Online union newsletter, Workers Online, reported that an attempt by Joy Mining Machinery to end its three month Moss Vale lockout ten days ahead of schedule failed in early July.

 

The newsletter reported that a letter to locked out employees explained that the lockout was formally over. Negotiations on matters in dispute would follow a return to work. However, if no resolution was reached after a month then a new lockout would commence on July 29 and run through to September 4.

 

"The workers were affronted by the paternalism of the return to work notification, the Master and Servant sentiments expressed, the threats, and the lack of detail regarding negotiations," said the newsletter.

 

Following the collapse of EBA negotiations earlier this year, about 70 workers have been locked out of the Joy worksite in Moss Vale (NSW). Two picket encampments have been manned outside the worksite but activities, and those of their unions (the AMWU, AWU, and CEPU), have been restrained by Supreme Court injunctions.

 

The Joy workers rejected the return to work offer on July 3, saying "genuine negotiations" could take place at any time through union delegates and officials.

 

According to the newsletter, one problem in the dispute has been the perception that the company is reluctant to negotiate with the unions involved, seeking direct negotiations with workers instead. The unions have persistently suggested that Joy has been high-handed and is attempting to "Americanise industrial relations".

 

Joy is understood to have taken this route to tackle poor employee productivity that has dogged the manufacturer in recent years.