AN industrial stand-off between workers and bosses at Myrtleford’s Carter Holt Harvey timber mill will reach a D-Day on June 6.
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On what coincidentally will be the 73rd anniversary of World War II’s D-Day, a vote will be held on an enterprise agreement for the plant which employs 207.
Workers at the mill have been locked out since April 19 following a breakdown in talks on the workplace pact.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union assistant district secretary Andrew Vendramini said the company’s latest EBA differed little from one rejected by mill employees earlier this year.
As a result, he is confident the bulk of workers will vote against the deal on June 6.
“We believe we’ve got more than enough numbers to vote it down,” Mr Vendramini said on Thursday.
“If it was voted down it would bring the company back to the bargaining table and they would have to bargain in good faith.
“I had meetings with the workers today and yesterday and they’re adamant they’re going to vote this down.
“If it gets voted down that puts them in a world of pain.”
Mr Vendramini said Carter Holt Harvey representatives were offering to drive workers to the voting station on June 6 and wanted to visit employees at home to discuss the EBA.
“They’re desperate, their customers are running short of ply,” he said.
“What they want is to get an agreement and get the gates open but that’s not going to happen.”
Union supremo ACTU secretary Sally McManus spoke to mill workers on the picket line on Thursday morning.
“We will go and raise money, we will go and raise support, we will go and take the story of Myrtleford and what’s happening here outside this mill to all workers across Australia,” Ms McManus told them.
She told The Border Mail she felt there was an air of determination from the workers, despite them having foregone pay for five weeks.
“Resolve – that’s what I hear from them,” she said.
“They feel as though for the last 10 years they’ve been very reasonable; they’ve taken pay freezes, they’ve taken small pay rises.”
The handling of the workers’ Christmas break is a central issue for the union.
Carter Holt Harvey, which told the union at a meeting on Wednesday it would stage the vote, did not respond to The Border Mail.
