A-Infos (en) Solidarity with Wharfies (Australia)

["Takver" <Takver@onuastralia.com.au>]

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     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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Melbourne - 1st February 1998.
The Maritime Union of Australia protest at Webb Dock in Melbourne
continues.
Private security guards are being regularly bused in to the Webb dock owned
by Patricks, the stevedoring firm, and sublet to the National Farmers
Federation.

One of the new contract recruits employed to train Scab labour decided not
to proceed after assessing the safety conditions they would be working
under. (The Age 1/Feb/98)

Security guards had initially been issued with government prison riot
equipment. This equipment has evidently now been withdrawn.(The Age
1/Feb/98)

Constant Threats are being made by the Right wing Australian Government and
the National Farmers Federation to use legal action under anti union
legislation aimed at stopping secondary boycotts. The Government and NFF
would like nothing better than a legal excuse to bankrupt the union, and
its members. (The Age 1/Feb/98)

Critical Mass cyclists visited the Wharfies protest in solidarity on 30th
January.

Security Guard injured (1 Feb) when a rock hit a bus window as it was
passing through the Dock gates.

MUA has full backing of Australian Council of Trade Unions and Melbourne
Trades Hall. The past two struggles - the training of waterfont mercenaries
in Dubai last December - and hiring of non union labour in Cairns in
September 1997 - were won only with the threat of international maritime
union action.

The present situation has arisen over several struggles in the past year
between the rightwing Federal Liberal Party government and its attempt to
counteract the limited power of the unions. Anti-union legislation has been
enacted,  and employer organisations are being encouraged to 'take on' the
unions.
 
New web site with background news articles, link to Labournet page on the
MUA struggles, and details of how to contact Peter Reith, the relevant
Federal Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business.

http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm

Also available is material on the Radical Tradition in Australia,
including:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/history/default.htm
* Anarchism in Australia - an anthology - published in 1986 in a limited
edition of 50 copies to mark the centenary of organised Anarchism in
Australia.
* oral history material on growing up in the 1930's in Brisbane by Vince
Englart and Ron Brown,
* Obituaries on the life of Ted Englart, a past secretary (1940s) of the
Waterside Workers Federation, Brisbane Branch.

---------------------------------
>From Leftlink the following message:
Sunday, February 01, 1998 4:25 PM


URL: http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980201/news/news2.html

The Age Melbourne Online 
Sunday 01 February 1998 
   
World ban threat
  
By Peter Wilmoth,
John Silvester and Lyall Johnson
     
THE waterfront war escalated yesterday as foreign unions threatened
world-wide retaliation against ships handled by non-union labor at
Victoria's Webb Dock.
     
Mr Keef Marges, of the London-based International Transport
Workers' Federation, warned ship owners their vessels would be
worth "scrap" if the new stevedoring firm being set up by the
National Farmers Federation used non-union labor to handle their
cargo.
     
Mr Marges, who spent Friday formulating a reaction among his
affiliates around the world to the Melbourne dock crisis, said that
if a ship were loaded or unloaded by non-union labor at any
Australian port, the ship would be guaranteed a "guided tour". "We
will follow the ship wherever it goes," he said.
     
"We will draw on the power of our affiliates to do whatever we can
do."
     
The dispute was further inflamed yesterday when:
     
It was revealed that riot shields used by security guards working
for the NFF company had been leased from Barwon Prison. Corrections
Enterprises (formerly the Department of Corrections) officials have
cancelled the lease of the equipment, saying they believed it was
to be used for training purposes for a government department.
     
The ACTU claimed contracts worth more than $25,000 for three
months' work had been offered to foreign waterside workers to break
the Maritime Union of Australia's hold on waterfront work.
     
Maritime Union of Australia Victorian secretary Mr Terry Russell
claimed a man hired to train non-union labor had defected, saying
NFF's stevedoring operation was unsafe and he did not want to be
part of it.
     
Federal Workplace Relations Minister Mr Peter Reith dismissed
threats of international bans as "vague and empty". He labelled Mr
Marges and his union as "sabre rattlers".
     
Federal Government sources told `The Sunday Age' that Mr Reith's
department was examining whether legal recourse could be taken
under the Crimes Act to counter harm to Australian trade caused by
an international ban.
     
The sources said Australia would take legal action only if the
dispute worsened. "It has not got close to that point yet," a
source said.
     
A spokesman for Mr Reith's office yesterday confirmed that the
Government was taking legal advice, but he declined to elaborate.
     
Tensions are expected to reach boiling point when the NFF brings
new employees in for training this week.
     
A spokeswoman for the NFF said the new company had started
employing. This week it would start training the trainers. She
expected there would be "only a handful".
     
The ITWF's Mr Marges said workers on Australian ports had a "very
good name" internationally.
     
"If the ship owner takes the risk of using non-union labor, they
might as well make the ship into scrap, because that's all it will
be good for," he said.
     
Mr Marges said had received phone calls from affiliates around the
world. "They're saying, `Are they shooting from the hip, these
farmers, like cowboys from the wild west?' "
     
     
     
[end-of-article]
        --------------------------------------------


The Age Melbourne Online 
Saturday 31 January 1998 
URL: http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980131/news/news6.html
   
Forget the cockies, this battle for the docks is big business
  
By LAURA TINGLE
     
The New Right is a term more associated with the late 1980s than
the 1990s.
     
But the current face-off on our wharves is better characterised as
the brainchild of the New Right than the National Farmers
Federation, for the wharfies are fighting the lawyers, ideologues
and big money of the New Right rather than bush cockies.
     
The distinction will be important to understand in the coming
months in assessing how this fight unfolds.
     
The NFF - at this stage - is providing no money for the fledgling
stevedore operation set up by some of its officials, an NFF
spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.
     
Many of the farm bodies linked to the NFF are alarmed about the
dispute's impact on their livelihoods. Instead, the NFF has served
as a meeting point for its old boys with long-standing ties to
union busting in the 1980s - cases such as Mudginberri, Dollar
Sweets and Robe River.
     
The difference in the 1990s is that some of their number are now in
government, including the Defence Minister, Mr Ian McLachlan, and
the federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello.
     
The scenario unfolding suggests funding for the operation from the
heart of the Australian business establishment, rather than the
farmer organisations.
     
Conspiracy theorists can have a field day speculating on who is
pushing and who is pulling between the Government and its business
mates on this dispute. But at the end of the day, that doesn't
really matter as both sides' interests coalesce around the need for
a breakthrough after years of talking about it.
     
John Howard clearly sees the waterfront - like a republic - as an
issue where he can portray himself as a tough and decisive leader.
The danger, though, is that he is now riding a wild horse.
     
Public opinion over the longer term is difficult to predict if
voters become fearful of economic impacts and physical
confrontation.
     
But the powerful forces backing this assault will not let the Prime
Minister back off - or be intimidated by financial threats - just
because public opinion sways.
     
[end-of-article]
     ----------------------------------------------------
[Links to other mainstream news on Webb dock...

        Broken window could give NFF upper hand in court
        http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-1feb1998-38.htm
   
          Govt seeking wharf confrontation: Jones
          http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-1feb1998-26.htm
         
          Cattlemen back wharf competition
          http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-1feb1998-14.htm

          ACTU says it has details of NZ labour contract
          http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-1feb1998-2.htm

         Wharfies won't give up (a dollar), and the hayseeds struggle too
         http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980201/news/news3.html

         Court threats in dock row
         http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980131/news/news2.html

          Softly softly for hard men of the docks
          http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980131/news/news3.html

          Wharfies overpaid, says firm
          http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980131/news/news4.html

          Ex-police chief guards dock
          http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980131/news/news5.html

          Reith backs rebels
          http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national/4128069.htm

          Unionists dig in on docks while farmers go to court
          http://www.smh.com.au/daily/content/980131/pageone/pageone1.html

          Angry wharfies remain on edge
          http://www.smh.com.au/daily/content/980131/pageone/pageone2.html

          Overseas unions unite to fight NFF
          http://www.smh.com.au/daily/content/980131/pageone/pageone3.html

          Showdown on the waterfront
http://www.smh.com.au/daily/content/features/features/980131/features2.html

          NFF declares: We will win the war
          http://www.afr.com.au/content/980131/news/news1.html


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In solidarity
Takver@onaustralia.com.au
http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/default.htm



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