Thursday 16 April 1998
Police in riot gear used batons to clear protesters from Patrick's Fremantle terminal, in the second major incident at that port today. The West Australian Transport Minister, Eric Charlton, described the protesters as `anarchists', and advised other state governments to follow his example. However, the NSW government has released legal advice from the Crown Solicitor to the effect that police are only to prevent breaches of the peace, and have no role in ensuring trucks get through.
About 20 protesters in Brisbane were cut free by police after chaining themselves to railway tracks, delaying a cargo train for two hours. No arrests were made.
The MUA claims that non-union workers crashed a crane into a container ship at Port Botany, Sydney. The terminal is holding 3,100 containers, about 70 per cent of capacity. About 30 trucks were turned back by hundreds of protesters from at least nine unions.
A rally of 3,000 delegates in Melbourne resolved to call snap strikes if police moved in to break the pickets at Melbourne.
A mass meeting of unionists in Brisbane voted for an industrial campaign protesting federal and state industrial laws, including a possible general strike.
The NSW Labor Council voted unanimously to set up a trust fund to raise $500,000 for the locked-out workers. $50,000 has also been earmarked for a media/public relations consultant to help overcome adverse media coverage.
Former footballers of the (now defunct) South Melbourne Australian Rules football club have turned out on the picket lines, as has representatives of the South Sydney Rugby League Club, including former Australian captain Bobby McCarthy. Others to visit the picket lines included the lawyer Chris Murphy and fire-eater Dom Ferry; while the actor Jack Thompson, and entertainers Little Patti, Vince Sorrenti and others sent messages of support.
Melbourne Port Corporation obtained an interim injunction until next Tuesday banning the MUA from obstructing the Corporation's land. The terminal is now virtually full, with about 4,000 containers stranded. The value of cargo now held up in Melbourne and Sydney is estimated at $500 million.
More on the Federal Court case. As with most things legal, it is hideously complex and technical. As best I understand it, the MUA's lawyers have sued Patrick under federal law, and Reith and the NFF companies under state law. All cases can be heard in one court through `cross-vesting', but the NFF has challenged the constitutionality of this practice. Ironically, the federal Attorney-General, recently argued in a High Court case, Gould and Brown, for the constitutionality of cross-vesting. But because that case was decided 3-3, it has no value as a precedent. If the NFF claim succeeds, it will create massive duplication of legal proceedings, increases in delays and costs, and will create uncertainty in corporations law. (if there is some labour lawyer out there who can explain this more accurately, simply or comprehensively, please do so).
Friday 17 April
Warlike rhetoric is increasing faster than the value of Chris Corrigan's shares. In today's Australian Financial Review, unnamed `senior ACTU strategists' and leaders unveiled a new strategy, one of mass civil disobedience of picket restraining orders. `It just has to be mayhem', the source allegedly said, `We've really got to rip the joint apart. It will be something that will be remembered for a long time. If we aren't prepared to fight the biggest fight of our lives over a conspiracy to sack thousands of workers just because they are in a union, then when will we ever fight?'
Not to be outdone, Victoria's Police Minister, Bill McGrath, today predicted that the dispute would escalate into a `bloody battle' which police, employers and farmers must win. Following reports that police were gathering at Scienceworks Museum in Spotswood, a large crowd of protesters gathered at East Swanson at about midday. I went down for a look, but apart from an incident involving a radio announcer, Neil Mitchell, there was no excitement. Mitchell was verbally abused, and his Volvo was punched and hit by a can of soft drink. VTHC secretary Leigh Hubbard arrived and outlined the union strategy, which was to keep at least 200 protesters on the wharf around the clock in shifts. At around 12.30 p.m., the police chopper which had been circling overhead left, and the police are presumably delaying the assault until the crowd thins out. The police have announced they intend to move in before next Tuesday.
The NTEU has drawn the graveyard shift at East Swanson tonight and Saturday, from midnight until 6. Bring hot soup and warm clothing (and maybe a lawyer). Blues singer Margaret Roadnight will be performing for the protesters tonight.
About 400 protesters are gathered outside Patrick's Fremantle dock.
Australian Financial Review reporters say non-unionists at Darling Harbour were unloading the Direct Falcon at about 7 containers an hour, 28 per cent of the rate decreed by the federal government.
Despite the policy of the NSW government, police apparently made an unsuccessful attempt to clear the Port Botany picket line. A large number of protesters were detained, but later released. Premier Carr has called on the warring parties to accept a compromise involving the reinstatement of the locked-out workers, in return for union guarantees of productivity improvements.
I've not yet heard what happened in the courts today. The Federal Court case was due to continue this morning, while the one in the High Court was scheduled to begin in Brisbane this afternoon.
Stuart Svensen
National Key Centre in Industrial Relations, Monash University
Level 8, 30 Collins St, Melbourne, Vic 3000 Australia
