A protester at a rally outside Ansell HQ in Richmond demands Sri Lankan trade unionists be allowed to visit Australia for talks with the manufacturing corporation. Photo: Mathew Knight.
Three Sri Lankan trade union members have been denied entry visas just days before they were scheduled to meet with Australian unions and their former employees at Ansell.
Australian union leaders have accused the federal government of collusion with the multinational manufacturing corporation to prevent the former factory workers meeting with Ansell to discuss working conditions.
TCFUA National Secretary Michele O’Neil at yesterday’s rally. Photo: Mathew Knight.
At a rally outside Ansell’s headquarters in Richmond yesterday, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the Textile Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) and Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) gathered to protest against the denials, poor working conditions and union-busting activity in Sri Lankan factories.
“We not only have the company refusing to meet with us,” said AMWU President Andrew Dettmer, “but we also have the government, it would appear, doing their bidding and refusing them access to Australia.”
Two of the three trade union members denied visas were Ansell factory workers in Sri Lanka fired from their jobs after they campaigned for higher wages as members of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZGSEU). The third is the Sri Lankan Secretary of FTZGSEU.
After Ansell fired the workers, 290 employees went on strike in protest and were also sacked.
“The Australian government has colluded with Ansell to stop these workers coming and telling the true story about the behaviour, the methods, the underlying reason why Ansell is continuing to make huge profits on the back of paying poverty wages and union busting activity in Sri Lanka,” said TCFUA National Secretary Michele O’Neil at the rally.
The organisers of the talks were told that the visas were refused because the Sri Lankans were at risk of staying in Australia illegally, a claim confirmed by Immigration Department documents obtained by the ABC.
Ms O’Neil said the reasons provided by the government were “rubbish”.
“They’ve got families,” she said. “They’ve got husbands. They’ve got kids. They’ve got responsibilities. They don’t want to stay in Australia. They want to be home, and they want to be working.”
The Department of Immigration and Ansell were contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline.
The FTZGSEU is was set up in response to Free Trade Zone regulations that were established in the 1970s to encourage foreign investment in Sri Lanka but which resulted in poor working conditions, lower wages and decreased job security.
