Screaming children were pushed and shoved when police dragged 22 pickets off the docks in Sydney yesterday as one of Australia's biggest docks employers launched a court action to ease union blockades stranding millions of dollars worth of cargo.
The pickets, including women, were bundled into police vans after being pulled clear of the entrance to a terminal at Port Botany, run by Patrick Stevedores, which last week sacked its 1,400 dockers.
Young children were caught in the crush, crying and screaming as they clung to their parents during the violent exchange. The 22 pickets, later released without being charged, were among 400 protesters who formed a human chain which stopped five trucks entering the terminal, where cargo has built up during weeks of industrial action that started before the sackings.
"This an old tactic of theirs," the Workplace Relations Minister, Mr Peter Reith, said. "It is no place for them to be putting their children and wives and spouses on the picket line."
One of the pickets, Mr Geoff Lazarus (43), of the teachers union, said after his release that unionists all over Australia were worried. "It's the thin edge of the wedge," he said. "Wharfies today but workers in a range of industries tomorrow."
Sacked dockers belonging to the Maritime Union of Australia picketed docks around the country, chanting and shouting abuse at non-union dockers and trying to persuade truck and train drivers not to enter.
But they were unable to stop ships arriving after the Australian government obtained an injunction in London to head off global retaliation by the International Transport Federation of unions.
One transport company executive, who requested anonymity, said at Port Botany that she had 30 containers awaiting collection and the livelihood of many importers and exporters was under threat.
She also criticised police, saying: "This is serious stuff. We are talking here about hardened unionists who pride themselves on thuggery and look at the age of these police. They're babies."
A Federal Court injunction delaying the sackings was issued last Wednesday but was ignored by Patrick which argued that the dockers were employed by subsidiary companies now in liquidation.