Car companies, BHP try to crush picket

In order to try and crush a picket at BHP's Western Port steel plant at 
Hastings, in Victoria, car companies have taken to airlifting steel 
supplies in collusion with BHP. The company is pushing to introduce casual 
and contract labour for maintenance, directly threatening the jobs of 
around 280 maintenance workers who have been on strike since May 21.

GMH is using helicopters to fly rolls of steel out of the Hastings plant 
while Toyota is using chartered Boeing 747 jumbo jets to bring in steel 
from Japan.

The workers have been negotiating with the company — which has been 
floated by BHP Billiton and set up as a separate entity — for six months 
over their enterprise agreement. The workers are basically fighting for 
their survival.

The car companies have also applied to the Industrial Relations Commission 
to take joint legal action against the unions involved, the Australian 
Manufacturing Workers Union and the Communications Electrical and Plumbing 
Union.

The car companies are effected because of their use of the just-in-time 
system, bringing in only the bare amount of materials needed each day in 
order to save money.

A union source told The Guardian that for two weeks the workers have been 
watching a continuous shuttle service of helicopters overhead each day at 
the cost of $4000 per hour per helicopter.

"It's just bizarre, the money they're throwing in to keep this dispute 
going and supply their customers with dribs and drabs of cargo to try and 
reduce the effect of the picket.

"They [the workers] remain very positive. It's one of the best supported 
and enthusiastic picket lines I've seen. They've done a marvelous job and 
kept their spirits up."

BHP has tried the same strategy of replacing maintenance workers with 
casual and contract labour in its steel operations around the country.

The workers have maintained pickets at the three entrances to the plant for 
the past three weeks. Seventy-five have Federal Court injunctions against 
them.