Sue Bolton
The expulsion from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union on July 21 of former Victorian state secretary Craig Johnston is totally unjustified and violates all union principle.
By this act, AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron and his supporters on the AMWU national council have committed an injustice against Johnston that will weaken the AMWU and the trade union movement in general.
The fact that Johnston pleaded guilty to the charges of verbal abuse, criminal damage and "affray" that arose out of his effort to defend the jobs of workers at Johnson Tiles in 2001 in no way justifies his expulsion.
Even the judge in Johnston's case recognised that "there wasn't any pre-planning to cause damage or assault at Johnson Tiles" and that "a number of long-term employees had a genuine grievance" against the company.
The tactics employed by the Victorian AMWU leadership against the efforts of Johnson Tiles to sack permanent workers and replace them with scabs may or may not have been right, but that's not the point. Any principled national union leadership that disagreed with its Victorian branch on such an issue would still have defended them against the courts and the bosses. At the same time, it would have used the democratic forums of the union to debate out the pros and cons of tactics such as "run-throughs".
It certainly wouldn't have accused its own members of indulging in "violence" and "illegality", forgetting that the main source of violence in this society lies with those with the power to sack workers, drive down their wages and ruin their conditions of work.
By that standard, all the greatest fighters in Australian union history, men and women whose efforts are responsible for any reasonable living standards we enjoy today, would all be guilty of "violence" and "illegality" — and have no place in Doug Cameron's AMWU.
The scuffle at Johnson Tiles, however, was not the main crime of Craig Johnston in the eyes of the AMWU national leadership. His main sin was to try to defend as best he could the interests of Victorian AMWU members irrespective of the impact on the employers, the courts and ALP governments.
Especially after the Victorian court gave him a suspended sentence — leaving open the possibility that a popular Johnston could stand again for a union position — the Cameron leadership had to rub him out of the union, even though he still works in the industry in work covered by the AMWU.
The AMWU national leadership is deluding itself if it thinks that in expelling its former Victorian secretary it will free the union to better confront the serious threats it faces, such as the possibility of a fourth-term Howard government bent on taming the unions once and for all.
Under Johnston, the Victorian AMWU led the way in defending and advancing manufacturing workers' wages and conditions. It's Johnston's sort of commitment to militant democratic unionism that will be needed more than ever against the impending attacks on workers, whether these come from the Liberals or Labor.
The AMWU national council should reinstate Johnston's membership. The Socialist Alliance will support any campaign to restore his membership of the union.
[Sue Bolton is a national trade union co-convener of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 4, 2004.
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