Jul-Aug 2008

War at Webb Dock

Whether Chris Corrigan, employer of about 2,000 Maritime Union members around the coast, was the spider out to entice the union into his clutches, or just another cockroach entangled in his own foibles and a web of intrigue spun in Canberra, is slowly being revealed.
It was on the evening of January 28 that he chose A Current Affair and the 7.30 Report to confess (some of) his dealings with the failed Dubai industrial mercenaries affair - dealings he had denied in the past.
Corrigan admitted he agreed to lease land and equipment to an operator and he knew the training was to be in Dubai.
But is Chris Corrigan telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or are more revelations of double dealing, lying and trickery yet to come?

On ABC Radio AM on December 4, when the plan to train paramilitary in the Dubai to do wharfies' work first came to light Corrigan denied any involvement and evaded answering the questions. Thus the tag 'rotten liar' (Lies, damned lies..., Sydney Morning Herald, February 4, 1998).
The Government, too, has denied any knowledge or involvement.
But leaked documents which continue to surface in Federal Parliament point to a government/employer conspiracy of mammoth proportions.
Senior government ministers Peter Reith and John Sharp gathered with their advisors in Melbourne to talk strategy in September.
Financial Review reporter Pam Williams said the meeting was all about setting up a new stevedoring company with non union labour and involved the National Farmers' Federation. Central to the plans was how to keep the wharves going during a dispute.
The minutes surfaced in December, around the same time
as the Australian Chamber of Commerce published their Waterfront Users Guide advising port users how to sue the union during strikes.
An earlier draft version leaked to the media and the union the Chamber also urged port users to secretly film pickets, hire private detectives to spy on workers and use security guards and police to break strikes on the wharves.
Cowboys & Corrigan
It was a dramatic start to the New Year. Executives of the National Farmers' Federation set up companies to employ and train non-union labour at Webb Dock, Melbourne.
The National Farmers' Federation stevedoring operation had everything to do with union busting and nothing to do with introducing 'competition' on the wharves and cutting costs.
It was just another sorry saga in the Dubai debacle - an attempt to train militant, non-union, scab labour to replace MUA members on the cranes and other heavy equipment.
It was also an attempt to provoke the union into breaking
any of the dozens of anti-boycott legislation, torts and other laws that would enable the Government, the NFF and Patrick to sue the union, its officials and its members for damages for loss of trade.
It was an attempt to trap, financially cripple, even deregister the union.
The three companies P&C Stevedores Pty Ltd, P&C Operations Pty Ltdand PCS Training Services were registered with the Australian SecuritiesCommission on January 8.
Their directors are James Ferguson, NFF industrial director, Donald McGauchie,NFF president and the Paul Houlihan, a former NFF industrial officer and a key
consultant with ACIL, the company contracted by the Howard Governmentto develop a covert war plan for the wharves.
The PCS Group was attempting to recruit New Zealand wharfies to work in Australia'for a minimum three months'.
Copies of the Australian Workplace Agreement, obtained by the Maritime Union,set out their duties as 'training company employees or employees of other companies
on container handling wharf cranes and other mobile equipment'.
However the contract stipulates that the trainer may also be asked to performother tasks 'within their skill and competence'. The salary is $25,000for the three months, plus accommodation and travel.

"This is obviously just another sorry chapter in the Australian Sandline industrial mercenary saga," said MUA National Secretary John Coombs."These cowboys are trying to get New Zealand workers to train as union busters. I wouldn't be surprised if their first job isn't training

Fynwest army recruits since their schooling in Dubai has been disrupted."
But two NZ wharfies approached by the company notified NZ unions. NZ Rail & Maritime Transport Union Secretary Ross Wilson then contacted the MUA.
Ross Wilson said the contract looked like a non union arrangement, possibly part of a union busting scheme. He said the NZ wharfie, an ex memberdid not want to be involved in anything which was not cleared with the union.
He said the worker concerned would not touch the job if the MUA so advised.
The plan exposed, company director Paul Houlihan raced to Melbourneon a 2pm flight and spent a frantic day on the phone calling for crane drivers.
MUA workers prepared a barbecue and peaceful protest outside the gates.

Battle for Webb Dock
On the night of January 28, under cover of dark, the invasion of the docksgot underway. Patrick had cancelled the evening and midnight shiftat Webb Dock, rostering labour to nearby Swanson dock.
In scenes reminiscent of a military raid, a battalion of security guards armed with riot gear, shields and batons obtained from the Victorian Prisons Department,were bussed in under cover of night to secure the wharf. Under orders of Patrick, they take control of the massive portainer cranes and lock the gates,shutting the workforce out.
That night, on national television Patrick Chairman Chris Corriganand NFF president McGauchie confirm that PCS has as two year subleaseagreement. The NFF are later to boast that their scheme is bankrolled by $20 million war chest filled by anonymous businessdonors,most of whom are now known to the union.
The plans were so secret that key affiliates of the NFF were left in the dark.
WA Farmers' Federation General Secretary Kevin McMenemy tells ABCRadio (January 28) he is opposed to the plan and has a good working relationship with the Maritime Union. Graingrowers spokesperson, Ian McFarlane also expresses his concern. Productivity at the bulk terminals is world's
best practice and concerned farmers do not want their bumper harvest jeopardised by a dispute.
The International Transport Workers' Federation has warned that any ships involved with the NFF non-union shipping company face a world-wide black ban. Letters of support from affiliates of the ITF, the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Australian Council of Trade arrive by fax and mail each day.
But when 12 Australian shipping companies announced they would not risk using PCS, the Minister for Workplace Relations simply said he would explore the possibility of using the government shipping line ANLto trade out of Webb Dock. Perhaps the minister had the Australian Enterprise in mind. SAS shocktroopers were ordered onto the ship off Fremantle only weeks earlier. In their 'anti-terrorist
exercise' on February 15, a seafarer and MUA member is thrown to the floor in a choker hold and has an automatic weapon pointed at his head.
Five days into the docks war, on February 3, Chris Corrigan admits he lied and had been involved in the Dubai scheme from the outset. But his lies about productivity and rorts on the waterfront are repeated ad nauseam as the propaganda war continues unabated.
That same night Corrigan has the locks removed from the gates to his section of the docks and orders the labour to return to work. But MUA members vote to stay out in protest at the deception of their employer and the complicity of the Government in the war against them.
Courts & torts
When his employees refuse to return to work, Corrigan calls on the Industrial Commission to intervene. It is during these hearings that he admits to discussing sacking his entire workforce with government officers.
The next day Minister for Workplace Relations, Peter Reith also admits he has been 'up to his neck' in waterfront reform and that such discussions may well have taken place.
The union lodges writs for damages in the Federal Court against Patrick Stevedores, the National Farmers' Federation and key players behind the Webb Dock conspiracy for breaching employment contracts and freedom of association rights.
While ordering a return to work on February 13, the Commission finds Patrick management deliberately misled the employees and union officials as to the existence of the sublease and was in contravention of the disputes settlement agreement. The orders apply to Webb Dock for one month (not the six months sought by Patrick).
They do not apply to action based on a reasonable concern about an imminent risk to health and safety or action that is directly, reasonably and proportionately related to the decision by the company about work or conditions, or a lack of "full compliance" by the company of the disputes settlement procedure of the Patrick Melbourne enterprise agreement. Webb Dock members voted to abide by the Commission decision and return to work. But employees at Patrick East Swanson Dock put their hands up for 48 hour protest action. This had the desired effect. Patrick commenced fresh Section 127 applications seeking an extension of the Orders to East Swanson Dock, giving the MUA the ability to subpoena Corrigan, Clayton, Smithwick, Houlihan and McGauchie for questioning.
But Patrick withdrew their application. Employees at East Swanson Dock returned to work on February 18, but within hour elect to take further protest action. This time Chris Corrigan retaliates seeking injunctions against the MUA,
its officers and members engaged by Patrick in the Victorian Supreme Court, to outlaw further stoppage action. At the same time Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith threatens to deregister the union if it takes national industrial action.
Strong-arm tactics

P&C Stevedores have made it clear they will stop at nothing. A Channel 7 camera operator was manhandled by one of their thugs on the job and two PCS trainers have defected saying they feared for their lives: "I just felt the whole business had got out of hand and it was becoming dangerous for me to be in Melbourne," said Richard Anthony Scourgall.
Both men revealed that the exam to accredit them as trainers had been a sham because they had been provided the answers to the questions.
Training paramilitary to work the wharves means the industrial relations battle being fought on the Australian docks is by no means simply a war of words. It is for real. And it is taking Australia perilously close to civil war.
The Defence Department has hinted it has 8,000 army personnel becoming redundant. They will be retrained for other jobs and the Department of Veteran Affairs is putting $15 million towards doing just this. Whether any of that money has been channelled into either the Dubai or Webb Dock training programs, however, remains to be seen.
Even sacking every waterfront worker in the country would not provide that 8,000 jobs. If the Government troops succeed in taking the industrially strategic ports and harbours, they will then march inland down the mines, up the construction sites, into the offices. There is no end in sight to the war against Australian unions while the Howard Government remains in office.
The Shadow Minister for Transport Lindsay Tanner moved a motion at the Labor Party Conference attacking the Government for its clandestine attempt to train Australian soldiers as industrial mercenaries on the waterfront.
The motion also condemned the scheme for threatening to generate widespread confrontation, even violence. The resolution was adopted unanimously.

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