Church leaders yesterday questioned the federal government's role in the nation's waterfront dispute as an ugly stand-off between sacked union dockers and non-union workers continued at ports around Australia.
Two Anglican leaders said they felt uncomfortable with the government's support of union-busting port operators, one of which sacked its 1,400 union dockers last week and replaced them with 400 non-union workers.
In the past few days pickets had blocked railway and truck access to the wharves, although there appeared to be an uneasy calm yesterday and no fresh reports of violence.
"The way the government and the stevedores have acted, whilst possibly technically legal, I must say morally seems to me to leave a lot to question," Melbourne's Archbishop, Dr Keith Rayner, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. Perth's Archbishop, Dr Peter Carnley, accused the government of "living dangerously" and goading union-busting employers into action.
The government, expected to long complained that Australian wharves are highly inefficient.
But some opinion polls show the nation is divided over the tactics used by the government and employers in the dispute.
Australia's second biggest port operator, Patrick Stevedores, is leading the charge against the Maritime Union, using new labour laws introduced by the government last year.
The company sacked its union dockers last Wednesday, using private guards with dogs to bundle them off the wharves at night before bringing in hundreds of newly trailed dockers.
It is the first time in about half a century that non-union dockers have handled ships in any major Australian port.
The Maritime Union's global ally, the International Transport Workers' Federation, has threatened to ban ships and shipping companies that do business with Patrick, but the alliance of 500 transport unions has been slapped with an injunction preventing it carrying out the bans.
The London-based ITF said the English court injunction applied to the ITF but not its members.
The Maritime Union has also threatened to stop trucks and trains from delivering or collecting cargo from Patrick's wharves, but such sympathy strikes are illegal in Australia.
The Industrial Relations Minister, Mr Peter Reith, yesterday shrugged off church criticism of the government and said church leaders should question the morality of the Maritime Union.