Gerald Lynch
The front of Campbellfield’s HTA facility has been the home of constant Pro-Palestine protests since January, with staff refusing to work due to fears of safety and detriment to their mental health.
HTA Group chief executive Norm Tucker took to radio to speak to the troubles the company is facing to continue operating.
“It’s so intimidating for someone to walk past these people yelling at us, calling us names I can’t repeat on radio,” he told 3AW.
He said beliefs that the Melbourne facility is responsible for the heat treatment of fighter jet parts, which is causing the community pickets, are wrong.
“They think we’re doing military components there [in Melbourne], which is incorrect, it’s misinformed. We’re doing that out of our Brisbane plant of course, but not here in Melbourne,” he said.
“We heat treat parts for local companies for wheelchair frames.”
Mr Tucker said the protesters come to the facility twice a week for half a day at a time, prohibiting workers from entering and exiting the site, as well as padlocking and cutting power to the gate, and he admitted it has caused some employees to not come to work.
“Absolutely, it’s been so intimidating for us to walk past people yelling at us and calling us names I can’t repeat,” he said.
“The greatest thing is the mental health on the staff … they just don’t want to come to work.”
Residents, workers and activists have held community pickets at the HTA facility for more than 12 weeks to ‘stop work on weapons in the suburbs’.
The news from Mr Tucker has been seen as a win by activists of the weapons out of Hume campaign, although they say it is a change from publicly available information.
At a press conference on Wednesday, May 1, a Hume for Humanity spokesperson said the group was proud of its efforts of picket activists.
“It seems that weapons production has been moved out of the facility because of sustained community picketing,” the spokesperson said.
“HTA’s operations are integral to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter supply chain.”
Despite the victory, the group says its fight is long from over.
“The campaign against HTA Global is not over,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re going to continue to target weapons manufacturing facilities and any company that is complicit in the genocide until they stop arming Israel.”
