After 17 days on strike, workers at Harrison Manufacturing, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, are celebrating a hard-fought victory. As <a href="https://redflag.org.au/node/5612" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously reported</a> in Red Flag, the key issue of the strike was union representation. An increasingly nasty and bullying management was refusing to allow workers to be represented by delegates or officials of their union, the National Union of Workers (NUW).
Nine workers in the past five years have been sacked for non-existent or minor infringements, respect for the workforce was non-existent, and conditions in the factory and lunch-room are appalling. After holding out for two-and-a-half weeks, Harrison has now backed down and agreed to union representation. This should help the workers to begin improving the conditions at the site.
Peter, who has worked in the factory for 30 years, summed up the mood: “We can walk back in there with our heads held high. It’s a good feeling. When people are cornered they’ll fight back with anything they have. And that’s it. We’ll rebel. I’m very proud of the guys, to stand with them”.
Another worker, Shaun, said: “It feels fantastic, fighting for our rights. Stand up for your rights, no one else will”.
Other conditions were defended as well. The bosses wanted to reclassify some jobs and create new, unskilled entry-level positions. These would have been used to undermine the existing workforce and paved the way for casualisation. Not anymore.
Harrison had offered an insulting 1 percent pay rise per year. The workers will now receive 9 percent over four years. This is hardly generous, but clearly better than if the workers hadn’t put up a fight. They have also won a guarantee that no worker will be vilified for participating in the strike.
How they won
This strike was won through determination, solidarity, picketing and the workers understanding that they had the power to bring Harrison to its knees. From the very beginning, they decided on an indefinite strike, with a 24/7 picket line, until they won. One worker, Esafe, said: “We just stood our ground on what we agreed on, not letting them have access to transport to bring in packaging, and take product out”.
Despite employing only 22 workers in the factory, Harrison has a weekly turnover of $3-4 million, and supplies specially made grease and lubricants to Caltex, Valvoline, BP Castrol and mining projects across Australia. The work is skilled, making it harder for the bosses to find scab labour. This meant if the workers could maintain their strike, they had a good chance of victory.
The most testing moment came on 29 November when Harrison management co-ordinated with a trucking company, Warringah, and the police to violently smash the picket at 10pm and get nine trucks in. The police broke the leg of 25-year-old student, and Socialist Alternative member, Gene Brownlie, who was there to support the workers. As Esafe described: “They were brutal. They didn’t approach us in a peaceful way, just batons first. They used violence first”.
But the despicable actions of the company and the police that night only served to stiffen the resolve of the striking Harrison workers. The bosses managed to move some product – but without the staff to produce more, it was only a matter of time before the losses would begin to mount.
Solidarity
The strike enjoyed an inspiring display of solidarity from many quarters. First, among the workers themselves: 20 out of 22 went on strike and never wavered in their commitment to stay united. The strike has only strengthened this sentiment. One worker, Jose-Luis Diaz, said of the experience, “We get closer, we learn more about every individual, more than when we were inside. If you stand together, it’s the best way to do. Encourage other people to do the same”.
One contractor who had worked at Harrison for 20 years quit in protest the day after the police broke the picket line. Others who the bosses tried to hire as strike breakers refused to be used as scabs. Many truck drivers refused to cross the picket line. Workers from neighbouring factories and warehouses joined the picket, donated and told their own stories of workplace struggles. All day and night passing cars honked in support.
As one worker put it, “We’ve created a revolution in the Northern Beaches”. A remarkable feat for Tony Abbott’s electorate!
Most of the workers were from Tongan and other Islander backgrounds, and support from their family and communities poured in throughout the strike, with gatherings that raised morale and hundreds of dollars for the workers.
Socialist Alternative played a part in mobilising numbers on the picket line, helping to raise awareness about the strike, raising money to support the workers and getting other organisations to do likewise.
Community Action Against Homophobia visited the picket, along with representatives from the National Union of Students and the Sydney University and UNSW student unions.
The MUA, AMWU, and AWU all showed support, as did members of Socialist Alternative from the NTEU, CFMEU, PSA, NUW, ASU and Teachers Federation who visited the picket.
NUW members at the big Polar Fresh distribution centre in Victoria, who had their own explosive and successful three-day strike earlier this year, sent messages of solidarity.
“Every time you guys turned up it gave us courage to keep going”, said Esafe. “Fight for your rights. There’s a lot of support in the community. You may think you’re the only one, there’s support out there but you need to reach out, you’ll be surprised. Fight for it.”
This strike was an impressive display of the galvanising effect of struggle on those who participate in it. Peter, the oldest worker in the factory, put it best: “This was all new for us. Now if we see any picket line, we’ll be in it. We’re pros now. It’s not one union, it’s all unions together. We’re not alone now”.

Josh Lees

Kate Doherty

‘We’ve created a revolution in the Northern Beaches’ – Victory at Harrison

Workers at Harrisons, in Brookvale, northern Sydney, have been on strike since 21 November. In what is now a well-unionised shed, all but two of 22 workers voted for indefinite strike action.
They have staffed a 24-hour picket line. With a tent bedecked with NUW flags, a kitchen and community food donations, they have held out for 10 days so far, supported by family members and a few other workers from neighbouring factories and warehouses. 
Harrisons had tried to abolish the right of employees to be represented by the union. Management said having a workplace delegate “doesn’t suit their business model”. But offering a 1 percent pay rise, despite the rising cost of living in Sydney, suits them just fine.
One picketer summed up the issues:
“The guys are fighting for respect. Management was calling the guys in one at a time. People would lose hours or get sacked for the smallest things. They started demanding to have a union rep go in with them. Management said no. So we said fine, we’re not working until we get our union in there.”
The workers manufacture oil and lubricants. The company might have its unskilled managers attempt the work, but, without the skills, all they’re doing is making re-work. They won’t be able to sell any of it. As one of the strikers told us on the picket line last night, “The company makes half of the output for Valvoline in NSW. The strike’s causing big problems for them, that’s why they’re so desperate to get the trucks back in”.
The strikers turned a truck around on the first day and the bosses hadn’t tried again since until day nine of the strike. Then they launched a coordinated operation with the cops and the trucking contractors trying to smash the picket and bring nine trucks in to be loaded and taken out again. Unfortunately, despite the valiant efforts of everyone on the picket, the company succeeded, with the cops attacking, even laying into some people with their batons. One community supporter, a 25-year-old university student, suffered a broken leg after being struck by a police baton.
While they broke the line, they didn’t break the workers’ spirits. Undeterred in their fight, the picketers are still there.
Visit the picket at <a href="https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/75+Old+Pittwater+Rd,+Brookvale+NSW+2100/@-33.7650819,151.2617917,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x6b12aa440baaae1f:0x523349145bcf55fe!8m2!3d-33.7650819!4d151.2639804">75 Old Pittwater Rd, Brookvale</a>.

‘We’re not working until we get our union in there’

A Unions NSW combined delegates meeting has voted for a mass mobilisation against the budget on Sunday, 6 July. Hundreds attended the 12 June meeting at the Sydney Masonic Centre.
Unionists spoke of a long list of attacks packed into the budget, and calls of “Shame!” evidenced the fighting mood in the room. “What the government is really interested in conserving is the bank accounts of its corporate mates”, said HSU member Jo Di Pietro to rousing applause.
Union flags were spread thick throughout the crowd, with representatives from the FBEU, ANMF, PSA, NTEU, CPSU, CFMEU, MUA, FSU, USU, AMWU and Teachers Federation all present.
Retired CPSU member Lee Smith recalled the struggle of generations of workers to win the eight-hour day, sick leave, annual leave and universal health care. She challenged unionists in the room to take up the mantle. “Now it’s your turn”, she said.
Ignoring a clear sentiment in favour, Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon blocked an amendment that would have called on the ACTU to organise national industrial action and rallies against the budget. The amendment was moved from the floor by Susan Price, NTEU delegate and Socialist Alliance member.
CFMEU member Dennis McNamara argued the point of order from the floor: “We are holding a democratic meeting. The amendment needs to be put and voted on”, he said. But Lennon refused to allow delegates to vote, instead trying to dampen the palpable enthusiasm for a more serious response to the budget.
Nonetheless, it is essential that rank and file union members turn our efforts to making the rally on 6 July as big as possible. A sizeable and vibrant mobilisation on the 6th is the next step in building the basis for industrial action against Abbott and his big business mates.

NSW delegates endorse campaign against budget

“[People are] sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy.” Rupert Murdoch’s twitter response to Tony Abbott’s election shows just how keen Australia’s ruling class is on bleeding the public sector and its workers.
Exactly how workers can organise to resist these attacks is a real question across the country.
In Queensland, Campbell Newman champions “contestability” for key functions of government. “Contestability” is Can-Do Campbell speak for “testing whether someone else can [provide public services] for less money”. It’s the same story in Western Australia, where the audit commission of Liberal Premier Colin Barnett recommended “all areas of service delivery [be] opened to competition”.
The federal government is going the same way, with Joe Hockey floating the idea of government payments being delivered through Australia Post or Medibank Private rather than Centrelink.
In New South Wales a combination of job cuts and legislative changes promises to trash what remains of the public sector. Having announced 15,000 layoffs in 2012, Premier Barry O’Farrell shows no signs of slowing down. “I don’t think there’s ever an end point in trying to get the best possible efficiency across the system”, he said earlier this year.
Union response
The dominant union response is crossing fingers and hoping that workers are rescued by the future election of state Labor governments. This is a dead end.
The current NSW Public Service Association (PSA) strategy is a variant of this. Despite O’Farrell’s cuts agenda, capping pay and refusing to abide by Industrial Relations Commission rulings, the PSA recently postponed a planned half day stoppage. The 22 October strike was put off in favour of “good faith” negotiations with the government.
The PSA leadership, already lukewarm about a campaign of member action, undermined the 22 October action. They held off telling members about the strike. Then, less than a fortnight out, they decided to survey delegates about “postponing” the action in light of a government offer to enter talks.
Unsurprisingly, given the tepid response of the leadership and lack of serious preparation, delegates supported “postponing” the action to an unspecified future date.
The meeting turned out to be a slap in the face. Treasurer and minister for industrial relations Mike Baird told the union that the government “cannot agree to the [six month] moratorium [on cuts and privatisations] because of our responsibility to deliver services that represent value for money”.
Baird relayed the government’s pleasure that the PSA would not strike, and a briefing on “fiscal constraints” was offered in place of a single concession. This was to be expected. Cancelling the strike was an invitation to reject the union’s demands.
After a spike in union growth around a strike last year, the PSA is now losing members to redundancy and retirement faster than it can recruit new ones. In many public sector workplaces, there are no union delegates, let alone any recent history of activity or industrial action.
There is a long way to go in rebuilding strength. The answer is not to bow out, but to be involved and part of reorienting the union. This project is urgent. We don’t have time, nor is it possible to rebuild a stronger union first and then respond to the cuts later.
The need to fight
The only force with the potential to fight the public service cuts is the workers under attack. Tempered negotiation will get us nowhere. Unions need to establish themselves as leaders in the fight to defend public services.
Building up rank and file strength in the workplace will be necessary to pressure the government, but also our own leaders when they try to sideline members in favour of negotiation and litigation.
This means doing the everyday work that involves members: holding workplace meetings, electing local delegates, preparing fact sheets linking the broader campaign to our own workplaces, having one on one conversations, sign-making working bees and anything else that helps to galvanise people.
In the face of union leadership opposition, broad industrial action won’t be feasible this year. But we shouldn’t sit back, waiting to be called for an all-out strike. Instead, we should build smaller rolling actions in our workplaces, such as lunchtime walkouts, which can build to larger stoppages.
We need to learn that passivity will not protect us. Quite the opposite: if we want to save our jobs and protect services, it will mean exercising the power that 40,000 PSA members have to disrupt business as usual.

Public sector workers can’t wait

Pru Goward, the NSW minister for community services, has been caught lying about staffing shortages in her department.
Workers in the Department of Community Services, members of the Public Services Association, shone the spotlight on Goward’s lie when they walked out in stop-work actions across the state on Tuesday 20 August.
Goward has repeatedly claimed that there are more than 2,000 caseworkers across the state, despite now admitting that she received a report which detailed that the real figure is much lower. Striking workers in Parramatta carried placards representing those who had disappeared from the department, explaining that colleagues were not being replaced when they left the job or went on maternity leave. The remaining workers are left to pick up the slack.
The extra strain on the remaining caseworkers is taking its toll. “I’ve got a number of staff across the region that are really stressed, they’re hanging on by the skin of their teeth”, PSA spokesperson Steve Meares told the media.
Staff shortages are a chronic problem across the NSW public service, and with the government slashing a further 15,000 jobs, the problem will only get worse. The pressure on workers to do more with less is immense, and the government has shown a complete disregard for the services public servants provide.
This latest strike is a reminder of why the union campaign against staff and funding cuts needs to intensify in order to tackle the understaffing, overwork and insecurity that are daily life for NSW public servants.

‘We’ve created a revolution in the Northern Beaches’ – Victory at Harrison

‘We’re not working until we get our union in there’

NSW delegates endorse campaign against budget

Public sector workers can’t wait

Child welfare workers strike over shortages

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