BY SUE BULL
MELBOURNE - The Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has found itself under major attack from both its national office and the state government, in what many of the union's supporters believe is an attempt to smash its progressive Workers First leadership. After months of speculation, on May 20 and May 23 the state police charged AMWU state secretary Craig Johnston and a number of other union members and officials with serious offences.
The unionists have been charged for an alleged break-in at the Box Hill offices of Skilled Engineering on June 15, 2001, and alleged verbal and physical attacks against scabs employed by Skilled Engineering at Johnson Tiles in the same month.
At the time of the incidents, an AMWU picket line was set up outside Johnson Tiles protesting the company's sacking of 29 workers, whom Skilled Engineering subsequently refused to employ.
Johnston has been charged with threats to kill, unlawful imprisonment, unlawful assault, affray, riot and riotous assembly. Sixteen other unionists - five current AMWU organisers, a former AMWU organiser, two employees of the Stork construction company and nine employees of Johnson Tiles - have also been charged with riot, affray, unlawful assault and riotous assembly over the incidents. Almost all of the summonses are to be heard at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on June 12.
In addition to these charges, Johnston and five others have been charged over the incident at Skilled Engineering which allegedly caused $200,000 worth of damage and intimidated staff. This will go to court on June 3.
When interviewed by the Age on May 23, Johnston and his lawyer both said that they would "vigorously" defend the charges. Pointing to the media's sensationalist coverage of the case, Johnston said: "When I'm found innocent, I hope I get the same [number of] headlines as when I was charged".
Far from actively defending the unionists against government attack, the AMWU's national office has ordered its own inquiry into the incidents and into the state branch. Former unionists Joe Riordan and Tom McDonald are conducting the inquiry.
In a clear withdrawal of support, the AMWU national office decided that no union funds would be made available to the Victorian unionists to defend themselves. The state branch is disputing this decision.
As serious as the charges are, similar allegations are often made against unionists by bosses during bitter and hard fought industrial disputes. Such accusations, which provide bosses with a leverage point against unionists, are generally dropped after the dispute has been resolved. In this case, however, it appears that the companies are digging in. Some believe this is because they are being encouraged to do so by state or federal governments.
These incidents may be being used, by the national union's bureaucracy as well as state and federal governments, to undermine and attempt to destroy the Workers First leadership. The use of the corporate media to inflame public opinion against militant unions is not just damaging Workers First, it is making struggle more difficult for all militant unions.
The Workers First leaders are vulnerable because they are militant unionists outside the Labor Party and in conflict with their national leadership and the state ALP government. They are being attacked because their success has posed a threat to the corporate elite.
The Victorian AMWU has been able to win pattern bargaining agreements throughout the manufacturing industry - delivering better wages and conditions to their members than has been possible elsewhere in Australia. Despite the many condemning the union branch, it has retained loyalty among its membership.
Workers First has only been able to do this by proving that it is prepared to take militant industrial action. In contrast to the strategy of most unions, Workers First act offensively, not defensively, in furthering the interests of workers. This approach has also been evident in their disagreements with the national union.
The union's refusal to roll over, be co-opted or to make unnecessary compromises, is what has generated the attacks against it and is what will ensure those attacks keep coming.
In a similar way, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's militancy has caused it to come under attack through the federal government's royal commission into the building industry.
One of the points of conflict between the union's state branch and national office has been the union's relationship to the ALP.
In a May state conference, the AMWU state branch decided to stop its affiliation with the ALP for six months and to make a decision on its future affiliation at a special conference in December.
AMWU national president Doug Cameron, however, argued that this decision did not mean the union should not send delegates to the May 18 state ALP conference. When the Victorian council clarified that the branch would not send delegates, Cameron and the national council overturned the decision, sending a Cameron-appointed delegation to the conference. The delegation included non-Victorians and people who were not even members of the AMWU.
Although the state branch attempted to get a Federal Court injunction preventing the delegation, it was unsuccessful. An attempt to overturn Cameron's decision in the ALP's disputes tribunal also failed.
When the delegation arrived at the conference, however, ALP conference delegates voted 178 to 145 to overturn the tribunal's decision and ejected the union delegation.
Cameron is now taking legal action in the Federal Court to overturn the conference decision. Legal advice provided to the Victorian ALP indicates the conference decision may have been illegal and it is possible that the national ALP will overturn the decision.
In the midst of this, the Victorian branch of the AMWU is still discussing ways to implement their state council decision.
[Sue Bull is a national committee member of the Democratic Socialist Party.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.
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