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Ten year anniversary of Australian docker dispute remembered
10 April 2008
Dockers in Australia have this week been marking the tenth anniversary of a bitter waterfront dispute that threatened the job security of some 2000 workers.
Across the country, dockers took part in a one minute stoppage on 7 April to commemorate the Patrick dispute, during which security guards with dogs stormed every dock in Australia run by Patrick Stevedores and sacked 2000 unionised workers and forcibly removed those on the job.
Delegates attending the first day of the national conference of the ITF-affiliated Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), which represented the workers, also remembered the anniversary with one minute's silence on 8 April. The union is this week holding its conference at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour.
“It was an extraordinary dispute, even given the long history of organised labour in this country. How many workers have been frog-marched out of their workplace by security guards in balaclavas and dogs on chains? How many have been replaced by former defence personnel secretly trained in Dubai? All with the full cognisance and support of their elected government. These were ordinary people thrown into an extraordinary showdown,” explained MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin.
Frank Leys, ITF Dockers Section Secretary, who is attending the MUA conference, stated: “This dispute along with the EU portS package was the start of dockers around the world uniting to face the challenges posed by an industry dominated by global network operators.”
The anniversary comes as the MUA renews its call for documents withheld by the government led by John Howard, who had been in power at the time of the dispute, to be released and the full story of the war on the waterfront to be told.
A week-long arts festival of film, photography, painting and theatre commemorating the dispute is taking place at the Australian National Maritime Museum in the Sydney.
More information and to view clips from the MUA conference visit: http://www.mua.org.au/news/general/confab1.html and http://www.mua.org.au/news/general/confabday2.html
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