Maritime Diary

By National Secretary Paddy Crumlin

The year ahead
2003? What have they got in store for us do you reckon? George Bush and John Howard seem to think a war will fix it, whatever it is. It is unsure though, how you square up bin Laden by blasting Iraq. Wasn't it Saddam who had the war with Iran where over a million died? Iran was and remains an Islamic nation, so that war wasn't about jihad. Many experts say that there is no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda and the irony is that in the war against Iran, Saddam had the full support of the US. Funny how your friends disappear sometimes. So why the war? It seems it's about turning the Middle East into a self serve petrol station for the West.

Long haul

The P&O EBA negotiations are coming to a close after a long haul, some healthy exchanges of views with the company and a bit of drama thrown in along the way.

We wanted to make a couple of strong points. We'd had a gutful of the casualisation of the workforce. It has been done to sidestep the long term cost of permanent employment and to escape having to work out more decent ways to meet the shift in labour requirements for the industry. This is an industry-wide issue even though the Union is resolving it company by company. Every worker with consistent work should have an entitlement to a more secure job. The new P&O arrangement is a big step forward with all regular casuals becoming GWEs after a given time and a big increase overall in permanency of the total workforce.

Another thing that the P&O workers wanted addressed was perceived pestering and an adversarial attitude by management in some areas. There has been a record of sackings resulting in unfair dismissal applications by the Union. Written warnings were being used to deal with things like sickies. Those warnings would hang around on a worker's record even though the facts were being contested. Drug and alcohol testing was seen to be used as a square up at times and workers generally felt that a lot of the time they were getting blamed for management stuff ups. There was repeated evidence that workers were not being properly listened to in regard to basic day-to-day operational issues.

We focused on overcoming these things and have come up with a structured process of consultation and review on the key matters. The company want a productive and efficient workplace. You can't get that and do it safely by having people trying to stand over workers. The new system will need a lot of work and commitment by everyone to be successful. It is likely to be hard going until a bit of trust is firmly established. MUA members have demonstrated over the course of the negotiations the capacity to deliver at our end.

International brigade

The offshore gas & oil industry has turned the corner and there are a number of new drilling programs, construction projects, and new ventures either under way or planned. The big Sunrise project in the Timor Sea has had more starts than Power Paleface Adios and still isn't a sure thing. It's an important project for East Timor's future as well as Australia.

The MUA took the first boycott action against Indonesian atrocities in East Timor. This snowballed into broader economic and industrial boycotts that eventually drew in the Federal government. Our action was not against the Indonesian people. The MUA in the late 1940's waged a militant campaign including boycotts against Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia. This campaign proved to be an important factor in Indonesia gaining independence. The boycott in East Timor was about human rights abuse, militarism, freedom and peace.

We've followed up by jointly funding a trade union support program with the ITF in East Timor so maritime workers can get a kick start. The recent problems there reflect how far there is to go. On long trips like this one, you need plenty of mates. The MUA is greatly respected for this type of support and it is rank and file members driving these campaigns with great distinction. Mick Killick's report is in this edition. His work follows on from the fine international work in the Gulf of Mexico amongst the redneck offshore companies done by MUA member Bluey Roberts and most recently Joe Deakin. Protecting our rights on the job is about having a go, a good go.

Fleet of terror

The terrorists in al Qaeda don't seem too perturbed by it all, with their home grown terrorism continuing to beaver away at our collective confidence, with some assistance from hysterical media. We've continued to highlight shipping issues, including the latest FoC ship to bust its rotten guts into the ocean, but with little media interest at all. Fear mongering rules apparently. This is the height of irresponsiblity since the latest report as well has this outfit controlling a fleet of flag of convenience vessels presumably for their quick redeployment of anonymous violence. It makes sense doesn't it? The flags of convenience system was created to escape any accountability so terrorism would naturally gravitate into its use.

And to cap it all off, Mr Howard's TV ads are asking us to keep a lookout for terrorists in our midst while his shipping policies continue to encourage FoC shipping and crews to undermine our domestic transport industry. Maybe we should send the spies and security gang down to the Department of Transport and to Australian ports where there is something very suspicious going on.

Justice thwarted

In a season of renewal all MUA members and their families should spare a thought for the Blair Athol miners and their families who have been robbed by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission of their jobs and of proper compensation after they were unfairly sacked by Rio Tinto four and half years ago.

The Mining & Energy Union in their fight for justice won the initial bout in the Commission, and the sackings were found to be unfair and unreasonable with re-instatement ordered. This overturned on appeal to the full bench of the IRC that found the sackings were unreasonable but refused re-instatement or any remedy. This refusal is a disgrace. The union intends to take the matter to the High Court, that if there is something to be really frightened about in this country, it is the ongoing attack on workers rights continuing to take place under Federal Industrial Relations policies. Ask any Blair Athol miners' family.