A-Infos (en)War on the wharfies 3 May update

[Takver <Takver@onaustralia.com.au>]

 ________________________________________________
      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
 ________________________________________________

News Summary - Sunday 3 May
War on the Wharfies Homepage:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm

CONTENTS
(3/5/98) From the Picket Line 3 May 1998
(3/5/98) Documents implicate PM in conspiracy
(3/5/98) Banks may fund labour companies
(3/5/98) LabourStart Free Windows Screensaver
(1/5/98) Mayday on the picket line at East Swanson Dock

New Features:
Visit the LabourStart Site for a free Windows ScreenSaver (1.2MB zipped)
featuring photos from the War on the Wharfies Website, amoung others.
http://www.solinet.org/LEE/labourstart.html


News Summary - Sunday 3 May

>From the Picket Line 3 May 1998
-------------------------------
Melbourne - Trades Hall Secretary served with a writ for damages

Leigh Hubbard, Secretary of the Victorian Trades & Labour Council
was served with a writ for damages on Sunday for his role on the
Melbourne docks. The writ was issued by the Supreme court at the
instigation of the Melbourne Ports Corporation and also names five
others including Greg Combet from the ACTU and former Victorian
Labor Premier, Joan Kirner.

The supreme court hearing for the writ will be on Wednesday. Leigh
Hubbard refuses to be intimidated by such legal action and will send a
legal representative to the court while he takes part in the state wide
union rally in support of the MUA and against the Federal Governments
Industrial Relations Laws on Wednesday May 6.

The Melbourne Mayday march saw 6,000 people marching from Trades
Hall to the Yarra Bank, where speeches were made. There was a
marked increase in the number of marchers this year, reflecting the
strong concern around the waterfront dispute.

The High Court decision on an appeal by Patricks to prevent the Federal
Court order to reinstate the union workers illegally dismissed is due to

be announced on Monday at 11.30am. MUA supporters are invited to
attend the Community Assembly pickets from 11am to 2pm to hear the
decision. Webreaders may refer to the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation Newslink service for timely internet updates. Melbourne is
+10.00 Greenwich Mean Time.

(Source: ABC 3/5/98)

Sydney

At the Sydney May Day march, and rally at Darling Harbour, MUA
Secretary John Coombs told a crowd of 6,000 that his union will bring
down the Howard Government.

"Can I say to you [Prime Minister] John Howard take a lesson from
history because I take lessons from history and history has a habit of
repeating itself. And I remind you [Mr] Howard that the martime
union bought the Bruce Government down in the [19]20s in much the
same sort of dispute that's been waged today, and we won't be
satisfied until we bring this Government down as well."

(Source: ABC 3/5/98)

Canberra May Day rebuff to Chris Corrigan

Derek Corrigan, the brother of rogue Patrick Stevedores boss Chris
Corrigan, has told a May Day rally in Canberra on Friday, the Federal
Government's attack on the maritime union is also an attack on the
Australian way of life.

"Our way of living, our lifestyle that we hold so dear in this country
is
being challenged," he said."That's the challenge this is the mechanism
by which they've introduced to do it and what you've seen is the first
cab off the rank almost, in the case of my brother, who's prepared to
use any means to get his way."

(Source: South News -May Day 1998)

Fremantle

The Patrick terminal was successfully blockaded from an attempt by a
Perth businessman to break the picket on Friday. The Trades and Labour
Council is considering urgent requests for release of cargo on a case by

case basis.

Prime Minister lambasted for International Forum comments

Greg Combet from the ACTU has criticised the Prime Minister, John
Howard, and Peter Reith for their partisan views on the waterfront in
international forums. "Pathetic, isn't it, that Howard and Reith would
be talking to international forums about how useless and weak our
own Government is, their Government. The union movement's never
opposed productivity and efficiency improvements, we believe in
negotiating those changes, that's the right way to do it.

"Howard and Reith have made themselves absolute spectators from
the sidelines, they've behaved in a partisan way and a thoroughly
improper way for a Government [to behave]. ... The real laughing
stock is the Howard Government's approach to the waterfront. They've
messed their strategy up very badly, they've created a great deal of
division in the society, they've created a lot of industrial
uncertainty.
Instead of behaving like they're partisan players for the company they
should really try and act on behalf of the community as a whole."

(Source: ABC 2/5/98)

John Howard heckled at Sydney University

John Howard was heckled while attending his daughters graduation
ceremony at Sydney University. A group of about 100 people outside the
ceremony were protesting against Federal Government cuts to higher
education and its policies on native title and the waterfront. The
demonstration was noisy but peaceful. John Howard was forced to
arrive and leave by a side door.

(Source: ABC 2/5/98)

New Zealand solidarity action

The Auckland MUA Support Committee has planned a picket of the
Australian Consulate for the evening of May 6, from 5pm.

The committee has been meeting for the past few weeks and made a
collection on May Day here in Auckland - the money will be on its way
soon. The May Day march in Auckland included speeches and chants in
strong support of the MUA.

We would like to hear about any other actions planned in NZ or
elsewhere in solidarity with the action we understand is planned for
Australia on May 6.

Victory to the MUA - NZ workers are supporting the struggle!

(Source: Carlene Wilson kolontai@rocketmail.com)

USA support group meets

The first Ad Hoc meeting in Support of the Australian Wharfies was
held in San Pedro Thursday 5:30PM or 1730 maritime on April 30,
1998. The Harry Bridges Institute assisted with organizing the first
meeting.

The first meeting was attended by approximately 70 plus people, made
up of community activist, politicians, political aids from Long Beach,
small business owners, and union members, especially in the maritime
fields.

There was a stop work meeting at Longshore hall to explain the issues,
Thursday evening.

Issues and actions have been planned by the ILWU on coastwise basis
and by the AFL/CIO on a national basis.

(Source: Email to Takver)

Rousing rejection of Reith in Blue Mountains

Peter Reith was given a rousing rejection by Blue Mountains people on
25th April.

    On Friday 25th April about 500 joined a picket and protest
    against Peter Reith who was hoping for a quiet breakfast in the
    Blue Mountains town of Wentworth Falls.

    These protesters ignored the early morning drizzle to make
    sure that Reith would always remember this breakfast. The
    elderly, the school children, the Aboriginal community, the
    shop keepers, as well as unionists from all over the mountains
    made plain their support for the wharfies.

    The picket was entertained by singers including the Blue
    Mountains Trade Union Choir and the Solidarity Choir from
    Sydney, as well as local folk singers like Chris Kempster.

    Peter Reith found another part of Australia where he was not
    welcome

.

(Source: Solidarity Message Board)

Documents implicate PM in conspiracy

>From documents filed in court, the Prime Minister, John Howard, has
had a role in the conspiracy. He met Lord Sterling of Plaistow in London

in June 1997 over lunch at Australia House and they discussed the
strategy for waterfront reform. Lord Sterling, chairman of P&O, told
Howard that the Workplace Relations Act was not strong enough to
successfully rid the waterfront of the villainous Maritime Union, he
said,
so P&O would "not seek to disturb the status quo".

Over a number of meetings in March 1997 it appears the plan to sack an
entire workforce was hatched by Reith and Corrigan. Ministerial
advisor Dr Stephen Webster, was one of the consultants who was paid
handsomely for a report on waterfront reform. He was subsequently
hired as a ministerial advisor. On March 19 Stephen Webster had a
meeting with Mike Wells who subsequently formed the Fynwest
company with Peter Kilfoyle to undertake the training of non-union
labour from the army in Dubai.

During March Corrigan met with David Trebeck, a former deputy
director of the National Farmers Federation, who runs a Sydney
consultancy, ACIL Economics, which was also commissioned to
research waterfront reform for the Government.

(Source: The Age 2/5/98)

Banks may fund labour companies

The banks are considering injecting the capital necessary to get the
labour-hire companies operational, thereby removing Lang
Corporation's managing director, Mr Chris Corrigan, and the Federal
Government from any further negotiations on waterfront reform. The
banks may also decide to appoint their own administrator.

Major particpants are predicting privately that Monday's High Court
decision is likely to go in the MUA's favour, although some judges, may
rewrite the Federal Court's orders to give the administrator more
flexibility, which could markedly alter the bargaining power of the
various sides.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald 2/5/98)

LabourStart Free Windows Screensaver

LabourStart is pleased to offer a special May Day gift to the
labour movement of the world: a screen saver program in
solidarity with the Australian dock workers, including 22 colour
and black-and-white images of their struggle. Click here to go to
LabourStart where you can download the program, which is 1.2
MB in size.
This is a ZIP file; you must use an unzipping program like Winzip to
open it. Run setup.exe once it is
unzipped and follow the instructions in the Readme file.
(Source: LabourStart 2/5/98)

News Summary - Friday 1 May

Mayday on the picket line at East Swanson Dock
-----------------------------------------------
Today my household, including kids and dogs went down to the picket at
East Swanson Dock in Melbourne for a picnic lunch. The picket
continues, although only a skeleton crew of people - perhaps 50-100
were present today. On the road leading to Gate 1 of Patrick's terminal
a
little town of tents and caravans has been developing. A full stage has
been built for bands and and other entertainers to perform on. The
CFMEU (Construction Forestry Mining Engineering Union) has set up a
complete first aid camp. A kids play area is off to one side.

For the last two weeks the anarchist group, Food Not Bombs Melbourne
have been serving lots of vegetarian food to the picketers. A sign to
their
tent says "Food not Scabs". This has provided a welcome alternative
from the barbecued sausages and bacon and eggs. Around the fences are
a multitude of banners representing dozens of unions and community
groups. We chatted with some women who have started a banner project
which will contain the embroidered signatures of all of Patrick's
Melbourne staff that have been dismissed. All around us we see people
contributing to the defence of the MUA and Trade Unions in many
creative ways. The outrageous dismissal of Patricks workers, and the
deepening allegations of Government involvement in the conspiracy
against workers because of their union membership has served to unite
the Labour movement, and community activists.

The picnic was relatively quiet. Tonight my household and some friends
will have an evening of food and wine and sing revolutionary and labour
songs. The official Mayday march is scheduled for Sunday in
Melbourne. Our household will be attending as always.

On Wednesday 6th May Victorian Trades Hall is organising a rally in
Support of the MUA and against the Howard governments anti-union
industrial relations laws. Thousands of people are expected to rally and
march to the docks.
----------------------------
War on the Wharfies is an independent web page which
contains:
* News reports on the Maritime Union of Australia fight against
  the rightwing attack by the National Farmers Federation,
  waterfront bosses, and federal and state governments.
* News on other union actions and progressive campaigns, or the
  general attack on workers rights or conditions

Takver@onaustralia.com.au
         War on the Wharfies - essential links
 http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm
             http://www.yll.org.au/mua
 http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi/mb63212
-------------------------------


	***A-INFOS DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE***

A-Infos disclaims responsibility for the information in this message.


			********
		The A-Infos News Service
			********
		COMMANDS: majordomo@tao.ca
		REPLIES: a-infos-d@tao.ca
		HELP: a-infos-org@tao.ca
		WWW: http://www.ainfos.ca/