BY CHRIS SPINDLER
MELBOURNE — Some three weeks after winning the ballot, Craig Johnston was on June 9 confirmed as the new Victorian state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. Johnston was delayed from taking office by court injunctions by the ballot losers, former state secretary Julius Roe and his chief backer, AMWU general secretary Doug Cameron.
The win by Johnston and the militant Workers First team is one of the most significant in recent union history and was secured against big odds.
Cameron, Roe and their supporters went to considerable lengths to keep Johnston out of office. Their group spent enormous sums on direct mailing, hired help and merchandise giveaways. They sought to tar Workers First as mindless militants and Johnston as a thug, and claimed the team blew a $1.8 million "black hole" in the Victorian branch's budget.
None of the claims seemed to make any headway with Workers First's supporters, however, who have come to appreciate the team's militant, grassroots approach to unionism, its willingness to put resources into proper organising efforts and its capacity to deliver industrial victories.
Even after a clear majority had voted for Johnston, Cameron and Roe sought to overturn the result, claiming that there were missing ballots. The claim was rejected by Australian Electoral Commission and Justice Finkelstein in the Federal Court. Cameron supporter Colin Ormsby, an AMWU organiser, even sought a restraining order against Johnston, the application for which was withdrawn before getting to court.
These attempts to frustrate Members First aside, the election victory is a big win for the union's rank-and-file members. Workers First's campaign was run, and won, at the grassroots, through shop visits, constant discussion and face-to-face contact with the candidates.
The victory means that the Victorian AMWU's Campaign 2000, which has the Australian Industry Group petrified and workplace relations minister Peter Reith desperately trying to legislate to stop it, is back on track. Roe has verbally backed the campaign, which was initiated by Workers First, but wanted to pass control of it to Cameron and the union's national office.
If Campaign 2000 succeeds, the campaign's industry-wide negotiations strategy will deliver big wage increases and reductions in work hours, and will unite workers across the industry to make even greater gains possible.
The Workers First win is also significant for the union movement and the left as a whole. It shows that rank-and-file groups can succeed, beat conservative officials and revitalise union structures. It is a defeat not just for a group of entrenched officials, but also for the major parties and for the bosses.
Cameron is now attempting to restrict Workers First by limiting its access to centralised union funds. He has appointed Roe as interim national president, following the retirement of David Goodger. Cameron's campaign manager, Glenn Thompson, also looks certain to take over as national metals division organiser from Neil Marshall, who was killed in a plane crash.
Meanwhile, Workers First, despite the concerted hostile attention, is steadying itself for the challenges ahead.