ITF defies macho posturing by Australian farmers

International Transport Workers' Federation, Press Release
London, 30 January 1998

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has asked unions to be on stand-by to respond to the third anti-union attack in five months on its affiliate, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). The ITF - which has a 50-year tradition of mobilising workers in the maritime industry - has ridiculed a macho threat from Australian farmers to fix the global union and alerted key maritime unions to this most recent dispute.

In September last year an attempt to replace unionised dock workers with unorganised labour in the port of Cairns was stopped by the joint forces of the MUA, the ITF and ITF affiliates in the United States. In December, ITF support for the MUA ended an anti-union plot to train military personnel in Dubai who could replace MUA members on the waterfront.

This time, the government, the employers and the farmers have formed a coalition to recruit workers in Australia and Canada, aiming to supplant members of the powerful MUA with non-union labour and establish three new stevedoring companies, bypassing organised workers.

Following the Dubai fiasco the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) of Australia has revealed itself as the latest instrument of a government bent on imposing waterfront reform through the introduction of non-union labour. In an extraordinary attack on the ITF, its affiliates and the whole trade union movement, NFF President Donald McGauchie called the ITF a paper tiger and told reporters: The only place in the world where the ITF has any teeth is Australia, because the maritime union makes so much noise. We'll fix that.

ITF Dockers' Section Secretary Kees Marges, called the NFF declaration macho posturing and welcomed its challenge: This will encourage our unions to prove their talent for organising international solidarity with the waterfront workers in Australian ports. New Zealand dockers have already discussed action to support their Australian colleagues. The NFF will find that not only home-grown unions have teeth.

This is an attack on port work everywhere and the ITF's network of dock workers' and seafarers' unions won't stand idle. They will target any ships which are handled in Australian ports by non-union labour. Shipowners or shipmanagers allowing their vessels to be loaded or unloaded in this way risk cargoes being delayed or stopped he concluded.

The ITF has launched a support campaign amongst unions in strategic ports worldwide. Constant information is being exchanged between the MUA's head office in Sydney and ITF headquarters in London and distributed out to a network of unions. The Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, acting in concert with its affiliate, the Australian Confederation of Trade Unions, is also backing the MUA. Other trade union internationals including the foodworkers' body, the IUF, have supported the MUA.