BY DANIEL KELLY
SYDNEY — Dave Hauser was sacked from his job as a wharfie with P&O here in March, for allegedly reading a newspaper on the job. A delegate for the Maritime Union of Australia, Hauser was one of several to be sacked in the past year, in what unionists see as a campaign of harassment and intimidation by P&O and its competitor, Patrick.
But now Hauser finds himself abandoned by the federal officers of his union.
Hauser, who was a regular at the picket lines during the Patrick dispute in 1998, has been waiting for an unfair dismissal hearing in the Industrial Relations Commission.
The MUA's federal office has advised Hauser that it will not back his case, through either legal representation or financial support, because it believes he will not win. Hauser himself has received mixed advice about his chances of success.
In response, stevedoring sector committees in the union's central NSW branch have circulated a joint statement of support for Hauser, urging members to sign a requisition for a special meeting of the branch.
The joint union committees statement says that, rather than reading a newspaper, Hauser was actually reading load/discharge sheets for the operation he was working on.
It argues "the defence of delegates/members should be paramount in the minds of those in the federal office who have determined that Dave should not be supported".
The meeting, to be held on October 6, will discuss a resolution calling for the union to give Hauser "complete support and assistance ... at all levels in defence of his unjust sacking".
While a single branch meeting is not binding on federal officials, a good attendance and vote will carry a strong moral weight.