WORKERS AT Vopak, a bulk liquids handling dock at Port Botany, Sydney, hosted 80 MUA members in a solidarity meeting on April 30.

All 15 Vopak workers were sacked recently as management cowardly avoided the workers' legal right to hold a secret ballot for a new enterprise agreement.

Management cited "operational" reasons for the sackings, despite 15 years of industrial harmony at the site, with previous enterprise bargains rolled over year after year.

It is another example of a company seeking to take advantage of Howard's anti-union industrial relations laws.

The company has re-hired three other workers on AWAs, and is now working them over marathon shifts without penalty rates.

The workers are happy to host visitors and see their struggle as important in the fight against the IR laws.

Visit them at 49 Friendship Road, Port Botany, Sydney.

For further details contact Mark Ptolemy, Media Officer, NUW (National Union of Workers) 0414993873 or visit NUW website

John Morris