Industrial rounds
Contract Blues
BRISBANE & SYDNEY: The entire MUA maintenance workforce at Port Botany,
Sydney and Fishermans Island, Brisbane were outside the gates for a week in
November after a dispute erupted with the new contractor Skilled Engineering.
Every three years Patrick tenders for maintenance work; each time they award
the contract to a different mob and each time they do the union ends up in a
battle to transfer the workforce over to the new contractor.
Skilled Engineering refused to offer all the 40 former Transfield permanent
employees jobs after the company won the maintenance contract.
Half of the permanent workers refused jobs were delegates.
It was at this point that negotiations between the union and the company got
heated. Skilled agreed to take one of the delegates and one other worker back.
That wasn't good enough.
"The union and the boys decided to take action," said delegate Josh
Teale (see I'm in the Union, p48). "We refused the company letters of offer
and were out the gates."
Peaceful community assemblies were set up at Penrhyn Road, Port Botany and
Port Road, Fisherman Islands.
Each time this contract has been awarded, job security issues have arisen,"
said Branch Secretary Robert Coombs. "This time the major argument was
that our union delegates were refused employment -- a position we were not going
to tolerate. Our members have delivered on productivity; we can't see why we
should be penalised. This sort of discrimination could not be allowed to go
unchallenged."
MUA members made no attempt to stop trucks or deliveries at the terminal but
productivity slumped when the scab labour was unable to keep the straddles maintained.
They couldn't do the job. Some shifts so many straddles were out of action
Teale said the labour couldn't shift a box.
Lloyds List Daily Commercial News reported that Patrick terminal faced renewed
congestion. Depots passed the red line of 70-box utilisation rate; delays of
several hours became common with a series of machinery breakdowns in the yards,
at truck and rail exchanges and at the quayside. By the end of the week four
out of six quay cranes were out of action with four ships alongside. Two discharges
were subcontracted to P&O Ports and one ship diverted to Melbourne.
"We see a lot of work involved with the straddle," said Teale. "It's
an efficient machine but it's driven hard and requires a lot of maintenance."
And that requires experienced, skilled labour.
"Morale picked up thanks to the support from other members and the union,"
said Teale. "We really want to thank the members, the branch and national
officials for that."
Solidarity was high with P&O workers marching to the picket after shift,
tents going up and the place beginning to look and feel like the heady days
of the big lockout in 1998. The protest also had the support of Patrick operational
labour, linesman, towage operators and bunker barge members.
Lee Rhiannon, NSW Greens MLC announced in state parliament that she had joined
wharfies at the Port Botany to protest against Skilled.
"The figures show clearly that MUA members have delivered on productivity,"
she said. "The agenda of Skilled Engineeering has a wider aspect and it
is clearly old-fashioned union busting."
Rhiannon then called for the defeat of the Howard Government and the repealing
of industrial laws preventing workers from going on strike.
The NSW Labor Council also threw its collective weight behind the Maritime
Union condemning Skilled Engineering's bid to drive union delegates off Patrick's
maintenance sites.
Labour Council resolved to "support the community protest outside the
Patrick Stevedoring Terminal at Port Botany in support of the MUA campaign to
have their delegates employed by Skilled Engineering.
Urging widespread support for maritime workers, Labor Council Secretary John
Robertson warned affiliates that Skilled's waterfront showdown was a direct
threat to all unions.
"Union delegates are the life blood of the movement," he said. "We
must protect them from attack. This dispute is all about the boss not wanting
good quality, hard working delegates."
Unions representing 800,000 NSW workers vowed to support the picket.
National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said the move by Skilled smacked of politics
and manipulation.
"We've had a gutful of this crap," he said. "If they want to
have a go, they've come to the right place. Patrick is the primary contractor
and they've got a case to answer, too."
The next day the union reached a settlement which went to a vote of members
at both pickets. The agreement endorsed, the workforce was back in the gates
the next morning.
The MUA successfully negotiated major improvements to rosters and salaries,
but had still to resolve the selection of labour in Brisbane and the engagement
of electricians and storemen in Botany.
"Myself and the other guy were reinstated and the three electricians that
missed out were picked up as preferred casuals," said Teale. "Storeman
Rowland Eagar had union assurance we'd get him another job. All the guys affected
endorsed our return to work and the commitment to fight for jobs from the inside.
But as soon as we were back the company reneged."
At first they knocked back two of the electricians on medical grounds. After
further intervention by the union an independent medical got one back to work,
with the other member still waiting on his results.
"The company have yet to honour the terms of the agreement," said
Josh. "They reneged on the pay deal, cutting our pay by $10,000 annually
from what we got at Transfield and what was agreed before we went back in the
gates. They're picking up scab labour ahead of the preferred casuals we agreed
on and in Brisbane they've failed to pay our members at all while the Commission
is being set down."
The union took further action against Skilled Engineering. And the matter was
back in the Commission as MWJ went to press.
"We're not copping this two-faced bullshit," said Crumlin. "This
is about further attacking permanent workers. If Skilled want the blue they've
got it. In buckets."
Working Harbour Closure
SYDNEY: The NSW state government's announcement that it was closing bulk and
general operations in Sydney Harbour by 2006 caused rumblings in the branch
in September and the threat of industrial action. P&O had announced it would
close down its White Bay terminal by November and share facilities with Patrick
Stevedores in Darling Harbour. The branch and White Bay committee set about
negotiating a number of demands, especially around job security.
Members wanted joint receival and delivery and gear store arrangements, inter-company
hire in general stevedoring and job security. Half of the 120 P&O labour
force at White Bay bulk and general were casual with no job security or redundancy
provisions.
P&O and Patrick met all demands.
"The result is encouraging," said Branch Secretary Robert Coombs.
"For the first time in many years workers from different companies are
working side by side in stevedoring. This is undoubtedly a move away from the
strict enterprise employment arrangements in place for the past decade."
In R&D Patrick will do day shift and P&O evening shift with some cross
over of break bulk cargoes. The gear store basically remains unchanged.
"We rejected a P&O/Patrick joint venture at the outset," said
Coombs. "It would not have stopped at Darling Harbour, but been rolled
out all around Australia. This would have meant massive loss of stevedoring
jobs nationwide."
Meanwhile the branch hopes to build on the intercompany hire arrangement and
extend it beyond the Darling Harbour operation.
"The prospect of contracts shifting from one company to another leaving
one group of workers without jobs while another company goes and employs even
more casuals, is unacceptable," said Coombs. "Intercompany hire provides
the minimum job security for all waterside workers."
Meanwhile the minister met with Paddy Crumlin and Robert Coombs and agreed
to the union demand that the proposal to close Sydney Harbour and launch a massive
expansion at Port Botany, while diverting bulk and general shipping to Port
Kembla and Newcastle be subject to an independent commission of inquiry.
The NSW Government had previously agreed to keep the harbour working
until 2020.
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