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Summer Ice-Cream Boycott Takes Aim At Golden Gaytime, Magnum And Paddle Pops

Unions are targeting Streets.
Ice-cream maker Streets is being accused of corporate greed.
PARNTAWAN via Getty Images
Ice-cream maker Streets is being accused of corporate greed.

Ice-cream lovers are being urged to join a summer boycott on treats including Paddle Pops and Golden Gaytimes to support Sydney factory workers at risk of having their pay slashed.

The boycott is the brainchild of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union that's warning more than 100 staff at a Streets factory in western Sydney face a pay cut of almost 50 per cent if their current enterprise agreement is terminated.

On Sunday, the AMWU launched on the national ban on Streets ice-creams after multinational Unilever, which owns Streets, reportedly applied in the Fair Work Commission to end the agreement governing pay at the Minto ice-cream factory.

We are officially in boycott mode. It's time to enjoy a #streetsfreesummerpic.twitter.com/NwmS7ZcEqA

— The AMWU (@theamwu) October 28, 2017

The AMWU's $250,000 #StreetsFreeSummer blitz on social and traditional media is aimed at trying to protect the rights the blue-collar workers at the factory, the union says.

Blue Ribbon, Splice, Viennetta, Calippo, Bubble'o'Bill, Golden Gaytime, Paddle Pop and Fruttare are all Streets ice-cream brands that could be hit by the boycott.

"This summer we get to choose which brand of ice cream we buy to make us feel good," AMWU secretary Steve Murphy said.

"This summer it is a choice between being on the side of workers in struggle or on the side of corporate greed."

One of the impacted workers, Michelle Parkin, told Fairfax Media that she was "hugely nervous" about changes to the enterprise agreement.

"If something gets reduced in my pay I'm too scared to think of it because I wouldn't be able to manage on a reduced income," the 57-year-old said.

Unilever Australia & New Zealand's Anthony Toovey told Fairfax that the best way the union could help workers was "to shore up their jobs by working with us to make the factory more viable".

"Ultimately if we need to close the factory, everyone is worse off," Toovey's quoted as saying.

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