Beyond the waterfront

摘要

Ask Australians what was their country's landmark industrial event during the past 50 years or so, and many will name the waterfront war of 1998. That was when Chris Corrigan, head of Patrick Corporation, a cargo-handling company, took on the "wharfies", Australia's stevedores, and smashed their union's control of the docks. Few Australians had heard of Mr Corrigan at the time, but he brought about an industrial showdown the likes of which had not been seen before or since. His use of nonunion contract workers, some concealing their identities under balaclavas and spirited across violent picket lines, did, however, echo the tactics of another Australian businessman, but in a different country. Mr Corrigan had quietly noted how Rupert Murdoch, then an Australian, had used a similar game plan to destroy the power of Britain's print unions 12 years earlier. Since his victory, Mr Corrigan has added a rail-freight company and an airline to Patrick Corporation's stable. All three businesses are now part of his strategy of forging Australia's biggest transport revolution since it first started to overcome the "tyranny of distance".