Giant march backs Australia wharfies
U.S. workers stop scab ships
By Greg Butterfield
Some 120,000 workers stopped work and marched
in Melbourne May 6 to support the Maritime Union of Australia's
struggle with union-busting Prime Minister John Howard.
The same day a general strike paralyzed Australia's Victoria
state.
The show of workers' power came two days after Australia's
High Court ordered Patrick Stevedores to rehire all 1,400 union
dock workers and 600 part-time workers.
The company fired its whole union work force April 8 in
collusion with Howard's government. For four weeks the MUA,
together with labor and the progressive movement, mobilized
nationwide to demand the wharfies' return.
Militant clashes with cops, a total blockade of cargo
unloaded at Patrick facilities and the threat of a general
strike combined to force the High Court's decision in the
wharfies' favor.
Last-ditch attempts by Patrick to block the workers' return
collapsed after picket lines held strong. The wharfies began to
reoccupy docks on May 7 and 8.
Dock workers marched at the head of the Melbourne protest,
which brought traffic to a halt in the city center.
Martin Kingham, president of the Victorian Trades Hall
Council, told the workers that Melbourne hadn't seen such a
huge protest since anti-Vietnam War marches in the 1970s. "We
have demonstrated just how determined we are today to protect
the rights of working people in this country." (South News,
April 7)
The Ethnic Communities Council of Australia also marched.
This coalition of 165 civil-rights organizations, representing
the Aboriginal peoples and other people of color, pledged
continuing support to maritime workers. Aboriginal people's
rights have also come under attack from the right-wing
coalition government.
The labor movement has dealt Howard and Labor Minister Peter
Reith a major political defeat. Workers say their return to
work-being able to exercise their "property right" to their
jobs-is a major victory. Popular support swung decisively
behind the wharfies, who explained that the attack on MUA was
just the beginning of the bosses' plans to undermine workers'
rights.
As the tide turned against the ruling-class conspiracy,
informants came forward with new documents said to prove Howard
and Reith's personal involvement in last year's illegal plan to
train mercenaries as scabs in the Gulf state of Dubai.
International labor protests scuttled that plan when news of it
leaked last December.
Workers stop scab ships
on U.S. West Coast
Among the international supporters of the Australian
wharfies was the Longshore and Warehouse union on the U.S. West
Coast. On May 9, some 1,500 workers and community members in
Los Angeles picketed the scab ship Columbus Canada in Los
Angeles while ILWU members refused to cross the picket line and
unload the ship.
The Columbus Canada is one of four ships loaded by scabs in
Australia now bound for the U.S. West Coast. Unionists on the
West Coast refuse to unload these ships.
The fight isn't over in Australia. Patrick and the
government are continuing to harass the dock workers. They are
trying to find a way around the court ruling.
The Australian Broadcasting Network reported May 9 that
Patrick was claiming its scab managers "fear for their safety"
as union members return. The company plans to stop at least 28
workers at various facilities from returning because of alleged
"threats" made against scabs.
Reith told administrators running the four Patrick-owned
hiring companies that government assistance will only become
available if 800 union jobs are eliminated.
MUA leaders said they would not fall for these "poison pill"
pitfalls. General secretary John Coombs vowed to escalate the
struggle to make sure that all the wharfies return to their
jobs.
As Greg Combet of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
told The Age May 8, "We're back, and they'll have a hell of a
job to get rid of us."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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