Australia wharf workers clash with cops
By Greg Butterfield
The showdown on Australia's docks is heating
up.
The dock workers were able to prove in court that a
company-government conspiracy to break their union was behind
the mass firings of 2,000 workers.
On April 21 a federal judge ruled that the union-busting
company Patrick Stevedores, the government and the giant
agribusiness concern the National Farmers Federation had
"engaged in an unlawful conspiracy" to break the dock workers'
union-the Maritime Union of Australia.
The judge ordered the company to reinstate all the fired
workers. Within three hours, however, the big-business
interests and the government got a higher court to block the
injunction pending the company's appeal. That begins on April
22.
Fired dock workers and the whole labor movement are
mobilizing against police attacks on picket lines. No freight
is moving off wharves run by Patrick Stevedores-which fired all
1,400 of its full-time dock workers and 600 part-timers April
8.
International solidarity with the dockers erupted quickly.
The West Coast U.S. dock workers' union, the Longshore and
Warehouse Union, has announced a boycott. "We are aiming our
boycott at beef and produce because Australia's National
Farmers Federation is trying to break the union," ILWU
spokesperson Steve Stallone said.
The AFL-CIO called on its 17 million union members in the
United States to boycott Australian agricultural goods. The
East Coast-based Longshore union has declared its support for
the Australian dockers and said it is also considering a
boycott.
The Japanese dock worker union federation, Zen Ko Ku Kowan,
also declared its solidarity with the fired Australian union
members.
No scab-loaded ships have yet reached any international
port, but wherever they go they will meet labor protests.
"In the open-market world it is important to show union
solidarity," said Erland Lindkvist, national secretary of
Sweden's metal-workers union, who had joined picketers in
Sydney, Australia. "If you lose this fight, they [the bosses]
will move to other countries in Europe, and the United States,
and they will try to destroy other unions."
Imports, exports at a stand-still
Toyota Australia, the country's biggest car manufacturer,
announced its Melbourne production line is in a "critical
position" because of an auto-parts shortage. Other industries
that rely on imports and exports are feeling the pinch.
Patrick hired scabs to work its docks, but few ships are
being unloaded. Six thousand containers are gathering dust on
the wharves.
MUA and its allies have mounted strong mass pickets that are
effectively blockading Patrick.
Prime Minister John Howard is using cops, the courts and
public money to aid the union busters. The showdown's second
week saw riot police attack picket lines in Sydney and
Freemantle.
At the port of New Castle, a bus taking scab workers to the
dock slammed a picketer. Union members stopped the bus and sent
the scabs running. Patrick was forced to suspend operations at
New Castle.
The police assaults came after Patrick won court injunctions
against the picketers. But union power is keeping a tight
blockade on the wharves.
Hours after the late-night attack in Sydney, 1,000 members
of other unions re-established the picket line April 16. Truck
drivers are honoring the picket lines, refusing to haul the
scab-unloaded containers. Other unions have taken
responsibility for keeping the picket line solid while the
injunction is in effect.
MUA continues to struggle in the courts to have the workers
reinstated. Leaders say they have strong evidence to show a
conspiracy among Patrick, the Howard administration and the
National Farmers Federation to break 50 years of union power on
the docks.
But with cops on the attack and pro-boss injunctions from
the courts, talk among the workers has shifted to more militant
tactics-mobilizations that would mount a challenge to the 1996
Labor Relations Act. This law severely limits MUA's right to
strike. It threatens multi-million-dollar fines for unions that
act in solidarity.
Union members posting to the Internet's LaborNet report that
mass meetings in Sydney and other cities have endorsed the idea
of a nationwide general strike May 6. Several big unions have
pledged to participate.
With a capitalist economic crisis ravaging Asia and
threatening to engulf nearby economies, Australian bosses are
starting to worry. Besides the disruptions to production, they
fear a galvanized, resurgent labor movement emerging from this
struggle. Some are urging Prime Minister Howard and Labor
Minister Peter Reith to take harsher action against the
workers.
The capitalist state has been deeply involved in the effort
to undermine the MUA. In December, workers were outraged to
learn that former and current military troops were being
recruited for training as scabs in the Gulf state of Dubai. The
plan was halted when international maritime unions threatened
to boycott Dubai unless the government expelled these
mercenaries.
Now Australian officials say they have 8,000 unemployed
former soldiers ready to fill positions on the docks-and in
other industries. This is a clear threat to the whole labor
movement there.
The wharfies and their supporters have shown their courage
and solidarity on the picket lines. If the struggle in the
streets keeps heating up so it overshadows the fight in the
courts, the battle on the wharves may be the Australian labor
movement's most serious challenge yet to the ruling class's
union-busting plans.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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