By Sarah Harris
SYDNEY — Eighty people gathered to express their solidarity with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) against attacks by the Coalition government at a May 30 meeting at the Teachers Federation.
The speakers were Warren Smith, rank and file member of the MUA and member of the Maritime Defence Committee (MDC); Phylis Campbell, Greenpeace organiser; Dave Morgan, the senior president of the New Zealand Seafarers Union; John Coombes, national secretary of the MUA; and a representative from the MDC.
Campbell praised the help given by MUA members to Greenpeace and said that she hoped Greenpeace would reciprocate.
Morgan described the consequences of the NZ Employment Contracts Act, which was introduced to smash unions' ability to organise. During the week before the act was passed five years ago, one in six New Zealanders, or half a million people, protested against it. Morgan blamed the lack of leadership from Labour and trade union officials for the act becoming law.
Coombes said that the MUA would join other unions in the struggle against the Coalition's anti-worker industrial relations legislation. He said the Liberal government's only agenda was to destroy workers' collective bargaining strength.
Solidarity motions were sent to other unions in struggle, including the Vickery coal miners, the National Tertiary Education Union and the British Liverpool dockers. The meeting also resolved to give support to any action undertaken by the MUA and ACTU that challenged the IR legislation, including national stoppages.