Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white narrated and dramatised clip from a 1955 documentary made by the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF) Film Unit recounts the story of the waterside workers’ victory in rendering the 1954 amendment to the Stevedoring Act of 1949 unworkable. Scenes show the Bill’s signing, the WWF leader Jim Healy speaking, an Australian Council of Trade Union’s (ACTU) meeting, and the ACTU-signed appeal for united action. Government and shipowners are depicted as mouths talking into telephones. Triumphant music accompanies film of waterside workers returning to work.

Educational value points

• The amendment to the Stevedoring Act, referred to in the clip as an unjust law, was part of the Menzies government’s attempt to assert control over the Australian waterfront. The government claimed it was inefficient and dominated by communists in the WWF. The amendment was aimed at breaking the WWF monopoly over the supply of wharf labour, giving stevedoring employers the right to recruit, as a first step in achieving industry efficiency.

• The WWF saw the amendment as an attempt to introduce non-union labour and threaten hard-won improvements in working conditions and safety provisions for wharf labourers. It revived memories of the strike-breaking labour forces that had been introduced in the 1890s and in 1928 to defeat the union. In addition it was believed that an oversupply of labour when shipping volumes fluctuated would diminish the WWF’s bargaining power with employers.

• The ACTU played the key role in a campaign with the WWF by mobilising the support of all workers in an embargo on employer recruitment for new positions on the waterfront. The amendment’s passing in parliament meant that employers could recruit non-union (non-WWF) labour. ACTU support ensured no worker broke the embargo, thus maintaining WWF control over the labour supply on Australian wharves.

• The 1954 victory achieved by the WWF in bypassing government legislation is recounted and celebrated in this clip. A two-week nationwide strike began on 2 November 1954. The legislation was passed but before it received royal assent the WWF filled its quota of vacancies on the waterfronts, effectively retaining control over the supply of labour. The support of the ACTU had ensured that no non-WWF workers applied to employers for jobs.

• Jim Healy (1898–1961), general secretary of the WWF, features in the clip displaying the resolute manner and capacity for analytical thinking that made him such an influential union leader and effective opponent of the government. Having provided evidence to a government committee of inquiry that high stevedoring charges were not caused by excessive labour costs, he claimed the amendment contravened the Stevedoring Industry Act.

• Persuasive cinematic techniques create a picture of worker solidarity winning out against the selfish self-interest of shipowners in league with government. The clasped hands of the ACTU logo underscore the idea of worker unity. Images of faceless men engaged in secret telephone conversations indicate a conspiracy. Comical music mocks their efforts. Triumphant music accompanies film of smiling men returning to work, walking together united in their success.

• The WWF Film Unit, formed in 1953 when the WWF was strong and influential within the labour movement, depicts here an account of a key event in its history. Unique in its situation within a union, the Unit projects a voice for the working man and here celebrates what worker solidarity can achieve. In its many films the Unit sought to challenge what it saw as the mass media’s distorted view of the labour movement.