Industrial Rounds

Near Miss on Fremantle wharves, Delegate discrimination, Patrick: Mixed Results

Near Miss

FREMANTLE: Worked stopped at No12 berth, Patrick Bulk and General on Friday, July 30, after two gangs of 15 waterside workers narrowly escaped injury or, worse, death, on the afternoon shift, reports Deputy Branch Secretary Keith McCorriston.

The gang had just started loading scrap steel onto the Chinese flagged Song Shi Hai. It was the first lift. The ship's derrick took the load into the air, then, without warning, the hoist wire snapped.

"Everything was shaking. It was a monstrous noise," said deckman Andy Lovell. "I was right underneath the crane when it happened. The wire was flipping around everywhere. It snapped back. I dove for cover. It came just over my head. I could hear it like a whipping sound."

"I went cold," said crane operator Mark Yates. "It was a straight lift. I hadn't slewed. It just dropped straight down where everyone had been working. I couldn't see if any one was underneath when it hit. For about 15 seconds, until they called out, I was thinking I'd killed someone."

Ron Bryant was one of three waterside workers directly underneath the bin before the lift: "It got about 20 foot up then bang down it came," he said. "It was only luck that the three of us were still not underneath. We'd usually be waving the driver on, but he'd got out of his cabin. So we'd all walked out from under it."

The cargo of scrap iron crashed back onto the truck, buckling the steel bin underneath with the impact, and tipping over the wharf.

"It was a good 20-25 tonnes," said Lovell. "Someone would have got awfully hurt."

Everyone was pretty shaken. The gang all said they wouldn't work until everything was checked and the job was safe. They were all sent home.

Inspectors from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority were on the ship and witnessed the near disaster first hand. The derrick was condemned and a thorough inspection of all ships gear undertaken before work continued the next day.

"It was a seven day scrap iron job," said Lovell. "But in the end we only had three cranes cleared to work out of the five and it took more like 10 days."

We need to drive home our concerns of "Ships of Shame" that continue to slip in and out of ports," said Deputy Branch Secretary Keith McCorriston.

Delegate Discrimination

BRISBANE: Skilled Engineering has been called to employ union delegate Shaun Bolton after the Commission found the company refused him a job simply because he was a union delegate.

It is a stunning win for the union and the workers after a nine-month long battle with Skilled Engineering.

All 40 Transfield workers stood to lose their livelihood when Patrick gave the maintenance contract at the two terminals to Skilled Engineering in Port Botany, Sydney and Fisherman Islands Brisbane in November last year.

The company forced everyone to reapply for their jobs and go through interviews, aptitude and medical tests. Long service and leave entitlements were back to zero.

Skilled then rejected six of the MUA members, including three of the four union delegates.

The entire workforce voted to stay out the gates in protest. P&O workers at Port Botany, Patrick operational labour, linesmen, bunker barge and towage operators and local labour councils also supported the picket.

After a week the union negotiated a settlement and workers voted to take the battle back in the gates. Most issues were resolved and the company agreed that the dispute over two remaining delegates without a job would go to the Commission.

On July 30, the Commission found that Skilled's selection process discriminated against Bolton because of his union role.

Senior Deputy President Duncan said that "perceptions were formed, I find, simply because he was a union delegate."

"In sum, for the reasons that the selection process was flawed and because the panel's assessment of the effect of Mr Bolton's union involvement would have on his attitude he was unfairly treated by the selection process and should have been offered employment at the same time as the others."

The Commission recommended Skilled appoint Bolton, backdated to when it took over the contract.

The commission also found the process applied to the two casuals was a charade. "They were engaged, as continuing employees, before they were subject to the whole of the process the ex-Transfield employees underwent," he said.

Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman welcomed the outcome. "The union pursued a legal and industrial approach which succeeded. Our costs were more than $100,000 but demonstrated our determination to stand up to this head picking and rorting."

Patrick: Mixed Results

The Patrick enterprise agreement will go back to the vote of members in major terminals in the coming months.

Bulk and general members have already voted in support of their eba, except for the B&G workforce in Brisbane where the vote went to a stopwork meeting of all Patrick members and was voted down. Members at the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane terminals also voted against the agreement and Patrick committee meetings will be held in the major ports in August, to work through the key issues.

Fremantle did not go to a vote due to concerns over the potential impact of a third container terminal run by MSC (see "A tale of two ports" last MWJ). The WA Branch, national office and the office of the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, Alannah MacTiernan, have worked closely to resolve the issue, which is expected to be a joint venture between Patrick and MSC.

The EBA includes significant increases in permanent jobs and PGE conditions of employment as well as a 12 per cent wage increase over three years. It also includes an ongoing review of training and workforce composition that involves the Union, delegates and the employers. However the company wanted modifications to the rosters that included a guarantee that each permanent rostered employee would work 70 shifts in a 16-week cycle.