Strange bedfellows – when unionists and farmers join for the common good

Conflict is a curious thing. It deepens animosities and builds hatreds. It can also heal, bringing people together for a common goal; a goal often based on mutual survival. The current impasse between Simplot and potato growers is a case in point, which is building a strong relationship between unionists and farmers.

A basic understanding of the Australian political landscape shows that unions and farmers are often poles apart – not always, but usually. This traditional animosity grew out of the wool industry when shearers and graziers were always at loggerheads. In the end, the sheep need shearing and the shearers need paying, so a way was found to do both.

At a local level, there has been a long-term wavering relationship between potato growers and the workers at the Simplot factory in Devonport. But now there is a larger problem bringing traditional foes together as allies.

During the recent price and contract negotiations between the TasFarmers Growers Committee and Simplot, an American-based senior manager threatened to close the Devonport factory and source potato products from overseas. This is no idle threat to be ignored in the cut and thrust of tense negotiations, remembering that Simplot is one of the largest privately owned companies in the USA. The Simplot family are in the top ten wealthiest families in America.

This is not just a risk to potato growers, but also to food manufacturing in Australia, and ultimately the nation’s food security. When a global giant threatens to close a food processing factory, history shows they are serious. Just ask the people of Scottsdale in Tasmania’s north east – Simplot closed the factory there in 2003 at the same time the forestry industry was collapsing. That community has never really recovered.

Following the intervention of Federal Member for Braddon, Anne Urquhart, a previous union delegate at Simplot’s Devonport factory, officials of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), TasFarmers and potato growers have come together to work to ensure the viability of the processing potato industry in Tasmania. As one AMWU official said, “no factory means no potato growing, but a non-viable potato growing industry also means no factory.”

At the tractor rally last week in Deloraine, where 60 tractors converged on this farming community, the AMWU were prominent. At the growers meeting, where 147 growers registered their attendance, the AMWU received strong applause after speaking to farmers. These are strange bedfellows indeed.