By Nick Everett
BRISBANE — Three thousand unionists met in City Hall on the April 16 and resolved to "mobilise against the unfair and unjust federal and state legislation and to prepare for an industrial campaign to ensure that trade unions can continue to function effectively".
The meeting also voted to provide "financial, physical and moral support to the MUA, its members and their families", and to build the largest-ever May Day rally in Brisbane on May 4.
Tracey Walker, whose partner Matt Walker had been sacked by Patrick, told the meeting how the media is trying to turn public opinion against the wharfies. The day after the sackings, the Walkers did an interview which was later dubbed before being broadcast to suggest that Matt opposed compulsory union coverage on the wharves.
ACTU Queensland secretary John Thompson noted that, like Patrick, ARCO had also used security guards to intimidate sacked workers at the Gordonstone mine in central Queensland last year.
After the ACTU-endorsed resolution was carried almost unanimously, a second motion was put from the floor calling for a 24-hour stoppage on May 6 to coincide with a statewide stoppage in Victoria.
This motion was ruled out of order by Dave Harrison, president of ACTU Queensland, who claimed that the meeting could not resolve to take such action as it was not a formally constituted body. When it was pointed out the meeting had just passed a resolution, Harrison said the motion would be ruled out of order unless it was amended to become a recommendation to the ACTU Queensland executive.
Harrison and Thompson then said the meeting must leave the running of the campaign to the MUA. The amendment was accepted and, given the strong support for industrial action, Harrison declared the motion carried.
"The conditions of all workers are at stake", said Democratic Socialist Party branch secretary Jim McIlroy. "It's a furphy to suggest that a call for industrial action in solidarity with the wharfies is taking the leadership of the campaign out of the MUA's hands.
"Unionists around the country are expressing strong support for such action and for all union members to be involved in the campaign."
A motion circulated by the DSP and its supporters at this and similar meetings around the country calls for a 24-hour stoppage on May 6; a ban on the movement of cargo, goods and services in and out of Patrick sites; a campaign of bans and limitations against Lang Corporation, the National Farmers Federation and the federal government; a maritime defence committee open to members of all ACTU affiliated unions; and an industrial response to any punitive action taken against unionists or unions under state or federal industrial relations laws.