Maccas sauce makers go on strike as pay talks sour
Sydney Morning Herald
February 25, 2021


Workers making McDonald’s sweet and sour sauce, KFC gravy and Aeroplane Jelly have gone on an indefinite strike to try to force their employer to agree to pay rises after years of flat wages.

About 80 workers at McCormick Australia’s factory in Clayton, south east of Melbourne, walked out on Thursday after failing to reach a new enterprise agreement in the more than four years since their last deal expired.

McCormick workers have gone on an indefinite strike.


But the company insists no customers will be forced to eat their nuggets dry or their chips plain, saying its supply of a range of sauces to corporate customers would not be affected.

At issue in negotiations to replace the 2014-16 agreement, which remains in force while talks continue, are workers’ penalty rates, overtime and paid meal breaks, which the United Workers Union says McCormick wants to reduce.



It wants annual pay rises of 3 per cent, almost double last year’s increase to the minimum wage, and for other conditions to stay the same. Workers at the site earn an average of $31 an hour, according to the UWU.


“These workers have worked every day during the pandemic and the lockdown and that’s added to the intensity of what the workers feel about their efforts ... being recognised with a wage increase,” UWU director of food and beverages Susie Allison said.

In addition to sweet and sour sauce, a range of McDonald’s other sauces are made at least in part by McCormick, the union said.

A McCormick spokesman said the company was trying to reach a fair agreement with its employees but would not negotiate publicly.

“We will work to come to an agreement that continues to fairly compensate our employees while also serving the best interests of our overall business in Australia,” he said in a statement.


“McCormick is pleased to reassure our partners that there are no issues with our supply chain and all our customers will continue to receive the great products for which we are famous.”

Workers at McCormick, who are highly unionised, took industrial action in 2017 to try to get the company to agree to their demands without success.

McCormick bills itself as the largest producer of spices and herbs in the world globally and makes brands including Keen’s and Grill Mates as well as the products it supplies directly to the fast food giants.

McDonald’s and KFC declined to comment.

$31 an hour sounds too expensive

I think the sensible thing for the company to do in our global economy
Is the closed this plant and reopen one in an Asian country

These workers don't sound like they enjoy working so it is probably better off for everyone if they stay at home and eat the product rather than produce it

Scott Morrison  can always print an extra few million and mail them cheque

It is important that the Australian Workforce produce as little as possible

The unions are all about creating equality of outcome
And when everyone is broke and picking through dumpsters
We will all be equal

The socialist Utopia will have been achieved

February 26, 2021 United Workers Union      
McCormick workers in Clayton, Victoria, who make some of Australia’s most popular food products, have taken industrial action this morning after being denied a pay rise for over five years. 

The protected industrial action of an indefinite stoppage will be extremely disruptive to McCormick’s most important Australian facility.

This bitter dispute sees a megacorporation trying to strip workers’ conditions including taking away shift penalties, overtime loading and meal breaks.

Workers are furious that after five years without any pay rise, and working throughout the pandemic to keep restaurants and supermarkets stocked, McCormick is offering a zero per cent pay rise and cuts to their conditions across the board.   

Workers are only asking to maintain their conditions and receive a modest pay rise of three per cent for each year of the agreement. As a result of inflation, members’ real earnings have fallen by more than six and half per cent since 2016.

The Victorian facility is the only one in Australia producing some of Australia’s most popular products and sauces such as Aeroplane Jelly, Keen’s Mustard, KFC’s iconic gravy as well as sweet and sour sauce for McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, KFC, and Red Rooster. A full list of products made at the site is available here.

Quotes attributable to Susie Allison, United Workers Union Victorian Secretary:

“McCormick is a disgrace. Our members worked every day during the pandemic to ensure McCormick could continue to provide food products to restaurants and supermarkets. In return McCormick is now offering these essential workers no pay rise and slashing their conditions. How’s that fair?

“Food companies that have made a profit over the pandemic have a responsibility to workers and the community to pay fair wage increases to assist with economic recovery. Instead, McCormick is insulting essential food workers who worked every day during lock down, with a zero per cent wage increase and attacks on their conditions.

“We are keen as mustard to get McCormick to give their workers a fair pay rise.”

Quotes attributable to a McCormick worker who wishes to remain anonymous:

“Over my last five years at the company, I haven’t had a pay rise. That makes it really difficult to make ends meet when the price of groceries and bills keeps going up.

“After five years, McCormick hasn’t moved their position at all. We don’t appreciate them attacking our conditions and offering no pay rise. We are fighting to protect our conditions and get enough to manage the home budget.”

Additional information:

For the year ended 31 December 2019, the company McCormick Foods Australia Pty Ltd (McCormick),

reported revenue of $122.8 million. In the four years to December 2019, McCormick became significantly more profitable, with bottom-line profit growing nearly 40 per cent per year. February 26, 2021Categories Tags
McCormick workers in Clayton, Victoria, who make some of Australia’s most popular food products, have taken industrial action this morning after being denied a pay rise for over five years.

The protected industrial action of an indefinite stoppage will be extremely disruptive to McCormick’s most important Australian facility.

This bitter dispute sees a megacorporation trying to strip workers’ conditions including taking away shift penalties, overtime loading and meal breaks.