Wharfies: 'Now it is time to fight'
By James Vassilopoulos
WEBB DOCK, Port Melbourne — In a desolate terrain of dust and gravel, the struggle is unfolding between the workers of the Maritime Union of Australia and the unholy coalition of the National Farmers Federation, Patrick and the Howard-Reith government.
The NFF's aim, through its front company P&C Stevedores, is to get a foot in the door of the industry with non-union labour. By making the work force casual and lowering wages and conditions, it looks not only to grab a swag of profits, but to break one of Australia's few remaining strong unions.
The mood of the protesters is resolute. One seafarer told Green Left Weekly, "Now it is time to fight: if we don't, we are all stuffed".
Patrick on February 4 applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission for a section 127 order, under the Workplace Relations Act, to get the wharfies to return to work. If it is successful and the MUA disobeys the order, it is liable for massive damages and even deregistration.
On February 6 Patrick announced common law action against the MUA, probably to be heard in the Victorian Supreme Court. The union could be up for millions in damages. In response, the MUA is seeking to prosecute Patrick for breaches of the enterprise agreement and the stevedoring award.
The laws are stacked against the union. The Workplace Relations Act outlaws strike action, and the Trade Practices Act outlaws solidarity strikes. The employers also have the common law and the Crimes Act.
In 1995 when a non-union stevedoring operation was attempted at the port of Fremantle, the MUA launched a national strike to beat back the employers.
The only way to do this today would be an all-union strategy to take industrial action against the bad laws. That way no one union can be victimised. This is how it was done in 1969, in the famous Clarrie O'Shea case: unions had planned to get rid of the penal laws, and they all responded to the jailing of O'Shea.
Who's violent?
The MUA's "political protest" at Webb Dock is now entering its second week. (It is not a picket: nearly all trucks and buses are being allowed to enter and leave berth five.)
The NFF has transported equipment into the dock, including a few "straddles" (which carry containers from the waterside to awaiting trucks). But there is almost no work going on.
According to the Victorian branch secretary of the MUA, Terry Russell, the NFF has had a setback because a crane trainer and two assistants have dropped out of the venture. Russell said that it would take about two weeks to find another trainer.
Mick O'Leary, MUA national organiser, emphasised that the protest was a peaceful assembly and that it should also be silent. This is so as not to isolate the wharfies from the public and to win over the media, which is "half the battle'".
While the NFF has much of the equipment needed to begin training non-union stevedores, making berth 5 fully operational is still months away.
Normally when trucks or the bus carrying security guard scabs approach, they speak to police, while the protesters gather at the entrance with banners and placards. Once the okay is given, the bus drives up to the line, the line divides, with wharfies calling out "scabs", and the bus goes through.
The key leaders on the union side are John Coombs, national secretary of the MUA, Mick O'Leary and John Higgins, deputy secretary of the Victorian MUA. Attendance at the protest is through rostered shifts, with wharfies at other docks, seamen, other workers and supporters kicking in.
On Sunday, February 1, one protester threw a rock through the window of the security guards' bus. The media beat up this minor incident to the point of claiming that the whole protest was violent. (The person involved has been suspended from the union, according to the morning meeting of February 4.)
Of course, the media don't stress the violence of the NFF in using security guards armed with riot shields and batons — and with access to tear gas — to secure the dock for PCS.
Despite the lop-sided coverage, it's not difficult to work out where violence is likely to come from.
First, the Kennett government gave permission for riot shields from a private prison to be made available for use at Webb Dock. Next, a former SAS officer who is allegedly running the security operation while on leave has had to discharge himself from the army after being found out to have lied about the reasons for his leave.
Patrick switches tack
On February 3, Patrick changed tactics, writing letters to all 175 workers inviting them to go back to work. This changed the lockout into a strike.
On February 4, Patrick made its application to the IRC for an order to stop the industrial action.
O'Leary told Green Left that the union would vigorously defend its position. The union could argue that it is not impacting on the national economy and therefore the workers should not be ordered back to work.
The MUA has also subpoenaed Patrick boss Chris Corrigan to appear before the IRC. Corrigan has admitted that he lied when he earlier stated that Patrick was not involved in the Dubai affair.
Russell told Green Left that the union's tactics involve the "containment of the dispute to Webb Dock" because "we don't want to fight on too many fronts".
Asked how the MUA could win, Russell said, "We have all the info which will show that Reith has lied to parliament and he therefore should be sacked". Four Corners was doing an investigative report which would show that Reith did lie. "We will beat them by waiting them out", Russell concluded.
Russell said that the Workplace Relations Act, which passed into law after a deal between Cheryl Kernot and Peter Reith, is "pretty tight legislation. It is formulated on behalf of the government to destroy the MUA".
O'Leary was confident that if the NFF operation ever became operational, the International Transport Workers' Federation would ban any ship that used it.