Crane workers strike for better pay at Australia’s biggest wind project
Crane operators at the beleaguered Golden Plains project in Victoria have gone on strike, demanding better pay and conditions.
Employees of Danish crane operator BMS began a work stoppage across both stages of the project.
The four-hour strikes ramped up to six hours a day over the weekend, and will become eight hours from Monday, until an enterprise bargaining agreement is struck.
Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CMFEU) is asking for a mobile crane award, which requires minimum hour rates of between $27 and $33, and allowances for work-related subsidies.
The CFMEU is also asking for 'dad and partner' pay to be included in the agreement, and an inclement weather provision, which the award rules out unless the company tells staff to stop working.
The strike is the latest event to slow work on the $4 billion project.
Previously, a small turbine blade parts fell off, and in November, a man was killed at the project’s site after being crushed by a turbine blade.
The ensuing investigation continues but at the time Australian Workers Union (AWU) suggested the incident was caused by a pin that hadn’t been properly inserted.