BY SUE BULL
MELBOURNE As the picket line set up by Victorian Australian Manufacturing Workers Union officials and their supporters reached its 12th day on August 26, an emergency AMWU national council was meeting. The workers, striking against the actions of national AMWU officials, lined up outside the Australian Council of Trade Unions office, where the meeting was to be held, and chanted loudly for a fair deal.
The picket line was initially set up to demand the reinstatement of sacked national industrial officer Denis Matson from the union's printing division. It comes after months of tension between the AMWU's national office and the Victorian branch, which is run by militants who have secured some of the best wages and conditions for workers in the country.
The council, mainly supporters of national secretary Doug Cameron's National Left faction, did not hear the picketers' pleas. It endorsed the attack on Victorian AMWU officials and members, including: penalties against the picketers for breaching court injunctions, civil court action against officials and members and the standing down, without pay, of officials supporting the picket, although these officials are still serving their members.
It is probable that in pursuing the picketers, the AMWU national office will use the workplace relations legislation that the Coalition introduced in 1996. Cameron was one of the leaders of the August 19, 1996, union cavalcade to Canberra which protested against the anti-worker legislation.
The irony of this was not lost on the striking workers. A leaflet written by the Defend the Printing Division Committee, noted that the use of the legislation "will put the AMWU ahead of any employer in the country in using the law, just as the conservative federal government has been encouraging employers to do, without success, for the last few years. It will make the AMWU the first employer in modern times to prosecute its employees over losses incurred through industrial action. This will represent a move for the AMWU nationally from a progressive left-wing union to a right-wing employer in one stunning leap."
Indeed, a number of printing division officials and Craig Johnston, elected Victorian AMWU secretary (now also stood down), have received summonses for contempt of court, because they breached injunctions against the picket on September 3. This may signal the beginning of a legal assault against elected Victorian leaders. Cameron faces the possibility of the fragmentation, or even disintegration, of what is arguably the most powerful union in Australia. Victoria is the biggest branch of the AMWU.
The Defend the Printing Division Committee leaflet also notes: "At one time the militant arm of the Victorian branch was restricted to the Workers First faction which represented workers in the food, construction and metal industries. More recently the printing division, since the election of Jim Reid's team, has been taking a more militant position in that industry. The printing division has also divorced from Cameron's National Left faction and exercised its votes independently of both factions. Industrially, the militant arms of the AMWU in Victoria collectively represent 75% of the total membership."
The national officials, however, have attempted to blame the current "problems" on Johnston. An "Urgent Message From The National Secretary", sent to all Victorian AMWU members on the same day as the national council meeting, says: "The National Council is determined to clean up the Victorian branch."
The next four paragraphs describe Johnston's alleged crimes. Neither union democracy nor the rights of elected leaderships are discussed, nor is the militant industrial stance of the Victorians which has won members better wages and conditions. Cameron even tries to claim the picket line was set up to support Johnston, not to oppose the sacking of Matson.
Cameron finishes his letter by stating that: "you can be assured that it is in the interest of members that a strong stand is taken against this group of full-time officials who are prepared to sacrifice your union on the altar of factionalism and in support of their 'mates'."
The sacked and stood down officials are still attempting to work. They often arrive at a workplace only to find that Cameron supporters have rung management and stewards, demanding that "rebel" officials not be recognised.
Nevertheless, in many workplaces mass meetings have been held to hear the latest blow-by-blow description of the dispute. Workplaces like Alcoa near Geelong held huge meetings with Craig Johnston. Alcoa workers endorsed the demands of the picket line, including reinstatement of sacked, stood down and suspended officials and voted for a $5 levy per member.
Cameron's letter stated that he had received significant membership support, but he and his officials have yet to address members' meetings which they have been invited to attend.
From Green Left Weekly, September 4, 2002.
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