By James Vassilopoulos
Sack the entire Maritime Union of Australia work force; deregister the MUA; cancel MUA awards and agreements; use the Crimes Act and secondary boycott laws to smash the union: these were the options the Coalition government considered to slash waterside workers' pay and conditions? Wrong! This was the plan considered by the Keating Labor government.
As part of the MUA conspiracy case against the Coalition and Patrick, relevant commonwealth documents were handed over to the MUA's solicitors.
If industrial relations minister Peter Reith's claims are true, the documents describe a Labor cabinet meeting in September 1994. The June 29 Australian reported that at that meeting, cabinet received legal advice on how to wipe out the MUA as part of the ALP's bid to cut jobs on the waterfront.
The documents show that Labor created a cabinet subcommittee — just as the Coalition did later — to deal with maritime industry issues. PM Paul Keating, industrial relations minister Laurie Brereton and Kim Beazley were on it.
Questioned about the claims by an ABC radio reporter on June 29, Beazley said he could not recall such discussions and "anyway", the ALP did not act on the options if they were discussed.
The claims should not surprise anyone who remembers the ALP's record in government.
It was PM Bob Hawke and Victorian Labor Premier John Cain who deregistered and destroyed the Builders' Labourers Federation in 1986.
In 1989, the ALP government crushed the pilots' union. Labor supported cancelling the pilots' award, supplied air force planes and pilots to break the strike and supported the airlines when they sued the union for millions of dollars.
The ALP's Industrial Relations Act introduced individual contracts and enterprise bargaining and failed to legalise solidarity strikes.
Last week, at union delegate meetings across the country, Labor put forward its "10-step rescue plan" for industrial relations. It did not include repeal of the Workplace Relations Act, getting rid of individual contracts, opposition to enterprise bargaining, a reversal of award stripping or removal of penalties for solidarity strikes.
Instead, Labor will make awards "comprehensive", give "choice for employees and employers", move penalties against unions from the Trades Practices Act to industrial relations law and give the Australian Industrial Relations Commission the "power to restore awards".
Labor will amend some of the worse aspects of the Coalition's anti-worker policies but not get rid of them, not will it restore conditions taken away.