PORT OF CALL

MINING AND MARITIME MIGHT

Johannesburg: The inaugural combined meeting of mining and maritime unions from Australia and South Africa took place at the offices of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on January 17.

Deputy WA branch secretary Wal Pritchard reports that the meeting was the result of talks held at international forums on the challenges facing trade unions worldwide in the era of globalisation.

Representing the Maritime Union of Australia was Assistant National Secretary Jim Tannock and WA Deputy Secretary Wal Pritchard, with CFMEU General Secretary John Maitland and Mining Division General Secretary Tony Maher making up the Australian contingent. In the South African delegation were NUM General Secretary Gwede Mantashe, President Senzeni Zokwana, Deputy President Moni Corsby, National Health and Safety Chairperson Peter Baily, South African Transport Workers and Allied Union Deputy General Secretary Johnson Gamede and National Maritime Industry Secretary Veronica Mesatywa.

The Australian delegation also met with representatives of the South African trade union congress COSATU which has been in dispute with its former ally the African National Congress over privatisation.

The South African government has now agreed to curb plans to privatise the country's rail freight network following a two year campaign by unions.

Public Enterprises Minister,Jeff Radebe has announced that the Coal Link and General Freight Business sections of Spoornet, the state owned 20,000 km rail freight network, would remain in public hands. Radebe told the South African parliament that job losses would now be limited to about 8,000 by 2006. Around 26,000 job losses were expected under original proposals.

One of the highlights of the delegations stay in South Africa was a visit to the former home of Nelson and Winnie Mandela in Soweto.

"It is the story of Soweto and its tough people who look after their own," said Pritchard.

Pritchard strongly recommended that any future delegations from Australia include Soweto on their itinerary as a way of helping overcome the racial intolerance perpetrated by the Howard Government.

One proposal under consideration is that the MUA and SATAWU twin city project include exchange programs with Australian workers staying in mariners and miners homes while in Durban and Johannesburg on delegate training courses - and vice versa.

Deputy WA Secretary Wal Pritchard also met with Safocean shipping management in Johannesburg to arrange future free passage of aid to SA.

The delegation also visited the Othandweni Children's Home which cares for children left orphaned by the Aids epidemic. Many of the children are also infected with HIV which is now South Africa's primary social problem.

"While there is no shortage of devotion at the orphanage, things like toys and books were nowhere to be seen," said Pritchard. "But when we asked what the greatest need was, they asked for vocational training to help prepare the children to make their way in the world without a family."

The delegation has recommended that the ACTU aid organisation Apheda support the project.

The second combined meeting of the four unions is scheduled for Sydney in November.

NEIGHBOUR IN NEED

PORT MORSBY: No dole, no aged pension nor free education, 30-60 per cent unemployment and an infant mortality rate 10 times that of Australia. These are the startling statistics that Brisbane wharfie Peter Bruekers confronted when he arrived in Papua New Guinea with an ACTU delegation recently.

"The majority of people in Port Moresby are living in poverty," he reported on his return to Australia. "Households that can afford an education usually only send boys to school. Only 5 per cent of women are in the workplace. Meanwhile government ministers are skimming off the national budget. They only get one chance to better themselves while in government and that's to the detriment of others."

PNG is the biggest recipient of Australian aid. But corruption is widespread. Bruekers also heard reports of police picking up youths in the street after dark, with hapless parents often finding them in the morgue the next day. Death in custody is not just an Australian phenomenon. But Aids is the biggest killer. Apheda project officer Chris Chevalier is running an awareness campaign there that still needs more help.

On arrival in PNG Brueker was met by Reg McCallister of the Maritime Union of PNG and John Pasker from the Trade Union Congress. A visit to the union rooms was on the itinerary, with Breukers learning that the PNG union covered the whole industry from office to ship side and ship's crew, including officers. The average wage is about $50-$60/week, five times the minimum wage. The union operates a joint credit union with the teachers' union that covers workers medical benefits. Members also have a joint medical centre where their families receive a 90 per cent rebate on all medical treatment.

Meanwhile, elections are due this year and the Labor Party is putting up its own candidates, including trade union congress chief John Pasker.

"I'd like to return to assist the TUC with the election," said Breukers. "I'd also like to get members at Patrick Fisherman Island to sponsor a child through school. The Apheda Aids awareness campaign also needs our help. We must all remember that PNG is our nearest neighbour. But sending money to assist isn't always enough."

CUBAN COMRADES

HAVANA: The National Union of Merchant Marine, Port and Fishery Workers dwarfs the MUA, boasting 61,000 members, half of whom are employed in the fishing industry. Cuba has the biggest lobster fleet in the world, each vessel employing a crew of five.

But there is controversy. A major issue raised at the meeting was the ongoing problem between the Cuban union and the ITF. US restrictions on Cuban flagged vessels visiting or trading with US ports under their ongoing boycott have forced the government to flag out its fishing fleet. And this in turn has caused a problem with the ITF. All crew are Cuban and they are paid a social wage which includes benefits such as free housing and health care. But this does not stack up with ITF agreements. To make matters more difficult, the Cubans are still fiercely loyal to the old socialist bloc's World Federation of Trade Unions rather than the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions which the ITF is affiliated with.

The union has only 14 full time officials but on the job they maintain a one to one management union delegate ratio. Every workplace has union representation.

"Even in a socialist country, we have to defend the workers," said Jose Villameil, Secretary General of the Cuban maritime union.

Villameil was addressing a delegation of MUA and ITF officials at the Cuban Union Congress rooms in Havana on January 25. "Our union takes pride in helping members at work and at home if, for instance, one of their family is sick. Nor have we abandoned any of our retired members, finding them work in the union rooms so they feel useful."

Cuba's the sharp economic downturn following the collapse of the Soviet bloc hit maritime workers hard. Villameil says 20,000 members lost their jobs, with the union setting up an office to help them through the first months by paying them while they searched for work.

But those in the delegation who had made previous trips to Cuba noticed relative prosperity. Wal Pritchard noted increased foreign investment and lots of building renovation, especially in downtown hotels.

"Many of the old Chevies are back on the road with no apparent shortage of parts to keep them running," he said. "They're quite a tourist attraction."

He also noted mass defiance of the US embargo on tourism to Cuba, with a cruise ship bringing in some 1500 American students all heading for a meeting with President Fidel Castro.

Leading the delegation to the union headquarters was Assistant National Secretary Jim Tannock who extended an invitation for Villameil to attend the MUA national conference in 2003.

"We want to build on our 10 years of solidarity," said Tannock " I'm here with a message of solidarity from our union in Australia."

Also in the delegation was SA Branch Secretary Rick Newlyn, WA deputy branch secretary Wal Pritchard, ITF project officer Mark Davis, retired Sydney seafarers John Clevar and Alan Oliver, maritime union of Argentinia and Gilda Chacon, Secretary of the International Department of the Cuban Trade Union Congress.

CRISIS IN KOREA

SEOUL: Australian delegates to the SIGTUR union conference in Korea were appalled to discover that scabs were flown in from Australia to break a 40 day strike by Korean FedEx workers.

"We were shocked to say the least," said Melbourne branch official Dave Cushion. "We've promised to get to the bottom of it."

SIGTUR stands for Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Union Rights - a network of democratic unions formed in Perth in May 1991 by the WA Trades and Labour Council in response to the pressures of globalisation.

Cushion was attending the conference with MUA members Wally Pritchard, Edie Conrick and Kevin Bracken last November. The International delegates led two marches, which made headlines in Seoul, and attended a court appearance of union leader Dan Byung-ho, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

"Korean workers are frequently subjected to indiscriminate violence and brutality and over 600 have been jailed," said Cushion. "But this has not stopped them from becoming one of the most well organised and militant trade union federations in the world. We enjoyed the richness of so many different cultures. Workers are the same the world over. We need to reject the efforts being made to distance ourselves by those who continue to divide and rule."

Over 200 delegates went to the conference from South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Brazil, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Malaysia.