
Issue No 32		24 September 1999

Legal

Outlawed Acts of Consicence

By Zoe Reynolds

The recent boycotts in support of East Timorese indepndence highlights the extremism of Reith's second wave.

Black bans, black armada, black cargo... union bans on trade like those slapped on Indonesian goods this month give the labour movement a public face and a social conscious outside the bounds of the industrial arena.

But are they soon to be a thing of the past? Is the ability of workers to make a collective stand against injustice, repression and the abuse of human rights now in jeopardy?

Union protest against genocide in East Timor, nuclear blasts in the Pacific, the felling of the world's rain forests are already subject to anti-boycott laws when trade is affected.

Both unions and individual workers are vulnerable to massive fines and court costs.

But who would dare prosecute a union or workers for standing up against injustice? Not even the notorious Mr Reith or Patrick Stevedores it seems.

Soon after anti-boycott legislation was reintroduced in January 1997 (Clauses 45b1, d and e of the Trades Practices Act) the new laws were put to the test.

The Maritime Union was put in court by a rogue ship owner guilty of driving one Honduran seafarer Rommel Salvador into shark infested waters off Newcastle. Reith and co kept a very low profile. Rommel had made the front pages of the Newcastle Herald after being rescued only moments from death.

His story of abuse and exploitation on board the MV Hunter and the fact he risked his life to escape horrific conditions on board made prime time television. That the MUA officials and the International Transport Workers' Federation came to the rescue, winning all Hunter crew back pay and repatriation, made prosecuting the union for allegedly breaking the boycott laws an unpopular move.

The Howard Government remained conspicuously silent. The ship owner attempted legal action. But nothing came of it.

The next celebrated move to test the law came with the ACTU coordinated blockade of WA in protest at the State Government's Third Wave of industrial legislation in April, 1997. The protest included power cuts, bans on flights in and out of the state, post, telecommunications and freight. But what legal action ever came from the bans?

Then came the great wharf war. When court injunctions were slapped on Maritime Union officials, the CFMEU took over. When everyone from priests and politicians, students and environmentalists joined the picket they were transformed into community assemblies. Court action focused on a Conspiracy case, rather than an industrial dispute or secondary boycotts.

Then the courts uncovered a legal loophole further protecting workers from Reith's anti-strike laws. The Australian Financial Review on April 20 this year referred to the Federal Court dismissing an employer application against industrial action by workers at a Queensland coal mine. Justice Cooper ruled the protest stoppage was not in breach of the act because it did not make any specific demand on the employer.

The AFR interpreted the ruling as allowing unions to engage in politically motivated or wildcat action provided they made no specific industrial demands on employers outside the protected bargaining period.

Mr Reith presumably reads the Financial Review. His second round of repressive industrial relations legislation tabled in Federal Parliament on June 30, pays special attention to protest action. His proposed legislation tightens the criteria for what constitutes illegal industrial action to include protests strikes.

But the bill is yet to pass the Senate and become law. When, and if, this happens, it would soon be put to the test.

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  Issue 32 contents

Interview: His Daily Fix
Graham Richardson talks of his transition from national politics to talkback radio and his ongoing jobs as a fixer.

Politics: Requiem to the Third Way
The swing to Labor in Victoria shows clearly that once again Australian voters have rejected economic rationalism. The result, and the reasons for it, should worry John Howard.

International: A Common Struggle for Freedom
It may not get the headlines, but Western Sahara has some chilling similarities with East Timor.

Unions: Woolscour Workers say No to Peter Reith
Workers at Canobolas Wooltopping - a woolscour plant near Orange, in central west New South Wales, have just sent a message to Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith: thanks, but no thanks.

Legal: Outlawed Acts of Consicence
The recent boycotts in support of East Timorese indepndence highlights the extremism of Reith's second wave.

History: Was Manning Clark A True Believer
A Canberra history conference shines the spotlight on Australia's most famous historian.

Review: Paranoid Echoes
The calls to examine the Australian�Soviet documents in the Moscow Literary archives have grown in volume over the past year.

Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre
The latest issue of Labour Review - a resource for officals and students.

Satire: Kennett Boosts Chances: Two More Independents Dead
Caretaker Premier Jeff Kennett today admitted that voters perceived him as arrogant and out of touch, but insisted that they were wrong.

» Public Servants Seek Leave For Timor

» Goodbye Green Bans - Dumped by the Wave

» Government Rules Nobble Public Sector

» ACTU Pushes On With Privatised Portal

» Powerful New Years Eve Deal for TransGrid

» Banks Grill Staff on New Fees

» Off the Rails - Workers Gagged

» Staff Frustration Boils Over at Sydney Water

» Kennett Nose-Dive: Botsman Picks It

» Academics Fail Non-Union Deal

» Nike in Indonesia: Military Employed to Intimidate Workers

» The Laugh�s On Barry