Life on the Picket
Video released by CFMEU, Vickery Lodge
6 McAndrew St, Gunnedah 2380
Phone (02) 6742 0821 to order
Review by Alex Bainbridge
Vickery was a small coalmine near Gunnedah in NSW. It employed only around 50 workers, but it was on and near large coal reserves. It was the location of one of the first test cases in Rio Tinto's (then CRA) union-busting incursions into the strongly unionised NSW coalfields.
The dispute was over the introduction of 12½ hour shifts.
When the workers didn't immediately jump at the opportunity to have their lives torn apart, CRA's first tactic was to suspend the existing enterprise agreement and return workers to the award, with no overtime and a massive reduction in take-home pay. This happened in 1994.
In this first period of the dispute, 22 workers and their families were forced to move to other towns to find work. Lodge secretary Derek Lucas described this process to me at the time as being "starved out".
By August 1995, after things had become desperate for the workers, they took strike action. The strike (including various phases of conciliation and arbitration) lasted for almost 12 months, until August 1996.
It became a story of a small group of people who stood up to a ruthless transnational company against the odds.
When the picket line was first set up, the workers had one small caravan. By the end of strike they had built "Fort Vickery" into a sizeable, semi-permanent structure adorned with numerous banners and other displays, utilities and picket equipment. They even had a golf course to help pass the time on the picket.
Life on the Picket was filmed by one of the strikers. It shows the development of the struggle, and the picket along with it.
It very vividly conveys the wide range of solidarity and support given by miners from other areas (many from far-flung locations), other trade unionists (particularly from the building and maritime industries) and other sections of the local community.
The video shows the various expeditions the strikers made to get their message out, including to rallies in Sydney and a protest action at a CRA shareholders' meeting in Melbourne. The strikers also attended a commemoration for one of the thousands of miners killed in the coal industry in NSW.
The video allows us to see up close how the strike developed: strikers' meetings, reports from the union officials, the importance of the women's support organisation and the cultural life on the picket line. Music from Peter Hicks, the Newcastle People's Chorus and others is included.
We even see miners' union leader John Maitland at a rally before the 1996 federal election, promising to take protesting workers "through the doors of parliament" if the Coalition won the election.
For those involved in the strike or the support actions, the video will bring back memories. For those who were not part of the action, it will tell the real story, honestly portraying the lives of the miners and, to some extent, their families.
In many ways, Life on the Picket is like a home video. Interviews with miners' leaders are spliced in with tumultuous rallies and "ordinary" life on the picket.
The video gives barely any information about what happened after the miners returned to work. Under intense pressure, the union eventually agreed to a "trial" period of 12½ hour shifts, followed by a trial period of eight-hour shifts. Eventually, however, the mine was closed down.
Without broadening the struggle to include other CRA mines, the chances of victory against such a cutthroat employer were slim. Nevertheless, the struggle that the Vickery miners waged can still be an inspiration.