The following article from Workplace Express outlines the legal situation facing the striking Boeing Workers.

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Monday 14th April 2008 7:03 pm EST

The Federal Court will tomorrow conduct a full-day mediation in a bid to end the stoppage at Boeing Commercial Airplanes subsidiary Hawker de Havilland's site in Melbourne, after the company today won an extension of an interlocutory injunction that potentially makes individual workers liable for the company's losses of about $1m a day.

The company initially won a s496 order last Tuesday after some 800 workers at the Fishermens Bend aircraft components manufacturing facility walked off the job on Monday.

The order, against the AMWU and the individual workers eligible for membership of the union, took effect on Wednesday. Workers returned to the job that day, but later went out again.

The company then won an interlocutory order, again against the union and the individual workers, from the Federal Court's Justice Shane Marshall on Friday.

Justice Marshall extended the order today and set the matter down for an expedited trial on May 7 (with May 8 and 9 set aside if needed).

He directed the parties to undergo a full day of mediation tomorrow, before the court's Victorian district registrar, Sia Lagos.

AMWU Victorian branch secretary Steve Dargavel today addressed a mass meeting at Fishermens Bend and informed members of the terms of the orders, but after he left the workers voted by an overwhelming majority to stay out.

Dargavel told Workplace Express that the union had consistently sought dialogue with the company over the dispute, but that Boeing had consistently resisted.

The dispute arose after the company dismissed a cell leader (supervisor) and an employee over alleged irregularities in his recording of employees' timesheets.

Boeing spokesperson Ken Morton today said the company couldn't tolerate dishonesty.

He said the company "reserved its position" on whether to pursue damages against 800 individual workers named in the orders.

Case No. VID210 of 2008

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more info: Boeing Actions Archive | www.unionsolidarity.org

Labels: Boeing, legal