BY SHANE BENTLEY
SYDNEY — Five hundred maritime workers, union officials and Labor Party stalwarts walked the "Hungry Mile" through Sydney's Darling Harbour on June 3 to commemorate the life of former Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) general secretary Tas Bull, who died on May 29.
Tasnor Ivan Bull ("Tas" for Tasmania and "Nor" for Norway — his mother's and father's respective birthplaces) was born in Sydney on January 31, 1932. After the family moved to Hobart, Bull began his working life at 14 as a seafarer on British and Scandinavian ships.
Early experiences with greedy ship owners, the Canadian Seamen's Union strike of 1948-49 and the poverty of Bombay led Bull to join the Seamens Union of Australia (SUA) and develop a keen sense of social justice.
Back in Hobart, he campaigned against the September 1951 referendum to ban the Communist Party of Australia. The influence of Communists in both the SUA and the campaign against the referendum convinced Bull to join the CPA later that year.
Bull joined the Hobart branch of the WWF in March 1956. For a time he edited the CPA waterfront bulletin Wharfie.
In October 1956, the local WWF branch struck a 10 shilling levy for the ALP state election campaign. Frank Hursey, a member of the anti-communist Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and his son Denis refused to pay the levy. As a result the Hurseys became unfinancial WWF members in April 1957. Wharfies refused to work alongside the two non-unionists and walked off the job.
Bull successfully moved to expel the Hurseys from the union. However, WWF general secretary and CPA member Jim Healy soon persuaded Bull to reverse this motion and instead move another to "isolate" them.
In January 1958, Healy moved to have the Hurseys taken off the roster. Foreshadowing a Liberal-DLP attack on the WWF, the Menzies government — through the stevedoring industry body — blocked the move.
The next few months saw dozens of picket lines and other industrial action seeking to prevent the Hurseys from working.
The case was settled in September 1959 when the High Court ruled in favour of the WWF and reduced the damages previously awarded to the Hurseys. The right of trade unions to impose a political levy had been upheld.
Bull moved to Melbourne in July 1959, where he failed to renew his CPA membership. The party's hostility to Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech" against the crimes of long-time Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Army's quashing of the 1956 workers' uprising in Hungary led to his decision.
Bull moved to Sydney six months before Healy died in July 1961. The WWF elections to replace Healy saw Bull participate in the failed attempt to elect the CPA's Tom Nelson (the Labor Party's Charlie Fitzgibbon won).
Bull served on the executive of the rank and file Job Delegates Association before being elected as a vigilance officer (organiser) for the Sydney branch in 1967. He was re-elected as a VO in 1970.
Elected unopposed as WWF federal organiser in 1971, he was re-elected to this position in 1973. After the 1973 elections, all four WWF federal officers were re-elected unopposed for four consecutive three-year terms.
Bull joined the Labor Party in 1974. That same year, his campaign to force shipbuilders to limit the direct drop of access ladders in ships' holds was successful. The WWF ladder rules have saved the lives of many maritime workers around the world.
Bull and the WWF were actively involved in numerous campaigns during the 1970s — against the Vietnam War, opposition to French nuclear testing in the Pacific and campaigning against uranium mining.
While involved in these campaigns, the WWF started moving away from some of its past left-wing positions — for example, in 1978 it dropped its long-standing call for the nationalisation of the stevedoring industry.
Bull was elected WWF assistant general secretary in 1983, appointed acting general secretary in July 1984 after Norm Docker retired and elected WWF general secretary in July 1985. He also served as ACTU vice-president (1987-1991) and ACTU senior vice- president (1991-1992).
In 1983, Prime Minister Bob Hawke's newly elected Labor government introduced the ALP-ACTU Prices and Incomes Accord, which Bull, along with most ALP trade union officials, supported. The accord resulted in a sharp decrease in the real value of wages, a big increase in corporate profits and the weakening of union delegate structures and union power.
The Labor government then moved to "reform" the Australian waterfront. The 1983 economic recession and the anti-union climate that followed ensured that government inquiries into the industry demanded real inroads into the conditions of WWF members.
The Waterfront Industry Reform Authority process of 1989 saw a reduction in the waterfront work force by 2000 employees (with 3000 redundancies and 1000 recruits). Enterprise employment and enterprise bargaining now replaced industry employment and award settlements.
From 1989 to 1992, productivity increased between 40% and 100%. The expected work force reduction of 30% blew out to 57%, with only 300 new recruits and higher voluntary redundancies.
Bull retired as WWF general secretary in late 1992, after serving as a WWF official for 25 years and 10 years on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation (1983-93).
The moves that Bull and other WWF officials began in 1978 to move towards an industry union culminated in 1993 with the amalgamation of the WWF and the SUA into the Maritime Union of Australia.
[Shane Bentley is the MUA Rank & File candidate for the position of MUA Central NSW (Sydney) branch secretary. He can be contacted on 0419 278 144 or at <srbentley@hotmail.com>].
From Green Left Weekly, June 18, 2003.
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