The Mudginberri abattoir was the focus of a major industrial relations dispute from 1983 to 1985 in Australia's Northern Territory which was notable for being the first successful use of legal sanctions against a union since the gaoling of Victorian Tramways union leader Clarrie O'Shea in 1969. The successful prosecution of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) under section 45D of the Trade Practices Act (Secondary boycott provisions) was seen by the National Farmers Federation and the developing New Right in and outside the Liberal Party of Australia as a breakthrough in a campaign to break the power of the unions and introduce contract employment.
Location
The Mudginberri station is about 250 km east of Darwin along the Arnhem Highway in the Northern Territory of Australia. The abattoir was built in the early 1970s to take advantage of the large numbers of feral buffalo in the area.
The country itself is mainly low-lying black soil country between the East Alligator and South Alligator Rivers with the Arnhem Land escarpment to the east. The station's abattoir is about 15 kilometres from Jabiru to the south and much the same distance from the Ranger Uranium Mine to the north.
Background
The Australian Meat Industry was in serious decline by the 1980s, with 35 abattoir closures across Australia between 1979 and 1982. Cattle numbers were also being cut in an attempt to eradicate brucellosis and tuberculosis from the cattle herd. This also meant the reduction in the buffalo herd which Mudginberri primarily processed for the export trade.
In the early 1980s of the dozen abattoirs operating in the NT, only Katherine and Darwin abattoirs were bound by the industrial award, while other abattoirs were hiring workers on individual contracts without union involvement. Most of those employed in the Mudginberri abattoir were itinerant workers who came through each year to make good money during the dry season, whereas the larger Katherine meatworks consisted of mainly permanent residents.
Workers were not employed directly by the abattoir owner Jan Pendarvis, but by 3 contractors engaged by the owner. The contractors had most to lose from an award based tally system according to union accounts. According to AMIEU official Allan Anderson "the reason why he (Pendarvis) succeeded was that he employed three contractors and the three contractors were viewed by the Court as being the employer, but in the essence they were really J Pendarvis's employees and J Pendarvis was, of course, the third party that was in fact effected [sic] by that industrial dispute. And, as such, they found against us that we had to pay the damages that he had incurred during that industrial dispute..."
Mudginberri was a member of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association which was, in turn, a member of the National Farmers' Federation (NFF). The Meat and Allied Trades Federation of Australia (MATFA), a representative body of meat processors, and the NFF chose to become involved in the dispute.
Paul Houlihan, Industrial Director of the NFF claimed the NFF wanted to get involved in the dispute due to "the extreme inefficiencies that exist in most parts of the meat processing industry, due to the enormously powerful position enjoyed in the industry by the AMIEU, and, in particular, because of the most common piecework method employed, that is the unit tally system."
The dispute
In 1983, the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) served a log of claims on Mudginberri and on all other abattoirs in the Northern Territory, seeking a unit tally system to be set up (a log of claims was served on employers when a union wished to create a new award for the industry) on award conditions similar to that operating at the Katherine abattoir.
In July 1984, the AMIEU increased pressure on the dispute by setting up picket lines at two Northern Territory abattoirs – Point Stuart and Mudginberri. A settlement of this dispute led to a withdrawal of the picket with each side paying its own costs.
However, hearings continued on the details of the industrial award that would be made for abattoirs. A decision on the award was handed down in April 1985 by Commissioner McKenzie which specified minimum award standards but also included a clause upholding individual non-union contracts negotiated without union involvement, which the union would not consider.