Former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Craig Johnston was jailed on August 27 for 9 months for taking part in an industrial protest in defence of jobs. Former AMWU delegate Steev Mansour explains why he supports Craig's release.
I started working at Martin Bright Steel in 1982 when we used to be under the union FIMEE [the Federation of Industrial, Manufacturing and Engineering Employees] and in late '97, early '98, Craig came and joined some of the fitters there [to the AMWU]. Then all the production people decided to join the AMWU because we saw Craig coming in with a pair of jeans, safety boots and a union T-shirt, when the other organisers from the other unions used to come in with a suit and a tie. Before they used to meet the workers, they used to go and meet the management first. That turned us off the other unions. We liked Craig's style straight away, even the way he was talking to the guys like he was one of us.
I was one of the guys that started the revolution that changed the union. We went from 100% being in a different union to 70% being AMWU, and now it's about 99.9% AMWU.
Craig changed a lot of people at Martin Bright Steel — mainly the East Timorese guys; the Chinese guys from East Timor. They were scared to stand up for themselves. When Craig came around, he told them that you shouldn't be scared, you should stand up for your rights. We had one of the biggest picket lines in 1997. We had almost seven weeks' picket line there and that worked out well because Craig did a fantastic job. And all the guys who were too scared to stand up for themselves, they became the best militant guys in the place. I think that time we were going for an 18% pay rise; if I'm not wrong, we got 16%. We won heaps of conditions after seven weeks' fighting.
So Craig has changed a lot of people. I was one of them. I had no interest at first in the union. Especially when I saw organisers from other unions, the way they were dressing in suits and coming to see management and never to see us. I lost interest. The union seemed like nothing but a business. But when Craig came around, he changed me. I became an activist. Now I go around and explain to people why the union is the best thing for the workers, thanks to Craig.
These people who haven't made up their mind [about the campaign for Craig's release], obviously, they don't know Craig. If they sit down and listen to the news and read the newspapers, the newspapers are talking about a completely different man. Craig is a tough person who supports working-class people. He's one of the working-class people. He feels the pain when you feel the pain. He feels happy when you feel happy. He's a person who will do anything for workers. There are aren't many people left like him. If you're a working-class person, you should support a person like that. If you don't, there's something wrong with you.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, November 24, 2004.
Visit the