BY MARG PERROTT
WOLLONGONG — The Joy Mining picket will end this week when the 60 workers return to work after 29 weeks "on the grass", having beaten an attempt by the company to break their union and their spirit.
The workers won all their claims: for a unionised work force with a single site agreement, union representation on site, an enterprise agreement underpinned by the metal industry award, a 4% annual pay increase for three years and the withdrawal of all legal cases against union officials.
The South Coast Labor Council (SCLC) meeting on October 18 passed a resolution acknowledging its huge debt to the workers who had held the line. SCLC secretary Arthur Rorris told of how the multinational company "went hard", picking on a small operation in a rural area not renowned for its union struggles. The dispute was won only because "each dirty trick was met with solidarity", he said.
Rorris credited the Joy workers, and the solidarity and strength of the South Coast unions and community, with preventing a lockout on the southern coal fields during the ongoing dispute between BHP and miners.
"Our families and the workers at Joy want to thank everyone for their support" one worker, Graham, told the meeting. "The support from so many people, people like Fred Moore, who visited us, and his type of inspirational talk about the miners' and union struggles of the past, helped us to keep struggling".
At the request of the Joy workers, Fred Moore addressed the meeting, telling everyone the picketers were "an inspiration to all ... They followed the class tradition that what's been won must be retained."
More than $300,000 was needed to give the strikers just $200 a week to live on, the funds were raised — from locals, unions around the country and even from overseas.
The workers went on speaking tours around NSW factories and work sites. "Concerned citizens" supported the picket and required police to remove them when the company wanted to move equipment off-site.
The workers go back having lost only a paid meal break and six rostered days off (leaving them 12), but they are uneasy about rumours of operations having been restructured and possible retrenchments. One worker told Green Left Weekly that he is concerned that the workers are returning to work on consecutive days rather than all together, that the afternoon shift has been cancelled and that the company has asked to see all trade certificates.
One worker told Green Left Weekly, "We learned that if you stick together you can achieve anything you want".