SYDNEY, April 8 (AFP) - Thousands of workers staged angry rallies around Australia Wednesday in support of 1,400 sacked stevedores who have pledged to fight for their jobs.
Stunned by operations which ousted them from their jobs in a matter of hours overnight, protestors hastily organised picket lines and denounced the mass sacking and locking out of the unionised dock workers as "gutless", "a provocation", "un-Australian" and "a government conspiracy."
"My son is a waterfront worker. He got sacked at 11:00 p.m. last night," 74-year-old Elaine Challenor said as an angry mob gathered at Sydney's Port Botany.
"He's got a mortgage and a wife and child. His father worked on the waterfront all his life to fight for the conditions they have and to see them wiped out just like that is sickening."
To chants of "workers united, we'll never be defeated", the 1,000-strong Port Botany crowd vowed to fight until they won their jobs back.
"We've done nothing to warrant this," James Booth, a 38-year-old sacked worker said. "It's a political conspiracy. We, the workers, are suffering because the government wants to break the unions. We won't let it happen."
Behind the picket line, beyond the locked gates, the cranes were idle, leaving thousands of tonnes of cargo stranded.
Security guards with dogs, who in a military-style operation were moved by fishing boats under the cover of darkness onto wharves across the country late Tuesday, stood impassive as they were taunted.
"Maggots. Scum. How can you sleep at night," a solid line of workers 10-deep shouted as they shook the gates and blew whistles. The taunts soon turned to cheers when Australian Council of Trade Unions president Jennie George condemned the actions of national dock company Patrick as "fascist".
"We are up against the worst political conspiracy this nation has seen in one hundred years but we have a lot of heart and soul," she said.
Across the city in Darling Harbour, 3,000 unionists walked off the job from building sites, offices and factories.
Another thousand construction workers took to the streets in Melbourne while hundreds more gathered in Perth and Brisbane. In Brisbane, wharf worker Mick Rawlins described his fear as security guards with dogs stormed the docks.
"I turned around and there was about 30 guys running towards me with rottweiler dogs and doberman pinschers," he told reporters. "They scared the living daylights out of us -- it was like a real Gestapo-style tactic. You would never believe this could happen in Australia."
"One of our members has been bitten by a dog and he's in a serious way," Maritime Union of Australia organiser Mick Cottrel said from Melbourne. "This is an absolute disgrace.
Union officials warned of a national campaign against the sackings and appealed to unionists throughout Australia to lend moral and financial support to maritime workers and their families. "If it can happen to the maritime workers, my message to all workers in Australia is it can happen to you," George said.
