Solidarity

The Maritime Union of Australia has launched a campaign to honour the men and women who worked Sydney’s wharves and ships. They want to rename a foreshore redevelopment in Darling Harbour “The Hungry Mile”, as the area has been known to workers since the Depression:

It first became known as the Hungry Mile during the Great Depression when men hungry for work, with hungry families would walk along the foreshore in search of jobs, more often than not going without. It is now an icon to the labour movement - a place where many industrial battles were fought and won.

“This is where we fought to abolish 24 hour shifts,” said veteran wharfie Arthur Brown, 90 who worked on the wharves from 1937-1977. “Our campaign slogan was ‘The nights were made for love’.”

Wharfies also won workers’ super, penalty rates, holiday loadings, safety and job security over the years. Many of these conditions flowed on to other Australian workers.

Unfortunately, the SMH’s news blog, The Anvil, reports that the campaign has been unsuccessful, and “The Hungry Mile” did not even make the short list:

the committee, which included business lobbyist Margie Osmond, Liz-Anne McGregor of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Paul Keating, instead came up with the short list of seven names too boring to repeat here.

The blog is asking readers to protest the omission of “The Hungry Mile” directly to the NSW Planning Minister, Frank Sartor: office@sartor.minister.nsw.gov.au.