Ms BURNET (Clark) – As spokesperson on workplace relations for the Greens, I rise today in solidarity with the Saputo Dairy maintenance workers from Burnie in north‑west Tasmania, who are entering their ninth week striking without pay. The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union have been negotiating since August 2023 with Saputo Dairy Australia, who make popular brands like Cheers, Devondale, Liddells, Mersey Valley and Cracker Barrel. They are urging the public to join a boycott of Saputo products until the maintenance workers are paid the same as their mainland counterparts.
At the start of the strike, the wage gap between Saputo’s Tasmanian workers and their workers in Victoria was a shocking 21 per cent, and that gap has risen further to 23.5 per cent as the mainland workers have received a pay rise, while those at the Burnie site have been on the picket lines. It is adding insult to injury, and it gets worse, because the Burnie maintenance workers have been assessed at a higher skill level than those in Victoria.
All they are asking for is an end to the disparity with the wages of their mainland counterparts. There is no good reason for this company to be paying its Tasmanian staff less. It is yet another example of a major multinational corporation thinking that they can get away with it. We have seen this play out again and again. It needs to stop and it needs to be called out.
Jess Munday, the secretary of Unions Tasmania, said, ‘Our work is not worth less because of where we live’. She is absolutely right. This is not only about dairy workers in Burnie. Perhaps there was a time when the pay gap could be explained – although I find that very difficult – or even excused by a lower cost of living here in Tasmania. This old excuse does not ring true. Cost‑of‑living pressures are biting hard. Tasmanians spend more on groceries than almost anyone else in the country and are feeling the pinch of inflation, all while full‑time salaries average around $10,000 lower than those in other states. Closing this gap would make it easier to attract skilled professionals to the state, also reducing the acute pressure on our health and education system.
I wish the workers from Saputo the best. They have been taking industrial action for these past nine weeks and they will be bringing their fight to the parliament lawns tomorrow to have discussions with various parliamentarians. It is important that we recognise these workers’ struggles, and the Greens support these workers.
