Opal’s Maryvale Mill is at the centre of a tense standoff between management and the CFMEU union over a deadlocked new enterprise agreement, with its 300 workers currently locked out of the facility.
Opal is seeking to redefine its enterprise agreement with staff, in light of the dramatic loss of production following the end of the log supply from VicForests a year ago, which resulted in the end of white paper manufacturing at Maryvale. Two of the five papermaking machines, M2 and M5, were decommissioned as a result of the loss of 200,000 tonnes of output, almost half its volume. Opal now only manufactures packaging grades at Maryvale.
The Maryvale Mill is one of the largest employers in the LaTrobe Valley. Workers have been locked out for a week so far. Opal has not commented on any possible impact on supply from the mill.
An Opal spokesperson says that “given the protected industrial action taken and upcoming notified action by the CFMEU, which includes planned rolling shutdowns of the Mill’s infrastructure, we cannot operate our paper production facilities. We are disappointed to announce that we have been forced to make the decision under the Fair Work Act to undertake a legal lockout of our production team members covered by the CFMEU Agreement”.
Opal says the terms and conditions that were appropriate many years ago in previous Enterprise Agreements are “not relevant to the Mill’s operations today, nor do they reflect the way Australian paper mills operate in 2025”.
It says that as a result of “these challenges and changes to our operating conditions, Opal is seeking to make fair and reasonable changes to its operations and to embody these in a simpler, fair and competitive enterprise agreement”.
An Opal spokeperson said, “We remain confident that the enterprise agreement negotiations will be successfully resolved so that our team members can return to work.”
The CFMEU Manufacturing Division says its members have been bargaining with the company since October, with “negotiations stalling over Opal’s demands to reduce wages and working conditions of their workforce.” The union says, “The company’s management is now seeking to take away a raft of workplace rights and pay.”
The Opal spokesperson said, “We are focused on reaching an enterprise agreement with our team members and the union that is fair and allows us to supply our customers with quality paper in an extremely competitive and evolving market.”
Sally McManus, ACTU secretary said, “Locking out more than 300 workers indefinitely without pay is unfair and unreasonable. It hurts these workers, their families and the whole community. The union movement calls on Opal to end this disproportionate action and negotiate a fair deal with their Maryvale mill workers.”
Opal’s owner Nippon Paper booked a loss of ¥4.9bn, approximately $64m, on the closure of its print and copier paper manufacturing operation at the Maryvale Mill. Sparked by a court judgement in favour of a local possum in the forest that its logging contractor was using, the closure of white paper manufacturing saw the end of the country’s number one copier brand Reflex, with multiple imported brands filling the space.
