AMWU members at Holden’s Elizabeth plant in Adelaide are breathing a sigh of relief after the company announced the workforce would return to a second shift from November.
Holden had cancelled the second shift and reduced production in April 2009 after the global financial crisis led to a slump in new car sales.
AMWU Delegate Joy Thiele said the return to full production is a “relief” to the 2300 workers at the plant.
“It’s been a difficult time and our members have been asking, when will we be going back? “So this is just what we’ve been waiting for,” she said.
“People who have mortgages and families have really struggled financially without full-time work so they will definitely welcome the news. We’re all just really relieved.”
AMWU senior shop steward Michael Etherington agreed.
“We’ve got guys who’ve been on reduced wages for nearly two years and they’ve had to change their whole lifestyles and so have their partners,” he said.
“It’s a massive sigh of relief, and it’s a shot in the arm for those who’ve hung in there.”
The Elizabeth plant builds the Commodore sedan and wagon, the Statesman, and is gearing up to start local manufacturing next year of the Cruze four-cylinder sedan.
The Australian vehicle manufacturing industry was hit hard during the Global Financial Crisis, and Holden workers like Joy Thiele were faced with a difficult choice.
“Instead of just retrenching people, we were able to negotiate with the company to have some choice,” she said.
“You could either take reduced shifts or take leave without pay while trying to find other work. Some people did leave, but a lot of people stayed on reduced hours because it’s hard to find work when so many other places are closing down.”
Joy said the workers on reduced shifts had received some protection under the union collective agreement negotiated by AMWU members.
“Under the agreement we get 50 per cent of our pay in the week that we don’t work. But in the component companies where people were on reduced shifts like us, they weren’t covered by our agreement. It just shows how it pays to be in the union otherwise you don’t get those conditions.”
Joy hopes the boost in production at Holden will benefit the local economy.
“If Holden isn’t working then no-one is buying and it has a flow on effect through the whole economy,” she said.
“In the northern suburbs we lost a lot of jobs after Mitsubishi and Bridgestone closed. Holden is the only car company left so it was important to everyone that it stayed open.”
AMWU State Secretary John Camillo said the return to full-time work is a reward for several hundred workers who have stayed loyal to through the hard times.
"Shorter working hours, shorter money, meant an emotional rollercoaster for these people," he said.
He said the boost in production was a credit to the workers and the government’s auto industry strategy.
"Now, as the global economy picks up again, Holden Australia has been able to pick production back up just as quickly because they were able to avoid significant layoffs."