Patrick seeks to deregister MUA

By James Vassilopoulos

In an attempt to smash the Maritime Union of Australia, Patrick Stevedores applied on May 22 to the Federal Court seeking massive damages and fines from the union and its deregistration.

Patrick will attempt to use a range of legal sanctions, including industrial, competition and common laws, against the MUA. Patrick chairperson Chris Corrigan claims that, since 1995, the MUA has interfered with customers, been involved in unlawful conduct and prevented non-union labour working on the wharves.

Greg Combet, assistant secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said that the claim was a ridiculous and desperate move by Patrick, which was worried about the union's conspiracy case.

Patrick's court action is an attempt to bankrupt the union and strip it of its assets. Deregistration would mean that the union could not negotiate awards and enterprise bargains and could not defend its members' jobs and conditions.

The Builders' Labourers Federation was deregistered in the 1980s with the support of the Labor federal government.

On the same day that Patrick lodged its claim, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also lodged a Federal Court action. It claims the MUA broke secondary boycott laws by organising international bans of ships and pickets in ports across Australia.

The Columbus Canada, a ship which was loaded by scabs during the wharfies' lockout, has been stopped from unloading its cargo at the port of Los Angeles by local community activists who have set up picket lines.

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