04.04.1996

‘Tamed’ workers biting back

Marcus Larsen of the Communist Party Advocates reports from Australia

I mentioned in my last article that the newly elected conservative Liberal Party government in Australia has firmly trained the militant Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) in its sights. Attacking and defeating this union would be of great historical importance for the ruling class in Australia. Strategically, the MUA has played a bulwark role, not only in defending its docker and seafaring membership, but has often struggled militantly for the interests of the whole working class. Defeating the MUA would have a similar impact on the organised labour movement in Australia as did the defeat of the National Union of Mineworkers in Britain.

Yet the Maritime Union has vowed that it will fight, and fight to win. However, even though it is clear that the new government has targeted the MUA, the union’s leadership seems unsure about when and how tofight. Thirteen years of a class collaborationist Accord between the union movement and the former Labor Party government has softened even some of the historically most militant unions. The MUA leadership appears to be bending over backwards to avoid ‘bringing on the blue’, although sections of the rank and file seem keen to bring it on soon and fight it through to victory.

One MUA delegate told me that there had been a few incidents where the workers on the docks would have gone home under the previous government, but now stay on the job for fear of artificially provoking the employers.

The stance of the leadership seems best expressed in their recent backing and signing of a local ‘enterprise agreement’ for wharfies (dockers) at the Port Botany container terminal in Sydney. The agreement is the first time that wharfies’ pay has been directly linked to the number of containers unloaded in an hour. Up to now, this linking of pay directly to ‘productivity’ was one of the ‘lines in the sand’ that the MUA leadership had drawn. Now they are declaring it a “revolutionary agreement”.

There will be a set yearly salary for a 35-hour week. Any work on top of this, which used to attract overtime penalty rates based on hours worked, will now be based on the number of containers unloaded. There were many safety issues before on the waterfront, especially with ‘double header’ shifts (two eight-hour shifts in a row), but now that there is ‘piece rate’ pressure, these concerns can only increase.

In such a climate of a looming fight between the Maritime Union on one side and the shipping companies and the Liberal government on the other, a group of union activists, rank and file waterfront workers and revolutionary and socialist organisations have come together to form the Waterfront Defence Committee.

The formation meeting held in Sydney last weekend was attended by unionists from the MUA and other unions, as well as representatives from Militant, Communist Party Advocates, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of Australia and the International Socialist Organisation.

The WDC is a united front defence committee which recognises the historical role that the waterside workers and the seamen have played in leading many militant struggles of our class. It also recognises the strategically important position that the union plays in the defence of the entire union movement.

The importance of the WDC in the lead-up to confrontation is that it can build trust with the workers on the waterfront. The main role initially will be to build these links with the rank and file and to develop effective propaganda amongst the community and in the unions and workplaces to counter the reactionary lies about the union and its membership being pushed by the capitalist press.

When the ‘blue’ is on and the picket lines are thrown up, the Defence Committee should be in a good position to mobilise a layer of activists and militants to support the wharfies and seamen, and to help run defence committees around the country.

The issue of defending these workers is not a ‘cuddly issue’ that the liberal ‘left’ will easily move towards. They are much more likely to gravitate toward ‘green’ issues or issues around privatisation. There are common perceptions that the wharfies are highly paid and get it easy. The ruling class has done its background work. We must now do ours.