blundstone gooone

Hi Mike:

: )

You've already missed the boat on the toy koalas and kangaroos. Was strolling around Cairns a few months back and that was all they had... made in China. they looked the same, though : s

Thank heavens we still have the Harbour Bridge here in Sydney.

Jack

not sure on ownership, but 300 jobs in tassie is a lot.

Not sure what your knowledge of the footwear industry is but boot making is a trade . Where would you suggest these people go to find another job in the trade?

Yes boot making is a trade if you do it completely by hand. Blundstones, like all the others, are mass produced on a production line.

A production line does not mean no skills or rule out the trade.

I'm sure they were just waiting for their Powerball to come in anyway.

bit wet hairy.
just imagine talking to telstra and them asking while your waiting would you like a pair off boots

Agree with your sentiments on working environment. I spent 5 years at Uni, work crap shift work including public holidays etc, have big HECS debt and get bleep ty pay.

Just waiting for this EB agreement to end and go onto individual contracts when i will no doubt lose shift and weekend penalty rates and some sick/annual leave. I will be leaving my skilled job in a hospital to drive trucks in a quarry for twice the pay! Many blokes from hospitals are already doing this, the work is boring but the pay is great.

Skills shortage? There are other reasons. Did you hear about the dentist in a rural town who left his practice to do unskilled work in the mines for the money? I'm sure there are many other examples.

My 2cents
Barnesy

Barnsey ,

Surely if you are in a union / association , and your EBA is running out , you are not automatically forced to take indevidual AWA's ??

Glenn.

Glenn, no i don't think i will be automatically forced onto an AWA. I can either stay on these pay rates and conditions for the rest of my career, or eventually i will have to go onto an indivdual contract. My employer can offer an AWA at any time and who knows what legal bollocks that entails. Would I be overlooked for a promotion if many others have signed AWA?

That's the whole point of these new IR laws, to end collective bargaining by the unions on behalf of their members. You can still be a member of a union, but their power to negotiate for workers is severely reduced to almost nothing.

There are 5 "guarunteed" clauses that all new AWA contracts must abide by 'by law', mind you from the figures i've read something like 85% of them leave out at least one with about 40% not having 3 of them. These 5 conditions can be so called 'negotiated' out or simply omitted.

If the potential employee doesn't like the contract they have two options, 1) don't take the job, 2) go and see a lawyer and prosecute the employer for leaving out some of the 5 clauses. Either way the cards are stacked heavily in favour of the employer.

To be honest for the amount of money i get paid, the amount of hard work i did at Uni it's easier to just bugger it off and go for the money, despite being skilled and in demand in current job. If you're getting well paid you don't care so much about other things.

Probably one advantage of an AWA is that you are going ok at work you could probably negotiate a pay increase, Im not real full bottle on it , do they expire or is it for the life of your job.