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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 7. April 9 1979

No MAS Flights to UK and Australia

No MAS Flights to UK and Australia

As the MAS (Malaysian Air Line System) resumes normal services, international flights to Australia and England remain suspended. Rights to Europe go only to as far as Frankfurt, West Germany. Air workers in these boycotting airports refused to handle MAS flights in response to a call made by the ITWF (Internal Transport Workers Federation) to protest against the Malaysian government detention of the ITWF Asian representative Mr Donald Uren, and the deportation from Malaysia of its visiting Secretary Mr Johann Hauf. The ITWF and the local Malaysian union have persistently called on the Malaysian government to release Mr Donald Uren.

Since the MAS workers industrial action which began on December 5, 1978, 213 workers had been suspended by the management, and 22 active trade unionists arrested under ISA. Of the 213 suspended, 90 had been dismissed and 45 reinstated, and the rest are appearing before the Board of Inquiry. Contrary to the expectation of the government, the MAS workers are not cowed by either the arrests or by the presence of troops in Port Klang and at the Subang International Airport. As one trade unionist put to the Feer, "The Malaysian economy depends on the movement of our primary products around the world, we can be thrown into jail, but you cannot force anyone to unload our exports under any law in the world."

The events surrounding the MAS industrial action point to the direct intervention of the government at all levels. Even though the government, may have tried to justify its action, if the MAS union action was illegal, why did the government not take out a court injunction to stop it?

(Ref. NST Feer)

Map of Malaysia

Drawing of two people with wine and a small child