Solidarity

Morris McMahon, Sydney, May 22

SYDNEY, May 22: Scuffles break out on a Sydney picket when a truck attempts to ram through a peaceful protest of around 70 Port Botany waterside workers.

Police were dispersing the protesters at the time.

The Port Botany and other maritime workers have been regulars at the picket in the backblocks of Sydney where more than 50 manufacturing workers have been locked out the gates for 10 weeks.

On the Thursday Sydney Branch officials and maritime workers had attended a Labor Council lunchtime rally outside the city offices of company boss Judith Beswick. That afternoon the branch bussed Port Botany waterside workers to the picket. MUA regulars were already in place.

The locked out workers, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, cheered from the other side of the road. A court order prevented them from setting foot near the gates.

MUA members helped turn back a vehicle after a quiet word with the driver. It was a first for the picket and the locked out workers clapped, chanting "MUA, Here to Stay". Women and children waved union banners.

Then things got serious. Three MUA members were arrested. One was charged.

They were not the first.

Patrick Port Botany member Mich-Elle Myers was one of the regulars at the gates: "Barry McGrath and Steve Johnson were the first to get pinched. They're both very staunch members. Steve was the bloke with the loud-hailer in the dingy in front of the Columbus Canada during the 1998 lockout."

May had been the wettest and coldest for 40 years. But the mainly migrant women workers and their families held their ground against professional strikebreakers and busloads of scabs - undeterred by flood rains and mud where their tent is pitched.

And the Port Botany were among their staunchest allies - rain or shine.

A week after the melee, they were back in force - a large contingent of MUA women, ferry reps among them, stood beside their AMWU sisters. But this time there were no confrontations. Instead Branch Secretary Robert Coombs and AMWU reps made speeches, and delegates from Port Botany P&O and Patrick presented cheques totalling around $15,000.

No attempt was made to break the picket. There were no police. Maori women drummed with sticks on 10-gallon drums. Workers danced in the streets. And sang.

Police refused to intervene. The scab buses could not get out those gates. It was May 29. As dusk fell the death of Tas Bull was relayed to the picket, where workers held a minute's silence.

He would have been proud of them.

A week later national office got the expected writs. But after a day in court, the union brokered an undertaking from the company that they would agree to negotiate with the locked out workers and their union. In return the MUA gave a pledge they would step back from the front line.

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet, Opposition leader Simon Crean and Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations, Robert McClelland have all spent time on the picket line with the workers. The Shadow Minister will move amendments to the Workplace Relations Act that would restore the powers of Australia's independent industrial umpire - the Australian Industrial Relations Commission - to ensure parties bargain in good faith in the workplace.

On July 1, after three weeks negotiations, workers walked back in the gates and reclaimed their jobs.