Ben Courtice & Sue Bolton, Melbourne
In the wake of the high-profile court case of former Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union state secretary Craig Johnston, current AMWU state secretary Dave Oliver sent a highly factional and inflammatory letter to all AMWU members in Victoria in early June. Oliver is a member of the ALP-aligned National Left faction within the union.
The letter sent to members is titled "Workers First leader Craig Johnston guilty of criminal conduct".
Because the letter is on AMWU letterhead, it is likely that it has been paid for by the union rather than the faction responsible for publishing it. AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron published a statement similar to the letter on the AMWU website on May 27.
Then, the June 18 Age reported that the AMWU would hold an internal inquiry into the behaviour of Johnston.
The AMWU's announcement coincided with the Victorian director of public prosecutions appealing the "inadequate" sentence received by Johnston for his involvement in an industrial protest against the sacking of 29 maintenance workers at Johnson Tiles. The workers had been replaced with labour-hire workers. The protests occurred in June 2001.
The Age article reported "Johnston's enemies within the ALP and the union movement were privately furious that he had escaped jail".
The letter creates the impression that Johnston was guilty of offences that he has not been convicted of. For example, the prosecution dropped the charge of threat to kill, downgrading the charge to one of verbal abuse. Yet Oliver's letter refers to evidence being heard in court of Johnston "threatening to kill people".
The letter uses over-the-top language to build an image of Johnston being violent. For example, Oliver refers to Johnston's actions as being "akin to armed hold-ups". Oliver makes this claim despite the fact that the protests at Johnson Tiles and Skilled Engineering involved no physical violence towards people. It was a member of Oliver's own faction, Zelko Curak, who organised the protests.
Oliver's letter then makes a number of serious allegations against Johnston and the Workers First faction in the AMWU. Workers First is not aligned with the ALP.
These include:
- "Allegations of sexual assault from a former staff member". In 2002 Johnston was suspended from the state secretary's position by the national office of the union, following these "allegations". The alleged victim later signed a statutory declaration that "Those statements were made under unfair pressure from the national president... I am of the firm and clear belief that this whole episode is part of a political campaign to get rid of Craig Johnston." Johnston also asked the police to investigate the allegations, and the police found no evidence of sexual assault.
- "Financial problems — a $2 million deficit in the Victorian Branch in one year". The Victorian Branch was growing in membership while the national organisation as a whole was declining.
- "Johnston's key role in a blockade of the union office". The national office sacked AMWU printing division national industrial officer Denis Matson for attending negotiations over rule changes with the national office on behalf of his division. Subsequently, a picket line was set up outside the Victorian AMWU office in protest against this violation of union democracy.
- "A legacy of factionalism where Workers First act in the interest of their faction rather than the members of the union." This is a case of the old saying of "the pot calling the kettle black". Oliver's National Left faction, which dominates the national council, has continued to move factional motion after factional motion at national council meetings.
In order to resolve the stand-off in the Victorian branch in 2002, Workers First and Doug Cameron agreed not to run against each other's candidates in union elections. With this agreement due to expire later this year, Oliver's letter appears to be the launch of the National Left faction's electoral campaign against Workers First — despite bearing the official union letterhead and being distributed with union funds. The position of state president is up for election at the end of the year.
Evidence of the National Left's continued factionalism is the motion passed at the June 8-11 AMWU national council, which "determines that until further decision of the council, Craig Johnston cannot be appointed to any position within the AMWU, including to any current or future casual or temporary vacancy in any office."
A new allegation from Doug Cameron's National Left faction is was reported in the June 19 Age: that Johnston is being investigated by the AMWU for misappropriation of union funds.
Presumably, this refers to a motion from the June 8-11 national council which calls for an accounting of the money raised by the Skilled Six Defence Campaign to defend the 18 people who were originally charged over the Johnson Tiles/Skilled Engineering protests.
Initially, the union refused to contribute to the defence costs of any of the accused, but later backed down and paid some of the legal expenses for all of the accused, except Johnston.
It's likely that this allegation has surfaced now because if a person is found guilty of misappropriation of funds then he or she is barred from standing in any union election for five years.
Despite claims of wanting to "rebuild the union", "empower workers" and "listen to all members of the union", Oliver ends with the hypocritical statement, "I am not interested in working with people whose actions have the effect of destroying our union".
The continual factionalising by the dominant National Left faction is enormously distracting for the Victorian AMWU organisers who just want to go out and improve the lot of AMWU members.
The problem is that the Workers First and printing division organisers have made powerful enemies of the employers by being absolutely committed to advancing the cause of workers. That's why the employers and the Victorian government and some of the softer union leaders are so keen to see Johnston in jail.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, June 23, 2004.
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