Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Australia: Union cuts short NSW bus drivers’ strike
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/busd-d22.shtml

Australia: Union cuts short NSW bus drivers’ strike
By Terry Cook
22 December 2009
A 24-hour strike by 3,700 government bus drivers in Sydney and Newcastle erupted last Friday, but was cut short by the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) after the union accepted an industrial tribunal ruling to negotiate on measures to impose the state Labor government’s demands for cuts to drivers’ jobs and conditions.

The union called off the strike after a lunchtime hearing in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC), which emphasised that the government’s last-minute offer of a 6 percent pay rise over two years was conditional on “a number of savings initiatives”—particularly greater use of casual drivers.

Bus drivers decided to strike after the State Transit Authority (STA) refused, despite six rounds of negotiations over six months, to offer any pay increase in excess of the government’s 2.5 percent annual ceiling on all public service pay rises, and demanded trade offs for any higher amount.

The union had sought to call the strike off altogether but the STA refused to allow drivers to attend a union meeting to consider the belated 6 percent offer. RTBU division secretary Raul Baonza publicly apologised for the strike, saying it was a “sign of the ongoing frustrations transport workers have with this government”.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/wild-a26.shtml

Australia: Bus drivers strike in defiance of union
By Mike Head
26 August 2009

A six-hour strike by 130 bus drivers in western Sydney on Monday morning, carried out in defiance of their union, has produced furious denunciations in the media and from an industrial court judge. The drivers walked out at the Busways Blacktown depot at 3.30 a.m. against the imposition of new timetables that would impose shorter times for routes.
Drivers told the WSWS that the timetables, due to commence in October, would be impossible to meet, forcing them to run late, which would not only inconvenience and anger passengers but cut short the drivers’ break periods. The workers said they would be under enormous pressure to drive over the speed limit.
Months of trade union talks with the company have failed to halt the onerous new conditions. Angered by the lack of support from the Transport Workers Union (TWU), the drivers conducted their own stoppage, giving no warning to the union or management. The TWU opposed the strike and intervened to end it as quickly as possible.
Drivers said the timetables would add to Sydney’s public transport shambles, which has seen the state Labor government in New South Wales cut the frequency of rail services and scrap plans to extend the rail network to new outlying suburbs. In many outer western and southern suburbs, the so-called public transport system depends almost entirely on heavily government-subsidised private bus companies.

Aussie Transport Unions Block Traffic In Brisbane To Support Air New Zealand Workers with Video

http://www.epmu.org.nz/news/show/172819

EPMU welcomes Zeal solidarity protest

4 June, 2009
Australian transport unions stopped traffic at the busiest intersection in Brisbane's travel district late yesterday afternoon in support of EPMU Zeal 320 members who are in dispute with Air New Zealand. The protest was eventually stopped by police.
The solidarity protest by the Transport Workers Union, Maritime Union of Australia and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union came against the backdrop of the triennial Australian Council of Trade Unions congress and shows anger over Air New Zealand's behaviour toward workers in its subsidiary is spreading across the Tasman.
EPMU national aviation organiser Strachan Crang says he welcomes the Australian union movement throwing their weight behind Zeal 320 members.
"We welcome the support and solidarity our Australian brothers and sisters have shown by taking this dispute to Air New Zealand's Brisbane HQ and hope that it signals to the company just how widely the response to their actions is travelling.
"Air New Zealand's use of a shell company to deny workers access to a decent collective agreement is just one example of the increased use of corporate structures to undermine workers here and in Australia and won't be taken lightly on either side of the Tasman.

http://www.mua.org.au/news/general/mourn.html

Maritime workers join CFMEU rally for safe workplace

28 April 2009
By MUA news -

Melbourne rally calls for an end to the ABCC and to work deaths

Today is International Workers Day of Mourning.

In Melbourne maritime workers will join other workers in support of the construction workers' battle to rid the industry of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

It is also a day to commemorate workers who have died on the job.

On construction sites around Australia, workers will stop for a minute's silence to remember their work mates.

The CFMEU is asking the Rights on Site supporters to join in one minute's silence by watching this video.

You can watch the video on you tube at this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnfJBX2piXY&feature=channel_page

One construction worker is killed a week in Australia. Hundreds more are injured.

But each year millions of dollars is spent on the Australian Building and Construction Commission, an organisation which undermines workers' rights and safety. That's why the MUA is joining the campaign to get rid of the ABCC and the laws that keep in place.

In 2004-5, prior to the introduction of the ABCC and special laws which discriminate against building workers, 19 workers died on construction sites nationally, but in 2005-6, the figure jumped to 29 and rose again in 2007 to 33 deaths.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/qant-j28.shtml
Australia: Once again unions call off Qantas stoppages

By Terry Cook
28 June 2008

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For the third time in six weeks, union leaders have called off industrial action by 1,500 Qantas engineers in a bid to prevent a potentially explosive confrontation with the airline and the Rudd Labor government over the company’s demand for cuts to wages and conditions.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) intervened again last Thursday, arranging another round of negotiations on the new workplace agreement to commence on Monday. The truce was offered to Qantas despite the airline’s adamant refusal to budge from its position and its use of scab labour during this week’s rolling stoppages, which forced the cancellation of about 100 domestic flights.

Australian Licensed Airline Engineers Association (ALAEA) federal secretary Steve Purvinas said: “Hopefully we can sit down for the week and reach an agreement.” Earlier in the year, the ALAEA signed a deal with Qantas to impose a 3 percent annual pay rise limit, which is far below the soaring cost of living. The engineers threw out the agreement in an April ballot, and are fighting for a 5 percent increase.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7468583.stm

Page last updated at 06:40 GMT, Monday, 23 June 2008 07:40 UK

Qantas flights grounded by strike

Qantas is being squeezed by the rising cost of fuel
Six Qantas flights have been cancelled and 18 cancellations are expected on Tuesday as engineers begin a series of strikes over pay.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) last week announced action in five major cities after failing to agree a pay deal.
The ALAEA had demanded a 5% wage rise for 1,500 engineers, but the airline has offered 3%.
The wage demands come as Qantas is being squeezed by high fuel costs.
The strikes currently affect only domestic Australian flights.
Turbulent times
Qantas executive general manager for people Kevin Brown said that the airline had a "range of contingencies" to deal with the disruptions and that affected passengers would be placed on other flights.
The dispute is expected to continue as union leaders argue that Qantas chiefs have shown no flexibility in meeting their demands.
Qantas, like many airlines, is struggling to deal with a consumer downturn and surging fuel prices.
The firm has already announced a pay freeze for senior bosses and cancelled flights on key routes.

http://www.mua.org.au/events/460_20080513.html

Back in the Gate: Howard Gone- MUA Here to Stay!

Event date: 31 May 2008
Type:
Location: Brett Park, Five Dock
Time: 11am-4pm
Cost: Free
The Sydney Branch of the MUA invites all members and their families to celebrate the 10 year anniversay of the return to work of Patrick workers with a family carnival and picnic day.

It is hard to believe that 10 years has passed since the Howard Government, Patrick owner Chris Corrigan and others engaged in their criminal conspiracy against the MUA to shed the Australian waterfront of unionised labour.

On April 7 1998, hundreds of guards and dogs stormed the wharves under cover of darkness as Patrick boss Chris Corrigan sacked his entire workforce of 2000 men and women nationwide with the aid of balaclava wearing goons and savage attack dogs. The Australian industrial relations landscape would never be the same again. This vicious attack on wharfies was undertaken with the complete support of the then Howard Government.

What followed was a monstrous battle to stop this criminal injustice perpetrated solely because the 2000 sacked wharfies were members of a union. The reactionary attempts to eradicate waterfront unionism failed because the Australian people rejected such inappropriate tactics that were fundamentally at odds with the aspirations of the Australian people who treasure the concept of a "fair go".

THE FREMANTLE PICKETS

The Patrick Lock-out, April 18th, 1998

And we were there, on Fremantle Harbour, in 1998;
A few at first in the dusk of that day as the hours ebbed
Away into advancing darkness; gathered at the gate to face
The threat of coming hostile force. We were one
Of the picket lines, with all hands on deck now
As we battened down for a stormy night

Near the wharves from which maritime workers',
The wharfies, had been driven by thugs with dogs -
The curs of Corrigan - and here outside high fences
We faced the wrecking of our rights, our working lives,
As all around the Australian coast our union, the MUA,
Would be fighting that same bitter battle tonight.

We were the Fremantle picket lines, the night watch
On the barricades of belief, tired out after
Long days and nights, but still there on guard
At the gates, shoulder to shoulder, and we were resolute.
All week we had heard that farmers were coming,
Truck on truck by the hundred to smash through

Our pickets, but we were a union united, we held the line.
We were steel fired in the furnace of solidarity -
Welded in the links of that living human chain -
Because we were shackled by belief to our principles

Disclaimer - This article is being reposted here for informational purposes. It's author doesn't necessarily support the aims of this website and its members.

By Terry Cook - wsws.org, 12 May 2007

An $11.1 billion takeover bid for the Australian airline Qantas collapsed last weekend after the Macquarie Bank-led syndicate, Airline Partners Australia (APA), failed to meet the deadline for acquiring 50 percent of shares—a legal requirement for the offer to continue. If it had succeeded, the takeover would have been one of the largest in Australian corporate history.

Reaching the 50 percent target would have given the consortium a further two weeks to acquire the 70 percent of shares needed to complete the takeover. A final appeal by APA to the Takeovers Panel to allow a late share purchase was rejected this week.

The APA operation—a blatant attempt to plunder the profitable airline—came unstuck when a 4.9 percent parcel owned by Samuel Heyman’s New York-based hedge fund HIA failed to arrive by the deadline of 7 p.m. on May 4. HIA owns 10 percent of Qantas shares valued at $1.1 billion.

War on the Waterfront - Coming soon to ABC TV 28 March 2007.

By MUA news

Maritime workers will be among the stars on tele in coming weeks as the hard hitting ABC doco drama on the 1998 waterfront conspiracy goes to air.

THE BASTARDS ARE COMING

Two Men with everything to lose. One story that shook the nation.

It was the fight that stopped the nation - the 1998 battle for Australia's waterfront. More than just a dispute over reform, it became a war for the hearts and minds of Australians. Controversial, all-consuming and combative, it forced people around the country to pick a side and fight for their beliefs. Political thriller, war epic, buddy movie, love story and courtroom drama rolled into one, BASTARD BOYS is the riveting story of the people behind one of the greatest conflicts in Australia's industrial history.

Over two compelling nights, BASTARD BOYS relives what happened when Chris Corrigan, Managing Director of Patrick Corporation, took on one of the country's most unionised workforces, in a bid to change waterfront practices. On one side is a man determined to instigate change. On the other, an army of workers hell-bent on maintaining their conditions and rights. And in the background, a government intent on pursuing its own agenda. As the drama plays out in the full glare of the public spotlight, there is no room for failure or second chances. Every second counts.