Holden workers to vote on pay freeze About 1700 Holden workers in Adelaide are expected to accept a wages freeze and new conditions on Tuesday in a bid to keep the company manufacturing in Australia. In June, Holden asked employees at its Adelaide plant to accept wage cuts or risk the company's manufacturing arm leaving Australia. On Tuesday, its South Australian staff will vote on a revised workplace agreement. Assuming it is passed, workers at Holden's Port Melbourne centre will also vote on the deal, although their pay and conditions will not change. The proposed agreement includes a three-year wage freeze, changes to shift times to reduce costs and some productivity-boosting measures. Other minor changes include introducing "malingering" into a new definition of serious misconduct and cutting break times from 40 minutes to 26 minutes. Holden managing director Mike Devereux had said Australia was one of the most expensive places on the planet to build cars. He said it cost $3750 more to build a Holden in Australia than overseas. ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said on Monday that unions and the delegates on the factory floor had negotiated a deal with the company that would "maintain the current wages and conditions, and also provide them with the possibility of future wage increases if they are able to turn the company around." He said the South Australian Labor government was "stumping up some cash," as was the Rudd government. He said the question now was what an incoming Coalition government would do "to secure the investment deal that keeps thousands of workers ... employed." Coalition industry spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella this month repeated the Coalition's pledge to cut funding paid to auto makers between 2011 and 2015 from $1.5 billion to $1 billion. However, the Coalition has committed to maintaining a second round of $1 billion in car industry funding from 2016. Ms Mirabella could not be reached on Monday night for comment. Mr Devereux has indicated that without further subsidies the company could stop making cars in Australia - a step that experts believe could mean the end of the auto manufacturing here. His warning came as the federal government pledged a further $200 million funding for the industry without specifying how it would be spent. The Holden pay-cut proposal followed Ford announcing it would close its Broadmeadows and Geelong plants in 2016, ending 88 years of local vehicle manufacturing.