Unofficial ILWU Local 19
History & Education
War on the Wharfies News Summary
Union Victory!
This is my last general bulletin being circulated on this dispute. I thank
all of you who lent your support to this campaign. The Maritime Union of
Australia has won an important pragmatic victory. The great loss in the peace deal is
that many people would have liked to see the conspiracy case continue
against Patrick, the NFF and the Government. If the situation was reversed,
you can bet your bottom dollar the union would be prosecuted for all its
worth!
Takver
CONTENTS
(29Jun98) Peace Deal ratified by MUA members
(29Jun98) Waterfront Peace Deal Summary
News Summary - Monday 29 June
Peace Deal Ratified by MUA Members
The members of the Maritime Union in Sydney and Melbourne have ratified the
agreement worked out between their officials and Patrick Stevedores.
Discussions are continuing on the last, but significant obstacle to
ratification of the deal - a withdrawal of legal action by the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission.
Last Friday the Government passed its Stevedoring Levy Bill to pay the
expected redundancies (about $80 million), after the opposition by the
Democrats in the senate collapsed. The legislation will impose a levy on all
containers loaded by all stevedores, and works to the advantage of the large
stevedoring companies and to the disadvantage of the smaller ones.
The Federal Opposition used the levy debate to attack the Government's
record on waterfront reform, calling on both the Prime Minister, John
Howard, and the Minister for Workplace Relations, Peter Reith, to resign for
misleading the Parliament.
Meanwhile, documents tabled in parliament last Wednesday further implicate
and embarrass the Government. The documents show that:
* On April 21 last year the Prime Minister, John Howard, personally endorsed an "interventionist" government role in smashing the Maritime union and authorized federal funding of the strategy.
* Mr. Howard had been closely briefed on developments on the waterfront strategy and Patrick's plans.
* Patrick was considering a corporate restructuring to separate the labour force of its stevedoring operations from its "infrastructure and hardware component", which was noted by Peter Reith on April 19th 1997.
* Patrick wanted the Government to take
"the initiating step" by triggering a dispute with the Maritime
Union of Australia to justify the wholesale sackings.
ACTU assistant secretary, Greg Combet, said: "They provide further
extremely damaging evidence of the Government's complete involvement in an
unlawful conspiracy to terminate the entire unionized workforce of
Patrick.... It's the first documented evidence that the corporate
restructuring undertaken by the Patrick group was part of a plan discussed
with Government in elaborate detail as far back as 14 months ago."
In other news, Defence Minister, Ian McLachlan, admitted that Military
premises were used to recruit the Dubai mercenaries. South News reported
last Thursday 25 June that: The Australian Defense Force (ADF) allowed a
premises to recruit serving soldiers to train as industrial mercenaries in
Dubai, the federal government admitted today.
Defense Minister Ian McLachlan said the ADF let Fynwest Pty Ltd use its
Oakleigh Barracks in Victoria for the recruitment meeting on November 14
last year. In a written answer to a question from opposition transport
spokesman Lindsay Tanner, the minister said authority was given by the
barracks commander for the meeting.
The Liberal/National Party government is eager to bury the fight against the
Maritime Union as it faces rightwing populist Pauline Hanson's One Nation
Party challenging for the conservative vote, and a tough battle trying to
introduce the regressive Goods and Services Tax to a very cynical populace
in a lead up to a very messy election campaign.
Financial Review
25 Jun, 26 Jun 1998 , South News 25 Jun
Waterfront Peace Deal
Summary
* Patrick to pay union legal cost and wages lost since April.
* All Legal action dropped
* No non-union labour
* Twelve per cent pay rise over three years. Annual salary based on a 35-hour week with five-hour overtime component
* Federal Government to provide $80 million to fund redundancies. 628 MUA members to take voluntary redundancies. Core workforce in terminal and general stevedoring of 687 employees.
* Up to 100 supervisory employees to take redundancies
* 200 jobs in maintenance, security cleaning and line marking to be contracted out. Redundant unionists able to re-apply for these jobs
War on the Wharfies is produced
independently of any organization.
It contains:
* News reports on the Maritime Union of Australia fight against the rightwing attack by the National Farmers Federation waterfront bosses, and federal and state governments.
* News on other union actions and progressive campaigns, or the general attack on workers rights or conditions.