Peter Boyle
On June 16, the federal minister for employment and workplace relations, Kevin Andrews, used a Dorothy Dix question to attack the June 11 National Trade Union Fightback Conference, singling out Socialist Alliance members Chris Cain and Craig Johnston.
"I note the unions have promised a nationwide week of action at the end of June this year. Some of the comments being made about this are a cause for concern. Last Saturday, Chris Cain, the Western Australian secretary of the Maritime Union, told a meeting of unionists at the Victorian Trades Hall:
"'If you believe in rank-and-file trade unionism, you have to break the law ... Because I break the law every day and sooner or later we're going to have casualties when we do, but if we do it en masse, then we'll win ...'
"If that statement were not regrettable enough, Mr Cain then went on to endorse the tactics of one Craig Johnston, who was, I should point out to the house, recently released from jail as a result of being imprisoned for violent raids on two Melbourne businesses as part of a union campaign in 2001. Mr Cain went on to say:
"'I just believe the type of trade unionism Craig Johnston has brought to Victoria and around the country needs to be put on more to more unionists around the country ...'."
Johnston, far from having a "violent" history, led a number of significant campaigns to improve the wages and conditions of Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members in Victoria when he was the metal division secretary and then the Victorian secretary of that union between 1998 and 2002. Johnston was jailed for nine months over an industrial campaign in 2001 opposing moves to replace permanent jobs with labour hire workers.
Andrews called on the Labor Party to disassociate itself from Cain and Johnston.
[The Hansard report is available at < http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/latesthansard/rhansard.pdf>. See page 53.]
From Green Left Weekly, June 22, 2005.
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