AgForce Cane Limited Concerned by Mill Workers’ Industrial Action Outcome – an opinion piece
AgForce Cane Limited (ACL) President Russell Hall has mixed feelings on the results of the mill worker industrial action, which was announced on the 13th of September.
He has concerns for the 45% of workers who voted that are not happy with the deal.
Almost half the workforce agrees that the deal doesn’t go far enough to solve the issue of labour shortage in our Mills.
After talking to a number of workers in his area, he has the feeling that the deal is great for the seasonal workers but not so much for
the full-time, more experienced workers.
So, we may continue to see those workers with long-term experience leaving the industry in search of higher-paying jobs.
The sugar cane industry is currently struggling to find people to drive locos and various other positions, which is having an impact on the supply of cane to the Mills and crush rates.
With the industrial agreement only being a 3-year deal, Mr. Hall says the industry will be back on the roundabout before they know it.
Mr Hall congratulates the Millers and Workers Union for coming to a deal for the benefit of industry.
This year’s industrial action was resolved within 52 hours in stoppages (and no 24 hour stops) or less than 1.5% of the total mill crushing season.
Although Mr Hall has concerns for the reliability of the mills to have a strong finish for the 2024 sugar crush season.
There have been positive signs of Mill production rates improving over the last 3-4 weeks, with some factories doing extremely well.
While some Mills are forging ahead, others continue to have problems meeting targets.
Mr. Hall says it’s disappointing we cannot make the most of the well-performing mills to take the load off the other ones that are not performing as well. This is due to the different rail systems in the same areas making it hard for equalization between milling zones.
“We have all been there, it is the ‘luck of the draw’!”
Some AgForce Cane members have only cut 40 percent of the crop, while others are away off, hoping to catch up. This will have huge impacts on their ratoon ability (new crop) causing production losses into the 2025 sugar season.
Cane farmers and sugar cane contractors have invested a lot into growing and harvesting our sugarcane crop over recent years. Despite the especially good prices, it’s not paying much in the way of dividends, because of the increases in cost of production and stand-over cane (cane left in the paddocks).
A lot of areas are struggling to pay bills and meet machinery repayments and so, the smaller communities are feeling it right now, with small
businesses closing shops in town.
There is still about 60 percent of the sugar crop left to harvest and crush, before Christmas.
“The livelihood and that of our communities’ rests with our climate - no more rain for the rest of the season and our Mills
performance,” says Mr. Hall.
“It may take a miracle to make this happen before Christmas, but we hold out for that miracle.”