How productivity is destroying rural Australia

And the best local state MP Paul Weller from the Nationals (the so-called party of rural Australia) could come up with was his May 30, 2011 promise “to ensure the transition for workers into other industry
and jobs is as smooth and as painless as possible”.

The problem, of course, is that decades of “productivity” focused 
policies in Australia means this “smooth” transition is impossible.

Whenever governments and bosses talk about “productivity” what they 
really defending is slashing jobs, wages and conditions to boost 
corporate profits. The costs of “productivity initiatives” are always borne by workers.

This is not just the case with Heinz. The Goulburn Valley has been hit 
hard by the loss of 600 jobs in the six months leading up to March, following the closure of several other fruit and dairy factories. Add to this the impact on producers and other affected industries and you 
can see what the pursuit of “productivity” has led to.

And as Tippet noted in his Age article, the future holds more pain for these communities. Take the example of Chris “Dickie” Lloyd, who worked at Heinz for 18 
years. Lloyd has found new work, but he told Tippet that his income
has fallen by $4 an hour — close to $15,000 a year.

“I’m grateful for the job”, Lloyd said, “but the thing is, you haven’t 
got sick leave, you don’t have holidays or super, you don’t have all
the trimmings of a permanent position, and that adds up.”

Lloyd is not alone, as all the other former Heinz employees that have
found jobs have done so as casual placements and it is seasonal work. Lloyd said: “Seasonal work you go seven days a week, you work hard, no certainty, and you’re in there for a couple of months and out and into the great big casual pool again.”

A recent ACTU survey found 40 per cent of workers nationally are engaged in insecure work arrangements such as casual work, fixed term work, contracting or labour hire, all of which are essential ingredients in
a economic strategy focused on “productivity”.

Then there is the string of job losses in other industries. “Sometimes you wonder what’s going on in this country,” Simon Fraser, another former Heinz worker, told The Age. “Alcoa, the car industry, 
jobs lost everywhere. Every time I open the paper now it’s, ‘I know
what those poor bastards are going through’.”

This is a big part of the reason why most Australians are forced to
buy the cheapest products they can find at the supermarket, as they struggling to pay off mortgages and rising bill costs at the same time. And it’s why Coles and Woolworths, who control so much of what
we can buy, are raking in the profits.

These are the consequences Labor and the Coalition’s commitment to make working people in the city and country pay for capitalism’s never ending drive to accrue more profits.

The fate of rural communities, workers lives and the food we eat are too important to be left in the hands of market fundamentalists who
profess the virtues of “productivity” at all cost.

What is needed is an emergency plan that can turn this situation 
around — one that is premised on placing peoples’ lives before 
profits.