Sue Bolton, Melbourne
Many Victorian unionists were shocked when an ACTU-initiated resolution titled "Criminal and violent conduct policy" was rammed through the March 12 Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) executive meeting.
The resolution is identical to one passed at the December 2003 ACTU executive meeting in response to Doug Cameron, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), being punched while in his driveway on November 18, 2003.
Despite there being no evidence to indicate that the attack was linked in any way to internal AMWU politics, Cameron, AMWU national president Julius Roe and ACTU secretary Greg Combet gave press interviews in which they directly or indirectly blamed the militant Workers First grouping in the Victorian branch of the AMWU for the attack.
It has been an open secret in the union movement that the ACTU resolution is designed to assist the AMWU national officials in their faction fight with Workers First.
The ACTU executive has been requesting that trades and labour councils and individual unions adopt the resolution.
The NSW and Victorian Community and Public Sector Union branches have been putting the resolution to members' meetings and the CPSU has will discuss the motion at its March 25-28 national council meeting.
Unions ACT has passed the resolution. However, when it was put to a Unions WA executive meeting in February, there was an uproar and the vote was deferred.
The resolution was passed at the March 12 VTHC meeting by a bloc of right-wing unions and some left unions, including the Australian Education Union, Victorian Independent Education Union, National Tertiary Education Union, Australian Services Union, Australian Nurses Federation, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union vehicles division, and half the delegates from of the AMWU metals division.
These unions broke from the agreed position of the left unions' caucus in order to vote with the right. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union abstained on the vote.
Treachery
The treachery of these left unions provoked a walkout by 16 other unions — all four divisions of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU); the plumbers union; the Electrical Trades Union (ETU); the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association (FEDFA); the United Firefighters Union; the Maritime Union of Australia; the Rail, Tram and Bus Union's rail division; the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA); the Communication Workers Union's (CWU) postal and telecommunications (P&T) branch and its telecommunication and services (T&S) branch; the AMWU's print and food divisions; and half of the delegates of the AMWU metals division.
Brendan Henley, transport organiser for the CWU's P&T branch told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that "there's normally only 17 or 18 of us there. For this meeting, I've never seen so many people at a VTHC exec meeting before. They had done the numbers to get the motion passed."
There is speculation among Victorian unionists that the "anti-violence" resolution is designed to prejudice the trial of former AMWU Victorian secretary Craig Johnston, who had been the central leader of the Workers First group. He faces trial on May 10 on charges resulting from an industrial dispute in 2001 over the sacking of 29 maintenance workers at Johnson Tiles, and their replacement with labour-hire workers from Skilled Engineering.
Many Victorian unionists believe that the charges against Johnston are intended to get rid of a militant unionist, otherwise Johnston would have been treated the same as the other 17 unionists who were charged with him but have had all serious charges against them dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to unlawful assembly.
Johnston and the Workers First grouping have been a thorn in the side of the AMWU national officials, the state Labor government and the employers because they are prepared to use industrial action in industrial disputes. As a result, the Victorian AMWU branch has won significant improvements for its members, outstripping the other AMWU state branches.
CFMEU state secretary Martin Kingham told GLW that passing of the "anti-violence" resolution by the VTHC is "a result of pressure coming down from the ACTU and the national office of the metalworkers union".
He added that those who are "organising this motion want a conviction against Craig Johnston and are following a course of action to prevent Craig from getting a fair trial. It is disgusting and disturbing. They are using tactics which haven't been used in decades."
Kingham said that he proposed an alternative motion to the Victorian left unions which simply condemned the November 18 assault on Cameron. AMWU appointed Victorian secretary Dave Oliver rejected that as a compromise and said that the motion needed to have broader references to violence.
Kingham said he was disturbed by the active involvement of VTHC secretary Leigh Hubbard in getting the motion passed. Hubbard has previously supported Johnston, as well as relying on Johnston's previous leadership of the AMWU to win support for some of the progressive issues which the VTHC has championed.
Broad ramifications
FEDFA Victorian secretary Tommy Watson told GLW that the ACTU's resolution has very broad ramifications for all unionists because it condemns "criminal, violent and intimidatory conduct" rather than actual convictions for violence. This is extremely dangerous, he said, because "criminal conduct" can mean a very broad range of things.
Watson cited as an example the fact that he had received four adverse findings from the building industry royal commission. One of those was for perverting the course of justice on the basis that he had incited his members to take industrial action by simply convening a mass meeting. A charge of perverting the course of justice would be considered by the court system as criminal conduct, and yet all he did was uphold the democratic rights of union members.
ETU Victorian secretary Dean Migell believes that the ACTU resolution is so broadly framed that it plays into the hands of the Prime Minister John Howard's anti-union agenda, especially when his government is trying to pass new laws that further criminalise union activity.
"It's one thing to condemn violence, but it's another thing to condemn criminal behaviour", said Migell. "A lot of the ruling class refers to unionists as criminals." He noted that he and Johnston had both been fined $20,000 in one industrial dispute for contempt of court. Their "crime" was to hold a mass meeting. "Some would call that criminal conduct. I say it is representing workers."
Henley noted that the Workplace Relations Act "makes you a criminal for being a unionist. As you're going about your normal daily duties as a union organiser, you can be regarded as engaging in criminal conduct."
Kingham pointed out that when he and CFMEU organiser John Setka faced charges in 2002 as a result of the building industry royal commission, they received the broad support of the union movement. Under the new ACTU policy, they could not be supported.
"What I was charged with, what Setka was charged with, and the many charges coming down the line, criminalise the normal activity which unionists are involved in", said Kingham.
"The main agenda now", Kingham said, "is to build support for Craig Johnston."
A joint CFMEU-FEDFA stewards' meeting on March 18 decided to totally shut down all CBD building sites so that their members could join a massive rally in support of Craig Johnston on May 10. Delegations of unionists from suburban building sites will also join the rally. The proposal for this action came from the floor of the meeting.
The Irish Social Club in Victoria, whose members are mainly construction workers, raised $15,000 for Johnston at its St Patrick's Day event.
The Geelong Trades and Labor Council has also passed a motion calling for the charges against Johnston to be dropped, and pledging to support the May 10 protest.
The TCFUA's Victorian secretary, Michele O'Neil, told GLW: "Craig Johnston is a fine unionist and during his period of leadership of the AMWU, he and his members provided critically important industrial support and solidarity to TCFUA members involved in struggles to defend fair wages and conditions.
"It is shocking that at the same time as the law is being used to pursue Craig, company directors and managers who maim and kill workers don't face charges of industrial manslaughter in this state."
The CWU T&S division's Victorian secretary, Len Cooper, said: "Johnston was very committed to protecting the jobs, conditions and rights of his members and my view is that unionists should support him in principle when he needs that support."
Victorian AMWU officials said they were not prepared to comment for this article for fear of retribution from the AMWU national office.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, March 24, 2004.
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