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| Issue No 103 |  |
20 July 2001 |
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UnionsIndustrial Violence
Rowan Cahill agrees with Tony Abbott that thuggery and violence are part of Australian industrial relations landscape - but it's the bosses who do most of the bashing.
**************** It was nearly midnight, 15 January 1998, and the ANL ship Australian Enterprise was off Fremantle. On board, a seaman headed for the toilet prior to beginning his shift. From behind him he heard the screamed command "Get down, get down". Looking around he saw six men in camouflage, balaclavas, and night-vision goggles, carrying automatic weapons with laser targeting devices. "Hang on mate, I'm going for a piss", the seafarer said, as you would in such a situation. Whereupon he was grabbed by the throat, put in a choker hold, forced to the ground, and a gun shoved in his face. The notorious Special Air Services Regiment was in action. The ship's crew had been told by their skipper that this training exercise was scheduled. The men were not happy about it, but there was little they could do; they were assured the engine room and crew quarters would not be involved. According to the Department of Defence the exercise was anti-terrorist practice for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. More likely, in retrospect, given Peter Reith's proposed use of an ANL vessel for a scab operation during the hotting up stages of the 1998 War on the Waterfront, and the Dubai training of union-busters with military backgrounds, it was union-busting practice; after all the Maritime Union of Australia would not turn a unionised ship over to scabs, except at gunpoint. The seaman subsequently received no apology or counselling; his neck swelled, and stiffened; he found it difficult to sleep. A doctor put him on a course of anti-inflammatory medication and sedatives, and he was eventually paid off with post-traumatic stress. Yes, Tony Abbott, thuggery and violence are part of Australian industrial relations. Another night, this time in rural New South Wales; August 2000. A young worker stoked a picket-line camp fire. This was his first industrial dispute; it had been in progress for the best part of the year. He wondered how long it would continue, as he thought of his young kids and the possibility of a lean Christmas. His fellow rostered picketers were asleep nearby in the picket-line site shed. A few kilometres down the road another group of men slept in their shed at the other factory entrance. "Hey mate". A voice called quietly from the boom gated factory entrance opposite. The young man looked up from the fire and saw a lone man beckoning. This man was part of a team of professional union-busting contractors recently hired interstate by factory management; these men acted tough, and boasted of martial arts prowess. The young worker was naive. Apart from this being his first industrial dispute, he was not politically sophisticated. To a great extent his knowledge of life was limited to small-town schooling to Year 10 level, a rural apprenticeship, club cricket and soccer, Saturday nights in town, and marriage to the girl he started dating when they were in Year 9. So he went across to the boom gate, curious and cautious. The contractor leant over the gate with macho ease. From nearby bushes two other contractors emerged; they smiled mockingly in the moonlight. "You know what, c...?" the boom gate man asked rhetorically. And before the worker could reply, he was given an answer delivered with quiet menace. " I could fucken waste you here and now, and then we could all fucken well go home". The contractor formed 'a gun' with the fingers of his right hand, pointed them at the worker and clicked his tongue before moving off into the night. The incident was subsequently reported to local police. But it was word against word, and the matter was dropped after police established the contractor was not licenced to carry a firearm. Apparently the line of reasoning was that the episode was all bluff, if it took place at all. It was an incident characteristic of industrial disputes in regional and rural Australia, where Pinkerton-style union-busting contractors increasingly operate. Yes, Tony Abbott, thuggery and violence are part of Australian industrial relations.
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   Interview: Political Witch HuntCFMEU national secretary John Sutton on the mooted Royal Commission and what is really needed to clean up the building industry E-Change: 1.3 The Nation State in CrisisIn the latest instalment in their study on the new politics, Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel looks at the rise and fall of the institutional State. Unions: Industrial ViolenceRowan Cahill agrees with Tony Abbott that thuggery and violence are part of Australian industrial relations landscape - but it's the bosses who do most of the bashing. History: Total RecoilNeal Towart looks at how Royal Commissions designed to kick unions have typically come back to haunt their architects. International: Behind the Eight Ball Jubilee Australia's Thea Ormond looks at the international activity being generated around this week's Group of Eight Summit in Genoa Politics: Now We The PeopleA new group believes there is an alternative to corporate gobalism and economic rationalism Satire: Marsden Now to Sue HimselfSydney solicitor John Marsden is suing himself for defamation, claiming the recent libel case he brought did irreparable damage to his reputation. Review: In The HouseResident Four-Eyes Mark Morey attempts the impossible with this attempt at a serious analysis of Big Brother.
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