A Tale of Two Ships

PHOTO: Peter O'Halloran

The Yarra and the Pacific. Spot the difference. One a ship sailing under the Australian flag with Australian crew about to be flagged out, the other already a flag of convenience employing exploited labour from the Ukraine. Both in dispute. Both related by the once proud, Australian owned, National Line.
But the tale of two ships soon becomes a tale of two more as both the sinking asylum seeker hulk and the ANL Progress sail into the picture.

Melbourne, December 17: It was the week before Christmas when management called the crew together to announce CSL would sell the ship from under them on December 27. Guest workers would be flown in to take their jobs at the next port of call - Brisbane. The Yarra would get a new name and join her sister ship the CSL Pacific flying the Bahamas flag on our coast.

Soon after the announcement sign writers were repainting her stern with her new registry - Nassau.

"They wanted to sack us, and at Christmas time, too,?" said MUA crew member Shayne Holmes. "It was the worst time possible. Everyone felt down and out."

"It was a double shock for me," said delegate John Smith. "I was on the Torrens when they sold the ship from under us. It was a sad feeling. But we let the union know and took it from there."

This time CSL did not bother with any pretence. This time there was no fiction about the ship going back into the international trade, like the tale of the Torrens, now the Pacific, flying the Bahamas flag on our coast. CSL Managing Director Chris Sorensen told Lloyd's List Daily Commercial News (and later the Federal Court) that the ship would be sold to CSL Asia. The intention was to have both vessels under a flag of convenience on the Australian coast.

"We are selling the ship overseas and CSL Asia is free to run it where it can," Mr Sorensen said. "Obviously that includes Australia."

All 17 Australian crew were being made redundant. A Ukranian crew of around 27 were being flown in to replace them on Australian soil.

"It was upsetting bringing the foreign crew here and taking our jobs off us in our country," said Holmes.

It was the end of the year. Business was winding down. But this was an emergency. If the Yarra went down to a flag of convenience the entire fleet was in imminent danger of sinking, taking all crew with it.

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin convened an urgent meeting of officers and told them that the union was going to take the company on. He appointed SA Branch Secretary Ric Newlyn to co-ordinate the campaign to save the Yarra. Those on leave were called back into the office. The legal team shifted into high gear. In the engine room, members of the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers, took protected industrial action over the terms of their enterprise agreement, preventing the ship sailing. Both maritime unions sought a temporary injunction in the Federal Court preventing the sale or any redundancies going ahead. CSL agreed to keep the vessel until the matter was heard in April.

Before the ship sailed out of town the sign writers were back and the Yarra sailed under her old name. Spirits on board were buoyed.

"We were all elated," said John Smith. "Morale was good. We were keeping the ship for another three or four months at least. It gave us more time to put up a bit of fight. Other shipowners are watching the coast closely. If CSL can get away with this every other blue water ship will go."

"We'll do anything we can to keep the ship," said Newlyn. "We told Sorensen we were prepared to make concessions and deliver an outcome."

UNFAIR COMPETITION

What makes it so attractive to CSL and others to change a ships name and registry is the federal government policy of deregulating the coast. Under the Navigation Act cabotage laws are designed to protect Australian shipping and Australia's domestic trade. But the Howard Government policy is to open up the coast by the back door use of the single and continuous voyage permit system.

In a November 1999 letter to Transport Minister John Anderson, former CSL executive, Captain David King, accused freight forwarders of rorting the permit system.

King said if the minister did not tighten up the loopholes forcing his ships to compete on the open market with cut rate flag of convenience vessels, he could not beat them. He would join them. And that is exactly what CSL did.

As the number of permits has gone up, the use of Australian flagged and crewed ships has gone down.

In 2000-1 continuous voyage permits increased by 60 per cent to 116. Since 1991 SVPs have gone up by 163 per cent. In 1994, before the election of the Howard Government, there were 78 Australian flagged ships. Today there are 47.

Both the Yarra and the Pacific (alias Torrens) were two of 32 ships in the government owned now privatised ANL fleet. All but a handful of the former ANL international container fleet now fly flags of convenience or employ crews of convenience hired from manning agents in third world countries.

Australian seafarers have become an endangered species and the union is fighting for their lives.

The arguments for retaining an Australian shipping industry are all encompassing - jobs and skills, heightened security issues arising from the September 11 terrorist attacks as well as ongoing humanitarian and environmental concerns.

But the unions are up against tough opponents with the Federal Government backing CSL in the courts and the Commission.

The union determined to strike a financial levy of all members during the federal elections to highlight the plight of Australian seafarers.

SABOTAGE

On the morning of January 3 as the Yarra sailed down the NSW coast on its way back from Brisbane disaster struck.

IR Dave Buder was working down the hold that morning when he noticed water dripping in. He and his workmates went to investigate. It was then they uncovered the damage.

A fire hose was either turned on or had leaked, flooding 500 tonnes of residual cement dust in the machine hold and creating a solid block of cement.

"Ship row sabotage fear" the front page of The Australian newspaper screamed on January 4.

Was it the company who implied the crew were the culprits? The Australian is not saying. And a subsequent Federal Police investigation found no evidence implicating them.

National Secretary Crumlin described it as MUA bashing bull (see Letters Forum).

Tempers flared. The union went into damage control. But by the time the ship reached Adelaide the media tide against the MUA and the crew was beginning to turn.

"Shipping rules sink locals," ran one headline in the Weekend Australian January 5-6. "Government rules giving an advantage to foreign ships are killing the local industry and allowing up to 1500 foreign crew members to bypass normal immigration checks each year," it read.

"Flagging Distress" ran the Adelaide Advertiser in a damning report describing Flag of Convenience ships as having poor safety and training standards with virtually non existent or non enforceable safety regulations.

"We still call Australia home", "Our cargo, Our Coast, Our Ships", "Export goods not jobs" the banners strung on the sides of the Yarra declared as she sailed briefly out of the eye of the storm.

LOBBY SESSION

The spotlight now moved to Canberra. On February 18 a contingent of mua officials joined rank and filers in Parliament House where another shipping story was about to overtake the Yarra. It was the leaking hulk that carried Howard back into office after Reith and Rudduck spread tales of children being thrown overboard. But gaping holes had emerged in the tale, sinking the creditability of one time workplace relations and defence minister Peter Reith.

No MUA member was surprised to find Reith had lied over the affair. Just as MUA stevedoring workers had been demonised as bludgers and rorters in the prelude to the 1998 lockout, asylum seekers were painted as terrorists and queue jumpers - people prepared to drown their own children. Or sew up their lips. Except that none of it was true.

Worth noting was the government line that the ship carrying the desperate men, women and children was, like the Yarra, 'sabotaged'.

So while a government already tarnished by the Tampa spying allegations squirmed under the media spotlight, the MUA worked quietly behind the scenes on the other shipping story.

The Canberra delegation comprised delegation leader Rick Newlyn, SA branch secretary, Joanne White, national legal officer, Sean Chaffer, national shipping campaign co-ordinator, Zoe Reynolds, MUA media, Dean Summers, ITF Co-ordinator, Dave Buder, Yarra crew delegate and Mick Killick, researcher, seafarer and shipping campaign veteran.

Jan McFarlane, ALP member for Stirling, WA, helped navigated the delegation around the corridors of power.

The team met with the ALP caucus maritime sub-committee, as well as senators and MPs, briefing them on the issues of permits, immigration, customs and flags of convenience.

"You can criticise the ALP for a lot of things since they lost the election," said Newyln. "But it should be noted that the only reason the committee met that day was because we were there to see them."

Nor were they worried about having their photos taken side by side with the union delegation.

Questions, briefing papers and invitations for parliamentarians to compare two ships, the Cypriot flagged ANL Progress and the Australian flagged (former ANL) vessel CSL Yarra, were put to the committee as more ammunition for the opposition to use in the Senate estimates committee and question time.

The first round was fired the next day when Senator Kerry O'Brien (ALP) asked Greg Feeney from the Transport and Infrastructure Division whether the foreign crew on the CSL Pacific (alias River Torrens) needed visas or vetting.

"They are treated as being on an international voyage, which ostensibly they are, Senator," said Feeney.

"A nice refuge to hide behind," said O'Brien.

Ostensibly: 'for show' 'put forward to conceal the real', according to the Oxford Dictionary.

FLOATING SWEATSHOPS

Now the seafarers had taken the issues to the MPs it was time for the honourable members to come on board.

"See for yourselves, compare," said Rick Newlyn, inviting the MPs to visit a ship of shame that was subject to an ITF dispute . And so one man did. Waiting to go on board the Progress when she arrived in Melbourne on February 26 was Senator Barney Cooney and a hefty media contingent.

"They wouldn't let the media on board," said Newlyn. "But they couldn't stop Senator Cooney telling them what he saw. Poor chap was nearly dry retching overboard after he checked out the toilets. And we got the crew to come down the gangway and talk to the media as well, before she sailed."

But just as one flag of convenience controversy disappeared over the horizon, a second FOC hit trouble. A serious accident on board the CSL Pacific (alias Torrens) put one crew member in hospital

While ITF representatives were at the injured seafarer's bedside, the Bureau of Transport held an inquiry into the accident. And more holes were detected in the government's leaky shipping policy.

"Under government guidelines once a ship is under investigation by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau its permit must be cancelled," said MUA Shipping Co-ordinator Sean Chaffer. "So why hasn't the Government revoked the permit?"

It was a question also asked by Shadow Transport Minister Martin Ferguson.

But as with the Bunga Teratai I that grounded on the Great Barrier Reef 18 months earlier, the government said they could only revoke a permit after giving six months notice - contradicting the terms of the CVP.

MARITIME MAY DAY

The MUA legal team, too, had turned its attention to the Pacific, this time in the Industrial Relations Commission and with the added weight of the ACTU.

The maritime unions and the ACTU asked the Commission to make Australian wages and conditions apply to ships, like the Pacific, operating the Australian coast under the permit system.

"Maritime mayday, Maritime unions have launched a rearguard campaign to save Australia's once proud shipping industry from extinction by local ships sailing under foreign flags," The Melbourne Herald Sun reported on February 25. "Ships that once called Australian ports their home now carry the flags of countries such as Panama, Liberia and Cyprus."

"Unions in Bid to Scupper Foreign Armada Operating on the Cheap," The Sydney Morning Herald reported on February 22. "The ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said many of shipping's problems could be blamed on the Federal Transport Minister John Anderson for issuing permits to foreign vessels and allowing them to work Australian routes. He accused Mr Anderson of knowingly authorising the export of Australian jobs and said that many of the foreign flag vessels introduced to coastal waters were rust buckets that threatened the marine environment."

The ACTU has been granted leave to intervene. Former NSW attorney general Jeff Shaw will appear for the unions.

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Abbot has intervened on behalf of the Commonwealth.

"They will find themselves in a position of supporting a foreign company, operating a foreign ship, manned by a foreign crew of illegal non-citizens, competing with Australian shipping and workers in the interstate trade," said MUA solicitor Bill McNally.

The hearings begin in June.

FOCs ON WHEELS

At the ACTU executive on March 7 the unions got further backing with a resolution supporting the MUA campaign to protect the Australian domestic shipping industry as integral to the national transport infrastructure. It was an important move forward in the union's shipping campaign.

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said the resolution demonstrated that all key transport unions now understood that bringing guest labour into the domestic shipping industry is just the beginning.

"It won't stop at the high tide mark down the beaches," he said. "Ultimately all Australian jobs are at risk."

Moved by MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and seconded by Transport Workers' Union Federal Secretary John Allan, the resolution also had strong support from Rail, Tram and Bus Union National Secretary Roger Jowett.

Both land transport unions have already felt the impact of cut rate shipping on their industries.

The Australasian Railway Association, representing rail operators and their manufacturers and suppliers, has warned the percentage of coastal freight carried by subsidised foreign shipping had increased from virtually nil in the mid 90s to 8 per cent in 2000. That's 5 million tonnes of freight annually lost to the Australian rail system.

"It's not just a matter of solidarity with the maritime unions, our members are losing jobs to flag of convenience shipping on our coast, too," said RTBU National Secretary Roger Jowett.

Cut rate shipping also impacts on road transport, forcing owner drivers to lower freight rates and then have to work dangerously long hours to make a living wage, according to Transport Workers' Union National Secretary John Allan.

"I also told the ACTU executive how foreign airlines had picked up domestic passengers during the Ansett collapse," he said. "That was a one off, but if they can deregulate our coast, they can deregulate our skies."

But FOC shipping is not just a threat to all transport workers, it's a threat to all Australians, according to academics examining current security concerns.

SECURITY

"Vulnerable from the sea", the mass circulation Sydney daily Telegraph reported: "Maritime border security has not been upgraded since September 11 leaving Australia vulnerable to a new kind of terrorist threat, experts have warned."

The Telegraph cited Professor Martin Tsamenyi, director of the Centre of Maritime Policy at Wollongong University:

"It's easy to secure airports but it's very difficult to secure maritime borders... a well resourced terrorist would find it relatively easy to evade current maritime border control," said the Professor, highlighting how few restrictions there were on commercial shipping plying our sea lanes.

Less than one per cent of shipping containers are inspected by customs and crews of foreign flag vessels are automatically issued visas, bypassing the usual scrutiny applied to tourists or asylum seekers.

While the US and the UK had tightened their maritime borders after the November 11 strikes on the US, Australia had overlooked maritime border security.

"You are right to argue that Flag of Convenience shipping is a security risk as well as an environmental risk," said Professor Tsamenyi, inviting the MUA to the 'Protecting Australia's Maritime Borders' conference in Canberra on March 20.

It was another shipping story the Opposition would use to embarrass the government.

Ferguson had already raised the issue of crew going missing in Parliament and Senator O'Brien had raised concerns over the automatic granting of special visas. Now ALP MPs would turn the heat up on the government's failure to protect Australia against terrorism.

"We talk about border protection," Ferguson told Parliament on March 13. 'We find one rule on border protection when it comes to the election campaign and another rule on border protection when it comes to exporting Australian jobs."

Ferguson pointed out that there was no rigorous scrutiny or identification checking of foreign crew. "Who would know who is on the vessel? Are they terrorists or not?"

O'Byrne member for Bass (ALP) added to the chorus of concern: "The way that this Government is prepared to allow foreign ships with foreign crews to ply our waters with few restrictions or controls means that these ships may well instead provide the first arm of attack against us in a time of conflict. It is not just our defence in wartime that the government must pay attention to, but the defence of our maritime coastline."

O'Byrne also told Parliament that between March 1996 and April 1999, 263 deserters from foreign ships were reported by the Australian Customs Service.

"They were the ones who were reported," she said. "Some 148 were located."

AUSTRALIAN JOBS

On March 7 a delegation of politicians and media boarded the Yarra in Brisbane. They included Shadow Minister for Transport Martin Ferguson, Senator-elect Claire Moore and Margaret Keech, MP, Qld.

"I met the captain and the crew," Martin Ferguson later told Parliament. "Highly skilled Australian workers and highly skilled Australian seafarers, working on our interstate transport industry carting cement around the coast between Australian cities.

"These are Australian workers, and we should not forget this. They have kids going to our schools, they pay taxes in Australia like you and me, they buy all their milk and bread at the local shops, and they participate in their local church and sporting groups.

"I want to tell the House this afternoon what their greatest fear is. Their fear is that their ships will soon disappear, just as their sister ship and their jobs disappeared only a matter of a couple of years ago."

"This court case is big," said Yarra crew member Shayne Holmes. "We're not just fighting for our jobs but every other seafarer's job around the coast."

POSTSCRIPT: The Federal Court hearings on the fate of the CSL Yarra concluded on April 5.

A decision is not expected until May.

Full report next MWJ