mama's boys!!!, page-6

Even the ex union boss tells the MAMA's Boys to return to work

Ex-union boss asks workers to end strike February 3, 2010 - 10:29AM .

Striking workers at Woodside Petroleum's Pluto liquefied natural gas plant in Western Australia have been told to go back to work by their former union boss.

Up to 3,000 workers have been striking on and off since November over Woodside's decision to introduce "motelling" at its accommodation camp in Karratha.

Under the plan, workers would have to pack up their belongings and move to a different unit, or donga, after each shift break rather than keeping a permanent home at the camp.

Doug Cameron, a former national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, said the workers were on individual contracts, a hangover from the previous Howard government's Work Choices regime.

As a result the workers did not have a voice, were frustrated and were taking action that could have been avoided if a collective agreement was in place, the now Labor senator said.

"I think they should go back to work," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"But I think the company should sit down with the union movement and work out a collective arrangement that allows proper industrial relations on that side."