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  Issue No 57 Official Organ of LaborNet 09 June 2000  

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News

Joy's Bizarre Student Bid

By Rowan Cahill

Lawyers for the embattled Joy Manufacturing Company have targeted university students in a desperate bid to contain protest and opposition.

On Saturday a NSW Supreme Court subpoena was served on the President of the Wollongong University Student Representative Council (SRC) seeking SRC records pertaining to the Joy dispute, including mobile phone records and the names and addresses of all SRC officers.

This campus episode is yet another chapter in a bitter industrial dispute over wages and conditions in which 70 workers have been locked-out of their Moss Vale worksite since April 14 courtesy of Peter Reith's federal industrial laws.

It is believed the Company is disturbed by the extent of public support for the locked-out Moss Vale Joy workers.

Of particular concern are the protests and acts of civil disobedience that have taken place at Wollongong worksites allegedly carrying out work usually done by these workers.

All anti-Joy protests are videotaped and photographed by Joy operatives. Attempts have been made to subpoena the films and records of locked-out workers in an effort to prevent solidarity actions.

While students have been amongst anti-Joy protesters, it will be up to legal processes to determine whether they have participated as part of an organisation or simply as citizens exercising what they believe are democratic rights.

In what can only be seen as a bizarre 'fishing expedition', Joy apparently hopes the subpoena will lead to an injunction against the SRC, and the future absence of all Wollongong University students from anti-Joy activities.

The cast of individuals and organisations the Joy Company has restrained, or is seeking to restrain, from supporting the locked-out workers is threatening to become bigger than Ben Hur.

Injunctions have been obtained against the AMWU, the AWU, the CEPU, and the secretary of the South Coast Labour Council. A number of individuals are believed to be in the process of being targeted.

As one commentator wryly put it, soon Joy will have injunctions out against the whole Wollongong and Highlands telephone directories.

A source close to the Company has claimed that Joy management expected the locked out workers to cave in after a couple of weeks of being locked-out. With workers' families and dependents in a sort of hostage relationship with the Company, the workers would be forced to yield to Company demands.

But that did not happen and as the dispute widened, so too did public attention and interest.

What started out on the semi-rural backblocks of Moss Vale is now gaining national attention. This has led to an element of frustration in Joy's tactical thinking.

The Saturday subpoena visit to the student leader follows another Wollongong protest against the Company. Like all previous protests this attracted a great deal of media interest.

Last Friday about 60 people rallied outside the Joy subsidiary Cram Australia, in Unanderra, yet another site believed to be carrying out work usually done by the locked-out Moss Vale workers.

Federal Opposition industrial relations spokesman Arch Bevis addressed the rally. He said the first priority of a Labor Government would be to get rid of Peter Reith's unfair laws and restore workers' rights.

"We will ensure the Industrial Relations Commission has the authority to deal with matters when they get out of hand and we will make sure that parties negotiate so there will be no more lock-outs like this".


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 57 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Cocky Labor
On the eve of State Conference, Country Labor convenor Tony Kelly outlines how Labor is stealing the ground from under the National Party's feet.
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*  Economics: Millenium Work Ethics - A New Social Partnership?
The future of work in the twenty-first century will be both provocative and challenging, according to Professor Russell Lansbury.
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*  Politics: Extracting the Digit
Labor's federal communications spokesman Stehpen Smith outlines the Party's position on the controversial datacasting legislation currently before Parliament.
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*  History: Hot Off the Press
Check out what's in the latest issue of Labour History - A Journal of Labour and Social History,
*
*  International: The East Timor of Africa
Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta will this week tell a Sydney audience of the parallels between East Timor and the nation described as the last colony in Africa - the Western Sahara.
*
*  Environment: MUA Snail Men Honoured
Brisbane wharfies Lehi Munday and Mal Monro look an unlikely Watson and Sherlock double, but their keen detective work has helped win the Southern Queensland MUA Branch two national environment awards.
*
*  Satire: Howard Says 'Sorry'
In a startling apology to the Aboriginal community, Prime Minister John Howard said last night he was deeply sorry that he turned up to the Corroboree 2000 celebrations.
*
*  Review: Front Stage and Pulp Fiction
The Waterfront War has made the transition from industrial showdown to cultural icon. Now it's inspiring artists.
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News
»  Rival Computer Deal Imminent
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»  Conference to Set New Ground Rules for Labor
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»  Call (of Nature) Waiting for Telstra Workers
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»  Democrats Come Through on Third Wave
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»  Joy's Bizarre Student Bid
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»  Commonwealth Bank Staff Strike
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»  Liberal Students Spark Uni Walk-Out
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»  Union Targets Asbestos Shonks
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»  Needle Stick Injury Sparks Waste Strike
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»  Security Guard Wins $100,000 in Back Pay
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»  Paddy Troy Memorial Prize
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»  Robbo for Post-Conference Smoko
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  The Locker Room
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»  Trades Hall
*
»  Tool Shed
*

Letters to the editor
»  Casual Treatment
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»  Expo 2000 Opens with Violence Against Left
*
»  Child Care Laws Should Go Further
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