{"id":67260,"date":"2025-08-22T09:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T23:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/?p=67260"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:49:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T23:49:04","slug":"cheesed-off-multi-billion-dollar-dairy-companys-workers-walk-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/media-release\/cheesed-off-multi-billion-dollar-dairy-companys-workers-walk-out\/","title":{"rendered":"CHEESED OFF: MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR DAIRY COMPANY\u2019S WORKERS WALK OUT"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
What:<\/strong>\u202f<\/strong><\/td>\nFonterra dairy workers take strike action amid uncertain future<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Where & When:<\/strong><\/td>\nRally:<\/strong>\u202f Friday 22nd<\/sup> August for 1 hour stop work rallies, 2:30pm-3:30pm and 3:50pm \u2013 4:50pm, Fonterra Bayswater: Unit 1\/48 Jersey Road, Baywater VIC, 3153<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Who:<\/strong>\u202f<\/strong><\/td>\nUnited Worker Union dairy workers, United Workers Union Food and Beverage Lead Tom Czech<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dairy workers at a site owned by one of the world\u2019s largest dairy companies will go on strike today after failed negotiations to improve job security and work health-and-safety allowances.<\/p>\n

United Workers Union (UWU) members will walk off shift at 2:30pm and 3:50pm today (EDS: Friday August 22) as part of protected industrial action. With the looming sale of Fonterra Australia to French dairy giant Lactalis for an estimated $4 billion, dairy workers at the Bayswater site are taking a stand for secure jobs in the dairy industry.<\/p>\n

United Workers Union members are pushing for a 4-year agreement to give workers stability across a period of change, an increase to the redundancy payout by 8 weeks to 60 weeks, as well as work health-and-safety improvements.<\/p>\n

Fonterra Australia \u2013 the sixth largest dairy company in the world by revenue \u2013 is famous for brands such as Mainland cheese, Perfect Italiano cheese and Western Star butter.<\/p>\n

To date it has refused to meet UWU members\u2019 demands ahead of the planned sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that with the sale of a business and the introduction of new management comes the risk of layoffs. Our members and their families deserve financial security and job certainty. It\u2019s the least Fonterra owes them; without them they have no business to sell,\u201d United Workers Union Food and Beverage Lead Tom Czech said today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suits at the negotiating table don\u2019t appreciate the physical toll that an honest day\u2019s work in a dairy takes on the body. Our members are expected to handle 20kg blocks of cheese everyday without a proper lifting device. Dairy work is hard work and it\u2019s physically taxing, this reality should be reflected in the agreement and financially compensated for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, many of our members have been with Fonterra or its predecessors for over 30 years \u2013 to short-change them on redundancy pay after dedicating your working life to a company and helping build it into a $4 billion company, is insulting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members will be outside their workplace today, fighting for a future for our dairy industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  What:\u202f Fonterra dairy workers take strike action amid uncertain future Where & When: Rally:\u202f Friday 22nd August for 1 hour stop work rallies, 2:30pm-3:30pm and 3:50pm \u2013 4:50pm, Fonterra Bayswater: Unit 1\/48…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":64749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-67260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-release","tag-dairy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67261,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67260\/revisions\/67261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}