Wharfies find solidarity in Burnie

By Julia Perkins

BURNIE, Tasmania — On April 14, 300 people marched through the streets of Burnie in support of wharfies sacked by Patrick Stevedores. The 13 maritime workers in Bell Bay and the 17 in Burnie who were sacked have been offered their jobs back on individual contracts with significantly reduced conditions, including the abolition of some types of leave.

The marchers included members of the Australian Education Union, the Community and Public Sector Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

A support committee has been set up and is staffing the picket lines on Burnie dock and spreading information about the dispute.

On April 17, at a meeting in the canteen at Burnie wharf, MUA representative Mick O'Leary addressed 200 wharfies, affiliates of other unions and their supporters who had travelled from as far afield as Rosebery on the West Coast, Devonport, Launceston, Bell Bay and Hobart. O'Leary reported on the tremendous support gathered at pickets across the country, successes in turning away scab labour and solidarity from the international trade union movement. A participant in the recent Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in Sydney reported on that conference's support for the wharfies.

Those in attendance agreed to staff one of the two picket lines at Burnie dock. Picket-line discussions ranged from the inspiration felt by younger wharfies, for whom this was their first political experience, to the need for union militancy once more. Many picketers remembered the Burnie mill dispute in 1992, during which for five weeks more than 1000 picketers at any one time defended the mill workers' right to collective bargaining.

P & O Ports have agreed to cover Patrick's contracts in Burnie, thereby averting, for the moment, a confrontation between the picketers and scab labour.

From GLW issue 314