Amanda Zivcic, Melbourne
On January 25 and 27, Union Solidarity organised a community picket outside the Fitzroy Postal Delivery Centre. The picket was called in solidarity with shop steward Peter Vining, who was sacked last year.
"Peter was charged on a trumped-up charge on October 17, for allegedly verbally abusing a female customer", said Joan Doyle, state secretary of the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union's postal and telecommunications branch. "In fact, he did nothing of the sort and there are witnesses who corroborate his version of events."
"The means by which Australia Post arrived at the decision to sack Peter points to management not following proper procedure. How can you sack a worker who's been there for over 12 years and who hasn't done anything wrong?", Doyle asked.
In January, the union managed to win Vining's job back, but management then told him that he was being moved to the Parcel Delivery Centre. The pickets were focused on stopping Vining's forced transfer.
Union Solidarity convener Dave Kerin said, "This is a union town and the pickets represent a show of support for a union representative. Peter is known as a strong and effective shop steward.
"On Friday, 15 people were present and about half the workers decided not to cross the picket line, even though it wasn't a union-organised picket and we weren't actually preventing the postal workers from going inside."
Kerin added, "The main issue here is that workers' rights are human rights, and this is something that management doesn't seem to understand. They're following Howard's general line, which says that it's okay to form and join a union but the minute you start acting like a unionist it becomes unacceptable."
Although he was reinstated, Australia Post has continued its victimisation of Vining, not only transferring him to a lower level, but "trying to send him to the parcel facility, an hour's drive away, to do an entirely different job on an entirely different shift", Kerin said.
Union Solidarity is organising ongoing community pickets and solidarity actions at Fitzroy. For more information, visit <http://www.unionsolidarity.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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