7 April 1998 in Australia was the start of the biggest industrial relations dispute in years when Patrick Stevedore, a port related services company, sacked its entire waterfront workplace - 1400 employees.
The sackings were announced in parliament by the then Workplace Relations Minister, Peter Reith. Security guards, accompanied by dogs, moved onto the 17 Patrick Stevedore docks around the country, ordering employees to stop work and leave the sites immediately.
The employer (involving the Federal government, the National Farmers' Federation and Patrick Stevedore) said the sackings were needed in order to improve productivity and the right of an employer to recruit a non-union workforce. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) said the dispute was a breach of worker’s rights and an attack on the trade union movement.
The sacked workers set up protests outside the 17 Patrick Stevedore docks around the country. Their protests developed to include community assemblies, attracting other unionists and their families, academics, artists, actors, singers, sporting heroes, politicians and community leaders. An industrial dispute had turned into a civil rights protest not seen in Australia since the Vietnam War and peace rallies of the sixties and seventies.
The MUA (on behalf of their sacked members) took the case to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. On May 4, 1998, the commission concluded that the sackings were in breach of Australia's industrial relations laws and part of an unlawful conspiracy to replace MUA members with non-union workers.
Orders were issued for the workers to be reinstated but the orders were appealed by Patrick. The appeal was rejected and negotiations then begin towards a peace package between Patrick and the MUA.
Ending months of war on the waterfront, a landmark peace settlement was reached with Patrick Stevedore on August 5 1998. By the end of August, 689 permanent workers were re-employed directly by Patrick Stevedores Holdings along with around 450 casual and guaranteed wages earners. Patrick was ordered to pay the union's legal costs, believed to be millions of dollars.