Plastics offer "insulting"

EPMU members in the Plastics Multi Employer Collective Agreement will be meeting later this month to discuss what steps to take after their employers reiterated their claim for no wage increase.

The offer represents a real wage decrease after increased cost of living is taken into account but despite two attempts to negotiate in the last two months employers say they are not moving.

EPMU national plastics industry organiser Rachel Mackintosh says the offer is an insult to members.

"Our members have shown loyalty to the industry and have worked hard, to now be offered an effective drop in pay is simply insulting.

"These are not well paid members," says Mackintosh, "right now nearly forty five percent of our members are paying more than half their income in rent or mortgages and many are struggling to pay for the basic necessities of life."

"At a meeting today one of our delegates described it at the employers fiddling while the members burn and right now this refusal to make a fair offer looks exactly like that."

Member meetings will be held nationwide during the last week of October.