United Workers Union locks horns with dairy producers, declares strike

Producer Saputo, with 285 workers at Cobram and 107 at Kiewa, is negotiating with the United Workers Union which says the strike will involve 1400 processing workers across four major dairy producers - Fonterra, Saputo, Lactalis and Peters.

The four manufacture brands including Western Star butter, Cracker Barrel cheese, Peter's Icecream and Perfect Italiano.

"Workers who put up with wage increases as low as 2.5 per cent a year during the pandemic are saying they deserve a cost-of-living wage increase," UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said.

"These workers are fighting for safe, secure jobs in regional communities, where almost every dollar they earn goes back into those communities.

"Given the historic nature of the strike across the state consumers can expect a big impact on supply chains and their favourite products."

But a large proportion of dairy supplies to the Border region will be largely unaffected, said Kyvalley Dairy Group director Wayne Mulcahy.

Mr Mulcahy said union action wasn't affecting his operation which produces Kiewa Country milk.

"I would imagine there'd be negligible impact to consumers in the Border region unless the whole thing escalates there to a much larger dispute than just the 48-hour shutdown that's going on at the moment," Mr Mulcahy said.

"The unions are not involving us in their action," Mr Mulcahy said. "We don't have an enterprise bargaining agreement under negotiation currently whereas the other processing plants or factories do.

"The union is working with the other processors because they have an enterprise agreement they're trying to get signed off. We only have a small number of union members but all our staff work under an enterprise bargaining agreement, and that agreement was signed off some time ago.

"They were working to the current agreement which is not due for renewal so that's why none of our staff are caught up in this.

"We supply to the Border region, we supply Kiewa Country milk and there we'll be supplying that as normal."

Mr Kennedy said workers who had backed the multinational companies had seen milk prices rise and the profits of the companies increase, but workers had not received a fair share.

"These workers are not even asking for a wage increase that keeps them ahead of the current inflation rate," Mr Kennedy said.

"While the dairy industry sees profit increases, these financial gains are not being fairly distributed to the workers. Our members are the backbone of this industry, and it's high time profits are shared more fairly."

Saputo was committed to resolving outstanding items with union representatives "amicably and swiftly", operations director Gerard Lourey said.

The company is also putting contingency measures in place to minimise disruptions.

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