The Australian waterfront dispute 1998

Politics and Society

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 393-412

  McConville, Chris ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0034389356     PISSN: 00323292     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0032329200028003005     Document Type: Review

References (78)

1. Press Release, Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business (Parliamentary Information Services, Parliament House Canberra), 12 April 1998.
2. Australian, 13 April 1998.
3. Hansard, House of Representatives (Parliamentary Information Services, Canberra), 8 April 1998: 2776.
4. See press reports in Sydney Morning Herald and Australian for 13 April 1998.
5. Address by Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) National Secretary John Coombs to the Australian Institute of Management 1998 Annual Conference, 16 October 1998, typescript.
6. Even the nonunion stevedoring company brought historical references to the docks. The employer-controlled union that took work from the Waterside Workers Federation in the 1930s, the Permanent and Casuals, was known throughout the industry as the "P & Cs."
7. See Gwynneth Singleton, The Accord and the Australian Labour Movement (Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1990).
8. See Tom Sheridan, "The Old Order and the New: Contrasts in the Response of Australian and Overseas Shipowners to Full Employment on the Waterfront, 1944-52," Labour History 73 (November 1997): 161-65; Tom Sheridan, "Australian Wharfies 1943-1967: Casual Attitudes, Militant Leadership and Workplace Change," Journal of Industrial Relations 36, no. 2 (1994): 258-84; and Chris McConville, "Waterfront Unionism in Three Ports: Buenos Aires, Melbourne and San Francisco, 1919-1934," in David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, and Martin Shanahan, eds., Australian Labour History Reconsidered (Adelaide: Australian Humanities Press, 1999), 75-88.
9. See Tom Sheridan, "The Old Order and the New: Contrasts in the Response of Australian and Overseas Shipowners to Full Employment on the Waterfront, 1944-52," Labour History 73 (November 1997): 161-65; Tom Sheridan, "Australian Wharfies 1943-1967: Casual Attitudes, Militant Leadership and Workplace Change," Journal of Industrial Relations 36, no. 2 (1994): 258-84; and Chris McConville, "Waterfront Unionism in Three Ports: Buenos Aires, Melbourne and San Francisco, 1919-1934," in David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, and Martin Shanahan, eds., Australian Labour History Reconsidered (Adelaide: Australian Humanities Press, 1999), 75-88.
10. See Tom Sheridan, "The Old Order and the New: Contrasts in the Response of Australian and Overseas Shipowners to Full Employment on the Waterfront, 1944-52," Labour History 73 (November 1997): 161-65; Tom Sheridan, "Australian Wharfies 1943-1967: Casual Attitudes, Militant Leadership and Workplace Change," Journal of Industrial Relations 36, no. 2 (1994): 258-84; and Chris McConville, "Waterfront Unionism in Three Ports: Buenos Aires, Melbourne and San Francisco, 1919-1934," in David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, and Martin Shanahan, eds., Australian Labour History Reconsidered (Adelaide: Australian Humanities Press, 1999), 75-88.
11. See generally, Amanda Biggs, "A Brief History of the Use of the Armed Forces during Wharf Disputes," Research note 47, 23 June 1998 (Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1998).
12. See Kate White, John Cain and Victorian Labor 1917-1957 (Marrickville, Australia: Hale and Iremonger, 1982), 58
13. For details, see the MUA Web site: http://mua.tcp.net.
14. See in this issue, Peter Turnbull, "Contesting Globalization on the Waterfront."
15. "Coalition's secret waterfront strategy," Australian Financial Review, 23 September 1997.
16. A summary of these and other background events can be found at the MUA Web site: http://mua.tcp.net. Cairns has always remained an outer port with mainly agricultural cargo. See Department of Harbours and Marine Queensland, Harbours and Marine: Port and Harbour Development in Queensland from 1824 to 1985 (Brisbane, Australia: Harbour and Marine, 1986), 739-41, 753-55. At the time of the 1997 dispute, the port operator was controlled by an international mining consortium.
17. Documents on the Dubai events were put up for tender in May 1998, and the Melbourne Age published a series of articles on the level of government and stevedoring involvement. See Melbourne Age, 8 and 9 May 1998.
18. Since the union was seeking a new workplace agreement, strike action could be protected from the penalties applying through the Workplace Relations Act.
19. The claim was taken more seriously by the union than by the press and may have prompted the MUA's legal actions.
20. Melbourne Age, 1 April 1998.
21. Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 1998.
22. Questions without notice, Hansard, Senate, 8 April 1998: 2340.
23. Matthew Russell and Malcolm Brown, "Attack on Bus Leaves Four Injured," Sydney Morning Herald, 18 April 1998.
24. Melbourne Age, 17 April 1998 and 26 April 1998.
25. See Melbourne Age, 17 April 1998 and 1-5 May 1998.
26. O'Neill, "Outline of the Waterfront Dispute," Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Group, Current Issues Brief no. 15, 1997-98 (Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1998), 5; and Melbourne Age, 17 April 1998.
27. O'Neill, "Outline of the Waterfront Dispute," Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Group, Current Issues Brief no. 15, 1997-98 (Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1998), 5; and Melbourne Age, 17 April 1998.
28. See Matthew Russell, "The Heat Is on, but Entertainers Lighten the Mood," Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 1998; Sophie Bibrowski and Hazel Devlyn, "Seagulls of Swanson Dock," Arena Magazine 35 (June-July 1998): 5-6. Among sporting figures at the wharves were Peter Bedford, Kevin Goss, and Bernie Evans, well-known Melbourne Australian Rules footballers whose families had worked on the wharves at Port Melbourne; a former Australian Rugby League captain, Bobby McCarthy, in Sydney; and television sports presenter and Rugby League hero, Wally Lewis presented a sympathetic news report on Brisbane television. Tom Cookes and Ewin Hannan, "It's Bluff and Double Bluff on Picket Line," Sunday Age, 19 April 1998.
29. See Matthew Russell, "The Heat Is on, but Entertainers Lighten the Mood," Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 1998; Sophie Bibrowski and Hazel Devlyn, "Seagulls of Swanson Dock," Arena Magazine 35 (June-July 1998): 5-6. Among sporting figures at the wharves were Peter Bedford, Kevin Goss, and Bernie Evans, well-known Melbourne Australian Rules footballers whose families had worked on the wharves at Port Melbourne; a former Australian Rugby League captain, Bobby McCarthy, in Sydney; and television sports presenter and Rugby League hero, Wally Lewis presented a sympathetic news report on Brisbane television. Tom Cookes and Ewin Hannan, "It's Bluff and Double Bluff on Picket Line," Sunday Age, 19 April 1998.
30. See Matthew Russell, "The Heat Is on, but Entertainers Lighten the Mood," Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 1998; Sophie Bibrowski and Hazel Devlyn, "Seagulls of Swanson Dock," Arena Magazine 35 (June-July 1998): 5-6. Among sporting figures at the wharves were Peter Bedford, Kevin Goss, and Bernie Evans, well-known Melbourne Australian Rules footballers whose families had worked on the wharves at Port Melbourne; a former Australian Rugby League captain, Bobby McCarthy, in Sydney; and television sports presenter and Rugby League hero, Wally Lewis presented a sympathetic news report on Brisbane television. Tom Cookes and Ewin Hannan, "It's Bluff and Double Bluff on Picket Line," Sunday Age, 19 April 1998.
31. See generally Overland, vol. 151 (winter 1998).
32. See Melbourne Sunday Age, 19 April 1998.
33. Les, quoted in Kathryn Greck, "100 Days on the Docks," Overland, vol. 151 (winter 1998): 33
34. At the end of the confrontation, a Patrick's figure claimed that the pickets were the critical factor in their defeat.
35. Quoted in Michael Bachelard, "Union Fight Club Takes Off the Gloves," Weekend Australian, 11-12 March 2000.
36. See Workplace Relations and Small Business, Workplace Relations Act User Guide no 13, Industrial Action and Compliance, 13 January 1998, update (Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business, 1998), 5-7.
37. The right-wing attack on unions, marked by nonrecognition of union officials as representative agents of employees, a refusal to seek arbitration and recourse to damages claims under common law, had its first great success during a time of Australian Labor Party (ALP) government. See Bernie Brian, "The Mudginberri Abattoir Dispute of 1985," Labour History, no 76 (May 1999): 107-24.
38. For the most detailed account of these legal proceedings, see Braham Dabscheck, "The Waterfront Dispute: Of Vendetta and the Australian Way," Economic and Labour Relations Review 9, no. 2 (1998): 155-87.
39. Steve O'Neill, "Outline of the Waterfront Dispute," 4-5.
40. Ibid., 5.
41. Ibid.
42. Kim Beazley, doorstop interview, Wyong Council Chambers, NSW, 4 May 1998, transcript, Parliamentary Information Services.
43. Melbourne Age, 8 May 1998.
44. Steve O'Neill, "The Waterfront Dispute: From High Court to Settlement: Summary and Comment," Australian Parliamentary Library Information and Research Services, Current Issues Brief no. 1, 1998-99 (Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1998), 4.
45. Sydney Morning Herald, 17 June 1998.
46. ACTU Press Release, 19 August 1998.
47. "Waterfront Dispute Symposium," Economic and Labour Relations Review 9, no. 2 (1998): 155-245.
48. Braham Dabscheck, "The Waterfront Dispute," 155-87.
49. H. J. Glasbeek, "The MUA Affair: The Role of Law vs the Rule of Law," Economic and Labour Relations Review 9, no. 2 (1998): 188-221.
50. Ibid., 188.
51. In the most inglorious episode in the 1928 waterfront strike, the Victorian Labor-Country Party government in the state of Victoria sent police onto the wharves to clear pickets, and police under the command of a First World War military hero fired into the wharfies, wounding strikers. See Margo Beasley, Wharfies: A History of the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (Rushcutters Bay, Australia: Halstead Press, 1996), 86-88.
52. Bachelard, "Union Fight Club."
53. Perhaps too it will be recognized eventually as the first dispute in which Internet bulletins and sympathy Web sites played a role.
54. David Barrett, "Praise to Howard for Docks Success," Australian Financial Review, 8 April 1998.
55. Michell Grattan, "Out of Control: A Nation Divided," Australian Financial Review, 18 April 1998.
56. For a more detailed discussion of the myth of rorts, see Tim Harcourt, "The Economics of the Australian Waterfront," Industrial Relations and Labour Review 9, no. 2 (1998): 222-35.
57. Many of the corporate heroes of the 1980s had faced court for corporate crimes. The most famous of these entrepreneurs to go to prison was the Western Australian financier and mogul Alan Bond, subsequently released. One-time media and tourist resort entrepreneur Christopher Skase was, at the time of the strike, still avoiding prosecution after fleeing Australia for Majorca.
58. See Tim Colebatch, "Analysis," Melbourne Age, 10 April 1998; and Shane Green, "Truth or Scare?" Melbourne Age, 10 April 1998.
59. See Tim Colebatch, "Analysis," Melbourne Age, 10 April 1998; and Shane Green, "Truth or Scare?" Melbourne Age, 10 April 1998.
60. Chris Shulz, posting 23 April 1998 to Leftlink Solidarity Message Board, MUA Solidarity Message Board Archive 22-24 April 1998, http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/ mhutton/mua/board6.htm.
61. See generally, Greg Baker, "Understanding Container Handling Statistics," Research note 43, 1997-98 (Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1998); and Productivity Commission, International Benchmarking of the Australian Waterfront, Research Report (Canberra, Australia: AusInfo, 1998).
62. See generally, Greg Baker, "Understanding Container Handling Statistics," Research note 43, 1997-98 (Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 1998); and Productivity Commission, International Benchmarking of the Australian Waterfront, Research Report (Canberra, Australia: AusInfo, 1998).
63. See John Quiggin, "Perils of Waterfront Reform," Australian Financial Review, 29 January 1998.
64. Australian Financial Review, weekend edition, 18-19 April 1998.
65. Ibid.
66. Ross Gittins, "Opinion," Melbourne Age, 29 April 1998.
67. "Children on the Front Line," Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April 1998. The dispute coincided with the school holidays in most Australian states.
68. For a fine summary of the key events of the pickets and for newspaper cartoons graphically tracing the transformation of employer and union imagery, see Christopher Shell, War on the Wharves: A Cartoon History (Annandale, Australia: Pluto, 1998). See especially the works of Melbourne cartoonist Michael Leunig, 57, 107, 135.
69. Martin Feil, "Shameful Price of Docks War," Melbourne Age, 17 April 1998.
70. Juliana Engberg, "My Dad the Wharfie: A Daughter's Painful Story," Melbourne Age, 17 April 1998.
71. Tim Strangleman, "The Nostalgia of Organisations and the Organisation of Nostalgia: Past and Present in the Contemporary Railway Industry," Sociology 33, no. 4 (1999): 728; see also F. Davis, Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia (New York: Free Press, 1979); and R. Munro, "Belonging on the Move: Market Rhetoric and the Future as Obligatory Passage," Sociological Review 46 (1998): 208-43.
72. Tim Strangleman, "The Nostalgia of Organisations and the Organisation of Nostalgia: Past and Present in the Contemporary Railway Industry," Sociology 33, no. 4 (1999): 728; see also F. Davis, Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia (New York: Free Press, 1979); and R. Munro, "Belonging on the Move: Market Rhetoric and the Future as Obligatory Passage," Sociological Review 46 (1998): 208-43.
73. Tim Strangleman, "The Nostalgia of Organisations and the Organisation of Nostalgia: Past and Present in the Contemporary Railway Industry," Sociology 33, no. 4 (1999): 728; see also F. Davis, Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia (New York: Free Press, 1979); and R. Munro, "Belonging on the Move: Market Rhetoric and the Future as Obligatory Passage," Sociological Review 46 (1998): 208-43.
74. Julie Kimber, "On the Waterfront: Union Gains and Struggles, 1890-1998." Labour History 76 (May 1999): 163-66.
75. Address by MUA National Secretary John Coombs to the Australian Institute of Management 1998 Annual Conference, 16 October 1998, typescript.
76. The Waterside Workers Federation and then the MUA, with shrinking numbers, could claim a 75 percent increase in productivity in the decade leading up to the lockout. The Waterfront Industry Reform Authority ran a program of reform from 1989 to 1992 with significant gains in crane rates from a diminishing workforce. These reforms were achieved with collective bargaining and a unionized workforce. See Clive Hamilton, "Productivity in Australian Container Terminals," typescript (Canberra: Australia Institute, 1998); and Bureau of Industry Economics, International Performance Indicators - Waterfront, Research Report 47 (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1993).
77. The Waterside Workers Federation and then the MUA, with shrinking numbers, could claim a 75 percent increase in productivity in the decade leading up to the lockout. The Waterfront Industry Reform Authority ran a program of reform from 1989 to 1992 with significant gains in crane rates from a diminishing workforce. These reforms were achieved with collective bargaining and a unionized workforce. See Clive Hamilton, "Productivity in Australian Container Terminals," typescript (Canberra: Australia Institute, 1998); and Bureau of Industry Economics, International Performance Indicators - Waterfront, Research Report 47 (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1993).
78. During the dispute, the ship Columbus Star had sailed on 17 April for the West Coast of the United States, its cargo loaded by nonunionists. The ship returned to Sydney after the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union refused to unload goods handled by nonunionists. Cargo had to be reloaded by MUA members.