Jul-Aug 2008

The Return - Workers reclaim the wharves

"It's great scenes of excitement here, as now they're standing at the gate.

And we're hearing the chant -

'The Workers United

Will Never Be Defeated'
They're moving very slowly through the gates, no doubt, just savouring the moment,
the moment they've been waiting for a 100 days...'

ABC Radio, May 7, 1998

It was lunchtime when the union lawyers withdrew their submission in the Federal Court to have 'dogs and goons' removed from all Patrick terminals before the labour returned to work. The dogs and guards, blacklists and other issues could wait. It was time to get back to work.
MUA National Secretary John Coombs made the call. MUA members were ready, waiting at the gates the three days since the May 4 High Court ruling.
Advance parties had gone into Port Botany without any fuss the previous night.

"It was pretty clean" said Assistant Branch Secretary Barry Robson. "I guess the scabs had nothing better to do than tidy up for a couple of weeks. There'd been no delivery or receival of cargo."

Not so the other ports. The advance parties were frustrated by conditions and headpicking. It seemed a safe bet that Patrick Port Botany labour would be first through the gates.
The media arrived after lunch, soon followed by John Coombs and Assistant Secretary Vic Slater. National officers Tony Papaconstuntinos and Mick Doleman were there. So was ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty.
But the time for start of shift came and went. Still no administrators and Patrick kept adding to its long list of requirements before its guards would let people back through the gates.
Night fell. The administrators arrived. Still a deadlock. John Coombs left the media scrum and got back in his car for yet another meeting in town with the administrators.
He was still on the outskirts of the CBD when the news came over the car radio. They were marching through the gates at East Swanson Dock.
ABC Radio reporter Joe Jarvis caught the moment: "There's a great sense of jubilation. About 500 people have lined up here to form, I suppose what you'd say, is a guard of honour.
There's a lot of singing, there's a lot of yells, and of course, there's that now very familiar chant, 'MUA here to stay'.

Jennie George, the ACTU president, is leading it. She's got her arms around the national organiser of the MUA, Mick O'Leary.
Jennie George and Mick O'Leary are looking absolutely ecstatic. You have wharfies with their arms in the air cheering and yelling, and a very large crowd cheering them on.
They're in the gates now.
John Coombs slammed on the brakes, got on his mobile to the administrators and angrily dumped the meeting... if they were going in at East Swanson ... he'd waste no more time talking... they were going in at Port Botany and they were going in now.
He turned his car around and drove straight back to the assembly. Out came the red carpet and by start of shift 10 pm that night the first gang were back in the gate, waving a Eureka flag as they walked along the terminal in the cold night - cheered on by friends and family.
The Botany workers had done their last weeks work for no pay back in April... now they were back on the job - pay deferred. The same held for Patrick wharfies around the country. The once well off Patrick companies had been stripped of every asset so that workers had to carry them to keep them afloat. But for the first few days the moral victory was enough to sustain everyone.
Around 1000 people cheered the first workers onto the Melbourne docks - among them former state premier Joan Kirner, MP Simon Crean ACTU Assistant Secretary Greg Combet, MP Andrew Theophanous, union leaders wives, children and community.
Branch Secretary Terry Russell described the moment as euphoric: "Everyone was singing 'MUA Here To Stay'. Everyone was happy as anything. Some blokes were crying."
The labour had been waiting outside the gate ready to start work from mid afternoon. National Organiser Mick O'Leary said it was a long, exhausting and emotional day: "But it was a great day for the union and for all the people wronged by Peter Reith and Chris Corrigan. It was a very inspiring day. Jenny kept crying and there were plenty of choked voices among the men." .
One by one, around the country, the workers reclaimed the wharves and their jobs. Webb Dock, Melbourne, went back the next morning. Michael O'Leary led them in with John Higgins.
At East Swanson Dock union labour cleared 150 boxes in the first two hours and another 857 boxes on day work. By Monday 2500 containers were out the gates while work unloading ships was back to normal.
Both Burnie and Bell Bay also started work first shift Friday. "No scabs got a start in either port," said Col Griffiths. "They were down here all right. The police confirmed it. But we never saw any.

"The local Patrick manager offered MUA workers individual contracts (AWAs) because they needed our skills, but none of us would break ranks. We stuck solid. So they contracted out all their work to P&O.

Patrick still had two vessels and R&D (receival and delivery) work contracted out. But P&O members decided not to go to work. Patrick workers were back on the job the next day.
At Darling Harbour a contingent of MUA members led by delegate Jake Haub, Sean Chaffer, Jim Donovan and son Steve
could not wait for the call. They marched through thegates,
waving banners and flags surrounded by media. They pushed past the security guard, chanting, seizing the moment. Back outside the gates there were tears of joy, hugging and handshaking. They'd done it. But it was not until 10 that night that the call for first shift came and the men got down to work.
In Port Kembla MUA workers were also back on the job
by Friday. Branch Secretary Mark Armstrong reported MUA labour had been hired out by the company to a joint venture started up by Keon and Wingate prior to the lock out. Patrick had previously held a virtual monopoly in the port.
At Brisbane Maritime Wharf, labour started on the midnight shift the next day. By the end of the weekend they had moved the backlog of containers out the gates.
Townsville Branch Secretary Graham Bragg reports a return to work the same day: "The blokes went back to work on Saturday. But when we went in the crane wouldn't go.
Someone had taken out the fuses to delay the job. So we used the ship's gear - a 40 year old slewing crane on Queen Amelia to load containers and mining equipment for Papua New Guinea, achieving a world class performance of 147 containers in 7.5 hours."
It was Mother's Day when members at Fremantle walked back in the gates, so MUA women were right up front to see them in."About 50 coppers with shields were stationed inside the terminal from early morning with 500 people - the Patrick workforce, their families other unionists and the community - outside," said Terry Buck. "We got permission from port security for 15 guys to go on shift."
MUA officials Paddy Crumlin, Terry Buck, Wally Pritchard, Dean Summers and Ross Storer led them past the first gate. As they turned to look back they saw the police had stopped their wives and mothers from accompanying them.
The 15 workers marched through the gate chanting. Once inside they turned and gave one last cheer and salute to the supporters. Workers hoisted the MUA flag onto a crane and then got down to business. The portainers started moving within minutes.
Next came a triumphant return in Adelaide, one of seven ports that Patrick announced they would close. A community picket stayed in place all weekend as work was diverted to P&O. The union wanted to contracts returned to Patrick so sacked workers could get back to work. On Monday the breakthrough came. Sea-Land agreed to pick up Patrick labour through the companies under control of the administrators.

"We're back in the gates," said Branch Secretary Ric Newyln on May 12. "Sister Janet Mead and her Romano religious group were here this morning to wish us well. They got up

on the back of a truck and sang 'The Workers United Will Never Be Defeated' as our members walked back in the gate. There were over 200 well wishers here. They parted the way to let the workers and trucks through, just like Moses
parted the waters for the chosen people."
In Newcastle the stalemate was not broken until Thursday, May 14 after Newcastle Stevedores, a new port operator, leased Patrick labour from administrators at the Pasminco bulk facility. We started work on the midnight shift," said Branch Secretary Jim Boyle. "There was only workfor 10 of the 25 permanent workforce. We were all there, 100 workers, unionists and members of the community to clap them in."
Soon after the first MUA workers returned to the job, one of the first ships loaded by non-union labour, the Columbus Canada, also returned, all its cargo untouched. It had lay offthe the west coast of the US after, longshoreworkers had refused to touch the ship in solidarity with their Australian comrades.... and they didn't have to be asked.

War on the Waterfront articles

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