AUT: Re: (en) Solidarity with Wharfies (Australia)

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Consider this:

Senator Andrew Murray
Australian Democrats
Industrial Relations Spokesperson
29 January 1998
 MEDIA RELEASE
 98/040




NFF may be acting outside the law in wharf action
The National Farmers Federation is acting outside the spirit and possibly
the letter of the Workplace Relations Act in its multi-million dollar effort
to get up a union-free company on the waterfront, according to the
Australian Democrats.


Democrats' Industrial Relations spokesperson Senator Andrew Murray said the
NFF may be in breach of the Freedom of Association provisions of the Act,
which aim to protect the rights of workers to join or not join a union
without interference from the employer.

Under Part XA, the NFF could be liable for a fine of $10,000 and
compensation to the MUA or its members if it refuses to employ a person
because they want to join a union.

Senator Murray said he would be raising the NFF's attempt to set up a
union-free workplace with the Employment Advocate to ensure that the full
spirit and letter of the law was followed.

"Just as the MUA does not have the legal right to force a closed shop, the
NFF does not have the legal right to establish a union-free worksite,"
Senator Murray said. "That is a choice for the workers concerned, not the
employer.

"The Act is about encouraging employers and unions to work together to
improve productivity.

"Instead of an legally and industrially dubious multi-million dollar
union-busting exercise, the Government and the NFF should first take up the
MUA offer to set up an Industry Consultative Council under the AIRC to
fast-track negotiations on efficiency improvements."

Senator Murray said he was also concerned that the NFF leadership did not
appear to have consulted its members or even its own council on the use of
its multi-million dollar fighting fund.

"The NFF, as a registered employers organisation, has a legal responsibility
under section 187A of the Workplace Relations Act to ensure democratic
control by its members," he said.

"If a union was setting out to spend millions of dollars without member
approval, the Government would rightly be up in arms. The Minister must
ensure that the NFF is not acting contrary to the provisions of the Act in
its own internal operations.

"And, I think the public also needs to be assured that none of the public
money that flows to the NFF is directly or indirectly propping up its
anti-union Fighting Fund.

"If the Government is committed to fair and balanced workplace relations and
wants 'rogue' unions like the MUA to abide by the spirit and the letter of
the law, it must also make sure that 'rogue' employer groups like the NFF do
likewise," Senator Murray concluded.


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-----Original Message-----
From: Takver (by way of sjwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Wright))
<Takver@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, 2 February 1998 8:34
Subject: AUT: (en) Solidarity with Wharfies (Australia)


>________________________________________________
>     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
>           http://www.ainfos.ca/
>________________________________________________
>
>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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>Takver@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/default.htm
>
>
>
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