For the third time this year, thousands of Sydney workers from various unions defied threats of fines to down tools and walked off the job on 16 November to demand an end to the federal government’s war on workers.
“The screws are tightening on every worker in Australia, while company profit and inequality are at an all time high”, said a member of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association.
Highest among the concerns of those who attended the protest, spearheaded by the CFMEU and MUA, was the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. One construction worker said, “The government wants to fine the unions out of existence, and the ABCC is helping them to achieve that goal”. 
Construction workers know that they face fines of up to $36,000 for taking part in an on-site meeting an ABCC inspector deems illegal. Since the jurisdiction of newly re-formed ABCC has been expanded to cover the delivery and supply of construction materials, workers on the docks have also found themselves in the commission’s crosshairs.
Representatives of many unions addressed the rally. The message was clear – down with corporate greed and union busting. If there was ever a time to rally, strike and fight back, that time is now.

Dan Atwood

Thousands hit the streets against war on workers

Workers, students and union activists gathered at Sydney’s docks on 30 April in support of workers fighting Patrick Stevedores. In a feat of industrial acrobatics, Patrick has subleased part of its Port Botany terminal to its parent company Qube in a bid to bypass the enterprise agreement recently struck with the Maritime Union.
The move is the thin end of a wedge the company thinks it can use to break the union on the docks. As a Patrick worker told Red Flag at the protest, “It’s not just about the Patrick terminal, it’s about the entire port and undermining the conditions of everyone that works here. We found out in December that Patrick’s, which is once again owned by the deplorable human being Chris Corrigan, who in 1998 attempted to smash the waterfront, is having another crack”.
In response to action by the union, Patrick has stood down part of its workforce, and is threatening them and the MUA with large fines. Meanwhile, Corrigan’s mates at the Australian Financial Review print the bosses’ lies that this is “one of the silliest industrial disputes in Australia” while hinting at their real concern: “All rail freight in and out of Patrick Port Botany has now stopped. Millions of dollars lost and our rail terminal at a standstill”. Workers have the power to win, but solidarity is needed.
As a representative from the Redfern Waterloo housing committee said at the rally, “When we asked for help, it was the MUA who answered our call and were standing with us in numbers as we fought for housing in Waterloo, and so here I am returning the solidarity shown to me and my struggle”.
Details of future solidarity actions be found at the Maritime Union of Australia – Sydney Branch Facebook page.

Solidarity on Sydney docks with unionists under attack

Less than $1,000 – $800, to be exact. It was more than my boss thought was worth paying to protect three lives: mine and my two workmates’. It was what he was quoted to have 15 square metres of asbestos sheeting professionally removed from a residential construction job we’re working on. Instead, he decided to have us – qualified carpenters, unqualified asbestos handlers – remove the deadly material. At the time, I wondered what figure he would have deemed reasonable to pay for three lives. $100? Or would he have stretched to $500?
After we protested, the manager told us to harden up and “stop bitching”. One carpenter said that he often had to remove asbestos on jobs, indicating how widespread the problem is. Another said, “If I wanted to risk my life for money I’d deal drugs and make real money, but not for the shit wage I’m getting here”. This episode happened just a week after a big health and safety meeting, in which we were subjected to the standard condescending tone – you know the type.
After all, my boss calculates that an immediate injury to a worker will cost him dearly in workers compensation payments, but in 30 years, if a former employee is suffering mesothelioma, it will be impossible to trace it back to him.
What happened to me and my workmates happens to workers across the country every day. One-third of Australian homes contain asbestos. With a booming renovation industry, the unfortunate consequence is that more and more workers are put in harm’s way as businesses try to save a dollar.
Just a few days later, a major Sydney arterial was shut down after workers were discovered trying to remove asbestos from a building in the middle of the night. The whole building had to be hosed down to reduce the risk to those in the surrounding area. This type of occurrence is part of the reason that the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency predicts that nearly 20,000 new cases of mesothelioma will be diagnosed in Australia over the next 80 years.
This time it wasn’t us. We won’t be among the unlucky ones. Not from this job anyway. We held firm and the boss stopped pushing. After the weekend, though, we came in to find the asbestos gone. The boss had roped in some other unlicensed tradies to pull it out. Maybe one of them will be one of the 20,000, or maybe they’ll be lucky. It’s a gamble I’m not willing to take.
The lesson is that, behind all of the talk about “safety first”, at the end of the day the only safety the bosses really care about is the safety of their profits, and the only thing that will protect us is sticking together.

Thousands hit the streets against war on workers

Solidarity on Sydney docks with unionists under attack

Workers still facing asbestos danger

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