Mudginberri Dispute - Background

Background

The Australian Meat Industry was in serious decline by the 1980s, with 35 abattoir closures across Australia between 1979 and 1982. Cattle numbers were also being cut in an attempt to eradicate brucellosis and tuberculosis from the cattle herd. This also meant the reduction in the buffalo herd which Mudginberri primarily processed for the export trade.

In the early 1980s of the dozen abattoirs operating in the NT, only Katherine and Darwin abattoirs were bound by the industrial award, while other abattoirs were hiring workers on individual contracts without union involvement. Most of those employed in the Mudginberri abbatoir were itinerant workers who came through each year to make good money during the dry season, whereas the larger Katherine meatworks consisted of mainly permanent residents.

Workers were not employed directly by the abattoir owner Jan Pendarvis, but by 3 contractors engaged by the owner. The contractors had most to lose from an award based tally system according to union accounts. According to Anderson the reason why he (Pendarvis) succeeded was that he employed three contractors and the three contractors were viewed by the Court as being the employer, but in the essence they were really J Pendarvis's employees and J Pendarvis was, of course, the third party that was in fact effected by that industrial dispute. And, as such, they found against us that we had to pay the damages that he had incurred during that industrial dispute...

Mudginberri was a member of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association which was, in turn, a member of the National Farmers' Federation (NFF). The Meat and Allied Trades Federation of Australia (MATFA), a representative body of meat processors, and the NFF chose to become involved in the dispute.

Paul Houlihan, Industrial Director of the NFF claimed the NFF wanted to get involved in the dispute due to "the extreme inefficiencies that exist in most parts of the meat processing industry, due to the enormously powerful position enjoyed in the industry by the AMIEU, and, in particular, because of the most common piecework method employed, that is the unit tally system."