Jul-Aug 2008

Mobilisation: pickets, priests & public protest

Easter Sunday and ministers of the cloth come to bless the Fremantle picket by candlelight.
Reverend Howard McCallum from Flying Angels calls for peace and justice on behalf of sacked waterside workers. The church choir sings 'The Internationale'.
Church leaders played a prominent role on the picket lines, holding regular Sunday services to provide spiritual support. Like the children playing in their cr�che, the entertainers, artists and actors, it was in stark contrast to the dogs, the hooded guards, the helicopters and search lights, the confrontation and the war of words through the padlocked gates - as different as night and day.

"WA was the only state to use tactical response units against civilians," said assistant National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "It was extraordinary stuff. At the same time, the port authority thumbed its nose at their own regulations by allowing helicopters to sweep in over the crowd onto the Patrick wharves, bringing in scabs and managers."

This soon stopped after towage workers took industrial action over safety concerns.
State authorities then converted an empty warehouse, opposite the picket, to house hundreds of police and tactical response officers, surveillance gear and mass arrest vehicles. It was surrounded by barbed wire. Rumours circulated that the centre was being set up as a processing facility for mass arrests. The good natured maritime workers dubbed it Stalag 13 after the prisoner of war camp in Hogan's Heros.

Police tactics reached new heights on the night of April 16:
As dark fell, 700 police and tactical response forces were bussed in.
Those assembled watched as a full tactical response group ran across the Patrick terminal, wearing full riot gear and carrying batons. They climbed the port authority fence and took up positions behind the picket line.
When the call came that trucks were on their way everyone lined up 50 metres from Patrick gate, six rows, of around 120 people, seven deep. They lay prone, linked arms, legs, ankles - whatever grip they could get. The police moved in. People were put in back of paddy wagon, driven 200 metres down the road, let out and made their way back. As soon as they saw no trucks were getting through, they linked arms and stood firm.
Two nights later word came that the farmers would break the picket. What followed was 16 hours of harassment and intimidation against the community picket - men, women, unionists and supporters. It included helicopters and fixed wing aircraft circling overhead with search lights and sirens. The assembly stood firm. Neither farmer nor police attempted to force their way through.

"It was really a heroic stand," said Paddy. "Everyone gave a big cheer as the sun came over the horizon. The police tried to create fear and terror. What they didn't realise was that fear is an essential ingredient for bravery."

Early on, courts granted injunctions banning MUA officials from running the pickets. "This only served to strengthen the broad community support and management of the picket line," said Paddy.
On the day Justice North (April 21) handed down his decision calling for the reinstatement of all Patrick workers, the community assembly voted to name the picket The Tom Edward's Stand after a waterside worker clubbed to death by police on the Fremantle wharves - Bloody Sunday, 1919.
The picket grew into a thriving community
where volunteer concerts and comedy shows, visits from local and federal parliamentarians and children's art workshops, created a sense of strong identity and high self esteem.
One caravan and a bit of tarpaulin soon mushroomed into a township of four demountables, seven toilets, a marquee, a water tank, three flood lights, generators, a dry store for food and a refrigerated caravan, cr�ches and meeting rooms.
The community paved a road through the township with crushed limestone. They erected flags, union banners, scaffolding and a giant 2.5 metre TV screen. A 1000 T-shirts were printed. The Fremantle picket also went into cyberspace..
Women of the Waterfront (WOW) emerged, embracing wives, mothers, daughters and the local community. They played a key role as spokespeople at rallies and organising the picket.
Sundays became family days with clowns for the kids and jumping castles
During the month long lockout Carmen Lawrence organised a concert at the Town Hall, raising $3,500 for the families of sacked wharfies. Delegations went out to the mines, North to Port Hedland, West to Mirren Mirren and down South to Collie, where workers pledged weekly pay deductions and made upfront donations of $5000.
Sydney
The Sydney pickets were marked by the same mix of heroism, confrontation and community support.
For Assistant Branch Secretary Sean Chaffer Easter will be remembered thanks to an elderly woman who hobbled over to people assembled outside the gates at Darling Harbour, thrust forward an arthritic hand, clutching $50.

'It's from me and my daughter,' she said. Then there was the little girl from the other side of town -Double Bay - who got her mother to drive her to the picket. "Seeing the sacked workers outside the gates in the rain she announced she didn't want her Easter eggs. She wanted to give them to the families who had lost their jobs."

But while the police remained neutral in NSW, the Darling Harbour picket suffered some of the more violent attacks by security guards and drivers - a man knocked down by a truck trying to ram through the picket, three wharfies sprayed with mace gas, one punched in the face through the fence, others suffering burns when guards turned oxy torches on their bare hands.
At Port Botany the main confrontation was between the trucks and the assembly, with two serious attempts to break the picket.
A major confrontation took place on April 14.

"The first truck came around the corner at 9am," said National Organiser Mick Doleman. "I went up to the truck with Glenn Woods. Glenn took the chassis number and container numbers. I tried to explain it was our workplace and he was invading our rights. But he said he was coming through anyway.

"We stood 30 or 40 rows deep, the people in the front rows linking arms," said Mick. "The truck came forward. But police turned the driver away, after we pointed out he had no number plates. About 20 minutes later he returned with a plate on . Both the driver and the man in the passenger seat had hoods over their heads. They wore dark glasses."

The picketers refused to move. They had been trained how to peacefully resist - how to let their bodies go slack so the police had to lift a dead weight into the vans..

"I watched with a mixture of pride and concern as my son was arrested and taken away," said Mick. "But there were not enough police to shift us all and after arresting about 70 the trucks gave up and left.

"It was the first of three or four attempts to get trucks in that day. When they finished about 5pm. I was absolutely exhausted."

A new set of problems arose when the Federal Government and its supporters seized on TV and in the newspapers of two frightened children in the crowd.
The father who featured on the front pages of the papers with his terrified daughters was not a maritime worker but another unionist visiting the picket. Because his wife was at work he brought his children with him. He'd been before and noted the assembly was peaceful and disciplined, with sausage sizzle provided to guests as well as the sacked workers.
The union was accused of 'using' children. But Assistant National Secretary Vic Slater was quick to defend the presence of children on the picket: "Wives and children do have the right to be with their families in times of crisis. Their husbands and fathers have lost their jobs.
Who will feed them?
Who will pay the mortgage so they are not booted out of their homes?
Who will pay the childcare fees, now they are out of a job.?"
At Port Botany organisers set up a cr�che away from the picket People donated toys
and food for the children.
Patrick then got injunctions from the state courts, preventing MUA officials from directing the pickets. The union was ordered to hand over its mobile phone records, after allegations that union 'lookouts' were telephoning pickets and alerting them when trucks were heading for the docks. It was just one of the many contempt charges brought by Patrick against the MUA, its officials and later, against CFMEU Joint National President John Maitland.
On April 16 a community assembly of around 500 unionists, students and local and state politicians including Meredith Burgman and Ian MacDonald arrived at the Port Botany docks pre-dawn, after a tip off that a convoy of about 30 trucks lined up outside the local cemetery were headed their way. John Maitland led the resistance.
Rumours spread during the night that the first driver to break the picket would get a bonus. The plan was never carried through. By 9pm the convoy dispersed in the face of people power.
No trucks ever crossed the Port Botany picket.

"The dedication of people supporting the union kept us going on those miserable, wet, cold nights," said Mick. "Some camped on the picket and never left. They had no relation to the workers or the union. They were just there.

CTAL worker Laurie Fraser took his leave, his long service leave, then unpaid leave to be on picket every day..
Melbourne

"The ACTU and Trades Hall did a magnificent job for us," said Branch Secretary Terry Russell. "Entertainment, big name support, food and public relations. The Transport Workers' Union was fantastic. Their drivers would not cross the picket. They refused point blank. The TWU also donated $11,500 to families of sacked workers. I've written to tell them of our untold thanks."

It was also Melbourne which boasted the only solidarity gesture from farmers during the dispute. Captain Bill Bolitho, retired sea captain and former chief of ANL brought 25 neighbouring farmers and 200 kilos of prime beef to the picket for an afternoon barbecue.
While Sydney and Brisbane wharfies and supporters survived on a diet of sausage sizzles, salad and soup, the Melbourne assemblies also enjoyed vegetarian cuisine provided by local 'ferals' who set up camp and lived on the picket.
Maori building workers from local sites organised a hangi - pig roasted in large pits. Wharfies dubbed the carcasses Reith and Corrigan and gave them a ritual burial the next morning.
The Melbourne assembly also got its fair share of religion. Reverend Steve Clarke, an ordained Baptist minister and member of the Christian bikie gang, the God Squad, regularly rode into East Swanson Dock on his Harely. He was just one of a posse of priests and Christians to show their solidarity with workers.
Reverend Van Laar from the Interdenominational Church and Trade Union Committee also held a service for the workers: "God is on the side of justice and in this particular case the injustice seems to be perpetrated against the union and its members," he said.
On a less religious note, Mick O'Leary swears he was not suffering from lack of sleep when he tells of a pre-dawn vision of a women well-wisher, dressed in a skimpy party outfit. "She jumped out of her car, whipped her dress up to her shoulders and down again, yelled out 'MUA here to stay' then jumped back in her car and drove off," he claims. "Any show of support was welcome, we decided."
But, like Fremantle and Sydney, the Melbourne picket experienced its darker moments.
Politicians, including former premier Joan Kirner, Lindsay Tanner and Simon Crean were in the front row when the police moved in, predawn on April 18. The police had been expected to swoop at 2am. An ambulance set up a makeshift first aid station near the assembly. But it was not until after 5am that a police helicopter circuited the docks and Acting Superintendent Darryl Nation warned the protesters they were trespassing. Within minutes some 200 police advanced on the assembly. The crowd stood their ground and unionists observed one minutes silence.
Confrontation, however, never took place. Hundreds of construction workers approached from behind, sandwiching the police between protesters. The police retreated. The picket remained
Victorian courts were especially hostile, issuing draconian injunctions outlawing everyone, including community members from anywhere near the wharves. But on April 28 civil libertarians savoured a win. The Victorian Court of Appeal ruled Justice Barry Beach should not have banned "the world at large" . In a unanimous decision the court amended the Supreme Court injunction to apply only to MUA members.
Brisbane
It was Labour Day in Queensland when the High Court decision finally came down. "We had the biggest march in history - some 20,000-30,000 people in the Brisbane streets," said National Organiser Jim Tannock."When the decision came through, it was spectacular."
But in many ways the Brisbane experience was the most frustrating: "They moved us off port authority land on to crown land," said Jim. "It was a public road so we could not block the trucks without affecting other companies which had nothing to do with Patrick."
Ironically it was the police who provided the most effective obstruction to trucks passing through the gates. Plans by the union to set up a modern day 'Trojan horse' had leaked out: "We had fantasised about smuggling people in through the gates in containers," said Jim. "But the strategy was aborted as too fanciful. The police, however, took it seriously. For a while they were stopping every container searching for our trojan horse," said Jim. "Unwittingly, they really helped us out."
Thirteen thousand containers were held up in Brisbane and 23 ships deferred. On April 21 the assembly decided to act on their own, moving back onto the road and blocking all traffic en route to Fishermen's Island. Police moved in and arrested 184 MUA members and supporters.

"They whacked us all in paddy wagons," said Jim. "It was in the back of the wagon that I heard the first court order that Patrick give our blokes their jobs back. But when we asked the police to let us out, they refused."

Jim and 112 others went to court where they were remanded on bail until July 28.
The Adelaide picket also had its blessings. Janet Mead and here Romano Christians provided soup every day as well as fruit and vegetables. Unemployed youth arranged parcels for the families of sacked wharfies. No scab labour worked the port and all six Patrick ships were successfully redirected to P&O.
The Newcastle picket at Cowper St Carrington was exposed to explosive scenes on April 15 when a bus convoying non-union labour forced its way through the picket. Windows were smashed and a retired waterside worker was badly injured. The bus ran over Ron Cummin's foot and he was taken to hospital, his toes broken. But when Patrick announced they would not attempt further loadings at the port the crowd was jubilant.

"You could have been forgiven for thinking that Newcastle had won the rugby league grand final again," wrote reporter Lisa Tait.

More than 70 MUA members, wives and supporters cheered and embraced as non-union labour left the wharves.

"It is not the grand final, but we have made the semis," said Laurie Steen."

One of the most tragic victims of the sackings was Darrell Davey. His wife, Dianne, had been in a car accident only weeks before the mass sackings. It is unlikely she will ever recover. His son Luke, 20, suffers muscular dystrophy. But Darrell was unable to apply for social security. On top of everything he still had a $50,000 mortgage. Under the Howard Government's nursing home scheme Darrell will also have to foot the bill for his wife's bed in a nursing home.
But his family would not go hungry. Branch secretary Jim Boyle said donations of food were so plentiful that they had to be stored at nearby Carrington Bowling Club.
In Burnie five people who had no links with the union organised shopsto donate groceries which they packaged up for each sacked worker every week. "They are still doing it," said Col Griffiths, "because Patrick workers are still not being paid."
Col said the local Mayor of Burnie provided vouchers at his supermarket allowing sacked wharfies a 30 per cent deduction on anything they bought. In Townsville port secretary Graham Bragg reports most of the local truck drivers supported the MUA, so Patrick had to find their own trucks and non union drivers.
The local police publicly boasting he would follow anyone they ran down into hospital and arrest them for blocking the roads.

"One truck driver, who did not respect our picket has now apologised," said Graham. "I have put him in touch with the Transport Workers' Union so he can join up.

Townsville wharfies had the full support of Queensland miners, with 65 driving more than 400 kilometres from the Bowen Basin mines to visit the picket. Busloads of sugar mill workers came up 60 kilometres south of Townsville. Cairns Port Secretary Bernie Farelly took holidays to be with his Townsville mates and seafarers came from as far as Cairns and Mackay to lend their weight to the local community assembly.

"Shadow minister for industrial relations, Bob McMullan, flew from Brisbane," said Graham. "And on Labor Day we had a record turnout of 3,500 for the march, 350 of them MUA members. We won the shield for most marchers. Everyone marched to the picket line where we heard the High Court result. We were elated, jumping up and down screaming out.

"In the tight knit union town of Port Kembla no scab dared show his face. "Once we realised we had no need for pickets we joined the Sydney assemblies," said branch secretary Mark Armstrong. "We had a bus going up every third day, with others taking themselves up nearly every day by train or car. ..

Throughout the lockout sacked wharfies and their families were looked after by fellow wharfies, unionists and community donations. The 8,000 maritime workers still on the paypacket raised more than $100,000, the CFMEU donated more than $200,000, the ACTU raised half a million, The All Japan Seamen's Union sent $10,000, the ITF Japan another $11,000 and millions of Indian transport workers pledged Australian wharfies 20 cents each.
The dispute cost the MUA an estimated $350,000 a week in sustenance wages for sacked members alone. The legal bills are still to come.
MUA National Administrator Sally Nicholson said with donations from the general public, the union raised $1.7 million in total during the lockout.
On all the pickets, throughout the lockout officials, delegates sacked workers and community supporters worked around the clock, including stints up to 60 hours straight.

"I think this dispute has made us realise we are only a small part of the labour movement," said Mick Doleman. "We tended to think we are bullet proof. But this last month only went to show that without the support of other workers, the miners builders, the manufacturing workers, firefighters, nurses, missos, we could not have done it."

In the words of ACTU President Jenny George: "I tell you Mr Howard, when you mount an attack on one of our family, you face the rest of our family. The truth about this dispute is not about productivity, it is about the politics of union bashing."

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