Australian government recruiting scabs for docks?

[Sid Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

The Australian Associated Press				Dec 10 1997

	By Ilsa Colson and Maria Hawthorne

MELBOURNE, - Claims that the Australian government knew of a
plan to train recruits with military backgrounds in maritime work and use
them to break waterfront union power continued today as the affair spilled
into the international arena.
 With international union bosses preparing for a meeting to discuss bans
on Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, where the training is believed to
have begun, the federal opposition said it had evidence that the plans had
federal government backing.
 But acting Workplace Relations Minister Richard Alston dismissed the
claims as "secondhand scuttlebut" and bar talk, saying the opposition had
a vested interest in blocking waterfront reform.
 Meanwhile, other unions showed practical support for their waterfront
counterparts, with strikes at Perth and Melbourne airports tonight aimed
at delaying flights carrying a group of recruits and the Australian
ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
 The strikes, by Transport Workers Union (TWU) and Australian Services
Union members, were to protest against the alleged training scheme and
against the Dubai government for hosting the group - dubbed by unions as
"industrial mercenaries".
 "Our federal committee has already resolved to support our members in
taking action to delay any flight carrying industrial mercenaries," TWU
federal secretary John Allan told AAP.
 A group of international unionists is meanwhile meeting this week in
London to discuss putting bans on air and sea services to Dubai and the
United Arab Emirates in protest at the scheme.
 Maritime Union of Australia national secretary John Coombs will attend
the meeting, as will the International Transport Federation's Australian
co-ordinator, Trevor Charles.
 The ACTU and the federal opposition claim the 250 recruits - most with
military backgrounds - are training in the Persian Gulf port to return as
strike-breakers in a dispute in Melbourne next April.
 The Australian government has said it knew nothing of the plans, but
that it welcomed any scheme that improved productivity on the waterfront.
 Senator Alston reiterated the government's position today.
 "The last thing that the Labor Party is interested in is any genuine
reforms so the last thing you should be doing is placing any credence on
any secondhand scuttlebutt that they might have come across in the saloon
bars down at the waterfront," he said.
 "If there is evidence then it ought to be forthcoming but I'd be very
surprised indeed if there's any suggestion that anything's been authorised
by the government."
 Federal opposition defence spokesman Arch Bevis had said some of the
recruits had told the ALP they heard in briefings that the government
supported the scheme and the ALP knew "from information that we've now
got" that there would be a dispute on the Melbourne waterfront next April.
 "It's un-Australian, it's the sort of thing you associate with gangland
America or sort of the Jimmy Hoffa period of Teamster unionism."