Thirty three workers in Western Australia may lose their cars, homes or other property, after a court ordered bailiffs to seize the workers’ property for refusing to pay fines for striking. The workers were fined up to $10,000 each for an eight-day strike on a Woodside liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Pilbara in October 2008. Workers went on strike to protect their redundancy payment entitlements and to get a guarantee of their re-employment on the next phase of the project. This is the first time in Australian history that individual workers face seizure of property by a court for taking strike action. It shows how the laws serve the capitalist class, criminalising strike action and removing the most powerful way for workers' to defend themselves.
Thirty three workers in Western Australia may lose their cars, homes or other property, after a court ordered bailiffs to seize the workers’ property for refusing to pay fines for striking. The workers were fined up to $10,000 each for an eight-day strike on a Woodside liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Pilbara in October 2008. Workers went on strike to protect their redundancy payment entitlements and to get a guarantee of their re-employment on the next phase of the project. This is the first time in Australian history that individual workers face seizure of property by a court for taking strike action. It shows how the laws serve the capitalist class, criminalising strike action and removing the most powerful way for workers' to defend themselves.
