Jumping up and down with excitement as news of the settlement broke June 27, Van Djaya, who organized the kitchen throughout the strike, said, “We made it! We’re so happy. When we went out we felt so alone. Now we feel like one big family.” She was referring to the unity the strikers forged and the impact of wider union solidarity.

Prior to the strike the company owner, Judith Beswick, told the workers that she would sign a union agreement “over her dead body.” Thirty-nine workers—in their majority migrant women from all over Asia and the Pacific—stuck it out for the 16 weeks of the strike, maintaining a 24-hour picket line, seven days a week. They reached out to other workers, speaking first at AMWU-organized factories and then to other unions. They leafleted about the strike in front of hardware stores that sold products in the cans produced by Morris McMahon. They organized protests in front of Beswick’s city law office and her residence.  
 
Bosses shocked by strong solidarity
By the time the company won an injunction against the strikers in mid-May, ordering them away from the factory, solidarity actions had begun to grow. Wharfies and construction workers, through their unions—the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU)—organized several pickets of up to 100 people. Money poured in to the strike fund from work site collections. Toward the final weeks of the strike, enough had been raised to increase weekly payments from $180 to the equivalent of full pay, easing the economic hardships faced by the strikers.

Phil, a machine setter who asked that his last name not be used, explained how important solidarity was. “The managers were shocked by all the support. They never dreamed that wharfies, construction workers, teachers, and fire fighters would come down to our picket line. They thought we’d only last four weeks.”

A hand painted sign that hung on the picket shack, “Never give up. Stay strong!” captured the spirit of the strike. Marina Pomare, one of the strikers, said that all the people that came down regularly to the picket line boosted their spirits. “Look how strong the women have grown over these weeks,” she said. “Women have the inner strength.”

Sarita Singh chimed in, “It was hard at first but now we know what to do. It was the first time [on strike] for me but I wouldn’t be a scab. I’m a single mum and I couldn’t get family assistance. Surviving on $200 a week has been very difficult. My mum was there to help with my son.”

“I know what a strike is now,” said Andrew Fernandez, another machine setter. “This was my first time and I have come to know what a union and a strike is. We have had a very positive response from other workers. The next time someone else is on strike and comes to me for help, I’ll be there.”

Striker Edith Rapana described the visit by eight Morris McMahon strikers to a picket line at Crown forklifts in western Sydney. The workers at Crown struck for a week over their enterprise agreement (contract). “It was a real quiet picket line,” she said. “The blokes had been told that they were not allowed to stop trucks going in to the factory. We told them ‘That’s not true, you don’t have an injunction against you yet.’ We jumped in front of a big truck and told the driver ‘This is a picket line, don’t cross!’” The driver responded that he’d been crossing all day, but turned around, Rapana stated, when “we said, ‘Well, afternoon shift is here now and you’re not crossing.’”  
 
Walkout gained national prominence
The strike gained national prominence. This was reflected in a May 27 article in the Australian Financial Review titled, “Unions draw line on collective power.” It stated, “An 11-week-old picket line at a small private tin factory in Sydney has become a national test of whether an employer should be forced to negotiate a collective union agreement.” The company had tried to get workers to sign individual contracts, called Australian Workplace Agreements, by offering a bribe of a $1,000 bonus for signing. According to federal anti-union “workplace relations” laws, workers can ask for a union contract but their boss can refuse to negotiate one. A 25-minute documentary on the strike was screened nationally on the SBS-TV program Insight July 10.

During the strike national union officials and politicians visited the picket line. They included Greg Combet, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Simon Crean, leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), Federal Workplace Relations Minister Anthony Abbott, and the ALP’s workplace relations spokesman, Robert McLelland. The media coverage of these visits aided in getting word out about the strike. When Pedro Ross Leal, general secretary of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), was visiting Australia he came down to the picket line to offer solidarity.

During the strike, 18 workers crossed the picket line supplementing the casual workers hired as scabs. “We tried to talk to the scabs,” said striker Sarita Singh. “They said we were stupid and would never win.” But the tenacity of the strikers forced the company into negotiations beginning June 3. On June 30 workers approved a three-year union agreement. James Bridge, one of the delegates, reported that the contract includes a 4.3 percent wage increase each year. After one year the workers will have a schedule that includes an additional day off each month. “All we wanted was a fair go and to be looked after by our union and we got that,” he said.

The company sacked Bridge, Rapana, and two other workers during the strike. Pickets were adamant that they be reinstated. As part of the return to work their cases were taken to an “independent inquiry.” At a July 11 victory party attended by about 100 strikers and supporters, the union announced that all four would be back at work July 14.

Teila Tifa reported that on her first day back at work she was at first upset because the company had split up all the strikers by moving them into different sections. “But all the women had morning tea and lunch together,” she said. “We laughed and were happy. And the boys went outside and had lunch in our picket shack!”

Rob Gardner contributed to this article.  
 
 
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