Wearing a dark T-shirt and blue jeans, the first speaker steps to the front of the podium. He is a sturdy man, tanned skin, a beard down to his chest.
"Comrades," says the unionist, Will Tracey, into the microphone loudly. "We have a very serious issue."
Below him, on the sloping lawn, stands a crowd of 1000 pickets, fired up and angry.
Beyond them, over at the wharves, are rows of towering gantry cranes and multi-coloured shipping containers - red, blue, orange and grey.
The noise from the rally is extremely loud, but across the road at the Port of Melbourne, all is quiet. High stacks of shipping containers are sitting idle on the docks. They have been forcibly stranded here for the past two weeks.
Twenty years on from the infamous 1998 waterfront dispute, when Patrick stevedores locked out 1400 maritime union members, the docks of Melbourne this month emerged as the scene of an escalating union war; this time, engulfing the port's newest stevedore, Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT).
What happened here, though, was not just about power and pay on the wharves. It was also representative of a new brand of militancy that has become part of the playbook of the wider labour movement and its peak bodies, who believe our workplace laws are "broken".
Outside VICT, since the start of December, a pro-union picket line defied repeated court orders and spent an entire fortnight maintaining an around-the-clock presence, illegally blockading its terminal access gates so neither trucks nor staff were able to enter.
Caught in the crossfire of the feud were more than 1000 shipping containers carrying millions of dollars of Christmas retail goods, fresh food, and medicine. Among them were 22 tonnes of Oreo cookies, 25 tonnes of milk powder, 26 tonnes of beer, 40 tonnes of coffee, 58 tonnes of sports shoes, 97 tonnes of peanut butter and 170 tonnes of cheese.
The cargo was being "held hostage" by the unions, employer groups said, and so too were the fortunes of stevedores, freight companies and the wider supply chain.
Businesses watched on anxiously, helplessly.
"It is a bit nerve-racking," said Joe Tullio, of Australia Fruits, whose container holding $45,000 worth of pears was among the stranded cargo.
"It's our money sitting there ??? we can't even go in and retrieve it."
The union action was part of a protest against what unions claim was an underhanded strategy by the stevedore to smash the power of the maritime union by supposedly targeting and terminating a casual wharf worker, Richard Lunt, who had been leading a union campaign.
"We certainly can't have a company that stands over people who are willing to stand up for unions inside that gate," Mr Tracey roared to the crowd, over the podium scaffolding.
"We have a company ... that's trying to destroy the MUA's rightful place on the waterfront."
At the centre of this stand-off were accusations that VICT was engaging in "union-busting" tactics after terminating Mr Lunt. The company said it was because he had been identified as ineligible for the security clearance required to work on the docks due to a 20-year-old criminal conviction. The union claimed he was singled out because he had been leading a union campaign inside the terminal.
A broader issue, it is plainly clear, was that VICT had circumvented the Maritime Union of Australia to strike a wage deal that paid vastly inferior rates compared to the city's other waterfront operators.
Under the VICT agreement, a different union, the Maritime Officers Union of Australia, is the lead party. It was signed up by between five and 10 higher-paid supervisors, on behalf of the current workforce of more than 120.
The MUA claimed a victory on Friday, finally calling off the picket line, after the company ceded to pressure and reinstated Mr Lunt on its books. The company would continue to pay him, but he would not return to the workplace, pending the outcome of a court case next year.
"A workable resolution has been reached in discussions between the union and company management which is a welcome relief at Christmas," union secretary Paddy Crumlin said.
"The MUA would like to thank the Melbourne community and broader trade union movement for backing this worker in his time of need and standing up for decent pay, conditions and job security for all working men and women."
For many in the union movement, the dispute at VICT speaks about a bigger problem and feeds into a national discussion about what they see as a pressing need to change workplace laws.
The Australian Council of Trade Union's new secretary, Sally McManus - who courted controversy after telling the ABC this year that she believed in the rule of law only when the "law is fair" - said the dockside picket had become a "front line" in the fight for better rights at work.
"We must change these broken rules, we must," Ms McManus said at last Friday's rally.
"One of the workers who stood up to be a delegate worker here was a casual worker. Well what rights do casual workers have in this country?
"Our bargaining rights are so fundamentally broken when bosses can cancel EBAs [enterprise bargaining agreements], when they can vote up dodgy EBAs like they have here. There will be no limits.
"We must fight, comrades, until we get better and stronger rights at work."
Under the leadership of Ms McManus and The Victorian Trades Hall Council's youngest-ever secretary, Luke Hilakari, there has been a renewed injection of vigour and energy into union campaigning that has become unmistakable.
"We've got no choice," Mr Hilakari says. "People have realised if we aren't going to be out there campaigning against some of the worst atrocities humans face in the workplace, then what are we here for?"
The stevedore at Webb Dock was just the latest big Australian employer to face assertive campaigning from the union movement over what it claims are substandard wage agreements or violations of workplace rights.
Beer giant Carlton & United Breweries last year faced a national boycott campaign and a six-month protest outside the gates of its Abbotsford production plant until it agreed to reinstate on full pay and conditions a group of maintenance workers who had been axed after a contract change.
Casino giant Crown Resorts was also hit with protracted union hostility after the company sacked a crew of 16 casino technicians at the flagship Crown Melbourne gaming floor, and outsourced their jobs. They wound up reinstated, too.
Other sources in the union movement, however, believe this month's dispute at the docks was more about the MUA's "do-or-die" battle to maintain its hold on the waterfront and to remain relevant in the face of declining membership. VICT's terminal is not just the newest at the Port of Melbourne, it is also the first fully automated terminal in the country, meaning it employs fewer dock workers than other stevedores.
"Part of the problem is they are losing members as terminals automate and there is less need for stevedores, and as coastal shipping disappears," one source said. "There are no jobs for their members ... so they are kind of fighting."
For the most part of the past two weeks, VICT looked like it was digging in. Victoria's Supreme Court had twice granted the company's orders for the maritime union to not go within 100 metres of the terminal access gates and to lift the illegal picket line.
But the blockade remained in force, and started to be referred to as a "peaceful community protest" by supporters in the wider trade union movement. Pickets for two weeks used objects such as chairs and bicycles to block VICT's access gates. The picket line escalated last week when hundreds marched on the Webb Dock site as part of a multi-union demonstration.
VICT then sought and won new orders against the maritime union, the construction union and Trades Hall, who were all hit with injunctions after a judge found that the manning of the blockade had been "outsourced" to the wider trade union movement.
In an extremely unusual step, Mr Hilakari was injuncted as a "representative" of other unionists and supporters who had attended the picket line.
"I accept that making a representative order is a serious step," said Justice Michael McDonald. But without one in place, "the unlawful conduct on the docks will continue", he said.
The orders were defied again, and the picket continued anyway. On Thursday, there were new faces at the scene, new flags and new banners.
Friday's decision to lift the picket will come as a relief to retailers and logistics companies who had taken a hit after their trucks were turned away at the gates. It will also be a relief to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, a Left-factional ally of many of the unions involved, who stayed silent as the dispute played out.
But it solidified fears among the industry groups that intersect with the docks. The union action comes at a time when two of the country's most militant unions - the Maritime Union of Australia and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - are planning to merge into a super union.
The Australian Logistics Council says the illegal blockade at Webb Dock was "merely a taste of the industrial mayhem that would be unleashed" if the merger went ahead.
"These events are reminiscent of the bad old days on the Australian waterfront," managing director Michael Kilgariff says.
"If these two unions are able to cause this level of disruption and massive financial losses when operating as single entities, just imagine what will occur if they are allowed to form a mega-union.
"This type of action won't simply be restricted to the waterfront, but will occur right across the supply chain."
