The court cases against all but one of the unionists charged over the Skilled Six campaign were finalised in Melbourne’s county court on July 30. Sixteen Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and Electrical Trades Union members were convicted of being involved in an unlawful assembly and received fines between $1000-3000 and good behaviour bonds of between 12 and 30 months. The 16 were fined a total of $21,000.
The charges arose from an industrial dispute in June 2001 when Johnson Tiles sacked 29 maintenance workers and replaced them with a sharply reduced workforce from notorious labour hire firm Skilled Engineering. The AMWU organised a picket line to get the workers’ jobs back.
On June 15, 2001, a 10-minute protest was held at the Skilled Engineering offices. Initially, seven people were charged over the protest, but the other unionists weren’t charged over the Johnson Tiles protest until almost 12 months later. In total, 20 people were charged but three were let off at the committal stage.
Earlier this year, the prosecution was forced to drop the initial serious charges of assault, affray, and criminal damage due to lack of police evidence to justify the charges. Only an “unlawful assembly” charge was pursued against most of the unionists.
However, one unionist has been singled out. Despite the lack of police evidence, the prosecution has refused to drop the more serious charges against Socialist Alliance member and former AMWU state secretary Craig Johnston. Craig will face trial on May 10 next year.
The lack of evidence to justify the charges against Johnston indicates that he is being pursued for political reasons. The Victorian Labor government, the employers, the federal Coalition government and the tame-cat AMWU leaders have all indicated a desire to get Craig out of the road. They blame him for reintroducing militant unionism to the AMWU and for linking up militant unionism with the radical left (the Victorian branch of the AMWU, when Craig was state secretary, supported the S11 2000 protests against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne and played a crucial role in persuading other unions to support it also).
The ALP-aligned AMWU leaders would benefit if Craig was jailed as a result of the charges because the federal Workplace Relations Act bans anyone who has received a jail sentence from being a trade union official.
The Skilled Six Defence Campaign has organised a number of fundraisers to build support for the unionists. A function in Melbourne on August 1 attracted around 400 people and raised around $30,000.
Now that Craig has been singled out, the campaign will have to move into a more political phase to explain why he is being targeted. To help this, a new leaflet has been produced by the Skilled Six Defence Campaign and a set of speakers’ notes is being produced. To get copies of the leaflet, the articles written about the case or the speakers’ notes, contact Sue Bolton on (03) 9639 8622, 0413-377978, sue_bolton@hotmail.com, or Craig Johnston on 0438 518 822, or Simon Millar on 0423 216 293.
Also useful is the informative 12-minute video about the militancy of the AMWU Victorian branch under Craig’s leadership produced by Socialist Alliance member Jill Hickson from Actively Radical TV in Sydney. To get a copy of the video ($10), phone Jill on (02) 9564 1277 or 0417 220 504.
With advance notice and a contribution towards interstate travel costs, it might also be possible to line up speakers from the Skilled Six Defence Campaign to address public meetings in other states. To arrange this, ring Sue, Craig or Simon on the numbers above.