'Swear and you're nicked'

Kerry Smith

SYDNEY — National Union of Workers members taking industrial action at the National Parts warehouse at Smithfield have been warned by police not to swear on the picket line or they will face police action. NUW NSW secretary Derrick Belan said on September 1 that police are being "over the top" and should expend their resources on fighting crime, not intimidating workers.

"This act of police heavy-handedness is happening right in police minister Carl Scully's electorate of Smithfield. Surely the minister would be concerned that his police are acting as de facto security for a company which is hurting their workers." Belan said that police were escorting deliveries through the picket line. "This is a situation where the NSW Police are being used by a corporation as strike breakers", Belan said.

From Green Left Weekly, September 7, 2005.

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From GLW issue 641