BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS

MELBOURNE — Premier Steve Bracks sent a letter to Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Doug Cameron on November 29, complaining about the actions of the Victorian AMWU's Workers’ First leadership. Bracks claimed that the actions of the Workers’ First leadership were “having a negative impact on Victoria’s manufacturing reputation and investment decisions of companies”, according to the November 30 Age.

The Workers First ticket, led by Victorian AMWU secretary Craig Johnston, is a militant, rank-and-file opponent of the ticket associated with Cameron.

Bracks’ complaint was triggered by strike action taken by AMWU members which has delayed the building of a food processing plant, intended to be run by Japanese company Saizeriya at Melton in Melbourne’s west.

In an attempt to shield the new factory from industrial action, the Bracks government mandated coverage of what would normally be an AMWU site to the National Union of Workers. The NUW is not known for its industrial militancy in Victoria.

In retaliation for its exclusion, the Victorian AMWU organised bans on the building of the Saizeriya plant. To date the plant has not been built, although Saizeriya — with the support of the Bracks Labor government — is threatening to invoke sections 45D & E of the Trade Practices Act against the union, accusing it of an unlawful secondary boycott.

Bracks’ attack on Workers’ First comes during a period of increased attacks on militant trade unions in Victoria. In particular, the federal government's decision to locate the Royal Commission into the building industry in Melbourne, combined with its anti-union terms of reference, has been bitterly opposed by most unions.

From Green Left Weekly, December 5, 2001.
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