Absolute nonsense! I must say I'm quite shocked at what I'm reading here tonight.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Australian_waterfront_dispute

We are talking CFMEU type Union here! Thugs! Stand over men! Lazy sods who hardly worked and yet had the nerve to demand unbelievable wages and conditions for doing SFA! And they had been getting away with it for decades. Australia's performance level on the waterfront was abysmally inefficient ... to the point where it had adversely affected our reputation with our trading partners!

Lisa Jones wrote on Nov 8^th, 2022 at 11:28pm:



I remember one union member recounting the story on TV.   

Lisa Jones wrote on Nov 8^th, 2022 at 11:10pm:


It's ridiculous to even begin to discuss inefficient operations from the POV that it is the worker's fault - they have little to no power or control over the way things are done.  As for such nonsenses as 'feather bedding' - look at the politicians and managers who receive an extra dose of cash and perks just for being possibly available some time to take over from someone else who is away for any reason.

Sorry - it doesn't work that way - being the boss doesn't entitle you to better treatment and perks than those who do the work.  MANY a company has destroyed itself by promoting this feudal baron style of silliness long outdated in any civilised modern society.

Business and economies are a symbiotic relationship - and if one side deliberately poisons the other, both die.

Reith was nothing more than the perfect example of the totally deluded ideologue who did his master's bidding without any real idea or thought himself....well DUH!

Easy - just return to a full Award system and nobody can whine that things are no good.... would pharken stabilise inflation and the economy, too for a start, since wage costs and industrial relations would be more predictable... and the rules so much more simple and easy to follow instead of trying to rort your way around them .....

I cannot train fools....

https://melbourneunitarian.org.au/files/beacons/Beacon-2020-11.pdf


In order to understand the propaganda being
disseminated by Patrick Corporation and the
federal government around the waterside dispute in
Sydney, it is important to recall the last time Patrick
Corporation decided to take on the union. There
were hard-to-forget tactics used by this company
against its workers then. Cast your minds back to
1998, when that company decided to sack its entire
waterside workforce.

the lockout, the scabs imported
to take the place of unionised workers? Do you
also recall the generous support offered by the
then Minister for Industrial Relations in the Howard
government, Peter Reith, in all of this illegal activity?
The Australian waterfront dispute of 1998 was
an event in Australian industrial relations history,
in which the Patrick Corporation undertook a
restructuring of their operations for the purpose
of dismissing their workforce. The restructuring
by Patrick Corporation was later ruled illegal by
Australian courts.
– ABC news report on the Waterfront Dispute,
April 1998

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Nov 8^th, 2022 at 11:40pm:


Ok a few observations:

1. Grappler...you're clearly an intelligent person. I do value your posts and I thank you for taking the time to provide your input.

2. Unfortunately you're neglecting 1 very important element - history. The actual event isn't the whole picture. The history behind all this MUST be considered if you value context.

3. Any conversation in this topic needs to bear in mind the following reality:

• The existence of a subversive thug styled sub culture of self entitled employees backed by communist <---- that's right extreme left wing political puppeteers who essentially used these employees to control an entire industry which ultimately undermined Australia's reputation wrt its trading partners and affected our economy. Everything coming in and out of Australia was at the mercy of a bunch of bludgers who were paid ridiculous amounts of money and they essentially bludged for that money in return.

• This subversive sub culture stood in sharp contrast to other unions. The only other union which it resembled (from memory) was the notorious CFMEU.

NB : The information I'm providing in this post is largely gleaned from HOW we were taught back at Uni in the early 1990's as students. Even way back in 1990 - I recall studying about Australia's waterfront union issue which had reached boiling point a number of times back then. In 1996 Howard's Liberal govt won by a landslide <--- it was a massacre ... and they jumped in to fix the stuff that had been sitting in Labor's "too hard" basket. Our waterfront industry was affecting our economy and no amount of appeasing the militant styled union which effectively controlled it ... had worked. It was time to respond in kind - and that's exactly what Peter Reith did.

Edit : 1 last thing - employees do not control a business/enterprise. For starters they don't even own it. Let's break this down a tad. Grappler ... how would you like it if you started a business and employed a team of workers who told you what to do and how much you should pay them and who ordered you about wrt to their lunch breaks start/finish times and how much output they felt was sufficient? You'd be looking at an ineffective/inefficient and bankrupt enterprise very quickly. And your earlier comment about technology picking up the slack does not make sense either. Technology exists to help not pick up the slack of employees who hold the enterprise that employs them to ransom.

Look I could say a lot more but I've got to hang up a load of washing. Later?

Lisa Jones wrote on Nov 8^th, 2022 at 9:21pm:


Reith was a deliberate liar going out of his way to assist Hayseed's bullshit about kids overboard.  And yes, Bobby is right....he did used animals to attack human beings, and that is reflective of the man's 'integrity.'

"a long battle with Alzheimer's".......yeas, I know, that is a darling expression of the media, but it is softshoe crap.  You might as well say that a bloke who perished after falling from a cliff top died after a glorious but short battle with gravity.

This bloke was a very willing political scum bag bottom dwelling lap dog, and his talents were ruthlessly exploited by Hayseed.

Bobby. wrote on Nov 9^th, 2022 at 8:22am:


Link.

Aussie wrote on Nov 9^th, 2022 at 8:16am:



Fully Agree, a lying stinking piece of garbage who destroyed the life and career of a very popular and highly respected Navy Officer by twisting and distorting the evidence that Officer gave with relation to Children Overboard.    

http://sievx.com/testimony/individuals/CommanderNormanBanks.html

I had the privilege to attend a presentation by Captain Banks many years after this incident and in private to a few of us, he related the true story of this and how his initial signals and subsequent evidence was manipulated for purely political purposes.      Whilst Reith's Death from a debilitating illness is regrettable and comfort is extended to his family, it should never be forgotten what a political piece of detritus he really was.