ETU Qld/NT members at working Wilmar Sugar & Renewables have been negotiating their EBA since March 2023.
After close to 18 months of negotiation our members have finally secured a deal they can live with, locking in an initial eight per cent pay rise in September a four per cent rises in Dec 2024 and Dec 2025 for a total of 16 per cent over the 26-month agreement.
They also secured a $2500 sign-on bonus and a first of its kind at Wilmar – a $25 weekly electrical licence allowance. The agreement also created provisions for the conversion of some seasonal workers to permanent employment.
Wilmar is one of the largest employers in North Queensland with approximately 2,000 workers. Due to minimal wage increases ( 5.5% over 4 years since 2020), many workers have left sugar communities, no longer able to survive on Wilmar wages. Entry-level trades workers at Wilmar were paid 23.68% below the national average trades rate in the manufacturing industry in November 2023.
Over the past 4 years Wilmar workers have accepted lower wage increases on the promise that when Wilmar profits increased, they would be compensated. Despite Wilmar’s substantial profits exceeding $1 billion in 2023, and projected profits to exceed $3 billion over a three-year period, Wilmar did not keep their promise.
Despite workers not receiving a single real pay rise in years, Wilmar initially offered just above 3.5% per year over 4 years with a sign-on bonus – a proposal that would have entrenched years of real wage cuts and mean the gap between Wilmar wages and the industry-standard would only grow wider. Wilmar put the offer to a vote only 84.7% of workers to vote no to the sub-standard offer.
“It’s a pretty bad state of affairs when workers can’t even afford to get to their place of work in the morning. What’s more, there are sub-contractors working alongside Wilmar employees who are getting paid two to three times the rate. The company cried poor throughout COVID, and workers received very small wage increases the past few years. But workers are now saying that enough is enough,” – ETU Organiser, Liam Sharkey
Wilmar’s divide-and-rule tactic – trying to pit growers against workers – has damaged its reputation in local communities with the dictatorial and disrespectful attitude during negotiations and its reckless disregard for sugar communities. This led to a community boycott of Wilmar International products, including Goodman Fielder, a producer of popular household brands in Australia and subsidiary of Wilmar.
Organiser Liam Sharkey led a campaign that showed the best of local unionism and the worst of multinational companies.
“Our density across the mills has seen massive growth and it sends a clear message to the brutal sugar industry multinationals that workers will no longer be walked over. We’ve shown that when we as a union collective stand together and fight together we can win respect and decent outcomes.
It was no easy win, and while it fell slightly short of what members ultimately wanted, the deal represents the biggest ever pay increase achieved at Wilmar and is a full one third higher than first offered by the company.”
Wilmar lived up to its global reputation for poor industrial relations, employing deceitful tactics to obstruct fair outcomes for its employees. They broke promises, consistently presented substandard agreements, and threatened indefinite lockouts if workers participated in debrief meetings. But, even with such despicable and underhanded tactics, they could not break these mighty ETU members.
Union power wins at Wilmar!
Campaign Timeline:
- March 2023 – Negotiations begin
- December 2023 – Expiry of EBA
- November 2023 – Wilmar offers substandard rollover agreement – puts agreement to ballot without union support – Voted down by more than 80 per cent
- November 2023 – May 2024 – Wilmar refuses to meet with unions face-to-face
- May – June 2024 – Unions take rolling protected action and targeting Wilmar’s parent company with a Boycott Goodman Fielder campaign which received solid support across the union movement including at ACTU Congress in June
- June 2024 – Wilmar roll out another substandard non-approved agreement with hefty sign on bonus in an attempt to sway seasonal workers. The agreement voted down 85 per cent. They threaten workers with indefinite lockouts if they attend union meetings.
- June to August 2024 – Protected industrial actions continues – Wilmar spends hundreds of thousands win then lose in FWC trying to stop legal strike action.
- August 2024 – Wilmar and unions agree to attend Commissioner Assisted Bargaining – Wilmar rejects Commissioner’s recommendations.
- September 2024 – Agreement finally reached after 18 months and voted up by 55 per cent of the workforce.