Pfiz­er faces la­bor ac­tion in Aus­tralia as work­ers protest wage in­crease at man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty

To­wards the end of the sum­mer, Pfiz­er was fac­ing the heat from a la­bor ac­tion at a man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty in west­ern Aus­tralia as work­ers walked off the job in protest of what was seen as “sub­stan­dard pay.” Now, an­oth­er, sim­i­lar la­bor ac­tion in Aus­tralia is turn­ing up the heat even more.

Ac­cord­ing to the Unit­ed Work­ers Union (UWU), over 100 work­ers had “downed tools” at a Pfiz­er man­u­fac­tur­ing site in the Mel­bourne sub­urb of Mul­grave. Ac­cord­ing to the union, the ac­tion was tak­en due to Pfiz­er’s “re­fusal to con­sid­er a rea­son­able pay rise,” while al­so de­mand­ing a re­duc­tion in con­di­tions. The UWU re­ports that Pfiz­er of­fered a 3% in­crease in the first year of the agree­ment with 4% in the sec­ond year and 3% in the fi­nal year. While Pfiz­er had of­fered “cash sweet­en­ers,” they came with sev­er­al con­di­tions, in­clud­ing work­ers hav­ing to pay back a bonus if they leave or are fired.

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