to you.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you going?
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, not too bad?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Ian?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Have got Have we got workers from Star Trek here
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in the territory striking today?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, I think there are some, but we don't have
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: large numbers up in the Northern Territory. There is a
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: core at work out of ISAM that may be taking
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: ashen in the summer at the airport, I think. But
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: overall it's a national campaign and it's around job security.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: These workers across the country are seeing this company consistently
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: cutting their overtime, outsourcing their work to lower paid workers
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: and sham contractors. In particular. You know in Adelaide, for example,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: our members are sick and tide of seeing they leave
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the depot and in the budgets come and there a
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: lot of the times it's a contractor that are very
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: that's playing very dubious rates. The employees are generally scared
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: to even say anything. The company is saying that they're
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: paying the contract to the correct rate, and we don't.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: We're not sure that that's correct. What the workers are
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: saying they want some props, some decent ordering, and the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: ability to put some caps on the amount of labor
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: outside high that's in the workplaces, so that they can
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: guarantee their job security and guarantee a decent pythm for
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: their families, and.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: So ian there is.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: You know, there is a small number of Star Trek
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: workers here in the Northern Territory which are obviously going
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to be striking.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: How longs it go for the strike.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: It's the twenty four hour strike. It it'll be finished
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: at midnight tonight. Look, it'll have some impact, but as
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: is always the norm throughout these industrial campaigns, we continue
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to move urgent medical supplies and urgent supplies that will
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: have some impact, and we haven't put any boundaries on that,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: and so that's kept moving. Look, it'll take the work
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: lifts some time to catch up, but we don't do
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: this lightly. Star Trek are refusing to come back to
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: the table to sit down and negotiate this out. Yes,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: we've made some great improvements, but this is an enterprise agreement,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: is a negotiation. Stars Track should not stop negotiating through
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: literature and sending letters. They need to sit down with
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: the committee and negotiate an outcome.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: And so want to do and so the main concern
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: here is that that you don't want to see those
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Star Trek workers well contracted out and cheaper labor.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know, this is Australia. We've got some standards
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: that we need to set. You know, we've had the
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: inservice coming into the Stralia Uber and Amazon Flex that
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: have disgraceful conditions. You're hired by app and you're fired
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: by an app.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: It's not good enough.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It's flave labor. It takes us back to the eighteenth
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: century conditions of work. That's not Australia. That needs to
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: stop them. You know, there's an easy way for that
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to be fixed too. Governments can legislate, but these minimum
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: standards for all workers and that should be occurring and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that fixes the issue.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Have we got any concerns here in the Northern Territory
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: that any of those staff could lose their jobs.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: No, not at this stage, but over the time if
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the way they're outsizing the work. Look, you've only got
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: to look at Australia Posts itself. This is a subsidiary
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Australia Post. We've seen that, you know the post is
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: we've gone to a three day delivery service to posts
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: have an impact on their numbers of the shore. We've
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: seen the advent of people bidding for their work and
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: all the white bands and everything out there where people
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: will bid the hand of the work and they'll get
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: it out. And then we've seen the extortion of the
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: people that are working under those contracts and end up
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: being shamed contacts.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: In a lot of places, or they've made a pass
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: delivery rate. And that's all well and good if you've
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: got a real condensed area and you've got high industrial sites.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: But if you're in general.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Runs and everything across the place. Now people get spread
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: out and end up with business to consume the deliveries.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: The match just slows youre down and it makes it
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: very hard. And that's the Amazon flex model. Well, ten
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: dollars four hours work in the back of a car, untrained,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: uneducated people in that industry it's very hard for to
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: make things right well.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: And we always appreciate your time.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having a chat with us today and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: keep us, keep in contact with us and let us
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: know how it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Goes with those Star Trek works. Because thanks Dye, thank you,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: thank you. No worry