BY PAUL BENEDEK
SYDNEY Ed Peter-Anderson is one of 40 workers entering the 14th week of strike action at the Morris McMahon site in Sydney's inner-west. He is on strike from a company which he has spent more than half of his life working for.
"I started working here as an 18-year-old, and over my 27 years of service, there has only been one strike until now, which lasted only about a week", Peter-Anderson told Green Left Weekly.
Jade Ngawhika started working for Morris McMahon when he was 15. This is his first strike.
"We had put a black ban on some lines, because the company was screwing us around and refusing to negotiate a union agreement. Then they tried to sack one worker, so we all walked out", Ngawhika explained.
The long dispute has recently seen the company come to negotiations. However, while the company has agreed to recognise the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, there are two key points preventing a resolution.
The company is demanding a change from four 10-hour days in the work week, to five eight-hour days. This will adversely affect many parents in the work force who will have to pay an extra day's child care, which the company refuses to compensate for. The union has offered a 19-day month, but the company is refusing this offer.
"They want to sack three of our best leaders", Ngawhika also explained. "Two of our delegates, and another guy who is so active, he is a really like a delegate."
"It's simply a crude attempt to take out the most militant unionists and to divide the ranks", AMWU Rank and File activist Liam Mitchell, who has coordinated many of the community solidarity pickets, explained.
Community and union solidarity has been very important to the Morris McMahon workers. "The Maritime Union of Australia, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, and the community have had big showings, especially on Thursdays", Ngawhika enthused. "Everyone looks at each other like a big family, and the support keeps our spirits high."
A June 14 fundraising evening to support the strikers, organised by the Socialist Alliance, attracted almost 100 people to hear Urban Guerillas, Paul Buckberry and Rachel Greene, and raised more than $700 for the strike. Another $250, collected from Socialist Alliance stalls and branches, was donated to the strikers on the night.
Mitchell, also a member of the Socialist Alliance, believes that solidarity action has been crucial in pressuring for negotiations. "The combination of fighting workers, cross-union solidarity, and community mobilisation has had an effect", Mitchell said. "When we were able to stop the scab buses for a time, it was a huge boost to strikers' morale and sense of power, and a blow to the company. Soon after, the company came to the table for negotiations."
However, Mitchell expressed some concern. "As soon as negotiations began, officials were urging the strikers to make sure the pickets stopped, so as not to 'jeopardise negotiations'", Mitchell said. "Unfortunately, this leaves the union negotiating from a position of weakness, and takes steam out of the strike. It has been harder to get supporters to the picket now that genuine picketing is not happening."
"Anti-union laws do pressure unions not to act militantly", Mitchell acknowledged. "However, unless we are to become a union movement in name only, such laws need to be taken on, head-on."
Community pickets are happening every Thursday morning at the factory from 6.30am. The factory is located at 34 Arncliffe St, Arncliffe. For more information on the pickets, phone Liam on 0415 365 937.
From Green Left Weekly, June 25, 2003.
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