Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 07:48:20 +1000
From: pmargin-AT-xchange.anarki.net (Profit Margin)
Subject: AUT: LL: ART:War on the Wharfies 8 May update


>Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 22:15:21 +1000
>To: leftlink-AT-vicnet.net.au
>From: takver-AT-onaustralia.com.au
>Subject: LL: ART:War on the Wharfies 8 May update
>Sender: owner-leftlink-AT-vicnet.net.au
>Precedence: bulk
>Status:
>
>
>News Summary - Friday 8 May
>War on the Wharfies Homepage:
>http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm
>
>CONTENTS
>(8/5/98) Wharfies return to work around Australia
>(8/5/98) The dirt from Dubai implicates P.M.
>(8/5/98) Government under attack from International Unions
>
>
>Recommended Websites:
>Fremantle Community Picket
>         http://www.users.bigpond.com/picket/
>Find Peter's Heart! Web Game
>         http://www.houseoflove.com.au/ratbag/heartlessbastard/
>          -----------------------------------
>News Summary - Friday 8 May
>Wharfies return to work around Australia
>
>Wharfies returned jubilantly to work at East Swanson Dock in
>Melbourne on Thursday evening, thus ending the four week picket
>of the Patrick terminal. Other ports which have returned to work
>include Port Botany in Sydney, Webb Dock in Melbourne, and Burnie
>and Bell Bay in Tasmania. About nine or ten thousand containers
>are estimated to be stranded on the wharves, which will take a
>week to clear. The Brisbane terminals are expected to resume full
>operations mid-afternoon Friday; security issues are still to be
>resolved in Perth and Townsville; and there is uncertainty
>surrounding Patrick's future in Adelaide. Patrick says it will
>not be reopening its Newcastle port and its Tasmanian operations
>are only re-opening temporarily to meet existing contracts.
>
>A move by Patrick yesterday to terminate its labour supply
>agreements with the four companies in the group which employ
>MUA members prompted the union to back down on its earlier
>insistence that there would be no return to work until the
>goon squads were removed.
>(Source: ABC 8/5/98, Financial Review 8/5/98)
>
>Sea-Land chief attacks Government over waterfront levy
>Captain Andy Andrews, in charge of SeaLand which presently
>operates in Adelaide and will soon open a container terminal
>in Brisbane, has attacked the Governments $250 million
>redundancy fund as being an inequitable subsidy for its
>competitors.
>(Source: Financial Review 8/5/98)
>
>The dirt from Dubai implicates P.M.
>In a sworn affidavit Mike Wells of Fynwest Pty Ltd, one of the
>organisers of the Dubai debacle to train serving and former army
>officers as scab labour on the waterfront, claims a Government
>adviser (Dr Stephen Webster) rang him about the exercise last
>July. Mike Wells says Dr Stephen Webster, now an adviser to
>Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith but then a Government
>consultant on waterfront reform, told him he was doing a
>"special job" for the Prime Minister.
>
>Passports for the recruits were organised with the assistance
>of the Prime Ministers Office. One wonders what the involvement
>of the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, was in all
>this. Ian MacLachlan, the Defence Minister disclaims any knowledge
>of serving military personnel being employed by a private company.
>And our beloved Prime Minister has disclaimed all responsibility or
>knowledge of the whole affair. Peter Reith belligerently stated:
>"As far as Dubai is concerned, we didn't know about it but it
>wasn't illegal and so what."
>
>Either we have a pack of imbeciles leading our country who don't
>know what their personal staffs are up to - which must be called
>gross incompetence at the least, or they are all up to their necks
>in the sewerage that is now being exposed for all to see. Either
>way, these people smell bad. Nothing more than a Royal commission
>with wide powers of investigation and access to all relevant
>cabinet documents and "secret reports" will clear the air now.
>If a full public enquiry is not initiated, the smell from this
>affair will linger till long after the next election.
>
>For full reports check out The Age online Dubai Special:
><http://www.theage.com.au/special/dubai/index.html>
>The Age: Howard linked to Dubai plan: claim
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news1.html>
>* The Age: "If I tell a blatant lie ... "
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news2.html>
>The Age: `Special job' claim is most damning entry
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news3.html>
>The Age: Ministers deny they knew of Dubai plan
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news4.html>
>The Age: The 158 pages that read like a spy thriller
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news5.html>
>The Age: Central role for adviser: affidavit
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news6.html>
>The Age: Patrick bankrolled Dubai: documents
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news7.html>
>The Age: `They shouldn't have goaded us'
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news8.html>
>* The Age: A strategy doomed from the start
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news9.html>
>The Age: PM's department helped to `ensure prompt issue'
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news10.html>
>The Age: The offers, the denial and an angry phone call
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news11.html>
>The Age: Michael Wells full affidavit
><http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980508/news/news12.html>
>(See especially the asterisked articles)
>
>Government under attack from International Unions
>The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has lodged a
>complaint with the International Labour Organisation over the
>Government's handling of the waterfront dispute, alleging nine
>breaches of Australia's obligations under international labour
>treaties.
>
>The allegations include:
>* failure to protect workers against discrimination based on
>trade union membership;
>* failure to protect the MUA from its rights to be associated
>with an international trade union organisation, the International
>Transport Federation.
>* allegations that the MUA was not allowed to engage in
>"legitimate" secondary boycott actions allowed by international
>treaties in certain strikes.
>* issues of Patrick's corporate restructuring, picketing and
>discrimination against MUA union members in the offering of
>individual contracts.
>
>Tim Noonan, from the ICFTU said "We see this as the most serious
>attack on trade union rights that has happened in any OECD country
>for some time. This is right at the top of our agenda and we know
>that some governments are concerned about it."
>This follows a previous criticism of the Governments Workplace
>Relations Act by an ILO judicial committee.
>(Source: Financial Review 8/5/98)
>
>----------------------------
>War on the Wharfies is an independent web page which
>contains:
>* News reports on the Maritime Union of Australia fight against
>  the rightwing attack by the National Farmers Federation,
>  waterfront bosses, and federal and state governments.
>* News on other union actions and progressive campaigns, or the
>  general attack on workers rights or conditions
>
>Takver-AT-onaustralia.com.au
>         War on the Wharfies - essential links
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm
>             http://www.yll.org.au/mua
> http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi/mb63212
>-------------------------------
>




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