Workers in waste management are on strike in Sydney and Canberra as they demand improved working conditions.
As part of their 24-hour campaign against longer shifts and a decrease in overtime rates, workers have demonstrated in front of a Cleanaway centre in Erskine Park.
Bins won’t be picked up for the next 24 hours in the City of Sydney, Randwick, Erskine Park, and Silverwater regions due to the strike.
Mick Pieri said on the Today show that the major issue was that the corporation “just doesn’t care about anything; we’ve been trying to talk to them for over a year, and the problem we find is that they just want to take away conditions.”
Both residential and commercial properties will be impacted by the strike.
Randwick, Maroubra, Coogee, Alexandria, Beaconsfield, Glebe, Forrest Lodge, Chinatown, the CBD, Barangaroo, Dawes Point, Millers Point, and the Rocks are among the residential districts that are impacted.
The Sydney metro area’s Coles, Woolworths, and Aldi supermarkets, as well as Sydney Water and Leichhardt Council, are among the businesses impacted by the strike.
The Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, Steerage Hospital, Nepean Hospital, Penrith Hospital, Gosford Hospital, Lake Macquarie Private Hospital, Hawkesbury Hospital, and North Shore Private Hospital will all be affected by the change in how medical waste collection is done.
The most recent of numerous strikes in NSW and the ACT is taking place at the same time in Canberra.
Workers are being “treated horrifically,” according to Richard Olsen, secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union of NSW/Queensland.
Cleanaway’s efforts to make conditions worse will only increase the risky strain on employees to rush and drive fatigued through suburban streets, according to Olsen. “Waste worker shortages have put enormous pressure on workers to work faster and longer,” Olsen added.
Although Olsen acknowledged that prior strikes had resulted in fairer agreements between workers and Cleanaway, she asserted that workers were still subject to “unfair and unsustainable attacks on their income and working hours.”
Workers at Cleanaway claim they are the targets of unjustified attacks on their rights, working conditions, and pay.
In a statement, Cleanaway stated that the business supported the right of its employees to strike.
As part of the collective bargaining process, “Cleanaway supports the rights of our employees to engage in protected industrial action,” they said.
To reach a fair and acceptable enterprise agreement that benefits all parties, Cleanaway has been in negotiations with our staff.
Following the prior strike, Cleanaway claimed to have modified their offer.
Cleanaway stated that it entered into negotiations with the TWU “in good faith” to make sure that its workers received the most just and reasonable contract possible.
