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| Down Under | |
| Ozzie workmates cold-shoulder media bashers | |
| 2005-11-11 | |
| Scores of factory workers say they don't want to work alongside the thugs who bashed cameramen outside a court where nine men were facing terrorism charges. Three of five men who savagely beat a Channel 7 cameraman and hit a Herald Sun photographer outside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday work at the Safeway distribution centre in Broadmeadows. The centre, which employs more than 500 workers, has twice been brought to a standstill this week as management tries to ease rising tensions. At a crisis meeting yesterday dayshift workers were warned they faced the sack if caught bullying or harassing the men. But one angry worker said he could not understand why parent company Woolworths was protecting them. "We don't want them here," he said. "Not all Muslims are terrorists, we know that. But beating up television crews . . . that's just un-Australian. "This is the country I love . . . the company needs to take a stance to protect us." Union officials met workers at the centre yesterday morning and on Wednesday night. A union source said there had been many complaints from colleagues of the men who made it clear they did not want to work alongside them. One of the three men is believed to have returned to work on Wednesday night and received a hostile reception from workmates. He was told by management to go home. The company is also believed to be investigating the absence of one of the men on the day the court attack occurred. It is believed he called in sick. The two others involved in the bashing are believed not to have been rostered on at the time of the attack. One worker at the centre said a group of colleagues had to be talked out of a plan to take the law into their own hands. "Some of the guys wanted to bash them," he said. "They were going to wait for them to knock off and get them. They're edgy about working alongside these blokes." Another concerned staff member said a mass strike was not an option. "I'm not happy about working with them but we need our jobs too much to just walk out," he said. Anger was brewing on the factory floor. "There has already been some banter back and forth between them and some of the boys," he said. Two of the men are believed to be direct employees of the company and the third a casual, employed through an agency. No charges have been laid against the men involved in Tuesday's attack in which Seven cameraman Matt Rose was wounded. Woolworths did not return calls for comment.
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| Posted by:Oztralian |