The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 39

NewsEXTRA afternoon, often as not to be sent home again. Attending twice a day made seeking other work impossible and there was no sleep for those who had worked through the night The WWF also wanted enforcement of their preference for wharf labouring work (ie, WWF members to be hired before others) and increased overtime rates. The new award was brought down in January 1928 but it was worse than the old. It continued the double pick-up, cancelled the single pick-up in those ports where it existed and removed restrictions on overlong shifts because they slowed ship turnaround times. Wharfies were to be paid less for evening and night shifts than they would for the horror shifts making these dangerously attractive.

All appeals for safeguards against excessive strain and overwork were rejected, as were claims for improved safety. Spontaneous strikes broke out in ports around the country. The Federal WWF leadership was confused by the vehemence of its members' reaction and From page 39 labour fallout from a disastrous national strike all but killed off the WWF. Conditions on the wharves remained appalling. Wheat, cement and potatoes weighing up to 92kg were shifted mainly on wharfies backs, sulphur caught fire and turned holds into poisonous pits, carbon black stained the skin for weeks, and hides arrived from South America oozing with maggots.

Wharf labourers often died on the job when loads fell into the holds, landing on them, and they were sometimes speared to cargo by steel rails which slipped from their slings. They worked unprotected in freezer holds, and bare-chested in north Queensland summers where they were paid "bee money" for stings endured when loading sugar. In 1928 the WWF sought a new award which would include the abolition of the twice daily pick-up which compelled wharf labourers to make themselves available for work both in the morning and in the early was unable to lead or co-ordinate. Shipowners brought in non-union labour and bitterness was particularly rife in Melbourne, where the strikebreakers were housed in the Vacuum Oil depot converted into a compound. The WWF members anticipated a complete loss of livelihood, provoking clashes between police and strikers.

Non-union labour was pelted with rocks and bricks, and one possibly apocryphal story has it that two non-union labourers were thrown from a railway bridge and killed. There were riots, assaults and arrests. A huge melee on a Melbourne train which was carrying non-union labour spilled over into the streets and the wharves when the train arrived at Port Melbourne. When wharfies tried to break through a police line to storm the ships, they were beaten with batons and sought retreat As they were leaving the wharf, Alan Whittaker was shot from behind, through his neck. A Gailipoli veteran, Whittaker died and gave his union another martyr.

LATE in 1928 the Transport Workers Act was introduced federally. It controlled the engagement, service and discharge of wharfies who had to have a licence, known as a "dog to work. The Act was a grave threat to the existence of the WWF, many of whose members could not gain licences. When the remnants of WWF branches returned to work defeated it was too late most of the jobs had been taken by the growing bands of unemployed. The and Cs re-emerged in Melbourne and became an alternative federal union, providing work for its strike HEAVY LOAD: A wtiarfie "necking" a bag of flour, which weighed up to 92kg.

-t Tflrarannnm irn.nni 1 1 127 1 I weeks I I to go I TIMER: A wtiarfie trucking bags at Woolloomooloo in the 1 950s. matters. During the Cold War, as a result of the communist presence in the WWF, and its industrial strength, the union was much demonised by the Memdes Government and employers. Early in the 1950s the WWF absorbed the and Cs, thus emasculating it as a rival labour force and in a major dispute in 1934, the WWF demonstrated that it could at last fend off the threat of an alternative non-union labour supply. The Federal Government announced proposed amendments to the Stevedoring Industry Act which, among other measures, would give employers the right to recruit wharf labour independent of the WWF, that is non-union labour.

There had been complaints of unwarranted delays, slow turnaround times and loading rates. In contrast with today's dispute, the fed i hi OLD Herofax warms Winter athletes MORE than 5,000 taxed messages of support and encouragement were received 9y Australia's Winter Olympic and Winter Paratympic teams competing in Nagano earter ma year. Telstra's Herofax service prowd an outstancfcng success far our athletes more man 4.000 faxes were sent to the 0ymp: team -equivalent to 60 per person -and. incredibJy. more than 1.000 fates were sent to the tour-person Winter Paralympic team.

Both teams had fax walls" at their Nagano premises, hct were covered with the messages torn thev tamHy; fhends and fans back home in Austraka. Cycling, athletics records tumble AUSTRALIA'S Parafympe athletes continue to set a hot pbce in the leadup to the Sydney 2000 Parafyrnpic Games, breaking numerous recent national cycling 2H3 Vism impaled cyclist Keran Modra and write Kerry, set records in the 1000m Moed Tandem Time Trial and me 3000m Mixed Tandem Pursut in Perm last week. Queensland's Chris Scon, oompebng in the cerebral Daisy class, set a record in me 3000m Pursue In Canberra last weekend, sri records were set by Atlanta Pararyrnpian twosocoo me 999 Lacrdan Jones. NSWTs Amy winters, and Snaran Rackham and Lisa Uorens of the ACT. Sydney 2000 on show STAFF at the Sydney 2000 stand at the Royal Easter Show haw been inundated by enthusiastic members of the public eager for information about the Sydney 2000 Otympic and Parafyrnpic Games.

Most Questions have centred around ticketing and volunteers wtmcti. say organisers, positively reflects the level of interest in the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. But for the kids, the most popular aspect of the stand has been the free stamps of the Olympic and Parafyrnpic Mascots. Penrith tiles flag PtNRlTW'S conrKxjtjon to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games has been officially recognised with the presentation of two Olympic flags to tne district by President of the Australian Olympic Committee John The flags will be flown at the Sydney International Regatta Centre. Penrith Lakes the otympic venue for rowing and canoeing and the Penrith CouncR Ctiarnbers.

breaking members. The WWF's circumstances worsened during the Depression and the union almost died because of the general destitution of its declining membership. The turning point for the WWFs fortunes was World War IL Communist Jim Healy, admired by friend and foe, became general secretary in 1937. During the war, wharf labour was in demand for the first time in decades, and the WWF capitalised on its new strength. The Stevedoring Industry Commission was established by the Curtin Government to improve efficiency and new arrangements were implemented.

They included abolition of the bull system and, significantly, the WWF gained the right to recruit wharf labour. The WWF emerged from the war with renewed rigour and became a leading union in the labour movement as well as a significant and effective presence in peace and civil rights eration was accused of undermanning, not over-supplying, the wharves. The proposed amendments revived the old fears of an alternative strikebreaking labour force and the union struck nationally for a fortnight in November, perceiving the issue as one of survival THE strike had the support of the ACTU a crucial element in maintaining support in other sections of the labour movement where the effects of the strike would be felt The 1954 strike was a period of great solidarity and is still remembered as a high point in the WWFs history. The Stevedoring Act amendments were actually passed and the strike ended soon after, amid expectations that the levels of support would not continue. But the post-strike strategy made the new legislation unworka ble.

All other unions refused to work with any labour supplied by the employers, and anyone who applied to employers for work was declared an "industrial renegade" and black-banned, rendering their future working life virtually impossible. The ACTU also indicated that all the political and industrial resources of the labour movement would be called into battle if the Government used the recruitment amendments. They were never used, but Healy did supply a further 1,000 wharf labourers names to be employed. At a conference held by Minister for Labour and National Service (later Prime Minister) Harold Holt in early 1955, a new recruiting agreement was drawn up protecting the WWFs right to recruit labour, effectively an admission of defeat by the Government Since 1954, the water front and its unions have undergone profound changes. Where once there were about 25,000 wharfies in Australia, today there are fewer than 4,000, largely due to the automation of the 1960s.

Because of the industrial strength developed under the leadership of Healy and his able right-wing ALP successor Charlie Fitzgibbon, there has been no further far-reaching attempt to introduce non-union labour on the Australian wharves until now. In sheer organisational scale, Patrick's non-union enterprise far outflanks anything which has come before. It remains to be seen if the MUA can outwit the combined strength of its government and employer enemies this time around. Margo Beaslev is author of Wharfies, The' History Of The Waterside Workers Federation (Halstead) .40 THE SUN-HERALD, April 12, 1998.