Mondelez Suttontown facility workers will vote on an offer today and tomorrow following a strike held recently over Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) negotiations.
United Workers Union official Tasha Linke said the offer would include a 5% wage increase back paid to July 1 and the vote would be conducted via a paper ballot on-site at the factory.
Ms Linke said the deciding factor of the vote was 50% plus one and workers were hopeful based off the offer the vote would be successful.
“Last I spoke to the workers the majority of them were feeling pretty good, they felt like they had won and seen an outcome they considered much more reasonable given the current climate of things,” Ms Linke said.
“I feel like the workers have finally got something that is definitely worth some proper consideration at this point in time.
“I think they have definitely made some strides in the right direction to improving not only their wages but some entitlement that will make a huge difference across the life of an employee as well.”
The recent 24-hour strike involved Mondelez production and workhouse workers gathering at Frew Park and a 24-hour stoppage of the Mondelez factory.
“We had additional strike action endorsed, after our 24-hour stoppage there were another three additional days endorsed through different weeks,” Ms Linke said.
“There was quite a bit of industrial action that took place aside from the stoppages as well.”
The workers have been bargaining with Mondelez since June and Ms Linke said there were several meetings recently held with Mondelez.
“They were much better, we were able to get the drafting and stuff sorted in a pretty timely matter, so since then it has all been pretty good and smooth sailing,” she said.
Ms Linke said she was pleased the situation had reached the stage of a vote and they would like to see the vote highly supported.
“However, we would like the workers to still have their say honestly as well,” she said.
“We would like to see it get voted up however I guess the job is never done and we just start moving on to what we can do to ensure that we can get as good of an outcome next time without having to take as many steps.”
Ms Linke said she was passionate about helping the Mondelez workers fight for a fair deal because she was from a small regional town and had seen the struggles regional communities experience first-hand.
“Everyone struggles but I guess it just hits a little bit closer to home when I see regional communities and regional workers being sidelined purely because they are regional,” she said.
A Mondelez spokesperson said they were confident they would reach an agreement that provides their team with strong wage growth and competitive benefits, while also ensuring local manufacturing in South Australia remains competitive and sustainable in this environment.
“This year we proudly celebrated 50 years of manufacturing in Mount Gambier and we are committed to investing in South Australia and continuing to support local producers, jobs and the communities we operate in,” the spokesperson said.
