The picket of the Hutchison Ports terminal at Port Botany is continuing. The company is refusing to reinstate 97 workers sacked on 7 August.

The Fair Work Commission has ordered those still employed by Hutchison to go back to work. But a meeting of workers resolved to stay out on the picket, which has operated 24 hours a day since the morning after the sackings.

John Duggan is one of those sacked by email. “It was my birthday on Thursday; I’d been out with my family”, he said. “That night I got the email saying effective immediately I won’t be required to attend work.”

John has been on the picket line since receiving the news. “Everyone is positive, as long as we stay united”, he said.

On 9 August, dozens of trucks were turned away by workers and their supporters. “As far as we’re concerned, there will be no trucks coming in or out of this place until the company sits down with the union”, Joe Deakin, assistant secretary of the MUA Sydney branch, told Red Flag.

A freight vessel, the Capitaine Tasman, was due to be unloaded at the terminal in the morning on 10 August. But with no one to unload it, the Capitaine Tasman was sent back out to sea.

The union has put out a call for support and many other unions and groups have responded. The MUA has a long history of backing campaigns for social justice. Supporters from the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Save Millers Point campaign have been out to Port Botany to return the solidarity they have received from maritime workers in the past.

Participants in Sydney’s march for equal marriage rights donated hundreds of dollars to the sacked workers. “We’re very proud that the community joined with working men and women in this union and other unions to make sure that worker justice is still alive in this country”, Deakin said. “The standover tactics of Hutchison and companies like them, aided and abetted by Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz, will be put to the sword.”

Workers from the other two companies operating terminals at Port Botany – Patrick and DP World – have visited the picket before and after their shifts. Adam, a stevedore, took a week of leave to be able to stand on the picket line. “I’m here to support the Hutch workers. We’re all wharfies; it’s important that we all stick up for each other. If this fails we’re all stuffed.”

Sydney picket: Gate B150 Sirius Rd, Port Botany (access via Foreshore Rd)

Brisbane picket: Curlew Street, Berth 11 Fisherman Islands