THE Electrical Trades Union and DP World failed to meet on Friday (23 February) to continue negotiations for the new enterprise agreement.
Electricians at DP World’s Brisbane terminal have been on strike since last Thursday and it is set to continue until at least next Monday.
Deputy secretary of the Queensland and Northern Territory branch of the Electrical Trades Union Scott Reichman told DCN on Friday his workers were keen to “escalate the campaign”.
“Our guys are still not working and the company is still refusing to meet with us while we’ve got industrial action on,” Mr Reichman said.
“We’ll meet on Monday. We’ll be looking at how to escalate the campaign.
“Obviously, we need to meet with the company, we understand that.
“We’ve got to lift the bans for 24 hours otherwise the meetings won’t go ahead.
“All the pressure from the stoppages is alleviated because the guys would work for 24 hours before we stop again so it’s all a bit painful.”
DP World Brisbane and the Electrical Trades Union have been in negotiations since October.
Earlier this month DP World reached an agreement with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) over a long-running dispute over wages.
Under the MUA deal, workers received an 8% increase to their pay packets in the first year and in the second year it was 7% followed by 4% in the third year and 4.5% in the fourth year.
“That would’ve probably got the deal done with us as well,” Mr Reichman told DCN earlier this week.
“They came back to us with 6%, 4%, 4% and 4.5%.
