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MUA in 1998 - WE'RE NOT

It should be acknowledged that the events of 1998 deserve to be recognised in our cultural outlets. In fact more of our industrial/labour history should be told and celebrated.

For example movies like “Sunday Too Far Away” and “Underground” put other periods of our labour history on to celluloid in a dramatic fashion.

The MUA 1998 Waterfront dispute was indeed a watershed event that goes to the heart of the Howard Government’s anti-union, anti-worker vendetta, that began in earnest in 1996 and is ongoing.

Did “Bastard Boys” do the events of 1998 justice?

We have seen some of the personalities involved in 1998 go public recently to express concern about how they were portrayed in “Bastard Boys”.  They have the right to put on the public record corrections on what words they feel were put into their mouths, by the scriptwriters, especially as it has been reported almost most of them were sent the script.

However there are more important considerations at stake.

The Australian union movement is at an historic crossroad in terms of its coverage and comparative relevance in a fast changing world.

The lessons of 1998 are important for moving forward.

The MUA waterfront dispute was characterised by three main factors in my view - the political aspect, the industrial/community mobilisation aspect and the legal aspect.

By far the most important during those heady days of Jan-May 1998 was the mass public support for the MUA.  Waterfront workers have been demonised by the conservative forces for years.  But the use of balaclava wearing goons, guard dogs and mass sackings did not go over well with the public at large.  These actions by Corrigan, supported by the Howard government, were seen for what they were – undemocratic and un-Australian.  It was class war.

The MUA were legally put between a rock and a hard place.  They didn’t want to fall for Corrigan’s trick and take action themselves, although they sorely wanted to.  Instead they called on the rest of the trade union movement and the wider public to lend a hand. They came out in droves.

The “Bastard Boys” dramatisation does little justice to the many months of mobilisation of these forces.  Many of the community protest/picket scenes on TV looked thin on the ground and didn’t do some of the front line events justice.

In 2005 the producers came to the VTHC and flagged they may need help in organising ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of extras for such scenes when filming started in 2006.  They pointed out at that time that they didn’t need any help with information on what happened as the script was virtually finalised.

By July 2006 with a week or two to shooting the East Swanston dock scenes in particular, unions were given very little notice to get people there.

This in itself illustrated a key flaw in “Bastard Boys”.  More emphasis was given to small meetings of ‘key players’, the political juggling and legal/court room theatrics than to what was crucial in stopping Corrigan operating with scab labour.

The VTHC and its affiliates were told early in the piece two things by the MUA – we must blockade and hold East Swanston Dock at all costs and we must do it peacefully.

The MUA said solidarity activities were being conducted at ports all around the country but Melbourne must hold the line as that was where Corrigan was concentrating his efforts.  The “Bastard Boys” didn’t give much of a flavour of the national activity involving a concentrated effort by the union movement and its community allies.

Similarly, the docu-drama didn’t show how the Federal Government, through Reith and Howard, personally pushed the Victorian Liberal Kennett government to use the Victoria Police to smash the protest lines.  This is a crucial point as Howard didn’t dare use the Federal Police or the Army.

While the legal cases dragged on, Corrigan knew he needed to have a breakthrough on the ground.  In other words, he needed a fait accompli before the law ran its course.  He appealed every decision in an attempt to give himself time to do this. The MUA knew this.  In Victoria the VTHC ran daily meetings at the MUA offices at 4.00 pm, of all unions and community groups. 

These meetings were crucial in terms of organising basic issues like food supplies and maintaining rosters, right up to assessing both morale and a flow of ‘intelligence’ coming in from a surprising range of sources.

Besides the ANF, there was also a high level of involvement of unions like the SPSF, AEU, NTEU, TCFUA, ASU and Health unions, who joined the construction and manufacturing unions in a broad alliance that didn’t falter.

In Melbourne a massive, 24 hour, seven days a week phone tree was created with many hundreds of names and contacts on it.

The VTHC had its police liaison committee that virtually met daily with representatives of Victoria Police Command.  The sole aim, to keep the peace down at the docks.

The Kennett government and its Ministers pressed the Chief Commissioner to attack the peaceful assemblies as the law of access and egress to East Swanston Dock was being broken.  For weeks and weeks the view of Victoria Police was - as long as there was no violence against those inside the fence and that peace in general was maintained – why should they create a situation that could turn violent immediately. 

Peter Reith was hysterical and told Kennett, McNamara and McGrath to get on with it.

The leadership of the union/community mass pickets were aware of this pressure and constantly strived to maintain discipline.  Everyday MUA Victorian official John Higgins would drum this discipline into the peaceful assembly.  It was hard work.  It went on for many weeks.

Revealing the dirty tricks of Corrigan in the Federal Parliament, taking the Howard/Patricks/Banks conspiracy against the MUA to the Federal Court and through to the High Court, were important actions to take.  But the overall battle was won by thousands of rank and file trade unionists and an equal number of ordinary members of the community, at the end of the day who felt if Howard won the de-unionisation of the country’s waterfront – what would he do next.

To illustrate this point it is worth telling the story of one event.  At 5.30 am one cold morning a Shell fuel tanker got inside East Swanston Dock.  Corrigan’s straddle cranes were almost out of fuel.  No containers had left the East Swanston dock.  Patricks were hoping to break through over the next day or so but needed fuel for the cranes to load the trucks.

A quick mobilisation of the skeleton overnight pickets sealed off the previously ignored side gate.  The Shell driver was told he wouldn’t get his truck out if he unloaded.  Eventually the police let in a TWU organiser to talk to the driver.  He uncoupled without delivering one drop and was cheered out the same gate he had snuck in a few hours earlier.

When the Victoria Police did finally mobilise for a “show down” in the early hours, the phone tree was activated.  The cancelling of police leave 24 hours earlier was a poorly kept secret.  Some politicians blamed the 'leak' on the Victoria Police Association, which had a live application to affiliate with Victorian Trades Hall Council at the time.

The enhanced and ever growing peaceful assembly linked arms.  The police moved up in a disciplined fashion and stayed in place a long time.  The dawn came and so did the building workers who had marched off city projects without starting work.  They came down to East Swanston Dock in force.  The union-police liaison committee was working hard.  The police left.  No one was provoked.  No one provoked.  Peter Reith was hopping mad.  He had the nerve to call it a ‘conspiracy’ after all he had been up to.

When the final legal processes finally ran their course it was all worth the cold freezing nights and the hours, days and weeks of watching and waiting for something to happen.  The scene in “Bastard Boys” where the banks tell Corrigan they had given him enough time to do his dirty work, was very revealing.  Even Howard and Reith couldn’t turn that around.

When it came for the return to work, the management tried to have the MUA workers go through a small turnstile one at a time.  It was at night, thousands and thousands of people had turned up for the triumphant re-entry.  The TV cameras and bright lights were everywhere.

The union marshals said ‘no’ – demanding the MUA workforce was going to go back in with dignity.  The police stepped back from the big gate that had been heavily barricaded for weeks.  It was all cleared away and the gate was swung open wide – the MUA members marched back in en masse.  It was one of those moments.  You had to be there.