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           Shipping Stevedoring Port Services Hydrocarbons Diving  Jul-Aug 2008        |
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General Information
The Maritime Union of Australia represents around 10,000 Australian stevedoring workers (wharfies), seafarers, divers and port workers. They work at sea on ships, offshore facilities, in harbours on ferries and tugs, on land on the wharves and in offices and control towers. As a key affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation, it also helps represent 320,000 of the world's seafarers, who depend on ITF affiliates like the MUA for wage justice and protection against human right's abuses. MUA members work in dangerous and stressful jobs that keep them from their friends and family, sometimes for weeks at a time. They work around the clock, nights, days, weekends and holidays, operating heavy equipment, up cranes three stories high and 500-600 feet down in the murky depths laying underwater pipes. The Maritime Union is a strong union, with a long history of solidarity - working for its members, the community and causes such as the environment, an anti nuclear Pacific, land rights and justice for Aboriginal Australians the Australian republic, independence for East Timor and trade union rights worldwide. The MUA came about as an amalgamation of the Seamen's Union of Australia and the Waterside Workers Federation in 1993. But its roots go back to the 19th century and the formation of the first maritime union in the world - the Seamen's Union of Australia in 1872. The same year the Sydney Wharf Labourers' Union was established at the Oriental Hotel. But the first joint industrial action taken by wharfies and seafarers was one and a half centuries before amalgamation, when in 1837 Sydney wharf labourers and seamen outfitting whaling ships held a joint stop work meeting and strike. They were demanding an extra one shilling a day in wages. With the birth of a nation and Federation came national unionism, The Waterside Workers Federation (1902) and the Seamen's Union of Australia (1906). Both the SUA and the WWF have always been regarded as very politicised unions (too much so for conservative politicians and business leaders); and little wonder. The first meeting of the WWF was staged in Federal Parliament House, Melbourne on 7 February 1902.
It's leader was Billy Hughes then the secretary of the Sydney Wharf Labourers' Union and a federal member of parliament. The WWF of Australia was born in a political environment, sponsored and led by politicians and destined to become the nation's most politicised trade union wrote union historian Rupert Lockwood (Ship to Shore). Hughes was later to become PM of Australia. Other leaders of the SUA and the WWF of note include:
Over the years many smaller unions amalgamated with the SUA or the WWF, including the Firemen and Deckhands, Federated Shipping Clerks' Union, Cooks and others until this day when the MUA has come to represent port workers, offshore workers, deep sea divers - even office workers on the wharves. The MUA is internationally recognised for its commitment to the underdog. Aboriginal rights, the independence in East Timor, a nuclear free Pacific are just some of the causes it has championed over the years. And while maritime workers fought against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, 1 in 8 seafarers died during the world wars while working in the merchant marine - their ships torpedoed or sunk by mines. SNAPSHOTS from days gone by
Other About Us articles:
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This page: http://mua.org.au/aboutus/general.html Site proudly designed and engineered by Social Change Online |
© 2001 Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) |
