As the 20th Anniversary of the "Patrick Dispute" approaches it is worth remembering that amazing victory against government conspiracy with corporations, the sending of soldiers to train in Dubai and the shaming downfall of Minister Peter Reith. The Easter 1998 lockout of MUA members aroused a strong community reaction that ensured its success. Community support also helped to ensured the next Federal Election ousting of PM John Howard from his safe Sydney seat.
MUA Here To Stay !
John Howard is still in denial as Martin Feil shows in his 2010 review Howard's autobiography, Lazarus Rising:
The wharfies are portrayed as people who ''had it coming''. The problem was that they represented ordinary people, and some of the tactics used by Patrick, Corrigan's stevedoring company, were beyond Australian standards of basic decency.
Corrigan used strikebreakers who included a number of serving soldiers and who were trained in Dubai. Howard acknowledges this, but says it was ''news to us'' and a ''consultant in [then minister for workplace relations Peter] Reith's office knew'' but nobody else had a clue.
Since when do the armed forces allow their soldiers to be trained as strikebreakers? Why did the United Arab Emirates expel the trainee strikebreakers when their presence was reported all over the world? Why is ignorance of a fact acceptable at the highest levels of government? Isn't this lack of knowledge a nonsensical standard political defence?
Corrigan also put Patrick into administration by withdrawing all of the company's capital. It meant that the wharfies would not get their leave and other entitlements. Howard's government fixed this by paying the entitlements out of the public purse. This had never happened before and has never happened since.
The Department of Finance recovered this largesse by charging $6 per container and $12 per motor vehicle imported for the next eight years. The levy amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars and was ultimately paid by Australian consumers.
The ultimate buyers of Corrigan's Patrick went back to the market in 2009 offering shares at $1.65. This raised more than $2 billion to meet intermediate obligations for a $4.5 billion debt. The original shareholders must be happy.
They haven't had a dividend for four years. Aren't highly productive and internationally competitive businesses supposed to make profits? All of the high profit margins have been consumed by the debt.
This may sound complicated. It isn't. The productivity improvements were a mirage. The Australian government, or at least Howard and Reith, didn't question either the motives or the goals of Corrigan, and the competition watchdog wimped out by settling for a penalty amount from Corrigan that was risible. Reith ultimately disappeared as a consultant to a major military supplier to the Australian government.
The 1998 waterfront dispute was a time when bad things were allowed in the name of policy goals that were, ultimately, meaningless. Larger cranes and larger container ships are making Australia a backwater in the international trade of merchandised goods, especially as there is very limited two-way trade except in empty container exports.
Lazarus Rising is a big, complex, constant exposition of Howard's view that he was always right. He has been the ultimate politician. Always being right depends on putting a certain spin on events and a certain slant on personalities. I suppose this defines a politician.
I still see the lines of people in Melbourne that the strikebreakers moved through. I still see the dogs. I am still glad that then premier Jeff Kennett (to Howard's dismay) did not allow the Victorian police to monster those in the picket lines.
Howard's book attempts to justify his view of the achievements of his long period as prime minister. The ''On the Waterfront'' chapter is an apologia for a disgraceful period justified in the name of productivity. It was all about money and the financial gain of one man.
The Circumnavigation of the German owned Columbus Canada
Throughout the dispute ships carrying cargo loaded by non-union labour in Australia found they were prevented from unloading in ports around the world, because dock workers everywhere so strongly supported the MUA’s struggle to survive.
In one case international solidarity forced the German owned Columbus Canada to complete a circumnavigation of the globe before any unloading of the Australian goods on the vessel became possible.
We were awakened on Sunday night to pass along the word that the Columbus ship would attempt to leave anchorage this morning at 0600 to come to berth. The call went out at the last minute and we were able to organize 50 - 100 community protesters to await the ships arrival. The docking orders were again canceled after the community support started picketing.
Diane Middleton, San Pedro resident and one of the community picketers said "I think there are times in life when you have to take a stand, and this is one of those times. If employers try to fire union workers and give those jobs to scabs, then a price will be paid. The price this time is that the Columbus Canada will be a ship without a home until it's sent back to Australia and loaded by union workers,"
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