Because he works for the sales division in the parent company Trane, rather than its subsidiary Dayson, Kresevic wasn’t part of the initial strike action. "I wouldn’t cross the picket line. That’s how I got involved," he said.

The fight had been brewing for two years, Kresevic said. Dayson had been a mainly nonunion site and workers are on individual contracts. When the company ownership changed, however, the workers acted to protect their work and safety conditions, and joined the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU).

In retaliation against the workers’ efforts to negotiate a union agreement, the company sacked seven workers on May 21. Among them were two delegates.

"The company thought they could just get rid of the ones they called troublemakers," said picket Craig Cochrane. "But there is always someone else prepared to step forward." The next day workers at Dayson held a meeting and voted to go on strike. "All the guys believe we are fighting for workers’ rights--what we want is for the union to represent us," said Kresevic.

The company has continued to put pressure on individual workers in an attempt to divide the strikers and get them to return to work one by one. They instituted court action against a number of pickets, including Serge Polyakov, the new delegate and picket captain. This particular action came to nought, however, as the charges were dismissed at a July 16 hearing in the Industrial Relations Court.

The workers are visiting different factories and work sites to build solidarity, said Kresevic, and are meeting a good response. He was among a group that drove almost three hours to Newcastle to talk at a building site where a banner advertising Trane could be seen attached to a crane. After they talked to the workers, it came down immediately.

The AMWU is organizing a "community picket" morning each week. Support from other workers on the picket line is important, said the pickets--especially from those with experience in recent union struggles. Polyakov mentioned a visit by a worker at Joy Mining Machinery in Moss Vale, where in 2000 unionists won a dispute after more than six months on the picket line. Cochrane reported that after a visit to a nearby Rheems factory to explain their fight, a bunch of Maori workers, originally from New Zealand, turned up on their rostered day off to help out on the picket line. "Six big blokes standing firm made a difference," said Cochrane. "It made the couriers think twice about crossing the picket line."

Such solidarity is decisive, commented a number of AMWU pickets at Dayson, pointing out that most truck drivers have refused to cross the line. The strikers are confident they will win, noting that as the struggle continues Dayson is losing business to its competitors.

Brendan Gleeson and Linda Harris are members of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union.  
 
 
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