Respect for employees: United Workers Union food and beverage lead Tom Czech at the Leeton facility. Six locations in NSW and Victoria were affected by a strike, including Tongala and Deniliquin.
SunRice factory workers walked off the job on February 1 and plan to walk again after failing to negotiate a four per cent pay rise.
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More than 300 employees at SunRice and its subsidiary companies CopRice and Australian Grain Storage (ASG) downed tools for 48 hours across the Tongala, Deniliquin, Wangaratta, Coleambally, Leeton and Cobden sites.
The two-day strike will be followed by another on February 21.
United Workers Union food and beverage lead Tom Czech said workers resolved to strike again unless SunRice came to the table with a fair offer.
“SunRice, CopRice and AGS workers are ready to keep fighting until they win,” Mr Czech said.
The four per cent pay rise sought by union-affiliated employees roughly translates to a $1 an hour raise.
“SunRice is a company which continues to grow and record profits but is refusing modest wage rises for the very workers who have contributed to its successes,” Mr Czech said.
“Throughout the pandemic, these workers have done double shifts and heaps of overtime to process bumper harvests. They are considered essential workers and should be rewarded for their sacrifice, not insulted.”
Strength in numbers: Striking workers at the Deniliquin SunRice processing plant.
The UWU launched the strike after what it said was an “insulting” run-in with SunRice management following eight months of back-and-forth bargaining.
Some conditions SunRice has been attempting to remove from the agreement include: special leave for volunteer firefighters, leave for domestic violence victims and paid time to donate blood.
According to the UWU, a meeting was scheduled for January 31 between SunRice, the UWU and workers to discuss the agreement.
“However, the billion-dollar company decided it would be a good idea to cut workers out of the meetings, which, for obvious reasons, is something the union would not abide,” Mr Czech said.
The UWU said it understood SunRice flew three senior managers to Leeton the next morning to meet with the union, only to decline to attend the meeting after the UWU insisted workers be present.
“If SunRice wants to truly show its commitment to the regional communities in which it operates it should treat the workers, who happen to be core members of their communities, with more respect,” Mr Czech said.
In 2021 SunRice reported a $1.03 billion group revenue and a $18.3 million net profit after tax — but SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur described 2021 as a “difficult year”.
“The continuing drought in the Riverina, combined with disruption from COVID-19, set the scene for FY2021,” Mr Arthur wrote in the group’s most recent annual report.
“There was minimal Australian paddy to mill and minimal water, at very high prices, to grow rice with.”
He wrote SunRice had “used our balance sheet strength to continue with our merger and acquisition activity and continued to invest in our operations’’ seeking to reward shareholders and generate a net profit even during drought.
On the farming front, 2020 was the second smallest Riverina rice crop on record while the 2021 rice crop reached a rough 420,000 paddy tonnes in spite of the very cool summer which reduced yield.
“The CY2021 crop, which is now being processed in our Riverina facilities, is anticipated to mark the end of a difficult cycle for the SunRice Group and set the path for a progressive recovery,” Mr Arthur wrote.
“The whole business thrives when Australian rice is plentiful.”
SunRice is one of the largest rice food companies in the world and one of Australia's leading branded food exporters.
SunRice was contacted for comment but did not respond by the deadline.
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