Submarine workers strike over pay

Submarine workers are walking off the job at Osborne naval shipyard in South Australia amid a pay dispute.

Transcript

00:00More than 100 workers here at the Osborne Naval Shipyard walked off the job this morning

00:06to take industrial action calling for pay parity with their interstate counterparts

00:11from government-owned submarine builder ASC.

00:15Australian Manufacturing Workers Union SA say members want to get paid the same on average

00:19as their fellow employees in Western Australia and have rejected ASC's recent offer which

00:25was 7% short of this.

00:27Currently, it says ASC workers in Western Australia receive 17% more on average than

00:32workers here in South Australia.

00:35And the union says this is despite the fact that some Western Australian workers are being

00:39trained in South Australia, effectively meaning those being trained are earning more in the

00:44process than the actual trainers.

00:46The union is urging ASC to address the discrepancy with wages which it claims has been ignored

00:52during enterprise bargaining negotiations since November.

00:55The union's Assistant State Secretary, Stuart Gordon, spoke to ABC News Breakfast a little

01:00earlier and said government interference has been keeping wages low.

01:05Let's take a listen.

01:06The previous government had restrictions with ASC about wage increases and so they were

01:11achieving wage increases below 2% probably on the average of the last three years was

01:16just above 6% wage increases where in Adelaide cost of living around that time reached 9%

01:21to 7%.

01:22We're open for discussions around the time frame.

01:26The company is just short on that 7% and the reason behind that is because they say it's

01:32postcode.

01:33You live in South Australia, you deserve 7% less than Western Australia.

01:38The union says that ASC should be prioritising attracting and retaining skilled workers in

01:43South Australia, especially the maintenance crew which will be responsible for keeping

01:48future AUKUS nuclear powered submarines in operation.

01:52Only a couple of months ago ASC was announced as one of the main builders alongside BAE

01:57Systems for the new SSN AUKUS submarines which will be assembled here in Adelaide.

02:03ASC has been given responsibility of maintaining Australia's Virginia class submarines while

02:09the new Australian built ones are scheduled to arrive in the early 2040s.

02:14But the union says if pay conditions don't improve then South Australia could lose tradespeople,

02:19crucial to the future of AUKUS.

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