None of Healy's supporters had the money to send the new secretary to take up his job. The union too was bankrupt. A friend then produced a five pound note and that was enough to get Healy to Melbourne and for him to live on in his early weeks as the Federation's secretary. When Healy died in 1961 the union was at the height of its power. Since then it has abandoned its radicalism and its commitment to socialism and communism.
Moderates rule the roost.
By contrast with Healy the current wharfies' leader, John Coombs, is a man of some affluence owning as he does a wine farm. Another Jim Healy will come. The Australian wharfies battle may be over for now, but it is safe to predict that the transportation industry will continue to be a battle zone between First world labor and capital. Since transportation systems cannot be exported to third world countries, and technological change makes possible brutal job rationalization, we will see more explosions soon. British rail workers just elected a member of Scargill's Socialist Labour Party to head up the engineers union.