Concreting formworkers at two big apartment projects in Newcastle have taken indefinite industrial action in pursuit of a 15 per cent pay rise over three years, saying the money is to compensate for the "insecurity" of their jobs.
CFMEU construction division NSW organiser Mark Cross said union members employed by ACT firm I.C. Formwork (NSW) Pty Ltd had voted in August to take protected industrial action in pursuit of a new collective agreement.
Mr Cross said I.C. Formwork had contracts at the Huntington waterfront apartments at Honeysuckle and at The Foundry Apartments at 300 Brunker Road, Adamstown.
"We have 26 employees as union members, and for many of them this is their first industrial action," Mr Cross said.
"A collective agreement with this company expired in 2018. These guys work hard and are extremely quick and efficient at what they do. They don't want to be out the gate but negotiations have not been successful and they believe this is the step they have to take."
The latest Consumer Price Index figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics published in July showed the national CPI had risen by 3.8 per cent in the year to June 30. Mr Cross said the union was seeking a 2.5 per cent increase every six months for three years.
"This level of increase is being won right across the construction industry at the moment," Mr Cross said.
He said the pay rise also helped compensate for their "insecure work".
"If the employer has no contracts in hand these blokes can be made redundant," Mr Cross said.
The ballot results posted on the Fair Work Commission website show 17 of the 26 union members voted for industrial action, with 14 voting against a range of action including indefinite strikes, and three opposed.
The developer of the Huntington apartments is another ACT business, the Doma Group, which has become arguably the biggest builder in Newcastle in recent years, with at least seven projects in and around Honeysuckle, including the redevelopment of The Store site. Doma declined to comment on the situation yesterday and referred the Newcastle Herald to its "builder on the job", another ACT firm, BLOC.
The Foundry is also a BLOC project. The Herald first reported on The Foundry in 2017, when BLOC was also developing the Water's Edge apartment building at Warners Bay.
BLOC declined to comment. I.C. Formwork has been contacted for comment.
Mr Cross said the striking workers would be protesting again outside both jobs from early tomorrow.
