The Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC), the public entity that owns and manages the sugar mills, has completely refused to bargain with the union, has routinely violated the labour law and has ignored previous collective bargaining agreements. Mill workers have not had a raise in seven years and many live in poverty. After the union filed its notice, the FSC announced a token wage increase that does not begin to address the over 40% decline in real wages for sugar mill workers over the last seven years.
FSC management has held meetings in all work stations in order to intimidate union members not to vote and even threatened that if they voted the FSC would turn their names over to the government – a military dictatorship since 2006. Since 23 July, when balloting started, police and military officers were also present at the polling sites to threaten and intimidate workers. The Attorney General, the architect of many repressive decrees that have stripped workers and citizens of their fundamental rights, has now issued threats to the union via the state-dominated press. The latest threat stated that the government will intervene to keep the mills running in the case of a strike. This has been interpreted to mean that the military will be mobilised as replacement labour and/or that the government will place the sugar sector under the scope of the Essential National Industries (ENI) Decree.