Union warns: No witch-hunt

MUA will fight against persecution of workers

A major stevedore bypassed its own labour to pick up 70-80 casual workers off the streets of Burnie in Tasmania on July 21.

That same week - the week the Government announced it was so concerned about port security it would run security checks on all maritime workers employed in the industry - some 400 ships, most of them Flag of Convenience were visiting Australian ports, whether they complied with the international port and security code or not.

"We reject these double standards," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "This government has announced that ASIO, police and immigration will do background checks on every one of our members, while giving out special visas to foreign crew after only the most perfunctory ID checks. While they are persecuting long-standing employees and Australian citizens they are accepting ships crew on the basis of a passport and ID in a global industry rampant with fraud and corruption. This government lies and manipulates. It exploits as a principal and persecutes as a response. We've had a gutful of this sell-out of Australian workers."

Since the July 1 deadline the US Coast Guard has turned away at least a dozen ships, slapping restrictions on 40 in the first three weeks. But in Australia not one of the estimated 50 ships that call at Australia's 60 ports each day, even those failing to comply with the code, has been affected. They have been let off with a mere warning.

The Maritime Union contends that any ship that does not comply with the code poses a risk to our port cities and should be turned away. FoC ships should be subject to even greater checks and restrictions - certainly not issued permits overnight to trade on the coast.

On July 20 the government announced new security measures as part of its pre-election hype. Container inspections would be increased by 25 per cent , but still only a fraction of imports (1 in 17) and no empties. Oil and gas operations get special attention, but by far the biggest targets are maritime workers.

PM John Howard chose Patrick robotic straddle terminal in Brisbane to announce the introduction of the new scheme.

"It's ironic," said Paddy Crumlin. "The robotic straddles can only go in a straight line, but the PM is never straight."

The Department of Transport will issue a Maritime Security Identification Card subject to background checks by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Australian Federal Police and Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs to "help to reduce the risk of criminals and potential terrorists infiltrating the maritime sector" .

No Card no Job

Anyone with an adverse criminal history, a suspect for 'politically motivated violence' , or who is an unlawful non-citizen, will be precluded from obtaining a card. But those with criminal histories who are already employed in the industry will not be disadvantaged, subject to certain conditions. Applicants would have access to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal process. But not if they are rejected by ASIO.

The costs of cards will be met by industry.

Crumlin said the US experience with these sorts of checks was finger printing workers, CIA snoops checking on your email and your library books, not to mention attempts to equate industrial activity with terrorism. (see Striking Terror opposite).

"We will not let the Government turn the war against terrorism into another war against workers," he said. "Any background checks of maritime workers should be for terrorism only. Pot smoking or shop lifting at some time in their past has nothing to do with terrorism. Nor does having an Arab name or visiting your uncle in Lebanon. And pickets or industrial action does not mean politically motivated violence. We're not having our civil rights removed under a smother of security. This union takes a strong line on civil rights."

Crumlin stressed it was PM John Howard's policy of deregulating the coast by allowing shippers to rort the SVP and CVP system to employ foreign guest workers in our domestic trade, not the union, that was putting Australians to unnecessary risks. What we need is an Australian merchant marine crewed by Australian seafarers and a register of fully identified, permanent stevedoring workers in our ports.

Crumlin told the media the union's been pushing for a register to no avail.

"A register would have clearly defined criteria. It would identity a worker as a person who works consistently on the waterfront, is the person they say they are. They don't want to register because basically that moves against their whole policy of casualising the waterfront," he told ABC Current Affairs show PM.

"I mean they've got this curious contradiction going in their approach to security. They talk about security in our ports and our ships and yet they'll give single voyage permits and continuous voyage permits so a Panamanian or a Monrovian vessel can operate fulltime on the Australian coast with a crew of Indonesians or Filipinos, without any background checks, without any ability to check them."

Speaking on national television on August 1 Crumlin said the new measures were just not good enough.

"Increasingly Australia's domestic industry is coming under the auspices of the international deregulated nature of shipping, that is, dominated by ships with flags such as Panama and Liberia, where there is no corporate governance, where there is no real administration, where there is no ability to do background checks on the seafarers," he told Business Sunday (Channel 9).

Meanwhile Tasmanian Branch Secretary Mick Wickham has made a stand on casual workers. The company has now agreed to use MUA labour on future jobs at the award rate.

"Patrick took on these people in Burnie - all men in their twenties and thirties," he said. "They rocked up in sandshoes -- a scruffy lot -- were handed a pair of overalls and gloves, then put straight to work on below award wages down in the hold in the freezers of the New Zealand fishing trawler and packing in the shed. They had no induction, no training, and no security checks. We had more than enough MUA labour to do the job, but the company went for the cheap option only employing our people on cranes and forklifts. They got the labour from a job find company. It makes a mockery of this whole security thing."

At it's dockers conference in Singapore in July, the International Transport Workers' Federation called for ports and terminals, which employ casual workers to be denied certificates of ISPS compliance.

STOP PRESS: A meeting of Dept. of Transport, National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and other officials at National Office on August 6 resolved the following issues:

€ union representatives would be involved in workshops with industry, police, ASIO and department heads in September to agree on final details of the checks

€ no industrial or picket activity would be regarded as a security issue