Madam Lash

By Jim Marr, Workers’ Online

Morris McMahon dominatrix Judith Beswick has succeeded in her three-month campaign for a Tony Award nomination.

That's how long the central city lawyer has been standing over AMWU members at her Arncliffe packaging factory, denying their democratic rights to a union-negotiated employment contract.

More than that, though, she has encouraged people to illegally contract outside the award, through unregistered agreements.

The Clarence St-based solicitor doubles as the owner of can and drum manufacturer, Morris McMahon, which has poured money into a Victorian based labour hire firm, a security company and, more lately, a public relations outfit, rather than negotiate an agreement with the organisation her low-paid staff want to represent them.

The majority of strikers, facing their 13th week on picket duty, earn less than $13 an hour.

According to some of them, the relationship with their employer turned sour from the time the lawyer bought their former boss, her estranged brother Peter, out of the 100-year-old family business. Her take-it-or-leave-it approach to industrial relations has been branded "medieval".

The AMWU has long had a presence at Morris McMahon but it was only in the build-up to current negotiations that the majority of staff joined up.

Recent wage book examinations indicate that tens of thousands of dollars may be owed to workers. The union has handed documentation over to an independent auditor for further analysis.

Faced with resistance to her demand to unilaterally change rosters; and requests for a union-negotiated agreement, Beswick has taken to hard-ball.

She is trying to starve picketers, predominantly from non-English speaking backgrounds, back on her terms with the aid of security guards, scabs and spin doctors.

Twice daily, a heavily fortified bus delivers strikebreakers from Frontline Labour Hire. This week, Workers Online understands, Beswick sought court orders to prevent MUA members from Port Botany continuing their support for her staff.

In her determination to break the collective she has offered $1000 lures to individuals prepared to return on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs).

The lawyer's actions have already been criticised by Justice Munro in the IRC. He accused her of behaviour that was "not a fair labour practice" and "would merit sanction and prevention if relevant powers or defences were available.

Unfortunately, Justice Munro lamented "no such power is available" which just about brings us full circle.

Another twist in the Beswick tale is that whilst opposing union involvement in a contract with her workers, she chooses to be represented by militant employer organisation, AIG, in both bargaining and IRC procedures.

Beswick's nomination puts her in contention for Labor Council's Tony Award, crafted in recognition of Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott's insistence that a bad boss is better than no boss.

Arncliffe picketers dispute that assumption daily while their employer uses every weapon in Abbott's anti-worker armoury against them.

She has taken civil actions against their union, and the MUA; denied their right to a registered agreement; failed to bargain in "good faith"; and made full use of Abbott's "law of the jungle" principle which removes an independent umpire from the bargaining process.

Judith Beswick personifies the unjustness of Abbott's contention that low-paid workers can negotiate, individually, on a level playing field with an employer backed by accountants, lawyers and IR specialists.