“It felt shithouse. Woke up at 11:30 at night to see a bloody text message and email come through saying you’re redundant, yeah awesome. Wake up your wife and tell her that one.

“They made it clear, in bold print, in an email, ‘you will not be re-employed’.”

It’s early Sunday morning at the picket outside Berth Eleven, Curlew Street at the Port of Brisbane. Alex Hood has just been describing his abrupt sacking late on Thursday. He and with 40 other Brisbane wharfies (out of a workforce of 84) were sacked by Hutchison. Similar numbers were fired in Sydney. Maritime Union of Australia members voted unanimously to picket the dock until management comes to the table.

Another dock-worker, Trevor, chips in. “These blokes have done nothing wrong.”

Alex continues, explaining what’s behind the sacking.

“You do the maths, right: 100 percent union workforce. The guys who got the definite arse immediately, all of them in Brisbane bar one was a union delegate. So I’m a delegate, and I was one of the first off, they loved me because I had something to say, and I’m an HSR [Health and Safety Representative] as well. Two birds with one stone. So anyone like that – ‘See you later.’ You tell me that’s not union busting.

“We can’t stand it; not going to stand it … It’s important that everybody’s shown up like they have because they have a good understanding of what happens if this falls over – they’d be next.”

The MUA-led picket includes delegations from the CFMEU, ETU, United Voice and other supporters. Joe, a coalminer from Clermont, is one of those unionists rallying in support.

“It’s really important to show solidarity and give each other support”, he says. “Protection in numbers, that’s what it’s all about. One lone voice really, you just get stomped on. A big group of people, workers united, that’s where our strength lies. It always has with the unions.”

Barney is a retired member of the MUA. “We’ve run international campaigns and we’ve been right all along. South African Apartheid. The campaigns around Vietnam. Go back through our history, our pedigree’s as true as can be”, he says.

“The disputes with the pig iron – you name it, we are right and we’ve never been wrong on those lines. We have staunch principles, and anywhere anyone else is in struggle, we support them. You can see that by the support we have here today. Not just from the unions. We’ve got community here.”

The Fair Work Commission has ordered the workers back to work. “Well, they’ve got the injunction in, but we know we’re right”, says Barney. “When something’s wrong, people have to fight against it. We proved that with Vietnam, we’ve proven that in other fights. A bad law has to be fought to be changed.”

[Tim Arnot is a union representative with the Queensland Teachers’ Union.]