Story 6: The Sheep Fuckers Union.

Unions,


Included as part of CSR's ownership of the mine was the a large workers union who also represented the Australian sheep shearers, they were also known by many as the Australian sheep fuckers union.

Unionism in the fifties grew in proportion to the arrival of the British workers who escaped the relative poverty of Brittan to settle in the expanding cities and industry of Australia, With them came the very thing that had a hand in helping cause the very problems they were escaping from, a restricted work practice and corrupt unions.

The workshop on the mine site was a closed union shop and a no union membership no work ideal of the unions.
Unions had for years attempted to break into the open cut mining industry and failed, mainly due to the short life of 5 or ten years of many open cut mines.

They were firmly entrenched in the Australian east coast underground coal mining industry, this was a progression easily achieved by the mentality of the British migrant worker who thought life simply couldn't function without a union to represent them in big business as it had done in England, where the English unions actions had not only made it uneconomical to mine coal but were challenging the English government to continually provide additional financial support to keep them open, the industry was already so uneconomic to mine coal in England at the time it was actually being subsidised by the people of England and cost far more to mine than the price received when selling it.

Maggy Thatcher when she became Prime Minister of Great Brittan simply looked at the economics of coal mining and closed the unprofitable coal mines in England, throwing hundreds of thousands of workers and their knuckle dragging unionists out of work while saving the country billions in no longer having to support a dead industry, causing the collapse of the militant coal mining unions.
Unfortunately many of these unemployable miners migrated to Australian where they attempted a similar action and failed when they realised the Australian coal industry was a stand alone private industry and would not be supported by the Australian Government or at the expense of the tax payers.

Unions were entrenched in CSR's sugar operation and naturally tagged along when the company took over the operation of Mt Gunson copper Mine.

The union attempted to spread their money grabbing web out from the fitters in an attempt to include every one who worked on site.

I had been exposed to the Sheep fuckers union some years before when I worked as a toolmaker with a components manufacturer and knew how they worked. I also knew the interest of the workers wasn't a high priority despite their verbal flatulence, their management focus was shifting from representing the workers to becoming more of a financing arm for the Labor political party, and looking after the senior union members who could suddenly afford multi million dollar houses and holiday homes in fashionable sea front locations while reportedly living on their meager union pay.

A common tactic employed was to invite one of the workers out for a private meeting, buy them a few beers pat their arse while boosting their ego, then discuss a planned workers strike for more pay regardless of the financial state of the company involved, company survival isn't an issue with a union.
Their stooge would be told the next union meeting they would state their case then ask for a volunteer from the shop floor to propose the union motion be put to the workers, a strike for better pay would be suggested or in one case more chocolate ice-cream (Pilbra Iron ore mining cica 1980's)

After putting up his hand as the proposer of the motion a group vote would be called by a simple show of hands after which the union would declare a majority show of hands without an actual head count, the entire site would suddenly find it's self not only out of work for a week or two but out of pocked as well as often than not any pay increase would often take a year or two to make up the loss.

Unions would then use this claimed success to promote the strength of their union power.

Often than not, these management issues only come to light when union fees were due, very similar to politicians in power suddenly finding additional funding for schools, hospitals and roads when election time is approaching.

Like all on site, the local union official was an employee and only visited those who resisted, he would keep returning until people joined as a means of stopping the ongoing harassment.

It was only in the 1990's when a non labor government brought fairness to the Australian work force from knuckle dragging union tactics by declaring it illegal to force people into financing something they didn't want and compulsory unionism became illegal.


Long before computers handled membership it was all manual handling and filing.

Having knowledge of the management and style of the Sheep Fuckers union I joined the first time I was visited by the "friendly" site representative, then within hours posted off my resignation and union number knowing my letter would no doubt arrive at their head office weeks or months before the initial joining paperwork arrived.

The office being unable to find a yet to be issued membership number would place my resignation on the pile pending or unknown where it would stay for months or possibly years.

By the time it was eventually processed months later it would be assumed I had left the company and moved on.

I could fob off the local rep one year later with the story I had posted off my membership renewal knowing he would receive nothing of my expired membership as the head office had assumed I had left the company months previously having my payment matched the date my union fees were paid indicated and I had been financially paid up member as per their exit rules.

Though this didn't stop the union from sending several final notice letters over the following years threatening serious legal action as they claim the termination was not fully paid up when I submitted my resignation and now owed the additional year(s) membership. Eventually I began to file their unopened correspondence in the bin.

The unions could use a local minor dispute in a small insignificant far away mine site to their advantage by threatening to expand any dispute into a rolling sympathetic company wide job walk off at other important CSR sites.
It was this unethical ability of the union along with a low copper price and far too many managers that eventually convinced CSR to sell off and close the mine site.

At Mt Gunson the job of the site union official was "streamlined" when responsibility was handed over to a higher ranking representative from the industrial town of Whyalla some 200km to the south.

He made a personal yearly visit, collecting union fees while writing down the details in a large book, with the promise of sending by post the receipt and paperwork once his office had entered the details into the official system. Six months after his visit not one member had received any paperwork or had been contacted.

Twelve months later the "dedicated" union official showed up once again to collect the union fees, I asked if he had the receipts to hand out from the previous year.
He went silent, I informed him no-one on site had received confirmation they were members of the union or even financial.

He was never seen nor were we bothered with the bull shit of a union again.