Contributed by Ugly

The ongoing battle between the Longford workers and ESSO, its subcontractor UGL and its labour hire subsidiary MTCT Services, has finally come to an end.

Behind all of it stood one of the biggest multinationals in the world Exxon Mobil. Esso is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil.

These bloody minded companies were hellbent on using sham contracts to cut wages and conditions massively. Workers were given no choice but to sign or be sacked. On the wage front alone, the scheme amounted to a 40 percent wage cut.

This group of workers stood up. They refused to sign and, although they were sacked, maintained an around the clock presence at the workplace gate for more than two years, before there was a breakthrough to finally bring the dispute to an end.

Management has come with a wage offer that is substantially better than had been there before. Many of those who were out, have got their jobs back. Further details of the agreement are being kept under wraps.

There remains the matter of getting work for a hand full of individuals who have not been offered back their jobs so far.

The unions concerned, the Australian Workers Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Electrical Trades Union are happy with the outcome, and the worker celebrated before the camp was dismantled.

This has been an important win for workers across Australia.

Exxon Mobil was the decisive factor behind the actions of Esso, UGL and MTCT Services. They would not have proceeded, without a nod from upstairs. Getting other companies to do the dirty work has become common practice for multinationals like this.

This is not an isolated dispute either. It was part of a wider corporate assault on Australian wages and conditions. This was to be a test case.

A workforce considered to be in a relatively weak position and isolated was chosen as a test case to achieve a break through.

It did not work out this way. This workforce fought back and soon began to gain enormous support from around the country. This is what maintained them and helped keep them going for so long.

This has been an important win, which has dented the intention of other major employers to move in on a wholesale slashing of wages and conditions. They will find it difficult to go on for a time.

It should be remembered, that Exxon Mobil being at the head of this is important, because the leadership of the assault on Australian workers in Australia this in the hands of a group of American based multinationals, seeking to impose here what they impose in the United states.