On October 16, 250 people attended an early morning community picket outside Botany Cranes to support sacked delegate Barry Hemsworth. Sixty picketers returned the following day, blocking cranes from leaving the company's yard until they were moved on by police.
Hemsworth, a delegate with the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), was sacked on September 6 after opposing a company cost-cutting decision to make crane drivers responsible for their own site safety risk assessments without proper occupation health and safety training. Hemsworth was told he was being sacked for "gross insubordination".
The 36 workers employed by Botany Cranes, one of the largest mobile crane businesses in Sydney, are worried that liability in the event of a work accident will fall on them personally.
When Hemsworth was sacked, his fellow workers decided they couldn't take industrial action in protest due to the threat of fines up to $28,600 each under the new IR laws. Because Botany Cranes employs less than 100 workers, Hemsworth has no access to unfair dismissal provisions.
The community pickets were called by Workers Solidarity, an organisation of community activists set up last month to assist the Australian Council of Trade Union's Your Rights at Work campaign.
The October 16 early morning picket was to have delayed the company's 20 cranes from leaving its yard for several hours.
However, management got wind of the picket and moved the cranes the previous night to a number of locations in nearby suburbs.
The next morning, only two cranes and a few trucks were back in the yard. The picketers managed to delay their deployment and the entry of three managers' vehicles.
Protesters had told management they would be able to walk through the picket line, but would have to leave their vehicles outside the yard while the picket line was in place.
The managers decided to force the issue and, after calling in the police, lined up their vehicles on the road outside to get into the yard, despite blocking part of the street, which has a high volume of semi-trailers using it. Police surrounded the picketers and moved them out of the way, allowing vehicles in and out.
The CFMEU has taken the matter to court, where the company presented a list of conditions for its acceptance of Hemsworth's reinstatement. These would have made it impossible for Hemsworth to continue his role as a union delegate. The company has unsuccessfully tried to oust him as the union delegate in the past.
Hemsworth's situation is being taken up by local Your Rights at Work groups, which are collecting signatures on a petition
calling for his reinstatement.
Following his sacking, Hemsworth set up a small prefabricated hut outside the Botany Cranes' yard, maintaining a lone picket from 6am to 4pm Mondays to Fridays. He says he will remain stationed there until he is reinstated.
He said he has been getting a lot of support from the Maritime Union of Australia. Each day a group of wharfies drops by before or after a shift.
Supporters are being asked to email the company at