Union pickets Glebe home for aged

It might be necessary to sit-in for the entire weekend or longer, Mr Mundey told the meeting.

Thirteen builders’ labourers had arrived at the home earlier and offered their support for the former manager, Mr Leonard Campbell, 33, and former matron, Mr Campbell’s wife, Colleen.

They commandeered a council truck and drove it away when it blocked the way of a car driven by another supporter of the home. The council driver stepped out of the truck and said: “I’m only doing my job.”

He backed away when the unionists moved in on him.

One unionist then drove the car down the road and parked it. Mr Mundey told the unionists: “It might be necessary later on to really take over the building. A fire officer, who arrived at the building, was shown doors that had been barricaded. Mrs Campbell said one of the doors led to a fire escape.

Surrounded by unionist, the fireman knocked on one of the doors.

A voice inside told him to go to Glebe police station.

The fireman said sealing up the doors was a breach of Leichhardt Council’s fire by-laws.

The fireman went away and returned later. He again left, saying he would have to see the council engineer to inform him that the council was breaching a bylaw.

The unionists, taking turns to picket the locked section of the building, gathered in a dining room draped with Christmas decorations. They ate prawns and chicken pieces provided by supporters of the home. Police visited the building several times early last night. They were admitted to the locked section. Mr Campbell and his wife were evicted yesterday from a flat at the home. There was a scuffle on a footpath outside the building when three inspectors forcibly removed Mrs Campbell from a courtyard.

Mr Campbell, the new manager, Mr Michael Dale, a resident of the home, Mr Fred Clarke, 74, and six Seamen’s Union members wrestled with the inspectors.

After the Campbells were removed, the Mayor of Leichhardt, Alderman Leslie Rodwell, the Leichhardt Council solicitor, Mr Vincent Pike, and the Leichhardt town clerk, Mr E. A. Basset, took possession of the couple’s flat with the inspectors, two officials of Balmain Hospital, Mr Les Hillier and Mr Arthur Dower, and three council workmen.

They locked the front and back doors from inside.

Meanwhile, Mr Campbell, Mr Dale and supporters of the home secured the doors from the outside with wire and a chain and padlock. These were twice cut with a hacksaw and pliers when the inspectors left for sandwiches. The men’s quarters stayed open, but electricity, water and telephones in the manager’s flat were cut off.

Another scuffle took place later in the day when Mrs Campbell asked police to let her inside the flat to get drugs for patients.

As she tried to force her way past, a union supporter was pushed against a window which shattered and cut his back. Three policemen arrived.

Residents of nearby houses hissed, from their windows and the home’s occupants who asked the Campbells to return after their eviction, watched quietly from benches and a balcony.

The hostel, which houses 36 men, has been the centre of a dispute since Mr Campbell became manager in 1968.

In June last the Supreme Court gave Leichhardt Council leave to evict the Campbells.

The writ of ejection claimed possession of the property, which includes a welfare centre and the hostel, in Hereford Street, Glebe.

Mr Dale was appointed manager of the home on December 7. He moved, into the manager’s flat with the Campbells as his guests—but the Campbells claim to live in Wigram Road, Glebe.

Mr Campbell said yesterday: “They want to close the home to stop further inquiries because I am still attempting to get a Royal Commission into the council-appointed administration of the home.

Since the council-appointed committee was dismissed, the home has not only paid its way—because the men each pay $12 a week rent—but the interior, has been renovated and a 17-bed nursing section has been installed, where before there was none.”

Mr Rodwell claims the home owes money to its creditors.

“The eviction notice is only for persons who are not bona fide inmates,” Mr Rodwell said. “The old men can stay here.”

Mr Rodwell said the council’s budget did not allow support for the home.

“Two weeks ago, the home’s council indicated it would be prepared to give the lease up to the Balmain Hospital for a nominal rent, he said. Mr Dower, assistant secretary of Balmain Hospital, said: “The hospital has no intention of changing the format of the home and its present occupants. We hope to-develop it gradually into an annexe for geriatric patients. The hospital plans to take over in the near future. As far as I am concerned, the council hasn’t taken over,” Mr Campbell said. “I am a trustee and honorary secretary and I intend to continue working in the home on its behalf.”

For her involvement in the scuffle, Mrs (Colleen) Campbell would eventually have the case against her dismissed.

However, she refused to pay court costs of $34 and presented herself to serve three days in Silverwater jail.

The Campbells would go on to be the owner/operators of The Glebe newspaper before selling it to Cumberland Press. Jack Mundey would gain a higher profile for his involvement in the BLF via the Green Ban initiative.