Driving job security

THE City of Casey has received a message from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) – buy council cars locally to help secure Australian jobs.
The AMWU has cranked up the pressure on all levels of government to buy Australian cars after it was revealed that less than 20 per cent of local councils’ passenger vehicles were locally-made.
Vehicles division national secretary Dave Smith has written to every local government – including Casey – quizzing them on their car procurement, which he said could secure thousands of Australian jobs if they prioritised vehicles made in their own country.
City of Casey acting infrastructure services director Rob Kriek said the council had received the letter from the AMWU.
“Twenty-seven per cent of the City of Casey’s car fleet is currently Australian-built,” he said.
“City of Casey purchases locally-built vehicles for its car fleet whenever possible.
“A number of factors are considered for each vehicle purchase, including the country of origin, type of vehicle required, running costs, carbon emissions, value for money and future resale value.”
Mr Smith challenged local mayors to show leadership by putting Australian jobs first and increasing local car purchases from about 16 per cent last year towards the 66 per cent level of 2004.
“In order to stimulate our industry immediately, all government levels need to take a good, hard look at what they are doing with their car purchasing policies,” he said.
The action comes as the union moves to assist 330 Ford workers at the Geelong and Broadmeadows plants in Victoria who were made redundant, taking job losses among the big three manufacturers this year to 800.
Mr Smith said since government agencies had started offering employees leasing arrangements for vehicles it had reduced large-scale fleet purchasing of Australian-made cars.
AMWU senior delegate at Ford Broadmeadows, Stewart Harris, said the decline within the past decade had been noticeable and worrying for production workers.
“This should not have happened, the choice for people provided with a car as part of government employment should be vehicles made in Australia – there should not be an option when taxpayers or ratepayers’ money is concerned,” Mr Harris said.
“This would make a big difference, not only at Ford but for the whole industry, components too.”
The AMWU has backed the State Opposition, which said if elected it would restrict choice with salary sacrifice deals to locally-made Holdens, Fords or Toyotas.