John Howard's comment on the 1998 Waterfront dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia and Patrick Stevedores was a hypocritical and ignorant description of one of Australia's worst industrial relations disputes.

The Australian Government considers that Australia is poorly served by its waterfront industry. The serious inefficiencies that have persisted on the waterfront, despite previous reforms, have acted as a brake on economic growth and international competitiveness.

"The globalising strategies of both Labour and Liberal governments have intensified the pressure on Australian employers to maintain international competitiveness by cutting costs and increasing productivity." (Wiseman p1)

In the lead up to the 1996 federal election, the Coalition advocated the prohibition of union preference with Mr Reith arguing that "where union membership was genuinely voluntary, unions are more likely to be responsive to the needs of their members." (Thorpe & McDonald p24) However, it is more

Bray, M. and P. Waring (1998) "The Rhetoric and Reality of Bargaining Structures Under the

http://www.nff.org.au/speech99/waterfront.html

Jamieson, T. and H. Trinca (1998) "Patrick Sacks Entire Union Workforce" Sydney Morning

Waterside Dispute" in Readings in Introductory Employment Relations, UWSN, p247-253.

When the Federal Court awarded the MUA with an interim injunction instructing the reinstatement of the sacked workers, Patrick Stevedoring and the government appealed unsuccessfully. The Federal Court had concluded that Patrick Stevedoring had been in breach of the Workplace Relations Act 1996, by violating the employment contracts and conspiring against union labour.

The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) colluded with the government because they too had a hidden agenda which was to reduce costs for themselves. According to Dr Wendy Craik, Executive Director, National Farmers' Federation, "the low levels of efficiency in our ports has frustrated Australia's farmers for decades, because they demanded to know what happened to that efficiently produced and world best standard product, once it left the farm."

The 1998 waterfront dispute concerned the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), Patrick Stevedoring, Australia's second largest waterfront company and the Federal government. It began in early 1997 when the Workplace Relations Act came into effect. Officials representing the government, the National Farmer's Federation and the chairman of Patrick Stevedoring, Chris Corrigan, devised to discard the total firm's staff and replace them with non union labour who were employed by nine different contracting companies. Some MUA members were locked out of Webb Dock in Melbourne on 28 January 1998, where a picket line was set up. On the 8 April 1998, Patrick Stevedoring locked out its 1400 permanent staff and 600 casual MUA workers. Technically the workers were not dismissed, were still employed but unable to enter

Some common words found in the essay are:
Relations Act, Patrick Stevedoring, Equally Government, Labour Liberal, Industry Journal, Federal Court, Australian Government, John Howard, Farmers' Federation, Dr Craik, patrick stevedoring, industrial relations, workplace relations, waterfront dispute, workplace relations act, relations act, 1998 waterfront dispute, labour industry, union labour, industry journal, journal 9, industry journal 9, labour industry journal, federal court, mua patrick stevedoring,
Approximate Word count = 1314
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)