WATERFRONT DISPUTE 1998 _"The most bitterly fought domestic issue of my whole time as prime minister was waterfront reform in 1998." - John Howard._ SUMMARY On the night of April 7, 1998, the Patrick Stevedoring initiated its 'anti-union ' strategy whereby it sacked all 1400 permanent workers and 330 part-time workers, liquidated its stocks and locked out many of its docks. The bitter tension between the wharfies and security guards at the lockout were echoed through the disputes between Patrick Stevedoring, the coalition (liberal) government and the ACTU and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). The conflict arose from the two main issues of workforce productivity on the wharves and the role of unionism, particularly on the wharves. …show more content…
Initially, the case went before the Federal Court, with the Justice North finding it in favour of the MUA, yet the liberal government (who supported Patricks) appealed to the High Court of Australia. The case was similarly heard before the judges yet they found it once again in the favour of MUA, stating that the company had intentionally restructured its corporation with purpose to dismiss the unionised workforce. During the legal dispute, pickets were set up across the ports as a form of industrial action from the sacked workers in an attempt to hinder the movement of port traffic and slow down waterside productivity. Yet these were promptly removed through court injunctions. In short, the use of the mechanism of corporate restructure, in the case of Patricks, allowed them both to evade paying employee entitlements and dismissing almost its entire unionised workforce. The Waterfront Dispute was heavily debated by all parties on 60 Minutes and all the issues of unionism on the waterside and productivity were discussed. This prompted debate on whether other employers could use such tactics to their advantage. EFFECTS/IMPACTS OF THE WATERFRONT DISPUTE The dispute took very expensive consequences which affected both large and small businesses as industrial action via courts and picketing on the docks hindered waterfront productivity. The legal case was costly for the Patricks Stevedoring as they
The Federal Court also became involved in the dispute when Unions sought Common Law Action to halt the standing down of manufacturing workers, however QANTAS was allowed a 72-hour adjournment.
The first legislation to try and weaken TU’s was the 1980 Employment Act which was targeting secondary boycotting and picketing. The Government wanted to limit the scale and scope of these activities, to individuals who were
The submissions of the Australian Federal Government that the Workplace Relations Act 1996, amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 was constitutionally valid prevailed with a majority of 5:2 by the High Court of Australia.1 This High Court decision inaugurated a shift of legislative power from the States to the Commonwealth.2 Since officially coming into effect as of 27 March 2006, the Work Choices Act has been the most comprehensive reformation in Australia in nearly a century, constantly sparking matters of controversy. 3
Howard Government in regards to the response to the Wik case and meant it harder to make
The general strike of May 1926 was not a success for those attempting to force the government to act to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for coal miners. Had the TUC been more prepared to strike and followed through with what the miners wanted them to do, the government would have been faced with a much tougher challenge. Despite this, even if the conservative government were faced with a tougher challenge, the preparations and subsequence actions taken by them were more than enough and the main reason for the failure of the strike.
Eventually, the workers of American Coal, who were once the landowners of the very area they were mining, formed a labor union to fight for better working conditions. The union was met with great opposition by the company’s secret police. As time went on, the coal miners continued to fight for their rights, only to be put down violently by the coal company’s strikebreakers. Union leaders were also fired and blacklisted from the company as a means to put a stop to union activity.
The real impact regarding local residents and businesses on Cronulla beach is their influence on the government as well as their input and suggestions on points of improvement for the Beach. After all, these are the people that are going to be affected the most from any changes occurring. For example the sea wall at Cronulla Beach is not the most attractive thing, yes it is highly beneficial but the local residents and businesses that have to look at it all the time, may not be as pleased as the government is with the idea. It also needs to be taken into consideration that future development doesn’t impact on their property value, access to the beach or coastal views.
The case of Mabo v Others v State of Queensland (No.2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 (www.austlii, 1993), rewrote common law as the court ruled in a six to one majority, that the people of
Before this conflict was caused, The wobbles had planned a public demonstration in everett that afternoon, to be held on the corner of hewitt and witmor, a spot usually used by street speakers the wobblies hoping to form one big union. The wobblies, traveled from seattle to everett aboard the stemsters verona and calista to support a strike by local shingle-weavers.”A group of citizens deputies under the authority of snohomish county sheriff Donald Mcrae, refused to let them land. A shot was fired followed by several minutes of gunfire that killed 5 wobblies and two deputies. 74 workers of the world returned to seattle here they were put in snohomish county jail.”
In 1919, many problems need to be deal with high goods, high employees and these labors; The United States is Judge Elbert Gary have these tensions with the steel to the strike. Thus, the United States Steel employers quit the job over 250,000.4 Furthermore, these meetings in the strike were breaking up, and the police were riding down in the towns. These issues had as much as complicated when in Farrell, Pa., it has one striker to be killed and also twenty people were injured. This violence was appeared and labors were death with many reasons at this
In Pearson’s speech, the criticism of John Howard, who was at the time the Prime Minister, throughout the speech
adamantly opposed any recognition of the union. Thus, the union members decided to strike over wages, safety
The trigger for Britain's most bitter industrial dispute of recent times was the announcement that one Yorkshire pit, Cortonwood near Barnsley, was to close, all over Yorkshire walked out, not realising that it would be a year before they returned. Whereas previous coal strikes had been over in a matter of weeks, this time both union and government dug in for a lengthy battle. In the end, the biggest losers were ordinary miners.
In the case of labor, their ability to do so is largely determined by the elasticity of demand for labor and how likely they are to be replaced by other workers and/or machinery. Conversely, management must possess the resources to withstand a strike by their workers in order to maintain a strong level of relative power. In our case, the economic channel of influence on relative power is strongly represented. It is mentioned that jobs at First National were once recognized as being some of the most secure in the Lake City area, but “the advantage of working at the bank in this respect compared to working at the auto plant had largely disappeared 10 years ago when the union first negotiated supplementary unemployment benefits, and… by negotiating a Guaranteed Annual Income which replaced the SUB.” The two main issues addressed during meetings held by union and management representatives with FNB employees were “the pension and profit-sharing plans and the lack of an employer-paid hospital-medical plan.” The profit-sharing plan is generally regarded as “highly valued” and contributes to management’s relative power. Conversely, the lack of an employer-paid medical plan should serve as a source of relative power for the union, as “The First National was the only bank in the area which did not have a hospital-medical
This event however, highlighted a weakness between the workforce and the managers of the company which could be the source of many problems in future. If workers in other plants, as result of the Kilmarnock/Glasgow incident assume that the company views them as disposable labour, not only could the company land themselves a demotivated workforce; which in turn could lead to 'shirking