Boeing Workers win

indonesia / philippines / australia | workplace struggles | other libertarian press Sunday April 27, 2008 21:32 by Union Solidarity contact at unionsolidarity dot org

But Workplace Ombudsman Moves

FSP Comrades are just back from visiting the striking Boeing workers’ picket to show our solidarity.

We attended this afternoon to support a mass meeting of striking workers. The workers, who’ve been out for three weeks in defiance of anti-union laws, heard a report from the AMWU. Local delegates, who had all resigned to avoid being targeted under anti- Union laws, hammered out an agreement which met strikers demands, including no victimisation of strikers after they returned to work. Members voted to accept the deal, to return to work from Monday 28 April and they also unanimously re-elected their local delegates.

During the strike Boeing went to extraordinary lengths to bully employees to return to work. Boeing also threatened rank and file union members with millions of dollars in damages (1 million a day). In spite of this workers continually voted at mass meetings to continue the dispute.

At the mass meeting, the strikers also thanked all who’d displayed solidarity giving particularly rousing support to Union Solidarity which organised the solidarity picket. This was significant because Union Solidarity coordinator, Dave Kerin, was served with an order by the Workplace Ombudsman to produce Union Solidarity documents relating to the Boeing dispute by the 8th of May (see attached order). If Dave fails to comply he faces up to 6 months in prison!

The return to work agreement adopted by the Boeing workers includes a clause that the company will request that the Workplace Ombudsman not proceed with this order.

However, if the order is not withdrawn, Union Solidarity has made it clear that it will not be intimidated. Dave Kerin told the mass meeting that Union Solidarity will not cooperate with the Workplace Ombudsman, it would refuse to appear and would not produce any documents.

It is clear that Union Solidarity has been been targeted in this way because the group’s strategies and tactics have largely been successful.

We must be ready to mobilise in defense of Dave Kerin and Union Solidarity if the Workplace Ombudsman does not drop this sinister fishing exercise!

You are encouraged to join the Union Solidarity SMS alert system today. http://www.unionsolidarity.org/php/addrecordform.html

Please note, that with the return work of the AMWU members at Boeing, the planned Community Solidarity Day on Saturday 3 May will not be going ahead.